Feist, Sigmund
Feist, Sigmund
Born June 12, 1865, in Mainz; died 1943 in Copenhagen. German linguist.
Feist’s principal works are devoted to the comparative study of Indo-European languages. His study of the origin of Indo-European languages was firmly rooted in the fields of prehistory and archaeology. Feist traced the characteristics of several Indo-European languages, particularly the Germanic languages, to the influence of foreign substrata. He cast doubt on the possibility of reconstructing the dialect division of the Indo-European linguistic community on the basis of ancient isoglosses. Feist is the author of the classic Etymological Dictionary of the Gothic Language (1939).
WORKS
Europa im Lichte der Vorgeschichte und die Ergebnisse der vergleichenden indogermanischen Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin, 1910.Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen. Berlin, 1913.
Indogermanen und Germanen, 3rd ed. Halle, 1924.