SCHMIDT, Johannes Friedrich Heinrich. Prenzlau, Brandenburg 29.7.1843 — Berlin 4.7.1901. German IE Scholar. Professor in Berlin. Orphaned (mother died 1844, father 1852) he grew up at his uncle, Gymnasium Professor K. E. A. Schmidt in Stettin, matriculated there in 1860. In 1860-62 studies of classical philology (Ritschl) at Bonn, then IE, Slavic and Lithuanian at Jena (Schleicher). Ph.D. 1865 Jena. One year of further studies in Sanskrit at Berlin, worked as schoolteacher. PD 1868 Bonn, für vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, ao. Professor there from 1873. Soon, in 1873-76 ord. Professor für vergl. Sprachwissenschaft und Sanskrit at Graz in Austria. In 1876 succeeded Ebel as ord. Professor for the same at Berlin, where he taught until his death. Member of Prussian Academy 1884. Died of heart attack. Married with Luise Schwalbe.
Schmidt was a cautious and prudent scholar who wrote in terse style. Although no systematician, he destroyed Schleicher’s Stammbaum in 1872 and proposed the Wellentheorie. In his later days he mainly concentrated on Greek. In his teaching he often dealt with Sanskrit, too. In 1880-1901 he was with E. Kuhn editor of the KZ.
Publications: Diss. Die Wurzel AK im Indogermanischen. 90 p. Weimar 1865.
– Kleine Sanskrit-Chrestomathie. 116 p. Weimar 1868 (sep. from Schleicher’s Indogermanische Chrestomathie, texts mostly from the Ṛgveda).
– Zur Geschichte der indogermanischen Vocalismus. 1-2. Weimar 1871-75; Die Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse der indogermanischen Sprachen. 4+68 p. Weimar 1872.
– “Zwei arische a-Laute und die Palatalen”, KZ 25, 1881, 1-179; brief articles on Sanskrit in KZ 22, 1874; 26, 1883; 27, 1885; Fs. Roth; Fs. Weber.
– Die Pluralbildungen der idg. Neutra. 8+456 p. Weimar 1889; Kritik der Sonantentheorie. 195 p.Weimar 1895.
– Die Urheimat der Indogermanen und das europäische Zahlensystem. ABeAW 1890, 56 p.
– Articles on IE and Greek, e.g. “Assimilationen benachbarten einander nicht berührender Vocale im Griechischen”, KZ 32, 1893, 321-415; “Zur Geschichte der Langdiphthongen im Griechischen”, KZ 38, 1905, 1-52.
Sources: P. Kretschmer, KZ 38, 1905, v-xiv; *S. Kul’bakin, ŽMNPr 337, 1902, 105-112; *B. Schlerath, Lex. Gramm. 1996, 837f.; Schmidt, A.D.B. (republ. in Sebeok 1966:1, 374-395); Stache-Weiske 2017, 558; *H. Zimmer, Biogr. Jahrb. u. Dt. Nekrolog 6, 1904, 247-252; E. Zupitza, Bursians Jahresber. 111, 1903, 145-155; briefly D.B.E. 9, 1998; Wikipedia with photo (little more and a portrait in German version); photo in Titus Galeria, another in Lochner von Hüttenbach, Das Fach Sprachwissenschaft an der Univ. Graz. 1976, 8; photo in Pedersen 1959, 314.
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