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Rudolf Thurneysen | |
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| Born | (1857-08-09)9 August 1857 Basel, Switzerland |
| Died | 14 March 1940(1940-03-14) (aged 82) |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Known for | Thurneysen's law,Thurneysen–Havet's law |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | linguistics,comparative linguistics,Celtic languages |
| Institutions | |
Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (14 March 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist andCelticist.
Born inBasel, Thurneysen studied classicalphilology in Basel,Leipzig,Berlin andParis. His teachers includedErnst Windisch andHeinrich Zimmer.[1] He received hispromotion (approximating to a doctorate) in 1879 and hishabilitation, inLatin and theCeltic languages, followed at theUniversity of Jena in 1882.
From 1885 to 1887 he taught Latin at Jena, then taking up the Chair of Comparative Philology at theUniversity of Freiburg[1] where he replacedKarl Brugmann, a renowned expert inIndo-European studies.
In 1896, he positedThurneysen's law, a proposed sound law concerning the alternation of voiced and voiceless fricatives in certain affixes inGothic; it was later published in 1898.[2]
In 1909 Thurneysen published hisHandbuch des Alt-Irischen, translated intoEnglish asA Grammar of Old Irish byD. A. Binchy andOsborn Bergin, and still in print as of 2006.[1] A version inWelsh was produced byMelville Richards and published by Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru (University of Wales Press) in 1935 under the titleLlawlyfr Hen Wyddeleg.[3] In 1913 he moved to theUniversity of Bonn. It is in this period that Thurneysen has been called the greatest living authority onOld Irish.
He retired in 1923 and died inBonn in 1940. TheRudolf Thurneysen Memorial Lecture (German:Vortrag in Memoriam Rudolf Thurneysen), given at Bonn, is named in his honour.
