Johann Christoph Adelung, from a portrait by
Anton Graff
Johann Christoph Adelung (8 August 1732 –
10 September 1806) was a German grammarian and philologist.
He was born at Spantekow, in Pomerania, and educated at
the public schools of Anklam and Klosterbergen, and the
University of Halle. In 1759 he was appointed professor at
the gymnasium of Erfurt, but relinquished this situation two years later and went to reside in a
private capacity at Leipzig, where he devoted himself to philological researches. In 1787 he
received the appointment of principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at
Dresden, where he continued to reside until his death in 1806.
The writings of Adelung are very voluminous. By means of his excellent grammars, dictionary and various works on German style,
he contributed greatly towards rectifying the orthography, refining the idiom and fixing the standard of his native tongue. His
German dictionary Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart (1774-1786) bears witness to the patient
spirit of investigation which Adelung possessed in so remarkable a degree, and to his intimate knowledge of the history of the
different dialects on which modern German is based. No man before Jakob Grimm did so much
for the language of Germany. Shortly before his death he issued Mithridates, oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde (1806). The
hint of this work appears to have been taken from a publication with a similar title, published by Konrad von Gesner (1516-1565) in 1555; but the plan of Adelung was much more extensive. Unfortunately he
did not live to finish what he had undertaken. The first volume, which contains the Asiatic languages, was published immediately
after his death; the other two were issued under the superintendence of Johann Severin Vater
(1771-1826). Of the very numerous works by Adelung the following may be noted: Directorium diplomaticum (Meissen, 1802);
Deutsche Sprachlehre für Schulen (Berlin, 1781), and the periodical, Magazin für die deutsche Sprache (Leipzig,
1782-1784).
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
