born April 7, 1867, Gelballe, Den.
died Oct. 25, 1953, Copenhagen
Danish linguist.
He specialized in comparative Celtic grammar but made influential contributions to many other areas of linguistics. In addition to his Comparative Grammar of the Celtic Languages , 2 vol. (190913), he published works on Albanian, Armenian, Russian, and Indo-European dialects; on Lithuanian, Hittite, Tocharian, Czech, and Turkish phonology ; on the relationship of Indo-European languages to the Semitic and Finno-Ugric languages; and on the origin of runes.