Otto Dempwolff (25 May 1871 in
Pillau,
Province of Prussia – 27 November 1938, in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
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, postal ...
) was a German
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
and
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
who specialized in the study of the
Austronesian language family.
Initially trained as a
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
, Dempwolff began his linguistic research while serving as medical doctor in the German colonies
German New Guinea and
German East Africa
German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...
. Under the mentorship of
Carl Meinhof
Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof (23 July 1857 – 11 February 1944) was a German Linguistics, linguist and one of the first linguists to study African languages.
Early years and career
Meinhof was born in Barzowice, Barzwitz near Darłowo, Rà ...
, he began his academic career at the
Hamburgisches Kolonialinstitut, which later became part of the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
. In 1931, he founded the "Seminar für indonesische und Südseesprachen", which he headed until his death in 1938.
[ He was also appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his expertise in medicine, as well as African and Indonesian languages. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.]
His magnum opus ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes'' (Comparative phonology of Austronesian vocabularies) (1934–1937) was the first systematic and comprehensive reconstruction of the Proto-Austronesian sound system and vocabulary.[ P. 528–543.]
See also
*Proto-Oceanic language
Proto-Oceanic (abbr. ''POc'') is a proto-language that historical linguists since Otto Dempwolff have reconstructed as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Oceanic is a descendant ...
Notes
Bibliography
*Dempwolff, Otto (1916). ''Die Sandawe, Linguistisches und ethnographisches Material aus Deutsch Ostafrika, Abhandlungen des Hamburger Kolonialinstituts.'' Band XXXIV/Heft 19, L. Friederichsen, Hamburg 1916, 180 Seiten.
*Dempwolff, Otto (1920) ''Die Lautentsprechungen der indonesischen Lippenlaute in einigen anderen austronesischen Sprachen, Habilitationsschrift.'' ZfES 2.Beiheft, Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1920, 96 Seiten.
*Dempwolff, Otto (1934). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 1: Induktiver Aufbau einer indonesischen Ursprache.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 15. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
*Dempwolff, Otto (1937). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 2: Deduktive Anwendung des Urindonesischen auf austronesische Einzelsprachen.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 17. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
*Dempwolff, Otto (1938). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 3: Austronesisches Wörterverzeichnis.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 19. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
* Dempwolff, Otto (1939). ''Grammatik der Jabêm-Sprache auf Neuguinea.'' Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde, vol. 50. Hamburg: Friederichsen de Gruyter.
External links
Otto Dempwolff (1871-1938), Sprachwissenschaftler
(in German)
1871 births
1938 deaths
People from Pillau
People from the Province of Prussia
Linguists from Germany
Linguists of Austronesian languages
University of Königsberg alumni
University of Marburg alumni
Leipzig University alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
University of Tübingen alumni
University of Hamburg faculty
{{Germany-linguist-stub