EBEL

ebel, hermann wilhelm (1820-1875), german philologist, was born at berlin on the 10th of may 1820. he displayed in his early years a remarkable capacity for the study of languages, and at the same time a passionate fondness for music and poetry. at the age of sixteen he became a student at the university of berlin, applying himself especially to philology, and attending the lectures of boeckh. music continued to be the favourite occupation of his leisure hours, and he pursued the study of it under the direction of marx. in the spring of 1838 he passed to the university of halle, and there began to apply himself to comparative philology under pott. returning in the following year to his native city, he continued this study as a disciple of bopp. he took his degree in 1842, and, after spending his year of probation at the french gymnasium of berlin, he resumed with great earnestness his language studies. about 1847 he began to study old persian. in 1852 he accepted a professorship at the beheim-schwarzbach institution at filehne, which post he held for six years. it was during this period that his studies in the old slavic and celtic languages began. in 1858 he removed to schneidemuehl, and there he discharged the duties of first professor for ten years. he was afterwards called to the chair of comparative philology at the university of berlin. he died at misdroy on the 19th of august 1875. the most important work of dr ebel in the field of celtic philology is his revised edition of the _grammatica celtica_ of professor zeuss, completed in 1871. this had been preceded by his treatises--_de verbi britannici futuro ac conjunctivo_ (1866), and _de zeussii curis positis in grammatica celtica_ (1869). he made many learned contributions to kuehn's _zeitschrift fuer vergleichende sprachforschung_, and to a. schleicher's _beitraege zur vergleichenden sprachforschung_; and a selection of these contributions was translated into english by sullivan, and published under the title of _celtic studies_ (1863). ebel contributed the old irish section to schleicher's _indogermanische chrestomathie_ (1869). among his other works must be named _die lehnwoerter der deutschen sprache_ (1856).