DECOURDEMANCHE, Jean-Adolphe. Paris 24.3.1844 — Paris 15.10.1916. French Pseudohistorian and Turkish Translator. Wikidata defines him as a diplomat and archaeologist, but no further details of his life are available. Publications: “La légende d’Alexandre chez les musulmans”, RHR 6, 1882, 98-112. – Études sur les racines Arabes, Sanscrites et Turques. 118…
BRAUNHOLTZ, Gustav Ernst Karl. Cambridge 19.3.1887 — 21.4.1967. British Linguist (IE and Classic). Son of Eugen Gustav Braunholtz (1859–1941), German academician who moved in 1884 to Cambridge (note his diss. Die erste nichtchristliche Parabel des Barlaam und Josaphat. Ihre Herkunft und Verbreitung. 8+110 p. Halle 1884) and Elisabeth Breul. Studies…
ABEL, Iwarus (Ivar). Ejstrup Mølle, Asferg Sogn near Randers 1720 — Fredensborg, North Zealand 1788. Danish Linguist. Son of Jens Iversen Abel, a miller, and Karen Jensdatter. Educated in Viborg, studied law at Copenhagen. In 1761-71 worked as procurator in Copenhagen city court, now also became interested in languages. Last…
WRIGHT, Joseph. Idle near Bradford, Yorkshire 31.10.1855 — Oxford 27.2.1930. British Linguist. Son of Dufton Wright (d. 1866), a woollen cloth weaver and quarryman, and Sarah Ann Atkinson, a modest family. Working from childhood in various odd jobs he started night-school when 15, concentrating on languages, and in 1876 went…
THOMAS, Calvin E. near Lapeer, Mich. 28.10.1854 — New York City 4.11.1919. U.S. Linguist and Germanist. Son of farmer Stephen Van Rensselaer Thomas (1831–1905, later lawyer and politician) and Caroline Louisa Lord (1831–1878). Graduated A.B. 1874, A.M. 1877, LL.D. 1904 – all at University of Michigan, 1877-78 further studies at…
TELEGDI, Zsigmond (born Weil). Enyig, county Veszprém 29.12.1909 — Budapest 5.3.1994. Hungarian Linguist. Son of solicitor Ede Weil (d. 1913) and Elza Erzsébet, lost early his father. Grew up in Székesfehérvár and attended Jewish secondary school there 1919-27. Briefly studied at Rabbinical seminary in Budapest, but interrupted and studied Semitic and…
SITTIG, Ernst. Berlin 1.2.1887 — Tübingen 25.12.1955. German Linguist and Classical Scholar. Professor in Tübingen. Educated in Berlin, studies at Jena, Berlin and Halle. Ph.D. 1911 Halle. In WW I served in the decipherment department of the army and in 1919-24 continued same work in Foreign Ministry. PD 1923 Berlin,…
SIMON, Ernst Julius Walter (Ximen Xuade). Berlin 10.6.1893 — London 22.2.1981. German Sinologist and Sino-Tibetan Scholar in the U.K. Professor in London. Son of Jewish mathematician Heinrich Simon (1859–1930) and Cläre Abraham (murdered in Ghetto Theresienstadt). Studies of classical and Romance philology in 1911-14 at Berlin, 1915-18 in army. Employed…
SCHMIDTS, Peter (Pēteris Šmits, Russian Pëtr Petrovič Šmidt). Rauna, Latvia (then of Russia) 25.12.1869 — Riga 5.6.1938. Latvian Linguist, Ethnographist and Sinologist. Professor of IE Antiquity and Baltic Philology at Riga. Born in a peasant family, gymnasium in Riga. Studied Russian, Chinese and Manchu in Moscow and St.Petersburg. After a…
SCHMIDT, Heinrich Wilhelm Arnold. Hörde near Dortmund 16.2.1868 — Fribourg 10.2.1954. Father, S.V.D (Society of the Divine Word). Famous German Anthropologist and Linguist in Austria and Switzerland. Austrian citizen 1902. Son of Heinrich Schmidt (1819–1870), an ironworker, and Anna-Maria Mörs. From 1883 educated by S.V.D. in the Netherlands, in 1890…