BIESE, Yrjö Moses Jalmari. Helsinki 4.1.1903 — Helsinki 7.11.1983. Finnish Indologist and Linguist (Classical Philology and English). Professor in Turku. Son of Ernst Hjalmar Biese, a procurator, and Helmi Katarina Ahlman, a painter. Matriculated 1921 from Helsingin Normaalilyseo. Studies of classical and modern languages and Sanskrit at Helsinki: Kand.phil. 1924,…
BEZZENBERGER, Adalbert. Kassel 14.4.1851 — Königsberg 31.10.1922. German IE scholar. Professor in Königsberg. Son of the Germanist scholar Heinrich Ernst B. (1814-1892) and Amalie Wiederhold. After school in Kassel studies of Sanskrit and IE philology under Benfey at Göttingen. Ph.D. 1872 Göttingen. PD 1874 ibid. From 1879 Professor of Sanskrit…
BERGMANN, Frédéric-Guillaume (Friedrich Wilhelm). Strasbourg 9.2.1812 — Strasbourg 13.11.1887. French (Alsatian) Linguist and Philologist. Professor in Strasbourg. Son of Anton Josef Bergmann (1776–1839), a pewter caster, and Christiane Sophie Roessel. Studies of theology at Strasbourg, of philology (especially Nordic) at Paris, Göttingen and Berlin. Dr.-ès-Lettres 1839. From 1838 in charge…
BENVENISTE, Émile (born Ezra B.). Aleppo, Syria 25.2. or 27.4.1902 — Versailles 3.10.1976. French Iranian scholar and Linguist. Professor in Paris, naturalized as Frenchman in 1924. Son of Mathieu (Mathatias) Benveniste, of a well known Sephardim family of Turkey (originally of Spain), and Marie Malkenson, both teachers. Educated privately, in…
BENFEY, Theodor. Nörten bei Göttingen 28.1.1809 — Göttingen 26.6.1881. German Indologist and IE Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Born in a Jewish family, son of Isaak Benfey (1763–1832), a merchant and Talmud scholar, who also taught Hebrew to his son, and Caroline Salomon (1774–1838). School and from 1824 studies in Göttingen…
BENDER, Ernest. Buenos Aires 2.1.1919 — Philadelphia 18.4.1996. U.S. Indologist. Professor in Philadelphia. Born in Argentina as U.S. citizen, came to Philadelphia in the age of four. Educated there, began studies of classics at Temple University (A.B. 1941). From 1941 PG studies at University of Pennsylvania in Indology (W. N.…
BENARY, Franz Simon Ferdinand. Kassel 22.3.1805 — Berlin 7.2.1880. German Indologist and Orientalist. Professor in Berlin. Born in Kassel in a Jewish family, as a son of the banker Salmon Levy (1770–1828; from 1818 Benary) and Gutheil Meilert (1778–1833), brother of —> Agathon Benary (1807–1860)., himself took Christianity in 1829.…
BEAMES, John William. Greenwich 21.6.1837 — Clevedon, Somerset 24.5.1902. British Civil servant and Indologist in India, a Pioneer of Comparative NIA Studies. Served in India in 1858-93. The eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Beames (1815–1864) and Susanna Amelia Dewsnap (1811–1868). Educated first at Merchant Taylor’s School, then 1856-57 at…
BAUDOUIN DE COURTENAY, Jan Ignacy Niecisław (Jean, in Russian Ivan Aleksandrovič Boduèn-de-Kurtenè). Radzymin near Warsaw 13.3.1845 — Warsaw 3.11.1929. Famous Polish Linguist. Son of Alexander Baudouin de C. and Jadwiga Dobrzyńska, the family came from France in 1733. Gymnasium in Warsaw (under Leskien). Studies at Jena under Schleicher, then at…
BARTOLI, Matteo Giulio. Albona, Istria (now Labin in Croatia) 22.11.1873 — Turin 23.1.1946. Italian Linguist. Ph.D. Vienna (Meyer-Lübke). Also studied at Strassburg (Hübschmann) and Paris (Gilliéron). After a short time as eo. at Pisa 1907-08 he was in 1908-46 Professor of Linguistics at Turin. He was the only linguist who…