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. 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 at Vienna University (with comparative linguistics).
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. 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 4, 1850, 4-9, 65-72 & 113-122.
– Ausführliche Sanskrit-Grammatik für den öffentlichen und Selbstunterricht. 382 p. Wien 1847.
– Die wichtigsten Denkmäler der k. k. ägyptischen Sammlung. SWA 10, 1853; Die Declination der finnischen Sprachen. SWA 11, 1853; Die Consonanten-Erwechslung. SWA 12-13, 1854; Zur magyarischen Etymologie. SWA 17, 1855; Vergleichende Analyse magyarischen Verbums. SWA 19, 1856.
Sources: Windisch 366 Anm.; Wurzbach, Biogr. Lex. 2, 1857, 31; 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; German Wikipedia. For origin and early years no information seems to be av
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