Hans Frede Nielsen

Hans Frede Nielsen (20 May 1943 – 9 January 2021) was a Danish philologist who was Professor Emeritus of Historical Linguistics at the University of Southern Denmark. He specialized in Germanic linguistics and runology.

Hans Frede Nielsen
Born	(1943-05-20)20 May 1943 Bramming, Denmark
Died	9 January 2021 (aged 77)
Nationality	Danish
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen Cambridge University Odense University
Academic advisors	Dennis Howard Green
Academic work
Discipline	Philology
Sub-discipline	Germanic philology
Institutions	University of Southern Denmark
Main interests	Germanic languages Runology

Biography

Hans Frede Nielsen was born in Bramming, Denmark, on 20. May 1943, the son of Frede Nielsen and Sonja Nielsen. Nielsen studied English and German at the University of Copenhagen from 1963 to 1966. He received a Trinity College Foreign Bursary, which enabled him to earn a BA (1968) and MA in Anglo-Saxon Studies at Cambridge University. Among his teachers at Cambridge were Dennis Howard Green.

Returning to Denmark, Nielsen worked as a high school teacher for several years. From 1975, Nielsen lectured at the Institute for English at Odense University. He received his PhD in November 1980 with the thesis Old English and the Continental Germanic languages, which has subsequently been published in several editions. In 1999, Nielsen was appointed Professor of Historical Linguistics at the University of Southern Denmark. He retired as Professor Emeritus in September 2006, but continued to teach and research until his death in 2021.

Nielsen was a Member of the Fryske Akademy (1996). He was a co-founder and co-editor of the journal NOWELE, published by John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Selected works

• Old English and the Continental Germanic languages, 1981
• The Germanic languages, 1989
• The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia, 2000

See also

• Winfred P. Lehmann
• Jay Jasanoff

Sources

• "Hans Frede Nielsen, Odense C, fylder 70 år". Fyens Stiftstidende (in Danish). 3 May 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
• "Interview med Hans Frede Nielsen" (PDF). University of Southern Denmark (in Danish). 15 November 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2020.