Hermann Otto Theodor Paul (August 7, 1846, Salbke – December 29, 1921,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German

philologist 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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

Biography

He studied at

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

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 ...

, and in 1874 became professor of

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

in the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

. In 1893 he was appointed professor of German

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. He was a prominent

Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (, , ) were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change. Overview According to the Neogrammarian ...

Works

His main work, ''Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte'' (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1st ed. 1880; 3d ed. 1898), has been translated into English: Paul, Hermann 1970. ''Principles of the History of Language'', translated from 2nd edition by H. A. Strong (1888; retranslated with changes by Strong, Logeman, and Wheeler in 1891). College Park: McGroth Publishing Company, . According to Paul, sentences are the sum of their parts. They arise sequentially from individual associations, linked together in a linear form (1886. See also, Blumenthal, 1970).

Wilhelm Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was t ...

opposed this theory of sentences, arguing that they begin as a simultaneous thought that is converted into linear, sequential parts (1900). Other works: *''Gab es eine mittelhochdeutsche Schriftsprache?'' (“Was there a middle high German written language?,” 1873) *''Zur Lautverschiebung'' (“Vowel shifting,” 1874) *''Kritische Beiträge zu den Minnesingern'' (“Critical contributions on the Minnesingers,” 1876) *''Zur Nibelungenfrage'' (“On the

Nibelungen The term Nibelung ( German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''Nebel'', meaning mist. The ...

question,” 1877) *''Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik'' (“Middle high German grammar,” 1881; 25th edition, 2007) *''Grundriss der germanischen Philologie'', editor (“Outline of German philology,” 1891-93) *''Aufgabe und Methode der Geschichtswissenschaften'' (“Function and method of sciences of history,” 1920, E-Book: Berlin 2014, After 1874 Paul and

Wilhelm Braune Theodor Wilhelm Braune (20 February 1850 in Großthiemig, Province of Saxony – 10 November 1926 in Heidelberg) was a German philologist and Germanist. Biography In 1869 Braune entered the University of Leipzig, where he was approved as an ins ...

edited the '' Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur'' (“Contributions to the history of the German language and its literature”).

Disambiguation

This Hermann Paul is not to be confused with * Herman Daniel Paul (1827–1885), who emigrated from Germany to Finland, where he worked as a language teacher and music reviewer. He published a translation of the Finnish national epic

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...

in 1885 (G. W. Edlund's publishing house, Helsingfors). nor with * Hermann Paul (1902–1944), who was a Hungarian musician.

References

External links

*
''Principles of the History of Language''
English translation of the second edition by Herbert Strong
Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte
German original of Hermann Paul's main book ''Principles of the History of Language''
A partial French translation of Hermann Paul's main book
''Principles of the History of Language'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Hermann 1846 births 1921 deaths 19th-century German lexicographers 19th-century German linguists Historical linguists Germanic studies scholars Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Leipzig University alumni Linguists of Germanic languages Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Academic staff of the University of Freiburg German male non-fiction writers Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala 19th-century Prussian people