Albrecht Ernst Rudolf Goetze (January 11, 1897 – August 15, 1971) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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Hittitologist Hittitology is the study of the Hittites, an ancient Anatolian people that established an empire around Hattusa in the 2nd millennium BCE. It combines aspects of the archaeology, history, philology, and art history of the Hittite civilisation. Ther ...

. Goetze was born in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Germany in 1897. His father, Rudolf Goetze, was a psychiatrist. He began studies in Munich in 1915, but left to fight in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Returning in 1918, he received his degree from the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

in 1922 and taught there for five years. Goetze was Professor of

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

s at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

when the Nazi regime came to power in 1933. It was through the initiative of

Edgar H. Sturtevant Edgar Howard Sturtevant (March 7, 1875 – July 1, 1952) was an American linguist. Biography Sturtevant was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, the older brother of Alfred Sturtevant and grandson of educator Julian Monson Sturtevant. He studied at ...

that Goetze was invited to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1934, a move that was to prove momentous for the advancement of Assyrology and Hittitology at Yale. He was made Sterling Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature in 1956 and retired to emeritus status in 1965. Goetze's combined training in Indo-European and Semitic linguistics placed him into a peculiarly advantageous position to tackle the emerging field of Hittite studies at the end of World War I. His contributions to that field are numerous and most reliably commented on in

Finkelstein Finkelstein ( or , ) is a German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish surname originating from Old High German ''funko'' (spark) and ''stein'' (stone). ''Fünkelstein'' meant pyrite (George J. Adler, ''A Dictionary of the German and Engl ...

's 1972 bibliography. With Sturtevant, he laid the foundations to what later became the Goetze- Wittmann law (spirantization of palatal stops before ''u'' as the focal origin for the diffusion of the

Centum-Satem isogloss Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An ...

). The diffusion hypothesis of the Satem features has the merit to motivate the existence of marginal Satem features in Greek, Albanian and Tocharian and of marginal Centum features in Armenian. Goetze was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1951. Goetze died in

Garmisch Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; ) is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the Oberbayern region, which borders Austria. Nearby is Ger ...

, Bavaria on August 15, 1971.

Bibliography

*Finkelstein, Jacob J. (1972). "Albrecht Goetze, 1897-1971." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 92:2.197-203. *Goetze, Albrecht (1954). Review of: Johannes Friedrich, ''Hethitisches Wörterbuch'' (Heidelberg: Winter). ''Language'' 30.401-40

*Goetze, Albrecht (1957). ''Kleinasien''. Munich. *Goetze, Albrecht (1974). "Bibliography of Albrecht Goetze (1897-1971)." ''Journal of cuneiform studies'' 26.2-15. *Goetze, Albrecht & Edgar H. Sturtevant (1938). ''The Hittite Ritual of Tunnawi''. New Haven: American Oriental Society.

References

External links

* Albrecht Goetze papers (MS 648). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

1897 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Hittitologists Linguistic Society of America presidents Yale Sterling Professors 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Philosophical Society {{US-historian-stub

Bibliography

See also

See also

References

External links