Johann Karl Werner Winter (October 25, 1923 – August 7, 2010) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Indo-European specialist and linguist.

Life

Winter was born in

Haselau Haselau is a municipality in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

. His brother was killed during the Second World War. He studied under Ernst Fraenkel at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

, where he later succeeded Fraenkel. Although he wrote hardly any individual volumes of his own, he established himself in the study of Tocharian and, as a result of his work as the editor of many series and work in general linguistics, he had far-reaching influence. Winter spent his life in his native

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

. His students included Olav Hackstein, Peter Kuhlmann, and Christian T. Petersen. He is known for formulating

Winter's law Winter's law, named after Werner Winter, who postulated it in 1978, is a proposed sound law operating on Balto-Slavic short vowels */e/, */o/, */a/ ( Proto-Balto-Slavic ''*sēˀstei'' (''*sēˀd-tei'') > Lithuanian ''sė́sti'', OCS '' sěsti'' ...

. He was appointed president of

Societas Linguistica Europaea The Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE) is a Europe-focused professional society for linguists. It was founded in 1966 to advance linguistics, the scientific study of human language. The SLE has over 1,000 individual members and welcomes linguists o ...

in 1991.Winter, Werner (ed.). 1994. ''On Languages and Language: The Presidential Addresses of the 1991 Meeting of the Societas Linguistica'' (= ''Trends in Linguistics'' 78). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., p. viii. He died in

Preetz Preetz () is a town southeast of Kiel in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. Preetz is also known as "Schusterstadt" (English: 'shoemaker town') named after shoemakers who used to live and work in this town. Preetz has ...

Distinctions

* Honorary doctorate from the

University of Poznań A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

(1984)Bauer, Brigitte L. M., & Georges-Jean Pinault. (ed.). 2003. Introduction: Werner Winter, ''ad multos annos''. In: ''Language in Time and Space: A Festschrift for Werner Winter on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday'', pp. xxiii–xxv . Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. * Honorary doctorate from the University of Kaliningrad (2000)

Main works

* ''A Bantawa Dictionary'' (Berlin, 2003) * "Vom Genitiv im heutigen Deutsch" (The Genitive in Modern German; in: ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Sprache'' 22, pp. 21–35) * ''Studia Tocharica. Selected Writings/Ausgewählte Beiträge'' (Poznań 1984).

References

External links

Obituary
at ''The Linguist List'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Werner Linguists from Germany Indo-Europeanists Linguists of Indo-European languages 1923 births 2010 deaths