PEDERSEN, Holger. Gjelballe near Lunderskov, Kolding prov. 7.4.1867 — Hellerup near Copenhagen 25.10.1953. Danish Linguist. Professor in Copenhagen. Born in a teacher family in Jutland, son of school-teacher Christen Pedersen (1822–1877) and Dorthe Lauridsen (1826–1920). After school in Ribe he studied from 1885at Copenhagen classical philology, Danish and linguistics under Verner, Thomsen, Møller and Wimmer. Graduated in 1890 he immediately started research work. Further studies in 1892-96 at Leipzig (Brugman, Leskien, Windisch, Sievers), Berlin (J. Schmidt) and Greifswald (Zimmer). In spring 1893 he accompanied Brugmann to Corfu to study Albanian, and in summer and autumn 1895 studied Irish in Aran Islands (West Ireland). Ph.D. 1897 Copenhagen. Taught at Copenhagen University: PD 1897, eo. Professor 1903 and Thomsen’s successor as Professor of Comparative Linguistics from 1912. Retired in 1937 and was succeeded by his student Hjelmslev. Married Jenny Dahl, one son.
In Indo-European studies Pedersen was a many-sided linguist, a classical scholar since youth, a specialist of Albanian and a Celtologist, later also noted scholar of Balto-Slavic (“Pedersen’s law”) and Armenian and in his late years of Hittite and Tocharian. He wrote much about the history of linguisticsfully including non-IE families, but was not interested in general linguistics. As early as 1903 he coined the term “Nostratic”, but remained cautious in its application. However, he did accept both Uralic and, more distantly, Semitic as related to IE.
Publications: “Das Präsensinfix n”, IF 2, 1893, 285-332; “Das indogermanische s im Slawischen”, IF 5, 1895, 33-87.
– Albanische Texte mit Glossar. 207 p. ASAW 15:3. 1895; Zur albanischen Volkskunde. 125 p. Copenhagen 1898.
– Diss. Aspirationen i Irsk. 1. 200 p. 1897; part 2. “Die Aspiration im Irischen”, KZ 35, 1899, 315-444.
– Sprogvidenskaben. 64 p. Flensborg 1899, also in Swedish; Et Blik paa Sprogvidenskabens Historie. 120 p. Copenhagen 1916, English tr. 1983.
– “Die Gutturale im Albanesischen”, KZ 36, 1900, 277-300.
– Les pronoms démonstratifs de l’ancien arménien. 51 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 6:3. 1905; “Armenisch und die Nachbarsprachen”, KZ 39, 1906, 334-485.
– “Die idg.-semitische Hypothese und die idg. Lautlehre”, IF 22, 1907-08, 341-365.
– Vergleichende Grammatik der Keltischen Sprachen. 1-2. 14+544, 15+842 p. Göttingen 1909-13.
– Russisk Grammatik. 6+228 p. Cop. 1916; Russisk Læsebog. 8+176 p. Copenhagen 1916.
– Les formes sigmatiques du verbe latin et le problème du futur indoeuropéen. 31 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 3:5. Cop. 1921; “L’origine des runes”, Mém. Soc. Roy. Antiq. Nord. 1921-25, 88-136.
– Sprogvidenskaben i det nittonde Aarhundrede. 311 p. Cop. 1924, English transl. The Discovery of Language. 360 p. Cambridge MA 1931, Swedish 1924, Chinese 1958.
– Le groupement des dialectes indo-européens. 57 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 11:3. 1925.
– La cinquième déclinaison latine. 88 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 15:5. 1926.
– Études lituaniennes. 63 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 19:3. 1933.
– Lykisch und Hittitisch. 77 p. D.V.S.Skr. 30:4. 1945.
– Hittitisch und die anderen indoeuropäischen Sprachen. 227 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 25:2. 1938.
– Tocharisch vom Gesichtspunkt der indoeurop. Sprachvergleichung. 292 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 30:2. 1941, 2nd ed. 1949; Zur tocharischen Sprachgeschichte. 55 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 30:2. 1944.
– “Sanskrit dur- et dhur-”, Lingua Posnaniensis 2, 1950, 1-3.
– Die gemeinindoeuropäischen und vorindoeuropäischen Verschlusslaute. 16 p. D.Vid.Selsk.Skr. 32:5. 1951; many short articles, also on Czech, Etruscan, Lycian, etc.
Sources: *C. Henriksen, Lex. gramm. 1996, 710; *Hovdhaugen et al. 2000, 370-373; Korner in introd. to Pedersen’s A glance at the History of Linguistics. Amsterdam Studies III:7. 1983, ix-xxx (with bibliography); *F. B. J. Kuiper, Jaarboek van K.N.A.W. 1955–56, 262-269; A. Sommerfelt, *Orbis 3, 1954, 343-346 (republ. in Sebeok 1966:2, 283-287); V. Thomsen, D.B.L. 12, 1898, 622f.; Wikipedia with photo.
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