BRUGMANN, Karl Friedrich Christian. Wiesbaden 16.3.1849 — Leipzig 29.6.1919. German Indo-Europaean Scholar. Professor in Leipzig. Until 1882 wrote his name as Brugman (with one n, due to the Dutch ancestry). Born in a family with many children, parents Karl Wilhelm Heinrich Brugman, later Staatskassendirektor, and Eleonore Christiane Enders. Gymnasium in Wiesbaden, studies of IE and Sanskrit first at Halle, since 1867 at Leipzig under G. Curtius, Ritschl, Zarncke, et al. Ph.D. 1871 Leipzig (under Curtius), philol. staatsexamen 1872 Bonn. As an eager Prussian he was sorry that his shortsightedness prevented military service. He worked now as a teacher, first in Bonn and 1873-77 at Nikolaischule in Leipzig. From 1877 PD “für Sanskrit und vergl. Sprachwissenschaft” at Leipzig. In 1880 visited Lithuania with Leskien. From 1882 ao. Professor at Leipzig, from 1884 Professor of IE at Freiburg (i.Br.) and from 1887 at Leipzig, where Curtius’ chair was turned into that of IE linguistics. Taught there until his death, and was succeeded by Streitberg. Hon. dr. of Laws Princeton 1896. Married 1882 Valeska “Therese” Friederike Berner, two daughters and two sons.

Brugmann was the accepted leader of the Neogrammarian school and one of the greatest pioneers of comparative IE linguistics. In 1876 he postulated the syllabic nasals for the “Ursprache”. Morphologische Untersuchungen became a manifest of Neogrammarians, and Grundriss was a monument of its time. He tried to reconstruct the “Ursprache” of the period immediately preceding its splitting into separate languages. Close friend of Osthoff. Among his many students were C. D. Buck, P. D. Gune, H. Hirt, H. Pedersen, Solmsen, Streitberg, and Thumb.

Publications: Diss. De Graecae linguae productione suppletoria. 1871 (the whole in Curtius’ Studien zur gr. und lat. Gramm. 4, 1871, 58-186, of this only 58-108 presented as diss.); habil.diss. Über Nominalsuffixe -as-, -jas- und -vas-. 99 p. Weimar 1877 (also in KZ 24, 1879, 1-99); articles in Curtius’ Studien, IF, KZ, BVSGW & ASGW, etc., the full bibliography contains about 400 items.

– “Nasalis sonans in der idg. Grundsprache”, Curtius’ Studien zur gr. und lat. Gramm. 9, 1876, 285-338; with H. Osthoff: Morphologische Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen. 1-5, 1878-90 & 6, 1910; Griechische Grammatik. in Iwan Müller’s Handbuch der klass. Altertumswiss. 2, 1885, 1-126, 3rd ed. 19+632 p. Munich 1900, 4th ed. by A. Thumb 1913.

– “Die achte Conjugationsclasse des altindischen und ihre Entsprechung im griechischen”, KZ 24, 1879, 255-286; “Ueber einige altindische Verba der V. und IX. Conjugationsclasse”, KZ 24, 1879, 286-293.

– Zum heutigen Stand der Sprachwissenschaft. 144 p. Strassburg 1885.

– Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. 1. 18+568 p. Strassburg 1886, 2:1-2. 846 p. Str. 1889-90, 2nd ed. 1-5. B. 1897/1906-1930 (now incl. Delbrück’s Syntax, etc.), English translation Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic languages. 1-5. Strassburg 1888-95; Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der idg. Sprachen. 22+777 p. B. 1902-04.

– “Pronominale Bildungen der idg. Sprachen”, BVSAW 60, 1908, 11-84; “Zur geschichte der hiatischen (zweisilbigen) Vokalverbindungen in den idg. Sprachen”, BVSAW 65, 1913, 141-218; Die demonstrativpronomina der idg. Sprachen. 151 p. A.S.A.W. 50:6, 1904; Die distributiven und die kollektiven Numeralia der indogermanischen Sprachen. 80 p. A.S.A.W. 54, 1907.

– “Vedisch irajyáti, iradhanta und Verwandtes”, IF 32, 1913, 58-63; “Die Entstehung des altindischen Prekativs”, IF 34, 1914-15, 392-397; “-āi im altindischen Konj. Medii”, IF 36, 1916, 164.

– Die Syntax des einfachen Satzes im Indogermanischen. 229 p. IF 43, Beiheft. B. & Lp. 1925.

– Edited with Streitberg IF.

Sources: *N. Fries, Lex. gramm. 1996, 134f.; *A. Morpurgo Davies, “KB and late 19th-century Linguistics”, T. Bynon & R. Palmer (ed.), Studies in the History of Western Linguistics. In Honour of R.H. Robins. Cambridge 1986, 150-171; F. Sommer, N.D.B. 2, 1953, 667; Stache-Weiske 2017, 308f.; W. Streitberg, BVSAW 73, 1919, 25*-40*; *W. Streitberg, Idg.Jb. 7, 1991, 143-148, and 148-152 bibliography 1909-19 (143-148 republ. in Sebeok 1966:1, 575-580); *Streitberg, bibliography 1871-1909, IF 26, 1911, 425-440; Wikipedia with photo; photo in Idg.Jb. 6, 1918 (also in TITUS-Galeria), IF 25, 1909 and 39 and in  Pedersen 1959, 308.

*R. Schmitt, Aus Karl Brugmanns Jungenderinnerungen. 98 p. Sb.Ö.A.W. 786. Vienna 2007.