BOISACQ, Émile. Namur 26.11.1865 — Ixelles (Brussels) 2.6.1945. Belgian Linguist and Classical Scholar. Educated in Namur, then studies at Brussels, agrégé 1889, dr. philol. class. 1899. Further studies (now linguistics) at Heidelberg (Osthoff, Sütterlin) and Paris (Bréal, Henry, Meillet). For a while school-teacher in Virton. From 1895 at Université libre…
BÖHTLINGK, Otto Nikolaus von (Russian Otto Nikolaevič Betlingk). St.Petersburg 11.6.(30.5.)1815 — Leipzig 1.4.1904. Russian (German) Indologist. Born in St.Petersburg as a Dutch citizen in a family (father Nikolaus Dietrich Böhtlingk, 1773–1839, a merchant), which originally came from Lübeck, his mother, Maria Wilhelmina Strahlboin (died soon after his birth), was a…
BLOOMFIELD, Leonard. Chicago 1.4.1887 — New Haven CT 18.4.1949. U.S. Linguist. Professor in Columbus, Chicago, and New Haven. Son of Sigmund Bloomfield and Carola Buber, a Jewish family of German background, nephew of —> Maurice Bloomfield. Elementary school in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where his father had a hotel, with the…
BLOCH, Jules. Paris 1.5.1880 — Sèvres (Seine-et-Oise) 29.11.1953. French Indologist and Linguist. Professor in Paris. Son of a Jewish merchant, Salomon Bloch and Caroline Bernheimer, a modest unreligious family originating in Alsace. After Lycée Charlemagne, studied in Paris (Fac. des lettres, etc.) under Lévi and Meillet (also Gauthiot, Foucher and…
BLEICHSTEINER, Robert. Vienna 6.1.1891 — Vienna 10.4.1954. Austrian Linguist, Scholar of Iranian and Caucasian Languages and Ethnology, later also of Mongolian and Tibetan. Son of Josef Ludwig Bleichsteiner. School and studies in Vienna. Ph.D. 1913 Vienna, then worked in a library. From 1922 PD for Caucasian Linguistics at Vienna, tit.…
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…