Julius Pokorny

Born June 12, 1887, in Prague; died Apr. 8, 1970, in Zü rich. German (Federal Republic of Germany) Celticist and Indo-Europeanist.

Pokorny studied at the University of Vienna under P. Kretschmer and W. Meyer-Liibke. From 1914 to 1920 he taught at the university. He was a professor at the University of Berlin from 1920 to 1936. Persecuted by the fascists, he moved to Switzerland and taught at the universities of Bern and Zü rich. From 1955 he was at the University of Munich. In 1925 he received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, and in 1966 from the universities of Wales and Edinburgh. He wrote many works on the etymology of the Indo-European languages, the history and literature of the Celtic languages, and the ethnogeny and prehistory of the peoples of Western Europe. He developed the theory of a substratum in the Celtic and Western European languages and cultures.