August Friedrich Pott facts for kids
August Friedrich Pott (born November 14, 1802, in Nettelrede, Hanover; died July 5, 1887, in Halle) was a German expert who helped start the study of linguistics. Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Life of August Pott
August Pott first studied to become a religious leader at the University of Göttingen. But he soon became very interested in languages, history, and philosophy. This field of study is called philology, which means the study of language in written historical sources.
He worked as a school teacher for a short time in Celle. In 1827, he finished his important paper, called De relationibus quae praepositionibus in Linguis denotantur, at Göttingen University. He wasn't happy just teaching in Celle. So, he went to the University of Berlin to learn from Franz Bopp. Bopp was another key person in understanding Indo-European languages. These are a large family of languages spoken across Europe and parts of Asia.
In 1830, Pott became a lecturer in general linguistics in Berlin. By 1833, he became a professor of general linguistics at the University of Halle. He stayed there for the rest of his life. He also helped create the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. This group works to promote research on languages from Eastern countries.
August Pott's Work
Professor Pott mostly taught about general linguistics, the philosophy of language, and how languages change over time. He also gave lessons on specific languages like Sanskrit, Chinese, and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. His main research focused on Indo-European languages. He even created the name "Iranian languages" for a group of these languages.
One of his most famous works was Etymologische Forschungen (which means "Etymological Research"). This book, published between 1834 and 1836, helped create the modern way we study etymology. Etymology is the study of where words come from and how their meanings have changed. Pott showed how sounds in related words across Indo-European languages matched up. The first edition had two volumes, and a later edition grew to six volumes! He also wrote about onomastics, which is the study of names, and different ways people count.
Pott is also known as the most important language expert of the 1800s for the Romani language. This is the language spoken by the Romani people. His deep work on Romani languages even encouraged another scholar, Friedrich Christian Diez, to publish his own research faster. This led to more studies of Romani languages.
August Pott strongly disagreed with people who tried to mix politics or strange, mystical ideas with language studies. For example, he criticized a book called Versuch über die Ungleichheit der Menschenrassen ('Essay on the inequality of the races') by Arthur de Gobineau. Pott said this book lacked scientific proof. He believed that language studies should be based only on facts and science.
Honors and Awards
August Pott received several important awards for his work. He was given the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle (2nd class) and the Pour le Mérite. He also received the Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov) (1st class).
In 1850, he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Later, in 1877, he became a foreign member. He also joined the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1855. In 1870, he became a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Then, in 1876, he became a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
In 1870, he received a special medal. This medal was given to him and three other scholars (Brockhaus, Fleischer, and Rödiger). It celebrated the 25th anniversary of the DMG, the group he helped start.
Relevant reading
- Bologna, Maria Patrizia. "Langage et expressivité chez August Friedrich Pott." Historiographia linguistica 22, no. 1-2 (1995): 75–90.
- Leopold, Joan. The Letter Liveth: The life, work and library of August Friedrich Pott (1802 87). Vol. 9. John Benjamins Publishing, 1983.
- Malkiel, Yakov. "August Friedrich Pott as a Pioneer of Romance Linguistics." American Indian and Indoeuropean Studies: Papers in honor of Madison S. Beeler (1980): 409–420.
See also
In Spanish: August Friedrich Pott para niños
