Victor Henry (philologist)

Victor Henry was a French philologist, specializing in Languages of the [Indian subcontinent|Indian languages].

Biography

Having held appointments at the University of Douai and the University of Lille, Henry was appointed professor of Sanskrit and comparative grammar at the University of Paris. A prolific and versatile writer, he is probably best known by the English translations of his Précis de Grammaire comparée de l'anglais et de l'allemand and Précis de Grammaire comparée du Grec et du Latin.
Important works by him on India and Indian languages are:Manuel pour étudier le Sanscrit védique Éléments de Sanscrit classique Précis de grammaire Pâlie Les Littératures de l'Inde: sanscrit, Pâli, Prâcrit La Magie dans l'Inde antique Le Parsisme L'Agniṣṭoma
Native American languages, as well as the minority languages of France capture his attention, writing Lexique Étymologique du Breton moderne on Breton and Le Dialecte Alaman de Colmar on Alemannic German.
Le Langage martien contains the discussion of some 40 phrases, which Hélène Smith, while on a purported hypnotic visit to the planet Mars, learned, repeated, and even wrote down during her trance as specimens of a language spoken there, explained to her by a disembodied interpreter.