Diedrich Hermann Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann (
June 24,
1875–
May 31,
1956) was a
German missionary,
Africanist, and
linguist. He substantially extended and revised the work of
Carl Meinhof, his teacher, although he rejected some of Meinhof's theories only implicitly. Westermann is seen as one of the founders of modern
African linguistics.
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.
*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.
*
Biographisch-Bibliographisch Kirchenlexikon (entry on Westermann by Helma Pasch)
