Andrew Littleton Sihler | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 (age 83–84) |
| Occupations | linguist, Indo-Europeanist |
Andrew Littleton Sihler (born 25 February 1941 inSeattle) is an Americanlinguist[1] and comparativeIndo-Europeanist.
Sihler received hisBachelor of Artscum laude in 1962 fromHarvard College, where he studiedGermanic languages,literature, and linguistics. He earned hisMaster of Arts fromYale in 1965. Taking hisdoctorate in 1967, Sihler trained in general linguistics but with a concentration in historical-comparative linguistics — Indo-European in particular — studying underWarren Cowgill andStanley Insler, among others. Upon graduation, he joined the faculty of the Department of Linguistics at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he retired in the spring of 1999.[2]
Sihler has contributed toIndo-European linguistics by showing thatEdgerton's Law (an extension ofSievers' Law) is untenable when all the evidence is taken into account.[3] In addition, he has written a comparative grammar ofGreek andLatin intended to replace the one written byCarl Darling Buck some sixty years previously.
Andrew's brotherWilliam W. Sihler is a professor of finance in the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.[4] The Sihler brothers are the grandnephews ofErnest Gottlieb Sihler and great-grandsons ofWilhelm Sihler. Gottlieb was aclassics scholar whose works show little interest in historical linguistics.[5] Wilhelm's university training was in philosophy, though he early was drawn to theology instead. He published short works on a variety of subjects.[6]
