Andreas Kempe

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Andreas Kempe (* 1622 in Västergötland , Sweden ; † 1689 in Hamburg ) was a Swedish philosopher and philologist of the 17th century.

Life

Andreas Kempe is best known for his work The Languages ​​of Paradise (1688). In the rather pronounced scientific discussion in the 17th century about the " original language ", which is also spoken by God and was the only language in the world until the Babylonian confusion , Kempe published his work, a parody in which during a beery A discussion arose about the language spoken in Paradise. Contrary to popular opinion, the main character, Simon Simplex, thinks Swedish is the divine language. Kempe followed the prevailing opinion in Sweden at the time, which was based on Genesis 10: 5, where in some translations of the "islands of the heathen" is mentioned, which was interpreted as a reference to the Scandinavian countries.

Nonetheless, the author parodies this arrogant doctrine by taking up the prevailing prejudices of the larger Scandinavian countries against each other and assigning Adam (clearly subordinate to God) Danish as the language. The snake that seduces Eve, on the other hand, is said to have spoken French , as the French language “moves the whole body in such a way that even the smartest person can be deceived by it”.

Works

  • The Swedish standard raised . Hamburg, 1683.
  • The languages ​​of paradise . Hamburg, 1688.
  • Israel's good news . Hamburg, 1688

literature

  • Claes-Christian Elert: Andreas Kempe (1622-89) and the Languages ​​Spoken in Paradise . In: Historiographia Linguistica. Issue 5: 3, 1978, pp. 221-226.
  • Claes-Christian Elert, Gunnar Eriksson (Eds.): Suppression, Struggle or success. Studies on Three Representatives of Cultural Life in Sweden: Fredrika Bremer, Andreas Kempe and Linnaeus . Volume 47 of the Acta Universitatis Umensis series. Umeå studies in the humanities. (Umeå University) Stockholm 1982, ISBN 91-7174-099-6 .
  • Andreas Kempe . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 572 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rosemarie Ostler: Searching for the First Words . In: Verbatim: The Language Quarterly , Vol. XXVIII, No. 4, 2003 (PDF; 862 kB) pp. 1–4
personal data
SURNAME Kempe, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish philosopher and philologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1622
PLACE OF BIRTH Västergötland , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH 1689
Place of death Hamburg