Bopp, Franz

Bopp, Franz (fränts bôp), 1791–1867, German philologist. A professor at the Univ. of Berlin from 1821 to 1864, he did research in many languages and earned a great reputation as a scholar by demonstrating the relationship of the Indo-European languages in his Vergleichende Grammatik [comparative grammar] (1833–52).

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Bopp, Franz

(born Sept. 14, 1791, Mainz, archbishopric of Mainz—died Oct. 23, 1867, Berlin, Prussia) German linguist. He published the first lengthy comparative analysis of Indo-European languages, his voluminous Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Gothic, and German (1833–52). Though the relation of Sanskrit to European languages was known at the time, Bopp was a pioneer in isolating common elements in the verbal and nominal morphology of Sanskrit and other older Indo-European languages. Most of his career was spent at the University of Berlin.