Pott, AUGUST FRIEDRICH, a great philologist, was born at Nettelrede in Hanover, 14th November 1802. He studied philology at Göttingen, habilitated at Berlin in 1830, in 1833 became extra- ordinary, in 1839 ordinary professor of the Science of Language in the university of Halle. Next to W. Humboldt, Bopp, and Grimm, the name of Pott stands prominent in the new science of comparative philology. The foundation of Pott's reputation was securely laid by his Etymologische Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der Indogermanischen Sprachen (2 vols. 1833–36; 2d ed. 6 vols. 1859–76), a work second in importance only to Bopp's Comparative Grammar. His well-known article 'Indogermanischer Sprachstamm,' in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopädie, is a masterpiece of condensation, and for once of order. For his besetting fault was a lack of order and perspicuity, which made Ascoli compare his books to the plain of Shinar after the confusion of Babel had taken place. But no student ever brought to his studies a loftier spirit of devotion, or collected more massive materials for the foundation of a new science. So thorough was his treatment that all the progress of learning since has not stripped the value from his books on the Gypsies, on Personal Names, on Numerals, his essays on Mythology, African Languages, or General Grammar. He died at Halle, 5th July 1887, working to the last.
His most important books, besides those already named and countless articles and papers in the learned journals, are De Borussico-Lithuanice tam in Slavica quam in Lettica Linguis Principatu (1837–41); Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (2 vols. 1844–45); Die Quinare und Vigesimale Zählmethode bei Völkern aller Weltteile (1847); Die Personennamen (1853); Die Ungleichheit der menschlichen Rassen, hauptsächlich vom Sprachwissenschaftlichen Standpunkt (1856); Doppelung als eins der wichtigsten Bildungsmittel der Sprache (1862); Anti-Kaulen, oder mythische Vorstellungen vom Ursprung der Völker und Sprachen (1863); and Die Sprachverschiedenheit in Europa, an den Zahlwörtern nachgewiesen (1868).