Amsterdam Classics in Linguistics, 1800–1925

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Latest release: April 15, 2013
Series
18
Books
Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier: Ein Beitrag zur Begründung der Altertumskunde (Heidelberg, 1808). New edition
Book 1·Jan 1977
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This volume presents a fac simile edition of Friedrich Schlegel’s Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier. Ein Beitrag zur Begründung der Altertumskunde (Heidelberg, 1808). It is preceded by an introductory article by Sebastiano Timpanaro ‘Friedrich Schlegel and the beginnings of Indo-European linguistics in Germany’.
A Grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse Tongue
Book 2·Jan 1976
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This volume contains a reprint of the English translation (1843) by Sir George Webbe Dasent of Rask’s Anvising till Isländskan eller Nordiska Fornspråket (1818). This re-edition, with an added bio-bibliography of Rask, should enable the linguist of today to obtain a fairly rounded picture of this important 19th-century scholar who, together with Bopp and Grimm, has justly been ranked among the founding fathers of the comparative-historical study of Indo-European languages.
Rasmus Kristian Rask (1787–1832) did not occupy himself with historical linguistics alone as a comparativist, but also with language as a system based on a notion of structure comprised of three key ideas: the idea of wholeness, the idea of transformation (derivation and composition), and the idea of self-regulation. He formulated theoretical and practical premises for the composition of grammars, and in this he was far ahead of his time and in closer proximity to the linguistic concerns and problems of our era. From both theoretical and pedagogical points of view, Rask’s grammar of Icelandic remains a most remarkable work.
Analytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages, shewing the original identity of their grammatical structure: New edition
Book 3·Jan 1974
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The publication in 1816 of Bopp’s Über das Conjugationssystem can be considered the beginning of a systematic comparison of Indo-European languages, and thus as having led too the development of the study of language as a science, distinct from philology. The Analytical Comparison (1820) represents not merely a translation into English, as has been claimed in the literature, but a significant advance in theoretical clarity and methodological soundness.
This reprint is accompanied by a bio-bibliographical account of Bopp by J. D. Guigniaut, an introduction to Analytical Comparison by Friedrich Techmer, and a letter to Bopp by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Furthermore, the editor, E. F. K. Koerner, has added a Foreword, select bibliography, and index.
Die Sprachen Europas in systematischer Übersicht: Linguistische Untersuchungen (Bonn, 1850). New edition
Book 4·Jan 1983
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In Die Sprachen Europas in systematischer Uebersicht (Bonn 1850) Schleicher works out a naturalistic conception of language and a research program inspired by the methods of the natural sciences, in particular botany and geology. It does not only provide a general exposition of Schleicher’s views, of the sharp lines he is drawing between linguistics and philology, of the concept of ‘Sprachengeschichte’ in contradistinction to ‘Sprachentwicklung’, of the methodology of linguistic research, but also – often overlooked – with an attempt at language typology. Inspired by proposals made by Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel and Wilhelm von Humboldt, Schleicher tries to provide a material, scientific basis for language classification. In addition to this edition, the volume contains an introductory article.
Standard Alphabet for Reducing Unwritten Languages and Foreign Graphic Systems to a Uniform Orthography in European Letters (2nd rev.ed. London, 1863)
Book 5·Jan 1981
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This new edition of Carl Richard Lepsius’s Standard Alphabet reproduces the text of the second, enlarged, edition of 1863. The extensive Introduction by J. Alan Kemp places it in its historical setting and provides comments on the phonetic basis for the Alphabet and the notation.
Linguistics and Evolutionary Theory: Three Essays. New edition
Book 6·Jan 1983
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Contains:
The Darwinian Theory and the Science of language (1863) by August Schleicher, translated from the German by Alexander V. W. Bikkers.
On the Significance of Language for the Natural History of Man (1865) by August Schleicher, translated from the German by J. Peter Maher.
On the Origin of Language (1867) by Wilhelm H. I. Bleek, edited with a preface by Ernst Haeckel, translated from the German by Thomas Davidson.
Cultivated Plants and Domesticated Animals in their Migration from Asia to Europe: Historico-linguistic studies (London, 1885)
Book 7·Jan 1976
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New edition, prepared with a bio-bibliographical account of Hehn and a survay of the research into Indo-European prehistory by James P. Mallory.
