Showing papers in "Language & History in 2013"
TL;DR: In his influential work City of God as mentioned in this paper, Augustine identifies Hebrew as the original primeval language of mankind, and more accurately as the language that survived the confusion of languages at Babel in the house or family of Heber, a descendant of Noah in the fifth generation.
Abstract: In his influential work City of God — De civitate Dei — Augustine identifies Hebrew as the original, or primeval, language of mankind, and more accurately as the language that survived the confusion of languages at Babel in the house or family of Heber, a descendant of Noah in the fifth generation. This article surveys (1) how this claim is related to ideas about this topic in ancient Jewish and Christian sources before and after Augustine, (2) demonstrates how Augustine’s interpretation of biblical primeval history and his concept of history is interconnected with his view on the primordial language, and (3) explores how early modern exegesis and philology adopted this specific Augustinian model with regard to the topic in question. This study is both descriptive and analytical. It is based on primary sources which modern scholarship of the history of linguistic thought hitherto to a great extent has either failed to pay attention to or misrepresented.
18 citations
TL;DR: A history of interest in Shakespearean phonology can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century as mentioned in this paper, with particular attention being paid to Shakespeare's rhymes, particularly the rhymes in the play "Othello".
Abstract: Recent interest in Shakespearean phonology in the 2000s, under the heading of ‘original pronunciation’ (OP), has a history which can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century. A memorandum by Richard Grant White in 1865 was followed by a detailed analysis by Alexander Ellis, particular attention being paid to Shakespeare’s rhymes. Later studies, transcriptions, or presentations include those of Wilhelm Vietor, Daniel Jones (whose influence was particularly important), Harold Palmer, F. G. Blandford, and A. C. Gimson. BBC broadcasts of extracts from Shakespeare in OP took place during the 1930s and 1940s, and proved popular, but full productions in London and Cambridge during the 1950s received mixed reviews. Dramaturgical and scholarly criticisms are briefly discussed, and the value of the reconstruction exercise strongly affirmed.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore seventeenth-century interpretations of Pentecost, which, rather unexpectedly from a modern point of view, turn out to involve not glossolalia, in the narrow sense of speaking in the tongues of angels rather than the mouths of men, but xenololia, in an equally narrow sense, speaking in a human language that one has never learned.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to position the seventeenth-century quest for a philosophical language within an eschatological framework of first and last things. Modern accounts of these projects often focus exclusively on theological first things: namely the Adamic language and its fragmentation at the destruction of the Tower of Babel. But Babel had its equally important anti-type in the biblical account of speaking in tongues at Pentecost. The primary focus of the paper will be to explore seventeenth-century interpretations of Pentecost, which, rather unexpectedly from a modern point of view, turn out to involve not glossolalia, in the narrow sense of speaking in the tongues of angels rather than the tongues of men, but xenololia, in the equally narrow sense of speaking in a human language that one has never learned.
8 citations
TL;DR: The authors reveal the more remote history of the notion genie de la langue and reveal its origins in Early Christian Latin texts as well as Early Modern Neo-Latin texts of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Abstract: Eighteenth-century scholars writing on languages were obsessed with the genie de la langue. This rather vague but very influential concept entailed a variegated cluster of characteristics ascribed to a particular language, and so highlighted the distinctiveness of an individual language in comparison to others. Because of this, it is especially prominent in texts of scholars defending their own vernacular language or downplaying other vernaculars. In the last decades, much attention has been given to the vicissitudes of this influential idea. Even so, the context from which it originally developed has remained underexposed. It is commonly traced back to the French author Amable de Bourzeys (1606–72), and this attribution has been accepted without further discussion. The present paper reveals the more remote history of the notion genie de la langue. Its main focus is on Early Christian Latin texts as well as Early Modern Neo-Latin texts of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. By demo...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the most frequent formulae in Dutch private letters show a striking similarity with those found in private letters from other language areas, which points to a shared European epistolary tradition which has been the topic of various previous studies.
Abstract: In this paper, formulaic language in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch private letters is compared with formulae presented in letter-writing manuals. The most frequent formulae in the Dutch letters show a striking similarity with those found in private letters from other language areas. Such an eye-catching similarity points clearly to a shared European epistolary tradition which has been the topic of various previous studies. Being aware of this widespread tradition, we address the question of how letter writers acquired the formulae characteristic of that tradition by first discussing briefly literacy in the Dutch Republic and by subsequently taking into consideration the possible influence of theory and models provided in letter-writing manuals. After having established similarities and differences between the ‘theory’ of the more modest manuals or schoolbooks and actual practice of private letters, we conclude that direct influence of letter-writing manuals on the actual practice is no...
5 citations
TL;DR: The authors reconstructed a lost lost artificial language scheme of the mid-seventeenth century, the author of which was said to have translated parts of Homer into his artificial character, but little has been known about this author or what his scheme involved.
Abstract: This article discusses a new source with which to reconstruct a lost artificial language scheme of the mid-seventeenth century, the author of which was said to have translated parts of Homer into his artificial character. Other than that he was an emigre (and presumably Francophone) scholar named Champagnolla, little has been known about this author or what his scheme involved. A much fuller account of it is provided by a manuscript in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; it records the thoughts of those who had, at the instigation of King James I, been set to assess the value and practicability of proposals for an artificial language put forward by an anonymous French scholar. They provide a clear picture both of what Champagnolla had intended, and the political contours of intellectual life at the end of the Jacobean period.
3 citations
TL;DR: This article present a transcription of a previously unknown manuscript wordlist of English terms from the vocabulary of moral philosophy, apparently compiled in Scotland in the mid-seventeenth century, and contextualize it in the lexicographical activity of seventeenth-century Scotland; discusses its sources, prominent among which are Hobbes's Briefe of the arte of rhetorique (1637) and John Healey's translation of St Augustine's De civitate Dei (1610).
Abstract: This paper presents a transcription of a previously unknown manuscript wordlist of English terms from the vocabulary of moral philosophy, apparently compiled in Scotland in the mid-seventeenth century. It contextualizes it in the lexicographical activity of seventeenth-century Scotland; discusses its sources, prominent among which are Hobbes’s Briefe of the arte of rhetorique (1637) and John Healey’s translation of St Augustine’s De civitate Dei (1610); and comments on its relationship with other contemporary philosophical wordlists of English.
2 citations
TL;DR: One of the founder members of the Henry Sweet Society, Vivian Salmon, died in November 2010 at the age of eighty-nine as discussed by the authors, accompanied by her husband, William Salmon.
Abstract: One of the founder members of the Henry Sweet Society, Vivian Salmon, died in November 2010 at the age of eighty-nine. One might even go so far as to suggest that Vivian, accompanied by her husband...
1 citations