Adelung's "Mithridates": Johann Christoff Adelung (1732-1806) was a German philologist and grammarian; he was one of the most influential German-language scholars of his time. His grammars, dictionary and works on style helped to standardize the German language. In 1787 he became principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at Dresden, a post he retained to the end of his life. Adelung's "Attempt at a Complete Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of the High German Dialect" revealed a detailed knowledge of the history of dialects basic to modern German. When he died, he was still at work on "Mithridates, or General Linguistics", in which he set out the relationship between Sanskrit and the major European languages.
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Last modified 19 March 2002