Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie

Julius Pokorny (1897 – 1970) was a student of Law, Linguistics and Philology at Vienna University. attend the University of Vienna from (date) to (date) where he was a student of Law, Linguistics and Philology.) He was awarded his PhD in 1912 for his thesis Ein archaischer irischer Sagentext, and in that same year, he secured a post as a lecturer of Irish at Vienna University.
In 1920, at the age of 32, he gained the Professorship of Celtic Philology at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin, succeeding Kuno Meyer. He held the chair until 1935 when was suspended due to his Jewish background?. He emigrated to Switzerland where he taught tutorials and lectures on Celtic and Indo-European Philology at the Bern and Zürich Universities. From 1955 onwards he lectured at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München and received an Honorary Professorship of Celtic Philology from the University.
Pokorny was editor of the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie from 1921 to 1938 and from 1954 to 1967. His greatest achievement in the field of Indo-European Studies was undoubtedly the compilation of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1947-1966) which has remained the standard work for Comparative Historical Linguistics ever since.
Old Irish was his particular field of interest within Celtic Studies. This is mirrored in the many monographs he produced, such as the Historical Reader of Old Irish (1923), the Altirischen Grammatik (1925, 1967), Zur Urgeschichte der Kelten und Illyrer (1938) and a considerable number of journal articles, the most influential being his articles on “Das nicht-indogermanische Substrat im Irischen”.
Julius Pokorny died in a road accident on 8 April 1970, having had Honorary Professorships conferred on him by the National University of Ireland, the University of Wales and the University of Edinburgh.

Pokorny’s immense contribution to the field of Celtic Studies was universally recognised, and further Honorary Professorships were conferred on him by the National University of Ireland, the University of Wales and the University of Edinburgh. He died tragically in a road accident on the 8 April 1970 at the age of 72.