Alf Torp was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 philologist

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He is most known for his work with Indo-European

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...

 and Nordic

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 language history and meaning of ancient languages.

Biography

Alf Torp was born in Stryn

Stryn

Stryn is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Nordfjord. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Stryn which had a population of 2,177 in 2009. The municipality is located along the innermost part of the...

, Sogn og Fjordane

Sogn og Fjordane

is a county in Norway, bordering Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland. The county administration is in the town of Hermansverk in Leikanger municipality while the largest town is Førde....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. He became cand. philol. in 1877 at the Bergen Cathedral School. He was a student of Sophus Bugge

Sophus Bugge

Sophus Bugge was a noted Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scientific work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic alphabet and the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. -Background:Elseus Sophus Bugge was...

, and during a stay in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1878-80 a student of Georg Curtius

Georg Curtius

Georg Curtius was a German philologist.-Biography:After an education at Bonn and Berlin, he was for three years a schoolmaster in Dresden, until he returned to Berlin University as privatdocent...

 and Ernst Windisch

Ernst Windisch

Ernst Wilhelm Oskar Windisch was a German scholar and celticist.He is known as an Indo-Europeanist. He was also a friend of the young Friedrich Nietzsche.-Works:...

. In 1881 he got his doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 with the dissertation Die Flexion des Pali in ihrem Verhältnis zum Sanskrit.

He taught at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 from 1883 and in 1894 he became professor in Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 and comparative linguistics

Comparative linguistics

Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....

. He published numerous papers about the inscriptions in various languages including Etruscan

Etruscan language

The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...

, Phrygian

Phrygian language

The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Asia Minor during Classical Antiquity .Phrygian is considered to have been closely related to Greek....

, Venetic

Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....

, Lycian

Lycian language

Lycian language refers to the inscriptional language of ancient Lycia, populated by Lycians, as well as its presumed spoken counterpart.-The speakers:...

 and Hittite

Hittite language

Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...

. In 1905, he was appointed Knight of 1 Class of Order of St. Olav 1905

Among many other works, in 1903-06 he published Etymologisk ordbog over det norske og det danske sprog (Etymological dictionary of the Norwegian and Danish languages) together with Norwegian linguist, Hjalmar Falk (1859-1928). It was the only Norwegian etymological dictionary

Etymological dictionary

An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the OED and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology....

 for nearly a hundred years, until it was replaced in 2000 Våre arveord - etymologisk ordbok by Harald Bjorvand

Harald Bjorvand

Harald Bjorvand is a Norwegian linguist.He was born in Askim, and graduated from the University of Oslo in 1970. He was a research fellow at the same institution from 1972 to 1974, amanuensis from 1974 to 1987, associate professor from 1987 and professor from 1990. He took the dr.philos. degree in...

 and Fredrik Otto Lindeman

Fredrik Otto Lindeman

Fredrik Otto Lindeman is a Norwegian linguist. He is professor emeritus in historical linguistics at University of Oslo.Lindeman works mainly with Indo-European languages...

.

Selected works

• Die Flexion des Pali in ihrem Verhältnis zum Sanskrit, 1881
• Vokal- og Konsonantstammer, 1889
• Zu den phrygischen Inschriften aus römischer Zeit, 1894
• Zum Phrygischen, 1896
• Indogermanische Forschungen, 1897
• Etruskische Monatsdaten, 1902
• Bemerkungen zu der etruskischen Inschrift von S. Maria di Capua, 1905
• Gamalnorsk ordavleiding, 1909
• Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok, 1919