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.

Bibliography

• Westermann, Diedrich H. (1911) Die Sudansprachen 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.

External links

• Biographisch-Bibliographisch Kirchenlexikon (entry on Westermann by Helma Pasch)

1875 births | 1956 deaths | German linguists | Inventors of writing systems

Diedrich Westermann