Leskien, August

▪ German linguist

born July 8, 1840, Kiel, Holstein

died Sept. 20, 1916, Leipzig

      German linguist noted for wide-ranging contributions to comparative Indo-European linguistics, particularly for his still authoritative work on the Baltic (Baltic languages) and Slavic (Slavic languages) groups. He also originated the formulation that “phonetic laws have no exceptions,” meaning that linguistic change occurs neither haphazardly nor by chance but under definable, constant conditions.

      As a professor at the University of Leipzig (1870–1916), Leskien became a chief proponent of the Neogrammarian school of linguistics, which advocated rigorous research methods and clung to the principles expressed by his catchphrase. He early began to concentrate on the study of Baltic and Slavic languages and in 1871 first published his Handbuch der altbulgarischen Sprache (“Handbook of the Old Bulgarian Language”). In succeeding editions he achieved a refined and widely heeded analysis of the Old Church Slavonic literary language.

      His other works include a study of the noun declension in Slavic, Baltic, and Germanic (1876) and several studies on Lithuanian and Slavic accentology. He furthered the study of Old Church Slavonic with a grammar (1909) and completed the first volume of a Serbo-Croatian grammar (1914). His contributions to Lithuanian include a combined grammar and reader (1919) that was used by students for decades. Leskien also did considerable research in Lithuanian and South Slavic folk poetry.

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