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

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

Early life

Delbrück was born in

Putbus Putbus () is a town on the southeastern coast of the island of Rügen, in the county of Vorpommern-Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, close to the Baltic Sea. The town has 4,741 inhabitants and is a significant tourist destina ...

. He studied 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 ...

, receiving his doctorate at Halle in 1863. In 1870 he succeeded

August Leskien August Leskien (; 8 July 1840 – 20 September 1916) was a German linguist active in the field of comparative linguistics, particularly relating to the Baltic and Slavic languages. Biography Leskien was born in Kiel. He studied philology at the ...

as an associate professor at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where in 1873 he was named a full professor of

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 ...

and comparative linguistics.

Career

In 1871 he published a study of the subjunctive and optative moods 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 ''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, publis ...

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

Karl Brugmann Karl Brugmann (16 March 1849 – 29 June 1919) was a German linguist. He is noted for his work in Indo-European linguistics. Biography He was educated at the universities of Halle and Leipzig. He taught at the gymnasium at Wiesbaden and at Lei ...

. He died in

Jena Jena () is a German city 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 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, 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 of ...

.Berthold Delbrück
de.Wikisource (bibliography)

Notes

References

* 1842 births 1922 deaths People from Vorpommern-Rügen Linguists from Germany 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