Pott, August Friedrich

Pott, August Friedrich 

Born Nov. 14, 1802, in Nettelrede, Hanover; died July 5, 1887, in Halle. German linguist; doctor of philosophy (1827).

Pott studied at the University of Göttingen from 1821 to 1825 and became a professor at the University of Halle in 1838. A founder of comparative-historical linguistics, he established a series of strict sound correspondences between the Indo-European languages. His principal work was Etymological Research on the Indo-Germanic Languages (vols. 1–2, 1833–36), in which he compared the words of the Indo-European languages without etymologizing according to external similarities. He also studied general linguistics, onomastics, Romany and other languages, and Indo-European mythology and culture.

WORKS

Wurzel- Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, vols. 1–5, 2nd ed. Detmold 1867–73.
Die Sprachverschiedenheit in Europa an den Zahlwörtern nachgewiesen. Halle, 1868.
Zur Litteratur der Sprachenkund Europas. Leipzig, 1887.
Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien, parts 1–2. Leipzig, 1964.
Die Personennamen, insbesondere die Familiennamen und ihre Entstehungsarten, 2nd. ed. Wiesbaden, 1968.

REFERENCE

Gabelentz, G. von der. “August Friedrich Pott (1802–1887).” In Portraits of Linguists, vol. 1. Bloomington, Ind.-London, 1966.

R. A. AGEEVA