Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1825-1875) was born in Berlin. From 1845 to 48 he studied theology in
Bonn and then went to
Berlin to study
Hebrew. He was a student of
Carl R. Lepsius. His doctoral thesis 1851 dealt with
noun classes. 1853 he went to Africa to write a grammar of
Zulu. In his major work
Comparative Grammar he studies noun prefixes of the
Bantu languages. He introduced a numbering system for the classes which is still used today. After his death 1875 his daughter Dorothea together with his wife's sister continued his work. His daughter died in 1948.