biography
| name: |
Rask, Rasmus (Kristian)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1787–1832)
|
| biography:
| Founder of historical comparative linguistics, born in Braendekilde, SC Denmark. He began as assistant keeper of the library at the University of Copenhagen, then became professor of literary history (1825), oriental languages (1828), and Icelandic (1831). His Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongue (1818) opened up the science of comparative philology. He was one of the first to recognize that the Celtic languages are Indo-European, and he anticipated Grimm in formulating the consonant shift in Germanic languages. |
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