Full Description
From the Renaissance onwards, European scholars began to collect and study the various languages of the Old and the New Worlds. The recognition of language diversity encouraged them to explain how differences between languages emerged, why languages kept changing, and in what language families they could be classified. The present volume brings together the papers of the late George J. Metcalf (1908-1994) that discuss the search for possible genetic language relationships, and the study of language developments and origins, in Early Modern Europe. Two general chapters, surveying the period between the 16th and 18th century, are followed by detailed case studies of the contributions of Swiss, Dutch, and German scholars such as Theodor Bibliander (1504-1564), Konrad Gesner (1516-1565), Philippus Cluverius (1580-1623), Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), and Justus Georg Schottelius (1612-1676). This collection of important studies, a number of which have become very hard to find, has been framed by a detailed Editors' Introduction, a biographical sketch of the author, a master list of references, and indexes of biographical names and of subjects, terms, and languages.
Contents
1. Foreword & acknowledgments; 2. Editors' introduction; 3. Bibliographical references; 4. Bibliography of George J. Metcalf; 5. 1. Between methodology and ideology: How facts and theories intertwine in earlier views on diachronic linguistics; 6. 2. The Indo-European hypothesis in the 16th and 17th centuries; 7. 3. Theodor Bibliander (1505-1564) and the languages of Japheth's progeny; 8. 4. Konrad Gesner's (1516-1565) general views on language; 9. 5. Gesner's views on the Germanic languages; 10. 6. Abraham Mylius (1563-1637) on historical linguistics; 11. 7. Philippus Cluverius (1580-1623) and his Lingua Celtica; 12. 8. A linguistic clash in the 17th century; 13. 9. Justus Georg Schottelius (1612-1676) on historical linguistics; 14. 10. Andreas Jager's (c.1660-1730) De Lingua Vetustissima Europae (1686); 15. 11. Johann Christoph Adelung (1732-1806) discovers the languages of Asia; 16. Master list of references; 17. Index of biographical names; 18. Index of subjects & terms
