Dirk Boutkan
Dirk Ferdinandus Henricus Boutkan was a Dutch historical linguist and etymologist specialising in Old Frisian and Germanic. He co-authored the reference work Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, volume 1 of the Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary series, and earlier published The Germanic Auslautgesetze: A New Interpretation. He headed the Linguistics section of the Fryske Akademy.
Life and career
Boutkan studied Dutch and comparative Indo-European linguistics at Leiden University, completing a PhD on Germanic historical phonology and morphology. He worked at Leiden until 1999, when he joined the Fryske Akademy in Leeuwarden. In 2000 he became head of its Linguistics section.Boutkan died of a heart attack in his home on 6 January 2002.