Oswald Szemerényi
Encyclopedia
Oswald John Louis Szemerényi (7 September 1913 in London
– 29 December 1996 in Freiburg
) was a Hungarian Indo-Europeanist with strong interests in comparative linguistics
in general.
He was educated in Hungary
, at Eötvös Loránd University, and he studied at the universities of Heidelberg
and Berlin
. He was influenced by Hungarian linguist Gyula Laziczius. In 1942 he was appointed lecturer in Greek at Budapest
University. In 1944 he habilitated with a thesis on Balto-Slavic unity, and in 1947 he was appointed professor of comparative Indo-European linguistics in Budapest. He returned to England in 1948, where he worked for Bedford College until 1960. He was professor of linguistics at Freiburg University from 1965 to 1981. He founded the Freiburg Linguistics Circle, influenced by the Budenz Circle, led by Josef Budenz, the founder of Finno-Ugric studies.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
– 29 December 1996 in Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
) was a Hungarian Indo-Europeanist with strong interests in comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
in general.
He was educated in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, at Eötvös Loránd University, and he studied at the universities of Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He was influenced by Hungarian linguist Gyula Laziczius. In 1942 he was appointed lecturer in Greek at Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
University. In 1944 he habilitated with a thesis on Balto-Slavic unity, and in 1947 he was appointed professor of comparative Indo-European linguistics in Budapest. He returned to England in 1948, where he worked for Bedford College until 1960. He was professor of linguistics at Freiburg University from 1965 to 1981. He founded the Freiburg Linguistics Circle, influenced by the Budenz Circle, led by Josef Budenz, the founder of Finno-Ugric studies.
Selected bibliography
- 1960 Studies in the Indo-European System of Numerals, Heidelberg
- 1964 Syncope in Greek and Indo-European and the Nature of Indo-European Accent, Napoli
- 1970 Einführung in die vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Darmstadt
- 1989 3., vollständig neu bearbeitete Auflage
- 1996 Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics, Oxford
- Richtungen der modernen Sprachwissenschaft
- 1971 Teil I: Von SaussureFerdinand de SaussureFerdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics...
bis BloomfieldLeonard BloomfieldLeonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...
, 1916-1950, Heidelberg - 1982 Teil II: Die fünfziger Jahre, 1950-1960, Heidelberg
- 1971 Teil I: Von Saussure
- 1972 Comparative Linguistics (Current Trends of Linguistics)
- 1977 Studies in the Kinship Terminology of the Indo-European Languages, Leiden
- 1980 Four Old Iranian Ethnic Names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka, Vienna
- Scripta Minora: selected essays in Indo-European, Greek, and Latin, edited by Patrick Considine and James T. Hooker, Innsbruck,
- 1987 Vol. I: Indo-European
- 1987 Vol. II: Latin
- 1987 Vol. III: Greek
- 1991 Vol. IV: Indo-European Languages other than Latin and Greek (1991)
- 1989 An den Quellen des lateinischen Wortschatzes, Innsbruck
Literature
- Prehistory, History, and Historiography of Language, Speech, and Linguistic Theory. (Papers in Honor of Oswald Szemerényi) (Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1992)
- Historical Philology. Papers in Honor of Oswald Szemerényi II (Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1992)
- Comparative-Historical Linguistics: Indo-European and Finno-Uralic. Papers in Honor of Oswald Szemerényi III (Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1993)
External links
- http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/personal/galeria/szemeren.htm