Carl Arendt (Sinologist)

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Carl Arendt

Carl Arendt (born December 1, 1838 in Berlin ; † January 29, 1902 there ) was a German sinologist . He was one of the most important German-speaking sinologists of the 19th century.

Life

Arendt studied linguistics from 1856 to 1859 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In Beijing in 1865 he trained as an interpreter. In the following year he took over the provisional management of the German consulate in Tianjin . In 1868 he worked as an interpreter for the German legation in Beijing. In Tianjin he temporarily headed the consulate of the North German Confederation from 1869 to 1873 . From 1874 to 1887 he was an interpreter for the German legation in Beijing. From 1887 to 1902 Arendt was a lecturer in Chinese at the newly founded seminar for oriental languages at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin.

His son was the philologist Fritz Arendt .

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His two main works are the Handbook on North Chinese Colloquial Language (Berlin 1891) and the Introduction to North Chinese Colloquial Language (Berlin 1894).

In contrast to Georg von der Gabelentz 's famous Chinese grammar, Arendt's textbooks on the Chinese language are based on modern Chinese. Here Arendt takes on a pioneering role in German-language Sinology. What sets his work apart from other books on the modern Chinese language in the 19th century is his emphasis on the grammatical rules of the Chinese language.

The importance of Arendt for modern Chinese can also be seen in the fact that the course in northern Chinese colloquial language , written in 1912 by Ferdinand Lessing and Wilhelm Othmer , which is very popular as a learning book for Chinese, uses Arendt's introductory book as the basis of its grammatical rules.

literature

  • Peter Merklinghaus: Professor Carl Arendt has died . In: East Asian Studies. Communications from the Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​in Berlin 1, 1902
  • Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945 , Vol. 1. Schöningh, Paderborn 2000, ISBN 3506718401
  • Mechthild Leutner : Colonial politics and knowledge production: Carl Arendt (1838-1902) and the development of China studies. (= Berlin China Studies 55). LIT , Berlin, Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3643135926

Web links

Wikisource: Carl Arendt  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Carl Arendt  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Li Xue Tao: ri er man xue shu pu xi zhong de han xue - de guo han xue zhi yan jiu , Beijing 2008, p. 40
  2. ↑ Biography , East Asia Seminar at the University of Zurich, pp. 68–69 (PDF file; 13.5 MB)
  3. ↑ Georg von Gabelentz: Chinese grammar with exclusion of the lower style and today's colloquial language , Leipzig 1881
  4. ↑ Arendt, Introduction, page IX: "To familiarize learners with these basic grammatical laws of northern Chinese colloquial language by means of fixed rules and numerous examples and to practice them, that is the main purpose of my introduction"
  5. ^ Ferdinand Lessing, Wilhelm Othmer: Course of North Chinese Colloquial Language , Tsingtau 1912
  6. ↑ See Michael Bauer: The grammatical function of verbs in Lessing / Othmer's course in northern Chinese colloquial language (1912) compared to the presentation by Carl Arendts, Introduction to Northern Chinese Colloquial Language (1894) , Shanghai 2011

Works (selection)

personal data
SURNAME Arendt, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arendt, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sinologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1902
Place of death Berlin