Die Sprachen Europas in systematischer Übersicht : linguistische Untersuchungen

358 Pages·1983·7.099 MB·German

by  August Schleicher

DIE SPRACHEN EUROPAS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series I - AMSTERDAM CLASSICS IN LINGUISTICS, 1800-1925
Advisory Editorial Board
Johannes Bechert (Bremen); Allan R. Bomhard (Boston)
Dell Hymes (Philadelphia); Kurt R. Jankowsky (Washington, D.C.)
Winfred P. Lehmann (Austin, Tex.); J. Peter Maher (Chicago)
Terence H. Wilbur (Los Angeles)
Volume 4
August Schleicher
Die Sprachen Europas in
systematischer Übersicht
AUGUST SCHLEICHER
DIE SPRACHEN EUROPAS
IN
SYSTEMATISCHER ÜBERSICHT
LINGUISTISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN
New edition
with an introductory article
by
KONRAD KOERNER
University of Ottawa
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1983
For
A.B.M.
J.P.M.
J.H.S.
© Copyright 1983 - John Benjamins B.V.
ISSN 0304 0712 / ISBN 90 272 0875 1
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint,
microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My own files remind me that I planned to write a 'crit­
ical note' on "August Schleicher (1821-68) and the History
of Linguistics",* which dates back to Spring or Summer 1970.
This paper was never written, but the lį-page typescript of
that first attempt indicates to me that it was intended to
redress the distorted picture of Schleicher in the annals
of linguistic science.
More than twelve years later, I am hoping that this early
impulse has at last borne fruit, with the rehabilitation of
Schleicher and his rightful place in the development of lin­
guistics duly accorded. Doubtless, it will take a number of
years more until these recent studies of Schleicher find en­
try to the textbook literature. Many other commitments dur­
ing the past ten years have prevented me till now from com­
pleting the research and the final draft of the essay which
accompanies the present republication of Schleicher's Die
Sprachen Europas in systematischer Uebersicht of 1850, a
book in which we find his later theories and methodological
principles (not to mention his philosophy of science) in nu­
ce and in fact already partly developed in considerable de­
tail.
I am now pleased to state that, owing to a sabbatical leave
from my university, a research fellowship granted by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in
Ottawa, the fine facilities at the Newberry Library in Chi­
cago, and last but not least to the selfless support and
friendship received from J. Peter Maher of the Northeastern
Illinois University in the same city, I have been able to
conclude this long-hedged project. To all those involved in
helping me in one way or another — and this includes Pro­
fessor Harry Spitzbardt of the University of Jena who pro­
vided me with a photograph of a picture of Schleicher whose
original belongs to the Library there — I would like to ex­
press my heartfelt thanks.
Chicago, October 1982 K. K.
* The paper was meant to be published on the occasion of Schleicher's
150th birthday, on 19 February 1971.
V*

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements V*
Portrait of August Schleicher VI*
Preface to the New Edition IX*
Introductory Article, "The Schleicherian Paradigm in Lin­
guistics XXIII*
Addendum LXII*
Terminological Note LXIII*
Bibliographical References LXIV*
Addenda LXXI*
DIE SPRACHEN EUROPAS IN SYSTEMATISCHER UEBERSICHT: LIN­
GUISTISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN by August Schleicher III
[Author's "Vorwort"] V
Inhaltsübersicht VII
A. Einsilbige Sprachklasse 40
B. Agglutinierende Sprachklasse 57
 Flektierende Sprachklasse 113
Künstliche Sprachen 238
Anhang 244
Register 266
Index of Authors 271
*****
VII*

PREFACE
The 1970s have witnessed a considerable revival of in­
terest in the work of August Schleicher (1821-68), who dur­
ing his own lifetime was widely regarded as the leader in
comparative and historical Indo-European research in Europe.
No doubt he was a very influential figure in general lingu­
istic theory and philosophy of science too. Schleicher was
a close contemporary of the archaeologist Heinrich Schlie­
mann (1822-92), the anatomist and physiologist Rudolf Vir-
chow (1821-1902), the physicist and acoustician Hermann von
Helmholtz (1821-94), the physiologist and phonetician Ernst
Brücke (1819-92), but also of Karl Marx (1820-84) and Fried-
rich Engels (1820-95), to mention distinguished figures in
his homeland, but Schleicher lived only 47 years and saw
few of the fruits of his important work. 1 For instance, he
was never granted a full professorship at the University of
Jena, where he had moved from the University of Prague in
1857, after he felt unable to live and work as professor of
comparative linguistics and of Sanskrit because of constant
harassment by the archconservative Austrian administration
which regarded the non-Catholic freethinker distinguished in
Slavic studies and fluent speaker of Czech with suspicion.2
Indeed, the first chair for Slavic Philology (which Schleicher
had had high hopes of obtaining) was established at Leip­
zig only in 1870, with August Leskien (1840-1916), probably
the most promising of Schleicher's students, as its first
incumbent.
The revival of interest in Schleicher seems to stem from
several sources. The structuralist conception of language,
1 Schleicher's contemporaries in linguistics, e.g., Georg Curtius (1820-
1885), Max Müller (1823-1900), Heymann Steinthal (1823-99), and Er­
nest Renan (1823-92), reached an average age of 70.
2 Cf. Rudolf Fischer, "Erlebnisse August Schleichers in der Bach'schen
Ära", Zeitschrift für Slawistik 1.101-107 (1956) for details. See al­
so the account by the Czech Alois Vanicek (1825-83), a confidant and
pupil of Schleicher's, "Erinnerungen an ... August Schleicher in Prag"
of 1869 (cf. p.XXI*, note 27, below for full reference).
IX*