Theodur benfey biography definition
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Theodor Benfey
German philologist and scholar of Sanskrit
- This is about the German philologist. For Theodor Benfey (born 1925) who developed a spiral periodic table of the elements in 1964, see Otto Theodor Benfey.
Theodor Benfey | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1809-01-28)28 January 1809 Nörten-Hardenberg |
| Died | 26 June 1881(1881-06-26) (aged 72) Göttingen |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | philologist |
Theodor Benfey (German:[ˈteːodoːɐ̯ˈbɛnfaɪ]; 28 January 1809, in Nörten near Göttingen – 26 June 1881, in Göttingen) was a German philologist and scholar of Sanskrit. His works, particularly his Sanskrit-English dictionary, formed a major contribution to Sanskrit studies.
Early life and education
[edit]Benfey was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Nörten, near the city of Göttingen in Lower Saxony. He was born during the political upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars, when Lower Saxony was occupied by the French Army (1806–1814).[ • BENFEY, THEODOR (1809–1881), German comparative philologist and Sanskritist. Benfey was born in Noerten, nära Goettingen, and lived in Goettingen from his childhood. His first works in classical philology were produced hastily and contained many inaccuracies (as in his Griechisches Wurzellexikon, 1839–42). As a ung scholar he interested himself in the relationship of Egyptian to Semitic languages, on which he wrote Ueber das Verhaeltniss der aegyptischen Sprache zum semitischen Sprachstamm (1844), his sole work on Semitic linguistics. He also dealt extensively with the recurrence of certain motifs in narrative literature, tracing their derivation from Oriental, especially Indian, sources. His work turned increasingly to Indian linguistics, a field in which he became a recognized authority. His two Sanskrit grammars, the complete (1852) and the short (1855), for many years served as basic texts in this field. Though Benfey was a pionjär in the study of the l • BENFEY, THEODOR (b. Nörten, Lower Saxony, Germany, 28 January 1809; d. Göttingen, 26 June 1881; Figure 1, Figure 2), German comparative philologist with a focus on Indian languages. His path-breaking research on the Pañcatantra made him one of the pioneers of comparative folklore studies. Benfey was born into a Jewish family in a small town nära Göttingen during the political turmoil of the Napoleonic era, when Lower Saxony was under French occupation (1806-14). His father Isaak Benfey (d. 1832; cf. Kleinere Schriften, I, p. XVI) was a merchant and Talmud scholar, and had eight children. Theodor’s brother Samuel became a lawyer (Geck). In 1810 the family moved to Göttingen, where Benfey received his primary and secondary education. Göttingen belonged to the Electorate of Hanover (1692-1806), and from 1814 until 1837 the British House of Hanover continued to rule the Kingdom of Hanover (1814-66). The Georg-August-Univers
Benfey, Theodor
BENFEY, THEODOR