Background
He was born in 1791 in Mainz, Germany.
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He was born in 1791 in Mainz, Germany.
In consequence of the political troubles of that time, his parents removed to Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria, where he received a liberal education at the Lyceum.
In Lyceum his attention was drawn to the languages and literature of the East by the eloquent lectures of Karl J. Windischmann.
The first fruit of his four years' study in Paris appeared at Frankfort- on-Main in 1816, under the title Uber das Conjugations system der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der grieckischen, lateinischen, persischen und germanischen Sprache, and it was accompanied with a preface from the pen of Windischmann.
In this first book Bopp entered at once on the path on which the philological researches of his whole subsequent life were concentrated.
It was not that he wished to prove the common parentage of Sanskrit with Persian, Greek, Latin and German, for that had long been established; but his object was to trace the common origin of their grammatical forms, of their inflections from composition, - a task which had never been attempted.
He brought out, in the Annals of Oriental Literature (London, 1820), an essay entitled, "Analytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Teutonic Languages", in which he extended to all parts of the grammar what he had done in his first book for the verb alone.
He had previously published a critical edition, with a Latin translation and notes, of the story of Nala and Damayanti (London, 1819), the most beautiful episode of the Mahabharata.
Other episodes of the Mahabharata-Indralokagamanam, and three others (Berlin, 1824); Diluvium, and three others (Berlin, 1829); and a new edition of Nala (Berlin, 1832)-followed in due course, all of which, with A. W. Schlegel's edition of the Bhagavadgita (1823), proved excellent aids in initiating the early student into the reading of Sanskrit texts.
He brought out, in 1827, his Ausfuhrliches Lehrgebaude der Sanskrita- Sprache, on which he had been engaged since 1821.
A new edition, in Latin, was commenced in the following year, and completed in 1832; and a shorter grammar appeared in 1834.
His chief activity, however, centred on the elaboration of his Comparative Grammar, which appeared in six parts at considerable intervals (Berlin, 1833, 1835, 1842, 1847, 1849, 1852), under the title Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Zend, Griechi- schen, Lateinischen, Litthauischen, Altslavischen, Gothischen, und Deutschen.
How carefully this work was matured may be gathered from the series of monographs printed in the Transactions 0/ the Berlin Academy (1824 to 1831), by which it was preceded.
They bear the general title, Vergleichende Zergliederung des Sanskrits und der mil ihm verwandten Sprachen.
Two other essays (on the "Numerals", 1835) followed the publication of the first part of the Comparative Grammar.
The Old-Slavonian began to take its stand among the languages compared from the second part onwards.
The work was translated into English byB.
Eastwick in 1845.
A second German edition, thoroughly revised (1856 - 1861), comprised also the Old-Armenian.
Bopp in his Comparative Grammar gave undue prominence to Sanskrit may be disproved by his own words; for, as early as the year 1820, he gave it as his opinion that frequently the cognate languages serve to elucidate grammatical forms lost in Sanskrit. In grateful recognition of that fact, on the fiftieth anniversary (May 16, 1866) of the date of Windischmann's preface to that work, a fund called Die Bopp-Stiftung, for the promotion of the study of Sanskrit and comparative grammar, was established at Berlin, to which liberal contributions were made by his numerous pupils and admirers in all parts of the globe.
Bopp lived to see the results of his labours everywhere accepted, and his name justly celebrated.
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Bopp was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855.
His genuine kindliness and unselfishness, his devotion to his family and friends, and his rare modesty, endeared him to all who knew him.