Diedrich Hermann Westermann
Categories: German people stubs | Academic biography stubs | 1875 births | 1956 deaths | German linguists
He carried out extensive linguistic and anthropological research in the area ranging from Senegal eastwards to the Upper Nile. His linguistic publications cover a wide range of African languages, including the Gbe languages, Nuer, Kpelle, Shilluk, Hausa, and Guang. His comparative work, establishing a basic division between the East and West Sudanic languages laid the basis for much of today's Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan language families.
In 1927 Westermann published a Practical Orthography of African Languages which became later known as the Westermann script. Subsequently he published the influential and oft-reprinted Practical Phonetics for Students of African Languages in collaboration with Ida Ward (1933).
He was born in Baden near Bremen and also died there.
Bibliography
- Westermann, Diedrich H. (1911) Die Sudansprachen [The Sudanic languages].
- Westermann, Diedrich Hermann & Ward, Ida C. (1933) Practical phonetics for students of African languages. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.
- Westermann, Diedrich H. (1948). The missionary and anthropological research. Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.
- Westermann, Diedrich H. (1949). Sprachbeziehungen und sprachverwandtschaft in Afrika. Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1948 (Nr. 1). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
- Westermann, Diedrich H. (1952). The languages of West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Westermann, Diedrich H. (1964). Practical phonetics for students of African languages (4th improvement). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
External links
- Biographisch-Bibliographisch Kirchenlexikon (entry on Westermann by Helma Pasch)