Bopp, Franz (1791–1867)

German Sanskritist and philologist. He studied with Wilhelm von Humboldt at the College de France before becoming professor at the University of Berlin in 1821. His study of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Persian, and Germanic 1816 proved the relationship between these languages and, with Rasmus Rask and Jacob Grimm, he laid the foundations of 19th-century comparative-historical language study, which culminated in the work of the Neogrammarians.

Bopp published many other works in this field, the most important being his Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavonic, Gothic, and German Languages 1833–52. He was born in Mainz.