Berthold Gustav Gottlieb Delbrück (; 26 July 1842 – 3 January 1922) was a German linguist who devoted himself to the study of the comparative

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

of the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

Early life

Delbrück was born in Putbus. He studied at the universities of Halle and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, receiving his doctorate at Halle in 1863. In 1870 he succeeded August Leskien as an associate professor at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

, where in 1873 he was named a full professor of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...

Career

In 1871 he published a study of the

subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...

and

optative mood The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative ...

s in Sanskrit and Greek, which was the first thoroughly methodical and complete treatment of a problem in comparative syntax. His great achievement, however, was preparing volumes iii, iv, and v on syntax entitled ''Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen'' in ''

Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen ( German for 'Outline of the comparative grammar of the Indo-Germanic languages') is a major work of historical linguistics by Karl Brugmann and Berthold Delbrück, published in two editions between 1886 and 1916. Brugmann treated phonology and m ...

'' ("Outline of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic Languages"), published in Strassburg between 1893 and 1900 by Delbrück and

Karl Brugmann Friedrich Karl Brugmann (; 16 March 1849 – 29 June 1919) was a German linguist. He is noted for his work in Indo-European linguistics. Biography Friedrich Karl Brugman was born in Wiesbaden to a middle-class family in 1849. He was educated a ...

. He died in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...

, aged 79.

Works

Besides the works mentioned, he wrote: * ''Grundfragen der Sprachforschung'' (1901). * ''Einleitung in das Sprachstudium'' (3rd edition, 1893; English translation
''Introduction to the study of language''
(1882). * ''Syntaktische Forschungen'', vols. i.–v. (1871–88); with

Ernst Windisch Ernst Wilhelm Oskar Windisch (4 September 1844, Dresden30 October 1918, Leipzig) was a German classical philologist and comparative linguist who specialised in Sanskrit, Celtic and Indo-European studies. In his student days at the University o ...

.Berthold Delbrück
de.Wikisource (bibliography)

Notes

References

* 1842 births 1922 deaths People from Vorpommern-Rügen Linguists from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German linguists Historical linguists Linguists of Indo-European languages University of Halle alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the University of Jena {{Germany-linguist-stub