ADELUNG, JOHANN CHRISTOPH (1732-1806), Ger man grammarian and philologist, was born at Spantekow, in Pomerania, on Aug. 8, 1732. In 1787 he was made principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at Dresden, where he lived until his death on Sept. 10, 1806.
By his grammars, dictionary, and various works on German style, Adelung helped to rectify the orthography, refine the idiom, and fix the standard of his native tongue. His German dictionary—Grammatisch-kritisc/ies Worterbuch der hochdeutsch en Mundart (1774-86)—bears witness to his intimate knowledge of the history of the different dialects on which modern German is based. No man before Jakob Grimm (q.v.) did so much for the language of Germany. At the time of his death Adelung was engaged on a work on general philology, entitled Mithridates, oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde. Unfortunately he did not live to complete it. The first volume, which deals with the Asiatic languages, was published immediately after his death; the other two were issued under the superintendence of Johann Severin Vater (1771-1826).