Sylvester Primer was a linguist and philologist

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

. Born in Geneva, Wisconsin

Geneva, Wisconsin

Geneva is a town in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,099 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 30.8 square miles , of which, 29.3 square miles of it is land and 1.5 square miles of it ...

 on December 14, 1842, but moved to New York as a child. He served in the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, first in Company E of the 105th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry from Genesee County, New York

Genesee County, New York

Genesee County is a county located in Western New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 60,079. Its name is from the Seneca Indian word Gen-nis'-hee-yo meaning "The Beautiful Valley." Its county seat is Batavia.- History :...

 when he was wounded during the Battle of Antietam. Sylvester later enlisted in and served with the Fifteenth New York Cavalry.

After the war, he took to language studies at Harvard (bachelor's degree, 1874), Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, Göttingen

Göttingen

Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

, and Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, receiving his Ph.D at the last institution in 1880. He first directed scholarly attention towards the unique dialect of Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 in a paper he delivered at the Modern Language Association

Modern Language Association

The Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature...

 of America in 1887. This pioneering work, Charleston Provincialisms, is one of the first attempts to describe the speech of an American community and besides being published as part of the Transactions of the Modern Language Association, vol. III, p. 84-99; was also published in Europe in Phonetische Studien, vol. i, p. 227; and in the American Journal of Philology, IX (1888), p. 198-213.

Another piece on Charleston is entitled, The Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 Element in Charleston's Provincialisms, published in Phonetische Studien, vol. iii, p. 139.

Besides teaching at the College of Charleston

College of Charleston

The College of Charleston is a public, sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States...

, he also taught at the Friend's School in Providence, RI and Colorado College

Colorado College

The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...

. He joined the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

 in 1891, where he was professor of Germanic languages and director of the university's program in Romance languages. He died on August 13, 1912.

Among his other principal works are: Dialectical Studies in West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

, published in Colorado College Studies (1891); The Pronunciation of Fredericksburg, Va. in Pub. Modern Language Association, vol. v, p. 185.; also, The Pronunciation Near Fredericksburg, Va., published in the Proceedings of the American Philological Association (1889), p. xxv.

Also, Die Consonatische Deklination in den germanischen Sprachen (1880), and annotated scholarly editions of Lessing

Lessing

Lessing - German family of writers and artists*Johann Gottfried Lessing pastor primarus in Kamenz, well respected, published theologian, translator and father of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Karl Gotthelf Lessing...

's Minna von Barnhelm

Minna von Barnhelm

Minna von Barnhelm or the Soldiers' Happiness is a lustspiel or comedy by the German author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing...

(1889) and Nathan der Weise (1894) and Goethe's Egmont

Egmont (play)

Egmont is a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which he completed in 1788. Its dramaturgical structure, like that of his earlier 'Storm and Stress' play Götz von Berlichingen , is heavily influenced by Shakespearean tragedy; in contrast, however, to the earlier work, the portrait in Egmont of the...

(1898).

His seminal works on Charleston's unique and vanishing dialect continue to be among the most important scholarly contributions to the subject today.