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Friedrich Christian Diez
German scholar
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Friedrich Christian Diez (born March 15, 1794, Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt [Germany]—died May 29, 1876, Bonn, Ger.) was a German-born language scholar who made the first major analysis of the Romance languages and thus founded an important branch of comparative linguistics. As a student Diez acquired a deep interest in Italian poetry, but a visit to the great German poet J.W. von Goethe in 1818 directed his attention to exploring Provençal literature. As Privatdozent, or student-paid lecturer, at the University of Bonn from 1822, he published two important early works, one on Provençal troubadour poetry (1826) and the other on the lives ...(100 of 176 words)