Collitz, Hermann

Hermann Collitz, (born Feb. 4, 1855, Bleckede, near Lüneburg, Hanover—died May 13, 1935, Baltimore), German-born U.S. linguist noted for his work on the Indo-European languages; he contributed to the study of Sanskrit consonants, sound changes in the Germanic languages, and Greek dialectology.

His doctoral dissertation at the University of Göttingen (1878) dealt with the origin of the Indo-Iranian palatal series of consonants and helped to explain an early, obscure, and unsuspected sound change in Sanskrit. While teaching Sanskrit and comparative linguistics at the University of Halle (1885–86), he began publishing, in collaboration with a number of other scholars, Sammlung der griechischen Dialektinschriften, 4 vol. (1884–1915; “Collection of Greek Dialect Inscriptions”). This work, which included vocabulary lists and grammatical studies, proved to be a major contribution to Greek comparative linguistics.

In 1886 he published Die neueste Sprachforschung (“The Newest Linguistics”) and settled in the United States as associate professor of German at Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania) College, where he concentrated on the historical and comparative study of the Germanic languages. While professor of Germanic philology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1907–27), he wrote Das schwache Präteritum und seine Vorgeschichte (1912; “The Weak Past Tense and Its Antecedents”).

His wife, Clara Hechtenberg Collitz (1863–1944), left most of her estate to the Linguistic Society of America (whose first president had been Hermann Collitz) with the goal of establishing a professorship in comparative philosophy in both their names. The Collitz Chair is still held by distinguished Indo-Europeanists during linguistic institutes put on under the auspices of the society.