Gustav Weigand was a German linguist

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....

 and specialist in Balkan languages, especially Rumanian and Aromanian

Aromanian language

Aromanian , also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe...

. He is known for his seminal contributions to the dialectology of the Romance languages of the Balkans and to the study of the relationships between the languages of the Balkan sprachbund.

Weigand was born in Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. He studied Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

 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...

 and wrote a doctoral thesis about the language of the Vlachs

Aromanians

Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...

 in Livadi

Livadi

Livadi is a town and a former municipality in the Larissa regional unit, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Elassona, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 3,187 . It borders the Pieria regional unit to the northeast, and the Kozani...

 in the region of Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

 in 1888, followed by a habilitation

Habilitation

Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...

 thesis on the Megleno-Romanian language in 1892. In 1893 he founded the Rumanian Institute 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...

, the first such institution outside Rumania. During the following years he continued to conduct extensive personal field studies in the Balkans. In 1908 he published a Linguistic Atlas of the Daco-Rumanian speech area, the first work of its kind in the field of Romance linguistics. During the First World War he was sent by the German authorities to conduct ethnographic studies in Macedonia

Macedonia (region)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...

, then under German occupation. The results were published in 1923.

In recognition of his research on the Rumanian language, Gustav Weigand was elected as a foreign member of the Romanian Academy

Romanian Academy

The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....

 in 1892. He was also foreign member of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...

  and of Macedonian Scientific Institute

Macedonian Scientific Institute

The Macedonian Scientific Institute , is a Bulgarian scientific organisation, which studies the Region of Macedonia and mostly the Macedonian Bulgarians.-Establishment and activity:...

. He died in Belgershain

Belgershain

Belgershain is a municipality in the Leipzig district in Saxony. It is part of the municipal association of Naunhof.- Geography and transportation :The town is approximately 25 km east of Leipzig....

.

Major works

• (1888): Die Sprache der Olympo-Walachen. Johann Ambrosius Barth: Leipzig.
• (1892): Vlacho-Meglen. Eine ethnographisch-philologische Untersuchung. Leipzig.
• (1908): Linguistischer Atlas des dacorumänischen Sprachgebiets. Barth: Leipzig.
• (1923): Ethnographie Makedoniens. Leipzig.