Kārlis Mīlenbahs (his surname was formerly also written as Mühlenbach, Mühlenbachs, Mǖlenbachs or Mīlenbachs) (18 January 1853 in Courland – 27 March 1916 in

Võru Võru (; vro, Võro; german: Werro) is a town and a municipality in south-eastern Estonia. It is the capital of Võru County and the centre of Võru Parish. History Võru was founded on 21 August 1784, according to the wish of the Empress Cather ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) was the first native speaker of Latvian to devote his career to linguistics. Mīlenbahs studied classical

philology 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 ...

at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

(he did not remain at the university because of his poverty). He was the author of over a hundred scholarly articles on the language in Latvian,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, but his main achievement was the Latvian-German dictionary that remains the most important lexicographical work on Latvian (the first four volumes were printed posthumously between 1923 and 1932 in Riga; the dictionary was completed and expanded by

Jānis Endzelīns Jānis Endzelīns (22 February 1873 – 1 July 1961) was a Latvian linguist. He graduated from the University of Tartu. In 1908, he and Kārlis Mīlenbahs developed the modern Latvian alphabet, which slowly replaced the old orthography used befo ...

, with whom Mīlenbahs co-wrote other works, including a major Latvian grammar). His polemics with the poet

Rainis Rainis was the pseudonym of Jānis Pliekšāns (September 11, 1865 – September 12, 1929), a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays ''Uguns un nakts'' (''Fire and Night'', 1905) and ''Ind ...

led to an important essay on literary Latvian published in 1909, and he was also a translator of the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'' (1890–95).

External links

Mīlenbahs' and Endzelīns' Latvian-German Dictionary
(The page is in Latvian. Type "demo" in both login fields to obtain entries beginning with "A" and "Ā," no registration needed; registering for access to the entire dictionary is free, but the registration form is in Latvian only.) Balticists 1853 births 1916 deaths People from Kandava Municipality People from Courland Governorate Linguists from Latvia University of Tartu alumni Translators of Homer {{Latvia-bio-stub