Heinrich Julius Klaproth

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Julius Klaproth

Julius von Klaproth (born October 11, 1783 in Berlin as Heinrich Julius Klaproth, † August 28, 1835 in Paris ) was a German orientalist , sinologist and linguist . He was the originator of the theory of the Tibetan-Burman language family and spread the term of the Indo-European language family in Europe .

Life

Julius von Klaproth was born as the son of the chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1783 in Berlin. His father was trained in the “Zum Weissen Schwan” pharmacy run by the Rose family and ran the “Zum Bären” pharmacy himself in Berlin. He is the discoverer of the chemical elements uranium, zirconium and cerium and he confirmed the isolation of titanium, tellurium and strontium.

Contrary to his father's wishes to study chemistry, von Klaproth taught himself Chinese at the age of 14. He also learned Manchu, Mongolian, Turkish, Arabic and Persian in self-study. In 1801 he began studying in Halle. In Dresden he worked on the oriental collections available there. At the age of nineteen he published the "Asian Magazine"

Through his acquaintance with the Polish Count Jan Potocki , who worked for the Russian Foreign Ministry, he was recommended as a professor for the new Oriental Academy in Vilnius. As an adjunct of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, von Klaproth took part in Count Golowkin's expedition to China in 1805 . Although the trip ended at the Russian-Chinese border, on the way he deepened his knowledge of Chinese with native speakers and collected data on the various other languages ​​he encountered. In the years that followed, he published the knowledge gathered in this way in several books.

In 1807 he became a permanent member of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences and was raised to the Russian nobility, which is why he used his name from then on with the predicate "von". In his role as a researcher for the academy, he traveled to Georgia and the Caucasus until 1809, where he collected further language data.

His sponsor, Count Potocki, recommended a visit to Paris. He liked the city so much that in 1814 he visited the exiled Napoleon on Elba in the hope of being called to Paris.

In Dresden he met the von Humboldt brothers who met the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. convinced him to appoint him professor for oriental languages ​​and literature at the University of Bonn in 1816. However, von Klaproth did not take up this position, but was awarded an unlimited paid study visit to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. As a result, von Klaproth lost his Russian nobility status. In Paris in 1821 he founded the Société asiatique . On August 28, 1835 he died there, probably of heart failure. The funeral procession was led by Alexander von Humboldt and von Klaproth was buried in the Montmartre cemetery.

effect

Julius von Klaproth published over 300 works throughout his life and was the first to postulate a scientifically founded theory of the Tibetan-Burman language family .

His most famous work is the linguistic atlas "Asia polyglotta", in which he postulated 23 different language families and explained each with short lexicographical examples.

The Tibetan Burmese languages, which Klaproth postulated as belonging together, are Tibetan, Burmese, Garo, Chinese and all other languages ​​that are demonstrably related to them. He did not go into an exact hierarchy of these languages, which leads to different views on the use of terms such as "Sino-Tibetan language family". Julius von Klaproth listed the languages ​​side by side, while since then there have been other groupings time and again, with the version “Chinese versus all other Sino-Tibetan languages” remaining in order to be able to represent Chinese or the Chinese languages ​​as something separate.

A more recent model by the Dutch linguist Sjors van Driem groups these languages ​​under the model "transhimalayan languages" as "fallen leaves": the exact family tree may (still) be unknown, but the leaves of the tree (the related languages) are clearly recognizable.

In addition, he was instrumental in dividing the Asian languages ​​into separate families (Austronesian, Tibeto-Burmese) instead of the previously dominant and racist idea that all Asian languages ​​should be classified in a single family (Japhetic).

Like Friedrich Max Müller after him, Julius von Klaproth insisted, contrary to the prevailing opinion at the time, that a linguistic relationship and a biological descent of the speaking people must be treated as two separate topics: "It is correct to say that the German language comes from the same roots as Sanskrit, but nonsense to derive the German people from the Hindu. "

Julius von Klaproth used the term “Indo-Germanic”, which was coined by the Danish researcher Malte-Brun , to better describe the family tree previously named “Scythian”. The name refers to the geographical distribution of the languages ​​belonging to this family tree. The most southeastern language is Indian (Sinhala) and the northwesternmost language is Germanic (Icelandic).

