Otto Dempwolff (25 May 1871 in Pillau, Province of Prussia – 27 November 1938, in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

) was a German

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

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. Linguis ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

who specialized in the study of the Austronesian language family. Initially trained as a

, Dempwolff began his linguistic research while serving as medical doctor in the German colonies German New Guinea and

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

. Under the mentorship of

Carl Meinhof Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof (23 July 1857 – 11 February 1944) was a German Linguistics, linguist and one of the first linguists to study African languages. Early years and career Meinhof was born in Barzowice, Barzwitz near Darłowo, R� ...

, he began his academic career at the Hamburgisches Kolonialinstitut, which later became part of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. In 1931, he founded the "Seminar für indonesische und Südseesprachen", which he headed until his death in 1938. He was also appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his expertise in medicine, as well as African and Indonesian languages. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps. His magnum opus ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes'' (Comparative phonology of Austronesian vocabularies) (1934–1937) was the first systematic and comprehensive reconstruction of the Proto-Austronesian sound system and vocabulary. P. 528–543.

Notes

Bibliography

*Dempwolff, Otto (1916). ''Die Sandawe, Linguistisches und ethnographisches Material aus Deutsch Ostafrika, Abhandlungen des Hamburger Kolonialinstituts.'' Band XXXIV/Heft 19, L. Friederichsen, Hamburg 1916, 180 Seiten. *Dempwolff, Otto (1920) ''Die Lautentsprechungen der indonesischen Lippenlaute in einigen anderen austronesischen Sprachen, Habilitationsschrift.'' ZfES 2.Beiheft, Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1920, 96 Seiten. *Dempwolff, Otto (1934). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 1: Induktiver Aufbau einer indonesischen Ursprache.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 15. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. *Dempwolff, Otto (1937). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 2: Deduktive Anwendung des Urindonesischen auf austronesische Einzelsprachen.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 17. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. *Dempwolff, Otto (1938). ''Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Band 3: Austronesisches Wörterverzeichnis.'' Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 19. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. * Dempwolff, Otto (1939). ''Grammatik der Jabêm-Sprache auf Neuguinea.'' Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde, vol. 50. Hamburg: Friederichsen de Gruyter.

External links

Otto Dempwolff (1871-1938), Sprachwissenschaftler
(in German) 1871 births 1938 deaths People from Pillau People from the Province of Prussia Linguists from Germany Linguists of Austronesian languages University of Königsberg alumni University of Marburg alumni Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Tübingen alumni University of Hamburg faculty {{Germany-linguist-stub

See also

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Bibliography

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