biography
| name: |
Schele de Vere, Maximilian
|
pronunciation:
[shel duh veer]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1820–98)
|
| biography:
| Philologist, born in Wexiö, Sweden. He showed an early aptitude for languages and obtained a PhD from the University of Berlin in 1841. He emigrated to the USA (1843) and was appointed professor of modern languages at the University of Virginia (1844). He was among the first in this country to embrace the methods of comparative linguistics, leading to his Outlines in Comparative Philology (1853). At the founding of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson had advocated the study of Anglo-Saxon, and this recommendation was finally realized in the teaching of Schele de Vere, a pioneer in Anglo-Saxon studies. Other significant works are Studies in English (1867) and Americanisms: The English of the New World (1871). |
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