Corssen

Corssen, WILHELM PAUL, a great German philologist, was born at Bremen, January 20, 1820. After studies in philology at Berlin, especially under Boeckh and Lachmann, and two years spent in teaching in a gymnasium at Stettin, he was called in 1846 to lecture at Schulpforta, and there he remained till 1866, when ill-health compelled him to retire to Berlin. There, however, he continued his arduous studies until he died, a martyr to learning, June 18, 1875. His earliest great work is his treatise, Ueber Aussprache, Vokalismus, und Betonung der Lateinischen Sprache (2 vols. 1858-59; 2d ed. 1868-70). It was followed by Kritische Beiträge zur Lateinischen Formenlehre (1863) and Kritische Nachträge zur Lateinischen Formenlehre (1866). His second masterpiece is Ueber die Sprache der Etrusker (2 vols. 1874-75), in which he labours with great ingenuity and vast learning to prove against the world that the Etruscan language was cognate with that of the Romans. H. Weber edited from his papers Beiträge zur italischen Sprachkunde (Leip. 1876).