Gustav Weigand (1 February 1860 – 8 July 1930), was a German

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

and specialist in

Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

languages, especially

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

and Aromanian. He is known for his seminal contributions to the dialectology of the Romance languages of the Balkans and to the study of the relationships between the languages of the Balkan sprachbund. He has also provided substantial contribution to

Aromanian studies Aromanian studies ( rup, Studii armãneshti) are an academic discipline centered on the study of the Aromanians. They are included within Balkan and Romance studies. Notable scholars on Aromanian topics include , Thede Kahl and Gustav Weigand. Th ...

. Weigand was born in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in ...

, in the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

. He studied

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and wrote a doctoral thesis about the language of the

Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and ...

Livadi Livadi or Leivadi ( el, Λ ��βάδι) is a village and a former municipality in the Larissa regional unit, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Elassona, of which it is a municipal unit. Befor ...

in the region of

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

in 1888, followed by a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

thesis on the

Megleno-Romanian language Megleno-Romanian (known as by its speakers and Megleno-Romanian or Meglenitic and sometimes Moglenitic or Meglinitic by linguists) is a Balkan Romance language, similar to Aromanian or a dialect of the Romanian language. It is spoken by the ...

in 1892. In 1893 he founded the Romanian Institute at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

, the first such institution outside Romania. During the following years he continued to conduct extensive personal field studies in the Balkans. In 1908 he published a ''Linguistic Atlas of the Daco-Romanian speech area'', the first work of its kind in the field of Romance linguistics. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

he was sent by the German authorities to conduct ethnographic studies in Macedonia, then under German occupation. The results were published in 1923. In recognition of his research on the Romanian language, Gustav Weigand was elected as a foreign member of the Romanian Academy in 1892. He was also a foreign member of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; bg, Българска академия на науките, ''Balgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated ''БАН'') is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy ...

and of the Macedonian Scientific Institute. He died in Belgershain.

Major works

*(1888): ''Die Sprache der Olympo-Walachen''. Johann Ambrosius Barth: Leipzig. *(1892): ''Vlacho-Meglen. Eine ethnographisch-philologische Untersuchung''. Leipzig. *(1908): ''Linguistischer Atlas des dacorumänischen Sprachgebiets''. Barth: Leipzig. *(1923): ''Ethnographie Makedoniens''. Leipzig.

References

*Bochmann, Klaus (2005)
"Gustav Weigand: Zum 75. Todestag am 8. Juli 2005"
University of Leipzig. (pdf)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weigand, Gustav 1860 births 1930 deaths People from Duisburg People from the Rhine Province German philologists Corresponding members of the Romanian Academy Corresponding Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Macedonian Scientific Institute Aromanian studies Balkan studies