LESKIEN, Johann Heinrich August. Kiel 8.7.1840 — Leipzig 20.9.1916. German IE and Slavic Linguist. Professor in Leipzig. Son of August Wilhelm Leskien (1800–1876), a master carpenter, and Magdalena Schmidt. With his modest background he could only enter the Gymnasium in Kiel in the age of 16, but then proceeded rapidly. In…
LEROY, Maurice Alphonse Lucien. Ath, Hainaut 23.1.1909 — Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Brussels 3.3.1990. Belgian Linguist. Professor in Brussels. Son of Georges Leroy and Charlotte Huet. Studies of classical philology, Docteur en Philosophie et Lettres 1931 Bruxelles. Worked as schoolteacher in Brussels. In 1935-37 further studies in Paris: at É.P.H.É. under Bloch, Vendryes,…
LEPSIUS, Karl Richard. Naumburg (Saale) 23.12.1810 — Berlin 10.7.1884. German Egyptologist and Linguist. Professor in Berlin. Son ofKarl Peter Lepsius (1775-1853), a judge and local historian, and Friederike Glaeser (1778–1819), in 1822 moved to Schulpforta, where he went to school. Studies of classical philology, archaeology, history and linguistics in 1829-30…
LENZ, Robert (Robert Hristianovič Lenc). Dorpat (Tartu) 23.1./4.2.1808 — St. Petersburg 30.7./11.8.1836. Russian (German from Estonia) Indologist. Son of Christian Lenz (1770–1817), the secretary of municipal council of Dorpat, and Luise Elisabeth Wolff (1781?–1830), brother of the physicist Academician Heinrich Emil Lenz (1804–1865). After Gymnasium in Dorpat in 1820-24 he…
LENTZ, Otto Helmut Wolfgang. Hameln an der Weser 23.2.1900 — Marburg 8.12.1986. German Iranian Scholar. Professor in Hamburg. Son of Dr. Alfred Lentz (1860–1911), director of girls’ Gymnasium in Hameln, and Katharina Gette. Educated in Hameln, matriculated 1917. In 1918-23 studies of IE and classical languages, later also Iranian, Indo-Aryan…
LEITNER, Gottlieb Wilhelm. Pest 14(17?).10.1840 — Bonn 22.3.1899. Austro-Hungarian Indologist and Anthropologist in the U.K. and India. Professor in Lahore. Son of Leopold Saphir, a physician, of Austrian Jewish family living in Hungary. Father died early and his mother, Marie Henriette Herzberg, remarried Johann Moritz Leitner (a Protestant Christian convert)…
LEFMANN, Salomon. Telgte near Münster 25.12.1831 — Heidelberg 14.1.1912. German Indologist. Professor in Heidelberg. Son of a Jewish merchant and farmer, educated at Telgte Jewish school and privately in Paderborn. After seminary in Münster worked as teacher of Jewish religion in Westfalen. At the same time studied at the universities…
LECOUTERE, Carolus (Charles) Franciscus Petrus. Antwerpen 11.12.1865 — Knokke, West Flanders 19.9.1921. Belgian Linguist. Professor in Leuven. Son of sculptor Petrus Lecoutere and Ludovica Vandenbroucke. Student of de Harlez at Leuven, but concentrated more on Classics (Ph.D. 1892) and then turned to Germanistics. Eo. Professor at Louvain (Leuven) from 1895,…
LA TERZA (LATERZA), Ermenegildo. Putignano (Bari) 2.3.1866 — Naples 1939. Italian Indologist. Son of land surveyor Giuseppe Laterza and Marianna Francavilla di Castellana. After Liceo classico di Putignano studied at Naples. Graduated at Naples as student of Kerbaker. In 1895-1911 schoolteacher of classical languages in several places (i. al. in…
LARIN, Boris Aleksandrovič. Poltava 12.1.1893 — Leningrad 26.3.1964. Ukrainian Linguist in Russia, Specialist of Balto-Slavonian also interested in Sanskrit. Professor in Leningrad. Son of a schoolteacher. Educated in 1902-06 at Kamenec-Podol’skoj gimnazii and 1906-10 at Kievskoj Kollegij im. Pavla Galagana. In 1910-14 studies at Kiev University, of Slavonian philology and…