Rudolf Thurneysen
Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen was a Swiss linguist and Celticist.
Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and Heinrich Zimmer. He received his promotion in 1879 and his habilitation, in Latin and the Celtic languages, followed at the University of Jena in 1882.
From 1885 to 1887 he taught Latin at Jena, then taking up the Chair of Comparative Philology at the University of Freiburg where he replaced Karl Brugmann, a renowned expert in Indo-European studies.
In 1909 Thurneysen published his Handbuch des Alt-Irischen, translated into English as A Grammar of Old Irish by D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, and still in print as of 2006. In 1913 he moved to the University of Bonn. It is in this period that Thurneysen has been called the greatest living authority on Old Irish.
He retired in 1923 and died in Bonn in 1940. The Rudolf Thurneysen Memorial Lecture, given at Bonn, is named in his honour.Select bibliography
- Über Herkunft und Bildung der lateinischen Verba auf -io der dritten und vierten Conjugation und über ihr gegenseitiges Verhältniß. Leipzig 1879.
- Keltoromanisches, die keltischen Etymologieen im etymologischen Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen von F. Diez. Halle 1884.
- Der Saturnier und sein Verhältniss zum späteren römischen Volksverse. Halle 1885.
- Das Verbum être und die französische Conjugation: Ein Bruchstück aus der Entwicklungsgeschichte der französischen Flexion. Halle 1892.
- Sagen aus dem alten Irland. Berlin 1901.
- Die Etymologie: Eine akademische Rede. Freiburg 1905.
- Handbuch des Alt-Irischen: Grammatik, Texte und Wörterbuch, vol. 1: Grammatik; vol. 2: Texte mit Wörterbuch. Heidelberg 1909.
- * A Grammar of Old Irish. Revised and enlarged, with supplement. Translated by D. A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin. Dublin: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975.
- * Old Irish Reader. Translated by D. A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1949.
- Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert. Halle 1921.
- Scéla mucce Meic Dathó. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1986.
