Text icon 'UFR' standing for University of Freiburg
Department of Linguistics
Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a clover

Institute

History of the Department

The Department of Linguistics can look back on a tradition of more than a hundred years, which began with the establishment of the Chair of Comparative Linguistics in 1884. Since then, linguistics has been represented here by renowned scholars such as Karl Brugmann, Rudolf Thurneysen, Oswald Szemerényi, Helmut Rix, and most recently Eva Tichy. The Freiburg tradition in linguistics has always included a focus on General Linguistics, alongside a long-standing emphasis on Indo-European studies and linguistic training for Classical Philology. The classical languages (Greek and Latin) and Indo-Iranian studies were particularly central, especially historical grammar of verbal systems, but also nominal morphology. With the appointment of a new chair in 2020, the focus shifted to general linguistic typology and research on diachronic language change processes in morphosyntax.

A brief history of the Chair and Department

The Freiburg Chair of Linguistics was established in 1884. The first holder of the chair from 1884 to 1887 was the well-known Neogrammarian Karl Brugmann (born March 16, 1849 in Wiesbaden, died June 29, 1919 in Leipzig), who accepted a call to his former university in Leipzig three years later and worked there for 32 years. Brugmann studied in Halle and Leipzig under Georg Curtius and completed his habilitation in Leipzig in 1877.

During his time in Freiburg, he produced the Greek Grammar, whose last revision by Eduard Schwyzer (1938) remains authoritative today. At that time, he also began work on the monumental Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik (Outline of Comparative Grammar, together with B. Delbrück), which is somewhat outdated now but still irreplaceable.

Karl Brugmann
Idg. Jahrbuch VI (1920)

Though never chairholder, Brugmann’s student Albert Thumb (born 1865 Freiburg, died August 14, 1915 there) was also of great importance to the Freiburg department. He came from Freiburg and worked here as a private lecturer before being called to Marburg and later moving to Strasbourg. He left an extensive library (especially on Modern Greek), which was eventually donated to the Freiburg department. He is known among specialists mainly as the author of important handbooks on Old Indian (Thumb-Hauschild) and the Greek dialects (Thumb-Scherer), as well as an editor of Brugmann’s Greek Grammar. His main focus, however, was Modern Greek, where he made pioneering contributions.

Albert Thumb
Idg. Jahrbuch III (1915)

Brugmann’s successor at the Freiburg chair was Rudolf Thurneysen (born March 14, 1857 Basel, died August 9, 1940 Bonn), who also served as rector of the University of Freiburg in 1904. In 1912, he accepted a call to Bonn and remained there. After receiving his doctorate in Leipzig in 1879, he habilitated in Jena in 1882 and initially worked as a Romance philologist. In 1885 he was appointed associate professor there, and two years later received a full professorship in Freiburg. He began with work on Italic languages but his main focus became Celtic studies, especially Old Irish, for which his Handbook of Old Irish (1909) remains an indispensable foundation.

Rudolf Thurneysen
Seminarbestand

The next chairholder from 1913 was Ludwig Sütterlin (born 1863 Heidelberg, died July 3, 1934 Freiburg). He studied in his hometown Heidelberg (under Hermann Osthoff) and later Leipzig. He habilitated in Heidelberg in 1890 and became associate professor in 1896. His main focus was Germanic languages, especially German and its dialects.

Ludwig Sütterlin
Idg. Jahrbuch XIX (1935)

From 1943 to 1963, Johannes (Friedrich) Lohmann (born 1895, died May 3, 1983 Freiburg) represented the field. He earned his doctorate in Slavic studies in Berlin in 1921 and habilitated in Comparative Linguistics in 1930 under Wilhelm Schulze. In 1933 he was transferred to Freiburg, where and also in Basel he held teaching positions until 1939, before receiving an extraordinary professorship in Rostock in 1940. Returning to Freiburg in 1943, he was appointed full professor again in 1949. Initially a traditional Indo-Europeanist, he worked mainly on morphology (notably his Genus und Sexus from 1932). Later, he focused more on General Linguistics and philosophy of language (Philosophie und Sprachwissenschaft, 1965), as well as music theory (Musiké und Logos, 1970).

He was followed by Oswald Szemerényi (born September 7, 1913 London, died December 29, 1996 Freiburg). Szemerényi is considered one of the founders of the postwar revival of the discipline. His interests were broad, encompassing Indo-European studies and General Linguistics. He is especially known for his Introduction to Comparative Linguistics (Darmstadt 1989) and Directions of Modern Linguistics (Heidelberg 1971–1982). Even after retirement and until his death, Szemerényi remained connected to the department.

Oswald Szemerényi
Scripta Minora I (Innsbruck 1987)

Helmut Rix (born July 4, 1926 Amberg, died December 3, 2004 Colmar) succeeded Szemerényi and led the department until 1993. His focus was on Greek and especially Italic languages including Etruscology. We owe him major contributions to Indo-European morphology, particularly the development of the verb.

Helmut Rix
Indogermanica et Italica
(Innsbruck 1993)

From 1993 until her retirement in 2017, Eva Tichy (born 1951 Marburg) held the chair. Her research focus was on the morphosyntax of Old Indo-Iranian languages (Vedic, Avestan), particularly in the area of nouns and verbs; she also devoted herself to the historical grammar of Homeric Greek. Among her fruitful research outputs are the handbook Indogermanistisches Grundwissen (Bremen 2000) and special studies such as Die Nomina agentis auf -tar im Vedischen (Heidelberg 1995) and Der Konjunktiv und seine Nachbarkategorien (Bremen 2006).