Editing Hermann Grassmann (section)

==Linguist==
Grassmann's mathematical ideas began to spread only towards the end of his life. Thirty years after the publication of '''A1''' the publisher wrote to Grassmann: "Your book ''Die Ausdehnungslehre'' has been out of print for some time. Since your work hardly sold at all, roughly 600 copies were used in 1864 as waste paper and the remaining few odd copies have now been sold out, with the exception of the one copy in our library."{{r|Prasolov|p=45}} Disappointed by the reception of his work in mathematical circles, Grassmann lost his contacts with mathematicians as well as his interest in geometry. In the last years of his life he turned to historical [[linguistics]] and the study of [[Sanskrit]]. He wrote books on [[German grammar]], collected folk songs, and learned Sanskrit. He wrote a 2,000-page dictionary and a translation of the ''[[Rigveda]]'' (more than 1,000 pages). In modern studies of the ''Rigveda'', Grassmann's work is often cited. In 1955 a third edition of his dictionary was issued.{{r|Prasolov|p=46}}

Grassmann also noticed and presented a [[phonological rule]] that exists in both [[Sanskrit]] and [[Greek language|Greek]]. In his honor, this phonological rule is known as [[Grassmann's law]]. His discovery was revolutionary for historical linguistics at the time, as it challenged the widespread notion of Sanskrit as an older predecessor to other Indo-European languages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics, by Winfred P. Lehmann {{!}} The Online Books Page |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp46747 |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> This was a widespread assumption due to Sanskrit's more agglutinative structure, which languages like Latin and Greek were thought to have passed through to reach their more "modern" synthetic structure. However, Grassman's work proved that, in at least one phonological pattern, German was indeed "older" (i.e., less synthetic) than Sanskrit. This meant that genealogical and typological classifications of languages were at last correctly separated in linguistics, allowing significant progress for later linguists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics, by Winfred P. Lehmann {{!}} The Online Books Page |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp46747 |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref>

These philological accomplishments were honored during his lifetime. He was elected to the [[American Oriental Society]] and in 1876 he received an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Tübingen]].