Neogrammarians

Youthful group of German Indo-European philologists. It flourished about 1875–93, its primary members being Karl Brugmann (1849–1919), August Leskien (1840–1916), Hermann Osthoff (1847–1909), and Berthold Delbruck (1842–1922). Most modern linguists share the Neogrammarians' objective approach to language data and their insistence on its systematic nature.

The group was based in Leipzig, where Brugmann became first professor of Indo-Germanic philology 1887 and Leskien of Slavic philology 1870. They furthered the work of Wilhelm Scherer (1841–1886) on techniques of comparative-historical language study applied to Indo-European languages. They also introduced a new rigour into the treatment of sound change in language.

The group's sympathizers among historical linguists, to whom the term Neogrammarian is more loosely applied, are Michel Breal, and Ferdinand de Saussure.