Leo Meyer (philologist)

Leo Meyer
Photograph c. 1895
Born	(1830-07-03)July 3, 1830 Bledeln
Died	6 June 1910(1910-06-06) (aged 79) Göttingen
Academic work
Institutions	University of Göttingen, University of Tartu
Notable students	Nikolai Anderson

Leo Karl Heinrich Meyer (3 July 1830, Bledeln, Germany – 6 June 1910, Göttingen, Germany) was a German philologist who spent much of his career in the Governorate of Livonia (now Estonia).

Biography

He was born at Bledeln, a village in the present-day district of Hildesheim, near Hanover. He was educated at Göttingen and Berlin, where he was a student of the Brothers Grimm.^[1] From 1862 to 1865, he was professor in Göttingen, and in 1865 he became professor of comparative philology at Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia). One of his students there was Nikolai Anderson.^[2] From 1869 to 1899 he was the president of the Learned Estonian Society.^[1] In 1898 he again accepted a chair at Göttingen. He died in Göttingen.

Writings

His contributions to philological literature include:

• Vergleichende Grammatik der griechischen und lateinischen Sprache (Comparative grammar of Greek and Latin; 1861–65)
• Die gothische Sprache (The Gothic tongue; 1869)
• Handbuch der griechischen Etymologie (Handbook of Greek etymology; 1901)

Other writings include:

• Glauben und Wissen (Belief and knowledge; 1876)
• Ueber das Leben nach dem Tode (On life after death; 1882)

References / Further reading

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Meyer, Leo". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. 
• Schlüter, Wolfgang (1911), "Nekrolog: Prof. Dr. Leo Meyer (Obituary)", Sitzungsberichte der gelehrten estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat 1910, Sitzungsberichte der Gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft, Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft (Jurjew-Dorpat), pp. 167–172