Karl Meinhof ( July 23, 1857 , Bartzwitz, Pomerania (now Bazowice , West Pomeranian Voivodeship Poland ) - February 10, 1944 , Greifswald , Third Reich ) - German linguist , linguist- Africanist , pastor-missionary. Professor of the Hamburg Colonial Institute and the University of Hamburg (1909-1936). One of the founders of German Africanism .
| Karl Meinhof | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| A place of death | |
| A country | |
| Occupation | , |
Content
- 1 Biography
- 2 Scientific activities
- 3 Selected Publications
- 4 notes
- 5 Links
- 6 References
Biography
Born in the family of the pastor and preacher Friedrich Meinhof.
He studied theology , German studies , and Hebra studies at the universities of Halle , Erlangen , Greifswald and Tübingen . Later he taught at the gymnasium in Stettin , served as a pastor in Tsitsov (1886), where he first encountered the African dual language and was engaged in Bantuism .
In 1902-1903 he made his first missionary trip to East Africa to learn Bantu languages . Since 1904, he taught and headed the African department at the Seminar of Oriental Studies at the University of Berlin , created at the initiative of Otto von Bismarck , in 1909-1936 - professor at the Hamburg Colonial Institute (later Hamburg University ).
Scientific activity
He studied Afrasian (Semitic-Hamitic) , Khoisan , Kordofan , Nilo-Sahara languages , but mainly Bantu languages , for which he created comparative historical grammar and phonetics and first carried out reconstruction of the proto-language ("Fundamentals of the comparative grammar of Bantu languages", 1906).
He described many separate languages of East , South and Equatorial Africa . He offered the popular in the 1910-1920s. Classification of African languages (“Hamitic,” “Sudanese,” and languages resulting from confusion, including Bantu).
He was one of the pioneers of the systematic collection and study of African languages and traditions. He studied poetry, religion and the law of these peoples. So, for example, in 1902 in Tanzania with the help of a phonograph he recorded traditional African music, collected a collection of African tales.
Created a center for the study of African languages in Berlin (now located in Hamburg).
In 1910, he founded and was editor of the journal Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen (now Afrika und Übersee).
In marriage, he had twelve children, three of whom died at an early age. May 5, 1933 Meinhof joined the NSDAP . In November 1933, he was among the professors of German universities who signed a commitment to devotion to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi state.
According to some reports, he died during one of his long trips, being killed (according to the generally accepted but not documented version - eaten up) by an unfriendly tribe practicing cannibalism .
Selected Publications
- Grundriß einer Lautlehre der Bantusprachen nebst einer Anleitung zur Aufnahme von Bantusprachen. Leipzig 1899
- Die Christianisierung der Sprachen Afrikas. Basel 1905
- Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen. Berlin 1906
- Lehrbuch der Nama-Sprache. Berlin 1909.
- Die Sprache der Herero in Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Berlin 1909
- Die Sprache der Suaheli in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Berlin 1910
- Die Sprachen der Hamiten. Friederichsen, Hamburg 1912
- Die Sprache der Duala in Kamerun. Berlin 1912
- Eine Studienfahrt nach Kordofan, Friederichsen, Hamburg 1916
- Afrikanische Märchen von Carl Meinhof, Jena 1917
- Die Entstehung flektierender Sprachen. Berlin 1936
- Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen, Hamburg 1948
His cousin was Ulrike Meinhof , a West German terrorist , one of the leaders and theorists of the Red Army Faction (RAF) .
Notes
Links
- Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978.
- Big Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2000.