Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn

Marcus van Boxhorn

Marcus Zuërius van Boxhorn (also Marcus Suerius Boxhorn ; born August 28, 1612 or 1602 in Bergen op Zoom , † October 3, 1653 in Leiden ) was a Dutch scholar and professor of eloquence .

Boxhorn attended schools in Leiden. He wrote Latin poems and also wrote commentaries on Roman works. In 1632 he was appointed to the chair of eloquence at the University of Leiden . In 1636 he took over the administration of the collegium oratorium in Leiden. In 1648 he became Professor of History there as the successor to Daniel Heinsius .

Indo-Scythian theory

Boxhorn wrote numerous works, especially about the history of his homeland. He will be remembered by posterity because of the discovery of the relationship between different European and Asian languages. To this he counted the Germanic, as well as the "Illyrian-Greek" and Italian languages ​​as well as Persian; later also the Slavic, Celtic and Baltic languages. Marcus Zuërius van Boxhorn was one of the most important historical linguists. With his Indo-Scythian theory, he laid the foundation for today's understanding of the Indo-European language family . In the 17th century he first investigated a possible genetic relationship mainly between the European languages. In his opinion, languages ​​such as Greek , Latin , Welsh , German , Russian , Celtic , Turkish , Latvian , Lithuanian and later also Persian could be traced back to a common original language. Van Boxhorn first described his Indo-Scythian theory in 1637 in a letter to his friend Claudius Salmasius , who later added Sanskrit to van Boxhorn's theory. In 1647 van Boxhorn published his theory in three parts.

At that time, many people still believed that Hebrew was man's original language. This assumption was mostly based on biblical backgrounds. Two compatriots of van Boxhorn, Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519–1572) and Adriaan van Schrieck (1560–1621), however, were of the opinion that Dutch was this original language. Van Boxhorn rejected this theory and assumed a common original language of Latin , Greek , Germanic , Russian , Welsh , Latvian , Lithuanian , Turkish and Persian , which he called Scythian . He excluded other languages ​​from this language family . He did not believe that all languages ​​are derived from a single language.

Van Boxhorn first publicly postulated his theory in a work about the goddess Nehalennia , whose statues and altars were discovered in January 1647 in the Dutch province of Zeeland . Van Boxhorn dealt with the origin of the name of Nehalennia, which has not yet been clarified. Van Boxhorn wrote the first part of his work in the form of an open letter to Countess Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels , in the third part he then explained his so-called Indo-Scythian theory and presented evidence for it.

The Lexicon Symphonum , which was published in Basel in 1537 by the Prague-born Bohemian humanist Sigismund Gelenius , served as inspiration for his theory . Even before Boxhorn, the University of Leiden was concerned with the genetic relationship between languages ​​and language groups. In 1575, Franciscus Raphelengius the Elder (Ravlenghien) (1539–1597), professor of Hebrew in Leiden, taught his students about the similarities between Persian and Germanic languages, which could indicate a genetic relationship. This idea was later taken up in Leiden by Bonaventura de Smet and Johann Elichmann . In the library of his friend Petrus Scriverius, alias Peter Schrijver, Boxhorn found not only the Lexicon Symphonum by Sigismundus Gelenius but also the works of Rudolphus Agricola von Groningen, alias Roelof Huisman, Johannes Aventinus (Turmair) and Hadrianus Junius von Hoorn, alias Adriaen de Jonghe, who had examined the relationship between Greek, Latin, and Germanic.

A century after Boxhorn had postulated his theory, the French Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux (1691–1779) found grammatical evidence for a relationship between Sanskrit and Indo-Scythian, i.e. H. Indo-European languages. In 1771 he found cognates of the verb “to be” in Sanskrit and Latin, which indicated a relationship. In Germany, van Boxhorn's theory was already propagated in 1686 in the dissertation of the Swede Andreas Jäger at the University of Wittenberg. The theory became known in England at the beginning of the 18th century and was spread by Lord Monboddo (James Burnet). Inspired by his writings, Sir William Jones (1746–1794) also dealt with the Indo-European theory. Because of his high standing with the British colonial government and his status in Asian society, he gained much fame for his testimony about the relationship between Sanskrit and Greek and Latin . Although Jones himself did not study this relationship, he mentioned the work of Lord Monboddo, from which he had learned of van Boxhorn's results.

methodology

In order to prove the common origin of languages, van Boxhorn compared etymologies, inflection patterns and grammars of Greek , Latin , Persian , Old Saxon , Dutch and German , Gothic , Russian , Danish , Swedish , Lithuanian , Czech , Croatian and Welsh . He found similarities that suggest that these languages ​​are genetically related . Van Boxhorn was the first to include not only Greek , Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages ​​in the language family, but also Persian , Sanskrit , Celtic and Baltic .

