Werner Winter (linguist)


Johann Karl Werner Winter was a German Indo-European specialist and linguist.

Life

Winter was born in Haselau. His brother was killed during the Second World War. He studied under Ernst Fraenkel at the University of Kiel, where he later succeeded Fraenkel. Although he wrote hardly any individual volumes of his own, he established himself in the study of Tocharian and, as a result of his work as the editor of many series and work in general linguistics, he had far-reaching influence. Winter spent his life in his native Holstein. His students included Olav Hackstein, Peter Kuhlmann, and Christian T. Petersen. He is known for formulating Winter's law. He was appointed president of Societas Linguistica Europaea in 1991. He died in Preetz.

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