It was Hehn who for the first time combined the tools of comparative linguistics and the direct historical approach in order to discover the origins of domesticated animals and cultivated plants in the ancient world, tracing their diffusion from one culture to another. Hehn abandoned his contemporaries’often idealized and nationalistic image of the ancient Indo-Europeans, seeking instead to reconstruct early Indo-European society in agreement with the ethnological research of his day.
Introduction to the Study of Language: A critical survey of the history and methods of comparative philology of Indo-European languages (Leipzig, 1882). New edition
Book 8·Jan 1974
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This volume contains a fac simile edition of the 1882 English translation of Delbrück’s Einleitung in das Sprachstudium. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Methodik der vergleichenden Sprachforschung (Leipzig 1880), together with a Foreword and a Selected Bibliography.
The Lautgesetz-Controversy: A documentation (1885–86). New edition, Volume 9
Book 9·Jan 1977
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The essays reproduced in this volume represent the major and characteristic documents in that flood of literature that was produced during the neogrammarian controversy. At that time, the entire community of linguists came face to face with the most profound problems of its theory and practice; it was a true crisis of empirical interpretation. Therefore, these essays are of much more than ‘mere’ historical interest: each one of them plunges directly into the central issues of the science of historical linguistics.
Curtius’ Zur Kritik der neuesten Sprachforschung (January 1885) was the initial polemic. Delbrück’s reply Die neueste Sprachforschung, Betrachtungen über George Curtius’Schrift ‘Zur Kritik der neuesten Sprachforschung’ and Brugmann’s retort Zum heutigen Stand der Sprachwissenschaft appeared soon thereafter. Later that year appeared Schuchardt’s attack Über die Lautgesetze: Gegen die Junggrammatiker. Collitz’article Die neueste Sprachforschung und die Erklärung des indogermanischen Ablautes did not appear until 1886, followed soon by Osthoff’s reply Die neueste Sprachforschung und die Erklärung des indogermanischen Ablautes: Antwort auf die gleichnamige Schrift von Dr. Hermann Collitz. Jespersen’s criticism of the neogrammarians appeared in German translation as Zur Lautgesetzfrage in1887.
The volume provides an Introduction and Select Bibliography.
<i>Einleitung in die Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft</i> (1884–1890) together with<i>Zur Literatur der Sprachenkunde Europas</i> (Leipzig, 1887): Volume 10
Book 10·Jan 1974
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This volume contains August Friedrich Pott's Einleitung in de Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, which appeared between 1884 and 1890 in F. Techmer's Internationale Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (Leipzig). In addition, the volume contains Pott's Zur Literatur der Sprachenkunde Europas (Leipzig 1887), the obituary by Paul Horn (Göttingen 1888), and a preface to this new edition by E.F.K. Koerner.
Writings in General Linguistics: <i>On Sound Alternation</i> (1881) and <i>Outline of Linguistic Science</i> (1883)
Book 11·Nov 1995
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This volume brings together the most important general linguistic writings by Miko?ay Kruszewski (1851-1887), whom Roman Jakobson described as “one of the greatest theoreticians of language among the world linguists of the late nineteenth century”. Apart from reissuing a revised version of the late Robert Austerlitz’ translation of the theoretical introduction of Kruszewski’s Master’s thesis on morphophonemic alternation in Old Slavic, first published in German in 1881, the bulk of the present volume consists of the first translation ever, by Gregory M. Eramian, of Kruszewski’s doctoral thesis, Outline of Linguistic Science, supervised by J. Baudouin de Courtenay and submitted in Russian at the University of Kazan in 1883, which until now has been available only in German translation, published in Techmer’s “Zeitschrift” (Leipzig, 1884-1890; reprinted Amsterdam, 1973). Together with a detailed introduction, a full list of Kruszewski’s writings, a bibliography of secondary sources, including a reconstruction of the major works consulted by Kruszewski, and detailed indexes of biographical names, subjects & terms, and languages cited for examples, the present volume provides Western scholars with a solid textual and contextual basis for a proper reassessment of the ideas of arguably the most outstanding 19th-century linguistic thinker.
'Über den Umlaut: Zwei Abhandlungen' (Carlsruhe, 1843) and 'Über den Ablaut' (Carlsruhe, 1844)
Book 12·Jan 1977
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Über den Umlaut (1843) and Über den Ablaut (1844) grew out of a review of Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik by Holtzmann, in which he also made an excursus into Bopp’s theory of vowel gradation in Sanskrit. Holtzmann was the first to observe the correlation of gu?a and accent. At the same time he noted that loss (or absence) of the accent could mean loss or shortening of a vowel. Observations which, be it in a different form, eventually found their way into a unified theory of Indo-European vowel gradation.
