Johann Siegmund Popowitsch

Johann Siegmund Valentin Popowitsch (Slovenized: Janez Žiga Valentin Popovič; February 9, 1705 – November 21, 1774) was a philologist and natural scientist from the Archduchy of Austria. His advocacy of a standardized Upper German led to Austrian German as a variety of Standard German.

Popowitsch was born in Arclin, a village near Celje in Lower Styria. He studied in Graz from 1715 to 1728, graduating from the Jesuit high school and lyceum. He continued his education by studying theology, but was not ordained. Popowitsch was familiar with 15 languages and his research interests included philology, botany, pomology, entomology, geophysics, oceanography, archaeology, history, and numismatics.