In addition, von Klaproth published grammars of the various languages ​​that he encountered on his travels, including Uyghur and Kurdish. A dictionary of the Manchu could not be published during his lifetime due to problems with typesetting.

He was not only concerned with Asian languages, but was also interested in deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. His criticism of Jean-François Champollion remains controversial.

(Walravens) He also developed the methodology of linguistic paleontology and he realized that the indigenous languages ​​on Formosa (now Taiwan) should be the original home of the Austronesian languages.

Works (selection)

  • Corpse stone on the grave of the Chinese scholarship of Mr. Joseph Hager . Halle: Orphanage Printing House 1811.
  • Treatise on the language and writing of the Uyghurs . Hamburg: Buske, 1985. Unchanged. Reprint d. Edition Paris, Königl. Printer, 1820. With e. Foreword by Wolfgang-Ekkehard Scharlipp.
  • Kuril Islands or Aino . Bochum: Adami, 1984, [repr. d. Ed.] Schubart, Paris, 1823.
  • Asia polyglotta (Paris 1823, together with linguistic atlas), in which he shows the ramifications of the Asian peoples in their ancestral affinity;
  • Tableaux historiques de l'Asie . Paris 1823, 4 vols. With atlas.
  • Collections d'antiquités égyptiennes . Paris 1829.
  • Examination critique des travaux du feu M. Champollion sur les hiéroglyphes . Paris 1832.
  • San Kokf Tsou Ran To Sets or Aperçu général des trois royaumes, traduit de l'original japonais-chinois . Paris 1832.
  • Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie . Paris 1834, 2 vol.
  • Lettre à M. le baron A. de Humboldt sur l'invention de la boussole . German translation by Dr. Armin Wittstein: Julius Klaproth's letter to Alexander von Humboldt about the invention of the compass . Leipzig: Weigel 1885.
  • Annales des empereurs du Japon ( Nihon Ōdai Ichiran ). Paris 1834.
  • Works by and about Julius Klaproth in French and German in the Internet Archive - online

literature

  • Johannes Klatt:  Klaproth, Julius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 51-60.
  • Gert Naundorf:  Klaproth, Heinrich Julius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 706 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Martin Gimm : On Klaproth's first catalog of Chinese books, Weimar 1804 - or Julius Klaproth as a student assistant at Goethe . In: H. Schmidt-Glintzer (Ed.): The other China (=  Wolfenbütteler research ). No. 62 . Harrassowitz, 1995, ISBN 3-447-03659-1 , p. 559-599 .
  • Hartmut Walravens: Julius Klaproth: (1783-1835). Life and work . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04124-2 .
  • Hartmut Walravens: Julius Klaproth: (1783-1835). Letters and documents . Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04143-9 .
  • Hartmut Walravens: Julius Klaproth: Correspondence with scholars, mostly from the academy archive in St. Petersburg; with a register of names for Julius Klapproth: letters and documents . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04586-8 .

Web links

Wikisource: Heinrich Julius Klaproth  - Sources and full texts

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h George van Driem: Linguistic history and historical linguistics . In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area . tape 41 , no. 1 , 2018, p. 106-127 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hartmut Walravens: Julius Klaproth . 2009.
  3. ^ Julius von Klaproth: Asia Polyglotta . A. Schubart, 1823, p. 43 .
  4. ↑ Commented and supplemented translation of a work by Hayashi Shihei , facsimile reproduction in the work edition, Vol. 2, Tokyo 1979. The part of the title printed in capital is the phonetic transcription of the original title Sankoku Tsūran Zusetsu , d. i. Illustrated description of three countries
  5. ^ Pouillon, François (2008). Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française, p. 542 .
personal data
SURNAME Klaproth, Heinrich Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klapproth, Jules de; Lauterbach, Wilhelm (pseudonym); Or, Louis de l '(pseudonym); Klapproth, Julius Heinrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1835
Place of death Paris