Franz Bopp (1791–1867)

German philologist. Studied Persian and Arabic in Paris from 1812. Taught himself Sanskrit from ancient Indian manuscripts and compiled a Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary. Professor extraordinarius of Oriental literature and general linguistics, University of Berlin, 1821; professor, 1825. His publications were devoted to showing the common origin of the grammatical forms of the Indo-European languages, and helped to establish comparative linguistics as a discipline.