Gabelentz, HANS CONON VON DER

Gabelentz, HANS CONON VON DER, German philologist, was born at Altenburg, 13th October 1807. Even whilst still a student at Leipzig and Göttingen he spent a large part of his time in the study of Chinese and Arabic. He then began to study the Finno-Tartaric languages, and published in 1833 his Éléments de la Grammaire Mandchoue. He had, moreover, a share in the establishment (1837) of Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, a journal devoted to oriental science, and contributed to it some interesting papers on the Mongolian and Mordvinian languages. Along with J. Löbe he published a critical edition of the Gothic translation of the Bible by Ulfilas, with a Latin translation, and with a Gothic glossary and grammar appended (1843-46). Besides a grammar of Syrjan (a Finnish dialect, 1841), he furnished contributions to periodicals on the Swahili, Hazara, Formosan, and Samoyede languages. His most important work on the science of language is Die Melanesischen Sprachen (2 vols. 1860-73). Beiträge zur Sprachenkunde (1852) contains Dyak, Dakota, and Kiriri grammars, whilst Ueber das Passivum (1860) is a treatise on universal grammar. In 1864 he published a Manchu translation of the Chinese works, Sse-chu, Shu-king, and Shi-king, along with a glossary in German. Gabelentz knew upwards of eighty languages. He died 3d September 1874.—His son, Hans Georg Conon (1840-93), held the chair of Eastern Asiatic Tongues in Leipzig University, and wrote many books on Chinese, Melanesian, Basque, and Berber, &c.