SZEMERÉNYI, Oswald John Louis. London 7.9.1913 — Freiburg i. Br. 29.12.1996. Hungarian IE Scholar in the U.K. and Germany. Professor in Freiburg (i.Br.). Born in London in a Hungarian family, grew up in Hungary. Studies of Classical, Germanic and Comparative Philology at Budapest. Ph.D. 1936 Budapest, in IE. Further studies at Heidelberg and Berlin. PD 1944 Budapest. From 1947 Professor of Comparative Linguistics at Budapest, but in 1948 emigrated to England. From 1953 Assistant Lecturer at Department of Greek, Bedford College, London. From 1958 Reader and from 1960 Professor of Comparative Philology at London University. In 1963 Visitig Professor at University of Washington in Seattle. From 1965 ord. Professor of Indogermanistik at Freiburg i.Br. in Germany. Emeritus 1981. Married 1940 Elizabeth Kövér, one son.
Publications: Diss. 1936 publ.: Az indogermán ḷ, ṛ latin folytatása. 50 p. Budapest 1941 (IE liquidae sonantes in Latin); hab.diss. manuscript 1944, publ. “L’unité linguistique balto-slave”, ESlR 2, 1948, 65-85 & 3, 1948, 159-173; cf. “The problem of Balto-Slavic unity”, Kratylos 2, 1957, 97-123.
– “Contribution to Iranian lexicography”, JAOS 70, 1950, 226-236; “Vištāspa”, BzNF 2, 1951, 165-177; “Sogdicisms in the Avesta”, F Altheim, Aus Spätantike und Christentum. Tübingen 1951, 153-166; “Iranica”, ZDMG 101, 1951, 197-219; “Iranian Studies” 1-5 in KZ 76, 1959, 60-77; Sprache 12, 1967, 190-226; W. B. Henning Vol. 1970, 417-426; Orbis 19, 1971, 500-519; Monum. Nyberg. Acta Ir. 5, 1975, 313-395.
– Studies in the Indo-European System of Numerals. 190 p. Heidelberg 1960; Syncope in Greek and Indo-European and the nature of Indo-European accent. 430 p. Naples 1964.
– “The origin of the Vedic ‘imperatives’ in -si”, Language 42, 1966, 1-6; “The problem of Aryan loanwords in Anatolia”, Scritti in onore di G. Bonfante. 2, 1976, 1063-1070; “Vedic šam, šaṁ yoḥ, and šaṁ(ča) yošča”, InL 4, 1979, 159-184.
– Einführung in die vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft. 311 p. Darmstadt 1970, 3rd ed. 25+370 p. D. 1989, Spanish transl. Madrid 1978, Russian 1980, English 1996; Richtungen der modernen Sprachwissenschaft. 1-2. 148, 14+318 p. Heidelberg 1971-82, Spanish tr. of 1. 1980; “Comparative Linguistics”, Current Trends in Linguistics 9. Linguistics in Western Europe. the Hague & P. 1972, 119-195.
– “Studies in the kinship terminology of the Indo-European languages”, Varia 1977. Acta Ir. 16, 1978, 1-240.
– Summing up a Life. Freiburg 1991.
– Numerous articles on IE and IE languages; Scripta Minora. 1-4. Innsbruck 1987-91.
Sources: D.G.K. 1983; Bio-bibliographie de 134 savants. 1979, 491-502; Studies in diachronic, synchronic, and typological linguistics. Fs. O.Sz. Amsterdam 1979, with life, photo and bibliography; two other photos in 1987 and 1991 books (both also in TITUS Galeria); Wikipedia with photo.
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