Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (; 30 January 1861 – 4 October 1936) was a Swiss

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

of the

Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change ...

school of

linguistics Linguistics is the science, 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 ...

Biography

Meyer-Lübke, a nephew of

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (11 October 1825 – 28 November 1898) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist, a master of literary realism who is mainly remembered for stirring narrative ballads like "Die Füße im Feuer" (The Feet in the Fire). Biog ...

, was born in

Dübendorf Dübendorf is a municipality in the district of Uster in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population of about 30,000 (2021). It is the fourth largest city in the canton, after Zürich, Winter ...

, Switzerland. He studied Indo-European philology at

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

(with

Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler (September 12, 1815 – March 31, 1894) was a Swiss philologist born in Elgg in the canton of Zürich. From 1835 to 1838 he received his education at the University of Zürich, where he had as instructors, Johann Cas ...

) and at

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

(with Johannes Schmidt). He obtained his PhD in

Romance philology Romance studies or Romance philology ( an, filolochía romanica; ca, filologia romànica; french: romanistique; eo, latinida filologio; it, filologia romanza; pt, filologia românica; ro, romanistică; es, filología románica) is an acade ...

with a dissertation on ''Die Schicksale des lateinischen Neutrums im Romanischen'' (1883). After a stay in Italy, he qualified to lecture at Zürich and then attended lectures by

Gaston Paris Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French literary historian, philologist, and scholar specialized in Romance studies and medieval French literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, 19 ...

in Paris.Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, , S. 303 f. While lecturing at Zürich in 1887, he was appointed associate professor of comparative linguistics at

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

. From there he was called in 1890 to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he was from 1892 to 1915 professor of Romance philology, as well as serving as dean and rector (1906/07). He then went to

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, where he was appointed to the professorship formerly held by

Friedrich Diez Friedrich Christian Diez (15 March 179429 May 1876) was a German philologist. The two works on which his fame rests are the ''Grammar of the Romance Languages'' (published 1836–1844), and the ''Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages'' ...

(1794–1876). However, Meyer-Lübke soon felt the difference between the cosmopolitan Vienna and provincial Bonn. He consoled himself with lecture tours and visiting professorships abroad. Meyer-Lübke was a leading Romance linguist of his time.

Key published works

* ''Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen'' ("Grammar of the Romance Languages") published in 4 volumes between 1890 and 1902. * ''Einführung in das Studium der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft'' ("Introduction to the Study of Romance Linguistics"), 1901. * ''Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'' ("Etymological Dictionary of Romance"), Heidelberg, C. Winter, 1911.

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer-Lubke, Wilhelm Linguists from Switzerland Swiss Hispanists Romance philologists 1861 births 1936 deaths University of Bonn faculty University of Zurich alumni Academics of the University of Vienna People from Dübendorf Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America