The Most Famous

LINGUISTS from Germany

This page contains a list of the greatest German Linguists. The pantheon dataset contains 214 Linguists, 28 of which were born in Germany. This makes Germany the birth place of the most number of Linguists.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary German Linguists of all time. This list of famous German Linguists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of German Linguists.

1. Max Müller (1823 - 1900)

With an HPI of 73.34, Max Müller is the most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 50 different languages on wikipedia.

Friedrich Max Müller (German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈmaks ˈmʏlɐ]; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a comparative philologist and Orientalist of German origin. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indology and religious studies. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. He directed the preparation of the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations which continued after his death. Müller became a professor at Oxford University, first of modern languages, then of comparative philology in a position founded for him, and which he held for the rest of his life. Early in his career he held strong views on India, believing that it needed to be transformed by Christianity. Later, his view became more nuanced, championing ancient Sanskrit literature and India more generally. He became involved in several controversies during his career: he was accused of being anti-Christian; he disagreed with Darwinian evolution, favouring theistic evolution; he raised interest in Aryan culture, deeply disliking the resulting racism; and he promoted the idea of a "Turanian" family of languages. Among his honours and distinctions, he was made an associé étranger of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; he was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art; and he was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.

2. Franz Bopp (1791 - 1867)

With an HPI of 67.64, Franz Bopp is the 2nd most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 51 different languages.

Franz Bopp (German: [ˈfʁants ˈbɔp]; 14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages.

3. August Schleicher (1821 - 1868)

With an HPI of 65.68, August Schleicher is the 3rd most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

August Schleicher (German: [ˈaʊɡʊst ˈʃlaɪçɐ]; 19 February 1821 – 6 December 1868) was a German linguist. Schleicher studied the Proto-Indo-European language and devised theories concerning historical linguistics. His great work was A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages in which he attempted to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language. To show how Indo-European might have looked, he created a short tale, Schleicher's fable, to exemplify the reconstructed vocabulary and aspects of Indo-European society inferred from it.

4. Jost Gippert (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 63.91, Jost Gippert is the 4th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 67 different languages.

Jost Gippert (German pronunciation: [ˈjoːst ˈgɪpʰɐt]; born 12 March 1956 in Winz-Niederwenigern, later merged to Hattingen) is a German linguist, Caucasiologist, author, and the professor for Comparative Linguistics at the Institute of Empirical Linguistics at the Goethe University of Frankfurt.

5. Johann Martin Schleyer (1831 - 1912)

With an HPI of 63.48, Johann Martin Schleyer is the 5th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Johann Martin Schleyer (German pronunciation: [ˈjoːhan ˈmaʁtiːn ˈʃlaɪɐ]; 18 July 1831 – 16 August 1912) was a German Catholic priest who invented the constructed language Volapük. His official name was "Martin Schleyer"; he added the name "Johann" (in honor of his godfather) unofficially.

6. Johann Christoph Adelung (1732 - 1806)

With an HPI of 63.12, Johann Christoph Adelung is the 6th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.

Johann Christoph Adelung (8 August 1732 – 10 September 1806) was a German grammarian and philologist.

7. Michel Bréal (1832 - 1915)

With an HPI of 61.23, Michel Bréal is the 7th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Michel Jules Alfred Bréal (French: [miʃɛl bʁeal]; 26 March 1832 – 25 November 1915), French philologist, was born at Landau in Rhenish Palatinate. He is often identified as a founder of modern semantics. He was also the creator of the modern marathon race, having proposed its first running at the 1896 Olympic Games and offered what would become known as Breal's Silver Cup to the winner.

8. Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775 - 1853)

With an HPI of 61.19, Georg Friedrich Grotefend is the 8th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Georg Friedrich Grotefend (9 June 1775 – 15 December 1853) was a German epigraphist and philologist. He is known mostly for his contributions toward the decipherment of cuneiform. Georg Friedrich Grotefend had a son, named Carl Ludwig Grotefend, who played a key role in the decipherment of the Indian Kharoshthi script on the coinage of the Indo-Greek kings, around the same time as James Prinsep, publishing Die unbekannte Schrift der Baktrischen Münzen ("The unknown script of the Bactrian coins") in 1836.

9. Vasily Radlov (1837 - 1918)

With an HPI of 60.53, Vasily Radlov is the 9th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов; 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1837 in Berlin – 12 May 1918 in Petrograd) was a German-Russian linguist, ethnographer, and archaeologist, often considered to be the founder of Turkology, the scientific study of Turkic peoples. According to Turkologist Johan Vandewalle, Radlov knew all of the Turkic languages and dialects as well as German, French, Russian, Greek, Latin, Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew.

10. Friedrich August Wolf (1759 - 1824)

With an HPI of 58.81, Friedrich August Wolf is the 10th most famous German Linguist. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Friedrich August Wolf (German: [vɔlf]; 15 February 1759 – 8 August 1824) was a German classicist who is considered the founder of classical and modern philology.

People

Pantheon has 33 people classified as German linguists born between 1732 and 1956. Of these 33, 2 (6.06%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living German linguists include Jost Gippert, and Christiane Nord. The most famous deceased German linguists include Max Müller, Franz Bopp, and August Schleicher. As of April 2024, 5 new German linguists have been added to Pantheon including Georg Curtius, Hermann Osthoff, and Eduard Sievers.