The two German texts are presented here in fac simile format, together with an introductory article.
Essay on the Principles of Translation (3rd rev. ed., 1813): New edition
Book 13·Jan 1978
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This is a reprint of the third edition of Tytler’s Principles of Translation , originally published in 1791, and this edition was published in 1813. The ideas of Tytler can give inspiration to modern TS scholars, particularly his open-mindedness on quality assessment and his ideas on linguistic and cultural aspects in translations, which are illustrated with many examples.
In the Introduction, Jeffrey Huntsman sets Alexander Fraser Tytler Lord Woodhouselee and his ideas in a historical context.
As the original preface states: “It will serve to demonstrate, that the Art of Translation is of more dignity and importance than has generally been imagined.” (p. ix)
The Order of Words in the Ancient Languages compared with that of the Modern Languages
Book 14·Jan 1978
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New edition of a pioneering work on word order, which originally appeared in French in 1844 (3rd ed., 1879), with an index.
Grammatical Proof of the Affinity of the Hungarian Language with Languages of Fennic Origin (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1799)
Book 15·Jan 1983
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Sámuel Gyarmathi’s Affinitas linguae hungaricae cum linguis fennicae originis grammatice demonstrata (Göttingen 1799) was received as a distinguished work of scholarship in its own days, and its historical importance has been fully recognized ever since. This volume provides an English translation of the entire Latin text, including the Latin glosses of the original (with the exception of zoological and botanical terms, and a few passages where specific reference is made to Latin grammar). This translation includes two additions to the text of Affinitas as reprinted in the Indiana University series: Appendix III, a letter to Gyarmathi by A. L. von Schötzler, and a number of notes in the author’s own hand, found in his copy of the work (now held in the Library of the Lycée of Zal?u). The translator’s Preface provides an introduction to the work and an overview of Gyarmathi’s life.
Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache: New edition
Book 16·Dec 1995
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Wilhelm Scherer (1841-1886) has gained wide recognition for his extraordinary accomplishments in linguistics as well as in literary studies.
His first and most important contribution to the development of linguistic science was his monumental work of 508 pages Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, published in 1868.
His stated objective was “to subject all aspects of the Germanic grammar to a new treatment.” While such a wording sounds rather modest, the actual implementation in his book, if viewed within the framework of his time, might very appropriately be called revolutionary. He broke with August Schleicher’s distinction between ‘development’ (in prehistorical time) and ‘decay’ (in historical time) in the history of language and replaced it with his notion of continuous, uninterrupted development. His survey of the relevant literature of his time is almost exhaustive, and his findings serve as the solid stepping stone for his own advances.
To facilitate reading, the editor has supplied an index of names (with life dates), a complete listing of the literature referred to by Scherer as well as an introduction to Scherer’s life and his general scholarly achievements.
Progress in Language: With special reference to English. New edition
Book 17·Nov 1993
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Progress in Language, first published in 1894, dates from fairly early in Otto Jespersen's (1860-1943) academic career; it already contains many of the essentials of his argument against the prevailing mode of 19th-century linguistic thought which he maintained until the end of his life. As James D.McCawley writes in the Introduction:"Much of the fascination of reading this long out-of-print classic lies in seeing its relationship to Jespersen's long and distinguished subsequent career: seeing how much importance he already attached to variation in language, how tightly his views on linguistic change were already integrated with his views on synchronic grammar, how intransigently sociolinguistic his thinking about language change was (...), and how vast a collection he had already amassed of English examples illustrating even very subtle details of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics."
Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language: New edition of the 1993 English translation by Niels Ege
Book 18·Apr 2013
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This edition constitutes a reprint of Niels Ege’s English translation of Rasmus Rask’s prize essay of 1818, which appeared as volume XXVI in the Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague in 1993. The prize essay was published in Danish in 1818. In contrast to other works by Rask, notably his introduction to the study of Icelandic, it was never reissued until Louis Hjelmslev published a corrected version in Danish as part of his edition of Rask’s selected works. While Rask lived, a substantial part of the book was translated into German. The present work is, however, the only translation of the work into English and indeed into any other language. It is to be hoped that the field of the history of linguistics will hereby receive a new impetus to scrutinize the early beginnings of Indo-European scholarship. But, just as importantly, the translation of this work of genius reveals that even if details in the substantial treatment of the various branches of language have now been superseded, the theoretical parts of the book are still worth reading by all linguists for their own sake.