SIEG, Emil Hermann. Breitenteich bei Angermünde, Uckermark, Brandenburg 12.8.1866 — Göttingen 23.1.1951. German Indologist and Tocharian Scholar. Professor in Kiel and Göttingen. Son of Hulius Ferdinand Sieg, a farmer and mill owner, and Malwine Stümke. Educated in Prenzlau. From 1885 studied classical philology at Berlin, then at Tübingen and Munich, where he became interested in Indology under E. Kuhn. From 1888 again at Berlin under Weber, Geldner and J. Schmidt. Ph.D. 1891 Berlin. Then further studies at Göttingen under Kielhorn. PD 1896 Berlin. In 1903-09 worked in Royal Library, Berlin. From 1909 Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative IE Linguistics at Kiel and from 1920 ord. Professor of Indology at Göttingen (succeeding Oldenberg at both universities). Retired 193?, but taught again during Waldschmidt’s military service in WW II. From 1921 member of Göttingen A.W. and from 1942 of Berlin A.W. Also as emeritus he continued working in Göttingen.
Sieg started as a Vedic scholar in the spirit of his teacher Geldner. In the beginning of the 20th century he became interested in Turfan texts, first in Sanskrit, but soon in Tocharian, and became a leading authority of it. From the very beginning he collaborated with his student Siegling, and together they showed it to be an IE language (although they gave the erroneous name Tocharian to it). In the beginning they concentrated on the A language and only in the 1930s on B (Kuchean), then long studied by S. Lévi. Among his other students wereGelpke, Jørgensen, Thiemeand W. Thomas. Beside Tocharian, he also continued Vedic studies.
Publications: Diss. Bhāradvājaçikshā. P. I. 17+24 p. Berlin 1891; the whole work: Bh. cum versione Latina, excerptis ex commentario, adnotationibus criticis et exegeticis. 16+64 p. B. 1892.
– Part of the 800 p. manuscript hab.diss. 1896: Die Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda und die indische Itihāsa-Tradition. 1. 6+150 p. St. 1902.
– “Bruchstück einer Sanskrit-Grammatik aus Sängim-Ägiz, Chinesisch-Turkestan”, SBeAW 1907, 466-491; “Neue Bruchstücke der Sanskrit-Grammatik aus Chin.-Turkestan”, SBeAW 1908, 182-206.
– With W. Siegling: “Tocharisch, die Sprache der Indoskythen”, SBeAW 1908, 915-932; with F. W. K. Müller: “Maitrisimit und “Tocharisch””, SBeAW 1916, 395-417; alone: “Die einheimische Name für Toxrï”, SBeAW 198, 560-565.
– With W. Siegling: Tocharische Sprachreste. 1-2. Die Texte. 12+258 p. 64 pl. B. 1921; Tocharische Sprachreste. Sprache B. 1. Die Udānālamkāra-Fragmente, Text, Übersetzung und Glossar. 80+196 p. Göttingen 1949; 2. Fragmente Nr. 71-633. Hrsg. von W. Thomas. 408 p. Göttingen 1953.
– With W. Siegling & W. Schulze: Tocharische Grammatik. 6+518 p. Göttingen 1931.
– “Die Kutschischen Karmavibhanga-Texte der Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris”, KZ 65, 1938, 1-54.
– Übersetzungen aus dem Tocharischen. 1. 30 p. B. 1944; 2. Hrsg. von W. Thomas. 44 p. ADAWBerlin 1951:1.
– Articles on Veda in ERE, ZII, NGGW, GGA, etc.; Kleine Schriften. Herausgegeben von Klaus Ludwig Janert. Glasenapp-Stiftung Band 31. 10+459 p. Wiesbaden 1991.
– Tocharologica. Selected Writings on Tocharian. Ed. by G.-J. Pinault & M. Peyrot. 294 p. Monogr. z. indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie 22. Hempen 2014.
Sources: Stache-Rosen 1990, 159f.; W. Thomas, KZ 80, 1966, 1-5; E. Waldschmidt, ZDMG 101, 1951, 18-28 with photo; German Wikipedia; photo in Rau 86; another photo (from ZDMG 101) and drawing in TITUS Galeria.
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