Otto Dempwolff | |
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| Born | (1871-05-25)25 May 1871 |
| Died | 27 November 1938(1938-11-27) (aged 67) |
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| Discipline | Linguist,anthropologist |
| Sub-discipline | Austronesian languages |
Otto Dempwolff (25 May 1871 inPillau,Province of Prussia – 27 November 1938, inHamburg) was a Germanphysician,linguist andanthropologist who specialized in the study of theAustronesian language family.
Initially trained as aphysician, Dempwolff began his linguistic research while serving as medical doctor in the German coloniesGerman New Guinea andGerman East Africa. Under the mentorship ofCarl Meinhof, he began his academic career at theHamburgisches Kolonialinstitut, which later became part of theUniversity of Hamburg. In 1931, he founded the "Seminar für indonesische und Südseesprachen", which he headed until his death in 1938.[1][2] He was also appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his expertise in medicine, as well as African and Indonesian languages. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.[3]
His magnum opusVergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes (Comparative phonology of Austronesian vocabularies) (1934–1937) was the first systematic and comprehensive reconstruction of theProto-Austronesian sound system and vocabulary.[1]
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