Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof (July 23, 1857 — February 11, 1944) was a German linguist known as one of the first linguists to study African languages. July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ...

He was born in Barzwitz (current Polish Pomerania). In 1905 he became professor at the School of Oriental Studies in Berlin. Duchy of Pomerania ruled by the slavic dynasty of Griffits (Polish: Gryfici, German: Greiffen) was a semi-independent state in the 17th century. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

He was most notable for the work that he did developing comparative grammar studies of the Bantu languages. He followed from the pioneering work of Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek on Bantu grammar. In his work, Meinhof looked at the common Bantu languages such as Swahili and Zulu to determine similarities and differences. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ... Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (March 8, 1827 - August 17, 1875) was a German linguist. ... Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ... The Zulu (South African English and isiZulu: amaZulu) are an African ethnic group of about 11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. ...

In his work, Meinhof looked at noun classes with all Bantu languages having at least 10 classes and with 22 classes of nouns existing throughout the Bantu languages, though his definition of noun class differs slightly from the accepted one. While no language has all 22, Sesotho has 18. All Bantu languages have a noun class specifically for humans (sometimes including other animate beings). In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ...

Meinhof also looked at other African languages including the Kordofanian languages, Bushman, Khoikhoi and Hamitic languages. During his career, Meinhof published several books on African languages and made recordings of East African music in 1902 which was one of the first recordings made of traditional African music. Several Kordofanian languages are spoken in the Nuba hills of Kordofan, in Sudan. ... The Bushmen or San peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ... An 18th century drawing of Khoikhoi worshipping the moon The Khoikhoi (men of men) or Khoi are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group of south-western Africa, closely related to the Bushmen (or San, as the Khoikhoi called them). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

On a side note, he was the brother of Ulrike Meinhof's grandfather and thus the great-uncle of the woman who would be a founding member of the German Red Army Faction.

References

• Meinhof, Carl (1906). Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen. Berlin: Reimer. 
• Sara Pugach, "Images of Race and Redemption. The Protestant missionary contribution to Carl Meinhof's Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen", _LFM. Social sciences & missions_, No.15, Dec. 2004, pp.59-96