Eli Fischer-Jørgensen
Encyclopedia
Eli Fischer-Jørgensen was professor emeritus of linguistics
at the University of Copenhagen
, she was a member of the Danish resistance movement
fighting against the German occupation of Denmark.
She began studying French
and German language
at the University of Copenhagen
in 1929. She specialized in linguistics and her thesis treated "the importance of dialect geography for the perception of sound changes."
From 1933 she became a member of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen
which evolved around Louis Hjelmslev
and his theory of glossematics
. Tired of the theoretical discussions of Hjelmslev's circle, she took up research in the field of phonetics
in which she became an international figure, publishing widely used text books about general phonetics and phonological theory.
During the German occupation of Denmark from 1940-45, she worked in the resistance group of Professor Carsten Høeg
and under great risk helped him assemble a list of Danish nazis to be prosecuted after the liberation. She was a corresponding member of the Danish Academy of the Sciences and the British Academy
.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
, she was a member of the Danish resistance movement
Danish resistance movement
The Danish resistance movement was an underground insurgency movement to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Danish people by the Nazi occupation authority, the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale...
fighting against the German occupation of Denmark.
She began studying French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
in 1929. She specialized in linguistics and her thesis treated "the importance of dialect geography for the perception of sound changes."
From 1933 she became a member of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen
The Copenhagen school (Linguistics)
The Copenhagen School, officially the "Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen ", was a group of scholars dedicated to the study of structural linguistics founded by Louis Hjelmslev and Viggo Brøndal...
which evolved around Louis Hjelmslev
Louis Hjelmslev
Louis Hjelmslev was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Copenhagen School of linguistics. Born into an academic family , Hjelmslev studied comparative linguistics in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris...
and his theory of glossematics
Glossematics
Glossematics is a structuralist linguistic theory of the twentieth century proposed by Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev. It defines the glosseme as the most basic unit or component of language...
. Tired of the theoretical discussions of Hjelmslev's circle, she took up research in the field of phonetics
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
in which she became an international figure, publishing widely used text books about general phonetics and phonological theory.
During the German occupation of Denmark from 1940-45, she worked in the resistance group of Professor Carsten Høeg
Carsten Høeg
Carsten Høeg was a Danish professor of classic philology and a Juris Doctor at the University of Copenhagen from 1926. He earned his Ph. D with an ethnographic study of the Sarakatsani Greeks. He later published studies on classical Greek and Latin literature and on Byzantine music...
and under great risk helped him assemble a list of Danish nazis to be prosecuted after the liberation. She was a corresponding member of the Danish Academy of the Sciences and the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
.