Large glossary of the German language

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The Great Glossary of the German Language is an extensive work, begun in 1740 but never printed, by the Basel professor Johann Jacob Spreng , who lived from 1699 to 1778. The linguist Heinrich Löffler rediscovered it during his research on Spreng's idioticon Rauracum , the oldest Basel German dictionary. It is to appear in print in 2021, on around 4,500 two-column pages.

Dictionary type

In terms of type, Spreng's Glossary is an etymological dictionary and, in terms of scientific history, a forerunner of the German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm . Spreng was guided by the classification in G. W. Leibniz ' Unprepared Thoughts (1717). He had differentiated between a lexicon of common words, the "Sprachschatz" with the artificial and technical terms and the "Glossarium" (or "Sprachquell"), which also took into account old and rural words (dialects) as well as the common relatives Dutch and Danish 'Norwegian, Swedish, and especially Icelandic,' with the latter a great deal of our ancient language has remained. And all of this not only from the contemporary language, but also something embarrassed and lost, notably the old-Gothic, old-Saxon and old-Franconian ».

Spreng's dictionary consists of 100,000 handwritten notes, most of which are glued into twenty volumes. It was intended to maintain the written German language, which was to replace Latin, which was still used at the time, as the scientific language. According to H. Löffler, if it had been printed it would have been the most extensive German dictionary of its time. However, the work did not meet with sufficient commercial interest.

Words marked explosively, the use of which is recommended to enrich the language, with asterisks. Very many are terms and phrases that were already forgotten in Spreng's time, as well as words that were not yet in common use. Examples of this are hailstorms and coup d'état .

Examples

All examples come from Sprachspiegel 3/2018, see references below.

Haÿe , * Haÿfisch , a terrible sea wolf. Jsl . Haakal , from hacka , avide & ictibus more canino vorare. Franz. Requiem . Engl. The white shark . Lat. galeus piscis, hinnulus. Jn calleth the western isles of Scotland to which Zween to be up Drey thread long the big Hayen, Seth, the smaller but Sillucks . The Norwegians use these letters to call Haakäringe or Hakierlinge . (Anderson.)

Haÿe is also called a pirate ; pirata, praedo marinus.

hate , hag, run a hag . The courtier should pacify the courtyard, the courtyard freed and the term zuo ring vmb, with guoten zeun and haten, keep thor and the doors locked . (Zwengel Bl. 57. b.) S. call .

As an example of a so-called reading article, the one about the Helvetii :

Helvetii , a Gallic peoples nowadays known as the Swiss and Confederates and once, according to Caesar's description, too narrow for their size and the fame of their bravery, namely, between the yurts , the Reine , Lake Geneva and the Alps, were included, but according to the report of Tacitus had made themselves subservient to a stretch in Germania up to Maÿn with the arms, which conquests, however, they again had to abandon after they came under Roman rule. Caesar reports from them that they were divided into four pagos or cantons, of which he only names two, namely the Zurich and Upper cantons, to which one still the two others, namely the cantons of the Ambron and Zug, from the Plutarch and Strabo had to look for it. Your name appears from the Celt . Hel, pugna, bellum, and Wett or Gwald, foedus, compound seÿn, and so much as war allies, and helvetia actually not a country, especially a confederation. Depending on whether the number of their confederates decreased or increased, yes, less or more, the countries counted as Helvetia may have expanded.

literature

  • Swiss Association for the German Language (Ed.): Sprengs «Glossarium». In: Sprachspiegel 74 (2018), with four essays by Heinrich Löffler and Suzanne de Roche Löffler:
    • Johann Jakob Spreng's «General German Glossary». The original, its history and its edition (pp. 66–73; online );
    • Spreng's intentions and his time. National language dictionary in the spirit of the Enlightenment (pp. 74–79);
    • The glossary as a reading aid and a wealth of knowledge. Spreng was looking for the unusual with an academic claim (pp. 80–88);
    • Starry words for posterity. Spreng marked his recommendations with asterisks . (Pp. 89–91)

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See article by Suzanne de Roche Löffler.