MEYER, Gustav. Gross-Strehlitz, Oberschesien (now Strzelce Opolskie in Poland) 25.11.1850 — Feldhof bei Graz 28.8.1900. German IE Linguist and Balkanist in Austria. Professor in Graz. Son of a civil servant. After school in Oppeln (matriculation 1867) studied at Breslau classical philology, IE and Sanskrit (under Stenzler), modern Greek, Romance, Germanic and Semitics. Ph.D. 1871 Breslau. Gymnasium teacher in Gotha and from 1874 at a German gymnasium in Prague. From 1876 PD für vgl. Grammatik des griech. und lat. Sprache at Prague. In 1877 succeeded J. Schmidt as ao. Professor für Sanskrit und vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft at Graz, from 1881 as ord. Because of a serious illness he had to retire in 1897. Unmarried.
Meyer was one of the few among 19th century Indo-Europeists who were not much interested in Sanskrit, although he taught the language at Graz. His most lasting achievement was the opening of the Albanian for IE linguists and showing (1884) that it must be considered as an independent branch of IE (and not a kind of Greek dialect). He derived it from ancient Illyrian. His Albanian etymological dictionary was still the only one in the 1990s. He conducted linguistic fieldwork in Italy, Balkan and Turkey and collected local folk tales. Beside Albanian he was much interested in classical and modern Greek.
Publications: Diss. De nominibus Graecis compositis. 29 p. Vratislaviae 1871.
– Die nasal gebildeten Präsensstämme der griechischen mit vergleichenden Berücksichtigung der anderen indogermanischen Sprachen. 8+120 p. Jena 1873.
– Zur Geschichte der indogermanischen Stammbildung und Deklination. 89 p. Lp. 1875.
– Griechische Grammatik. 30+464 p. Lp. 1880, rev. 2nd ed. 36+552 p. Lp. 1886, rev. 3rd ed. 18+175 p. Lp. 1896; studies on Greek.
– “Die Stellung des Albanesischen im Kreise der indogermanischen Sprachen”, BB 8, 1884, 185-195.
– Albanesische Studien. 1-6. S.W.A. Vienna 1883-97; “Albanische Märchen”, Archiv für Literaturgeschichte 12, 1884, 92-148; Kurzgefasste albanesische Grammatik. 11+105 p. Lp. Lp. 1888; Etymologische Wörterbuch der Albanesischen Sprache. 526 p. Strassburg 1891.
– Essays und studien zur sprachgeschichte und volkskunde. 1-2. Strassburg 1885-93.
– Reiseskizzen aus Griechenland und Italien. B. 1886.
– Griechische Volkslieder in deutscher Nachbildung. 103 p. St. 1890.
– Türkische Studien. 1. 96 p. S.W.A. 128:1. Vienna 1893.
– Mittel- und neugriechische Studien. 1-4. S.W.A. Vienna 1894-95.
Sources: *K. Dieterich, Byz. Z. 10, 1901, 382-384 & *Bursians Jahresber. 115, 1903, 1-6; *J. Karabaček, Almanach der A.W. Wien 51, 1901, 325-330; *L. Katona, MittAnthrGesWien 30, 1901, 219f.; Lochner von Hüttenbach, Ö.B.L. 5, 1972, 426; H. D. Pohl, N.D.B. 17, 344; Wikipedia; photo in Lochner von Hüttenbach, Das Fach Sprachwiss. an der Univ. Graz. 1976, 8, in Freisitzer et al. 1985, 130 and in Pedersen 1959, 72.
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