Adolf Holtzmann (2 May 1810 in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

– 3 July 1870 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

) was a German professor and

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 ...

. His name is associated with a

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

sound law A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

known as

Holtzmann's Law Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. It is also known by its traditional German name ''Verschärfung'' (literally: "sharpening"). (A similar sound law which has affected modern Faroese, called ...

. He studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the universities of Halle and

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 ...

, where he was a student of Friedrich Schleiermacher. He later studied philology at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, where his influences included

Johann Andreas Schmeller Johann Andreas Schmeller (6 August 1785 in Tirschenreuth – 27 September 1852 in Munich) was a German philologist who initially studied the Bavarian dialect. From 1828 until his death he taught in the University of Munich. He is considered the ...

. Holtzmann also attended classes in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

given by

Eugène Burnouf Eugène Burnouf (; April 8, 1801May 28, 1852) was a French scholar, an Indologist and orientalist. His notable works include a study of Sanskrit literature, translation of the Hindu text ''Bhagavata Purana'' and Buddhist text ''Lotus Sutra''. He ...

, and beginning in 1837, spent a number of years working as a tutor to members of

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

royalty. From 1852 he was a professor of German literature and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, and a notable

of his day. Holtzmann was the father-in-law of

Albrecht Kossel Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (; 16 September 1853 – 5 July 1927) was a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the ch ...

, German biochemist and 1910 Nobel laureate, by his marriage to Holtzmann's daughter, Luise, in 1886.

Selected works

* ''Ueber den griechischen Ursprung des indischen Thierkreises'', 1841 – On the Greek origin of the Indian zodiac. * ''Über den Umlaut. Zwei Abhandlungen'', 1843 – On umlaut : two treatises. * ''Über den Ablaut'', 1844 – On

ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut (, from German '' Ablaut'' ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its ...

. * ''Beiträge zur Erklärung der persischen Keilinschriften'', 1845 – Contributions to the explanation of

Persian cuneiform Old Persian cuneiform is a semi-alphabetic cuneiform script that was the primary script for Old Persian. Texts written in this cuneiform have been found in Iran (Persepolis, Susa, Hamadan, Kharg Island), Armenia, Romania ( Gherla), Turkey ( Van ...

inscriptions. * ''Indische Sagen'', 1st part 1845 and 3rd part 1847 (2nd ed. in two volumes 1854) – Indian legends. * ''Untersuchungen über das Nibelungenlied'', 1854 – Investigations of the "

Nibelungenlied The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germani ...

". * ''Kelten und Germanen. Eine historische Untersuchung'', 1855 – Celts and Germans, a historical study. * ''Der große Wolfdieterich'', 1865 –

Wolfdietrich Wolfdietrich is the eponymous protagonist of the Middle High German heroic epic ''Wolfdietrich''. First written down in strophic form in around 1230 by an anonymous author, it survives in four main versions, widely differing in scope and conte ...

. * ''Altdeutsche Grammatik, umfassend die gotische, altnordische, altsächsische Sprache'', 1870-75 (with

Alfred Holder Alfred Theophil Holder (4 April 1840 – 12 January 1916) was an Austrian philologist, historian, and librarian. A specialist of Latin literature and Roman history, he is best known for his editions of Horace, Caesar, Tacitus, and Avianus, as wel ...

) – Old Germanic grammar; spanning

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

and

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It ...

. * ''Germanische Alterthümer. Mit Text, Übersetzung und Erklärung von Tacitus Germania'', 1873 – Germanic antiquities with text, translation and explanation of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

' " Germania". * ''Deutsche Mythologie'', 1874 (edited by Alfred Holder; published posthumously) –

German mythology Continental Germanic mythology formed an element within Germanic paganism as practiced in parts of Central Europe occupied by Germanic peoples up to and including the 6th to 8th centuries (the period of Germanic Christianization). Traces of s ...

.Most widely held works by Adolf Holtzmann
WorldCat Identities

References

External links

* 1810 births 1870 deaths German philologists Linguists from Germany Germanic studies scholars Germanists Writers from Karlsruhe Linguists of Germanic languages Academic staff of Heidelberg University Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Halle alumni German Sanskrit scholars {{Germany-academic-bio-stub

Selected works

See also

References

External links