Prelude to Baltic Linguistics

Earliest Theories about Baltic Languages (16th century)
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-90-420-3798-4
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 36, 172 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 271 g

Reihe: On the Boundary of Two Worlds

This book is a study of the relatively unknown field of Baltic linguistic historiography associated with the 16th century. This has been the saeculum mirabile of Baltic philology, not only on account of the first books having appeared during that period, but also due to the diverse linguistic ideas about the Baltic languages which were circulating during Renaissance Palaeocomparativism: the Slavic and the closely connected Illyrian theory, the Latin theory (with its variants: the semi-Latin, the neo-Latin, and the Wallachian), also the Quadripartite theory. Minor but significant linguistic ideas are also discussed here, for example the emergence of a Hebrew theory and the Greek theory about Old Prussian. The synoptic juxtaposition of the different ideas shows very well the state of knowledge in Europe about the languages which later would be called ‘Baltic’ and the modernity of those ideas within European Renaissance linguistic debate leading to the rise of comparative linguistic genealogy.

Pietro U. Dini is Associate Professor of Baltic Philology and General Linguistics at the University of Pisa. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung W. Bessel-Forschungspreisträger at the University of Göttingen, Professor at Oslo University and Doctor h.c. of the University of Vilnius. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Latvia, of Lithuania, and of Göttingen. His book Le lingue baltiche (1997) has been translated into Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian and English.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Theoretische Linguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Palaeocomparativism and Earliest Baltic Linguistics
Chapter 2: The Slav Theory and Polyglossia in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Chapter 3: An Illyrian Theory of the Baltic Languages
Chapter 4: The Latin Theory and the Vilnius Latinizers
Chapter 5: Polyglossia and Linguistic Variations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Quadripartite Theory
Chapter 6: The Idea that Prussian derives from Greek
Chapter 7: The Emergence of a Hebrew Theory
Chapter 8: Marcin Bielski’s ideas on the Lithuanian
Chapter 9: The Disappearance of the Baltic languages in Edward Brerewood’s Enqvireies (1614)
Chapter 10: Concluding Remarks: Was there a Baltistics before Baltistics?
Notes
Sources
References

Über Autor(innen)

Pietro U. Dini is Associate Professor of Baltic Philology and General Linguistics at the University of Pisa. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung W. Bessel-Forschungspreisträger at the University of Göttingen, Professor at Oslo University and Doctor h.c. of the University of Vilnius. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Latvia, of Lithuania, and of Göttingen. His book Le lingue baltiche (1997) has been translated into Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian and English.