BOLLER, Johann Anton. Krems an der Donau 2.1.1811 — Vienna 19.1.1869. Austrian Linguist interested in Sanskrit. Professor in Vienna. Studied first medicine, but turned soon to philology, but never completed his Ph.D. Learned Sanskrit from books. From 1845 PD in Sanskrit at Vienna and from 1848 correspondant member of Austrian A.W. (full member 1857) Worked as teacher. From 1850 ao. and 1855 ord., being the first Professor of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics at Vienna University.
Boller was a self-taught Sankritist and as a scholar he concentrated more on Finno-Ugrian linguistics (he considered Japanese to be a Finno-Ugrian language). A further interest was Egyptian history. Much remained uncompleted because of early death. In his teaching he dealt with classical Sanskrit, Vedic, Avesta, Finno-Ugrian, Egypt, Greek and Latin. His Sanskrit grammar was based on independent work with Indian grammarians, Pāṇini and Vopadeva, and on Böhtlingk’s articles, but was reviewed unfavourably by his contemporaries (e.g. Weber). According to Leskien it was written in a heavy style and contained many mistakes and thus remained without much influence. Among his students were A. Ludwig, E. Teza and Fr. Müller.
Publications: “Ueber die Bildung secundärer Wurzeln in Sanskrit”, SWA 3, 1849, 378-386 & 4, 1850, 4-9, 65-72 & 113-122.
– Ausführliche Sanskrit-Grammatik für den öffentlichen und Selbstunterricht. 382 p. Vienna 1847.
– Die wichtigsten Denkmäler der k. k. ägyptischen Sammlung. SWA 10, 1853, 519-562 & 11, 1853, 364-391; Die Consonanten-Erwechslung. SWA 12, 1854, 441-466, 637-665 & 13, 1854, 184-210.
– Über die finnischen Sprachen. SWA 10, 1853, 29-64, 279-307; Die Declination der finnischen Sprachen. SWA 11, 1853, 953-986 & 12, 1854, 141-186; Die Conjugation der finnischen Sprachen. SWA 13, 1854, 494-538 & 14, 1854, 299-354; Die Objektivkonjugation in den finnischen Sprachen. SWA 15, 1855, 275-346; Zur magyarischen Etymologie. SWA 17, 1855, 216-245, 316-394; Vergleichende Analyse magyarischen Verbums. SWA 19, 1856, 109-128; Die Wurzelsuffixe in den ural-altaischen Sprachen. SWA 22, 1857, 91-180; Die Übereinstimmung der Tempus- und Modus-Caraktere in den ural-altaischen Sprachen. SWA 22, 1857, 223-263.
Sources: Windisch 366 Anm.; *E. Frauwallner, AnzÖAW 98, 1961, 78f.; A. Leskien, A.D.B. 3, 1876, 109; Ö.B.L. 1, 1957, 99f.; M. Mayrhofer, “Aus der Frühzeit vergleichender Sprachwissenschaft in Österreich. Zum 100. Todestage Anton Bollers”, AnzÖAW 106, 1969, 1-9; Bihl 19-21; Wurzbach, Biogr. Lex. 2, 1857, 31; German Wikipedia. For origin and early years no information seems to be av
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