Marcus Zuërius van Boxhorn compared not only similar words in different languages, but also entire inflection patterns and grammars. He was of the opinion that the relationship between languages ​​must be verifiable on the basis of systematic grammatical correspondences and not only postulated on the basis of similar-looking word forms. He was the founder of the methodology for studying language that we now call the comparative method.

Van Boxhorn viewed language as an organic system and warned against loan and wander words , which can influence the comparison of languages. A kinship of languages ​​is often wrongly assumed on the basis of similar words, but these have been adopted from one language and originally come from another language. Van Boxhorn wanted to prevent these misinterpretations by systematically comparing inflection morphology and other grammatical features.

Fonts (selection)

• Theatrum sive Hollandiae comitatus et urbium nova descriptio . 1632.
• Quaestiones romanae . 1637.
• Historia obsidionis Bredae, et rerum anni M.DC.XXXVII gestarum . 1640. 176 pp.
• Chronijck van Zeelandt, eertijdts Beschreven door d'heer Johan Reygersbergen, nu prayed, end avoided . 2 volumes. Middelburg 1644. Vol. 1: 471 p., Vol. 2: 620 p.
• Dutch history. Eerste boeck, behelsende de eerste veranderingen in de godsdienst end empty, nephew de harde vervolgingen daer over ontstaen in de Nederlanden, voor end tot de tijden toe van keiser Karel de Viifde . Leiden 1644. 214 pp.
• Bediedinge van de tot noch toe onbekende afgodinne Nehalennia over de dusent ende meer jaren onder het sandt begraven, dan onlancx untdecks op het strandt van Walcheren in Zeelandt . Willem Christiaens vander Boxe, Leiden 1647. 32 pp.
• Answer van Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Gegeven op de Vraaghen, hem voorgestelt over de Bediedinge van de afgodinne Nehalennia, onlancx uytghegeven, in welcke de ghemeine herkomste van der Griecken, Romeinen ende Duytschen Tale uyt den Scythen duydelijck des Volckherene van der Griecken, ende different grondelijck ontdekt end has been declared . Willem Christiaens vander Boxe, Leiden 1647. 112 pp.
• De Graecorum, Romanorum et Germanorum linguis earumque symphonia dissertatio . ex officina Guilielmi Christiani, Leiden 1650.
• Historia universalis sacra et profana, a Christo nato ad annum usque MDCL . Leiden 1651, 1072 p.
• Originum Gallicarum liber. In quo veteris et nobilissimae Gallorum gentis origines, antiquitates, mores, lingua et alia eruuntur et illustrantur. Cui accedit antiquae linguae Britannicae lexicon Britannico-Latinum, cum adiectis et insertis eiusdem authoris Adagiis Britannicis sapientiae veterum Druidum reliquiis et aliis antiquitatis Britannicae Gallicaeque nonnullis monumentis . 2 volumes. apud Ioannem Ianssonium, Amsterdam 1654. Vol. 1: 116 p., Vol. 2: 120 p.
• Epistolae et poemata . ex off. C. Commelini, Amsterdam 1662.
• Epistola de persicis Curtio memoratis vocabulis eorumque cum germanicis cognatione, praefatione, notis et additamentis instructa a Jo. Henr. von Seelen , with William Burton, Λείψανα veteris linguae persicae, quae apud priscos scriptores graecos et latinos reperiri potuerunt . apud P. Boeckmannium, Lubecae [Lübeck?] 1720.

literature

• Lyle Campbell / William J. Posner: Language Classification. History and Method . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008.
• Daniel Droixhe: La linguistique et l'appel de l'histoire, 1600–1800. Rationalisme et révolutions positivistes . Droz, Geneva 1978.
• Daniel Droixhe: Boxhorn's Bad Reputation. A Chapter in Academic Linguistics . In: Klaus D. Dutz (Ed.): Speculum historiographiae linguisticae. Short contributions to the IV International Conference on the History of Linguistics (ICHoLS IV), Trier 24-27 1987 . Nodus, Münster 1989. pp. 359-84.
• Daniel Droixhe: "Boxhorn", in: RE Asher (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics . Pergamon Press, Oxford 1994.
• Daniel Droixhe: Souvenirs de Babel. La reconstruction de l'histoire des langues de la Renaissance aux Lumières . Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique, Brussels 2007.
• RHF Hofman: "Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn (1612-1653)", in: L. Toorians (Ed.): Kelten en de Nederlanden van prehistorie tot heden . Peeters, Leuven / Paris 1998. pp. 149-167.
• George van Driem: Languages ​​of the Himalayas. An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region . Brill, Leiden 2001. p. 1412.
• B. van Wayenburg: Marcus van Boxhorn. Uitvinder van de Europese oertaal . In: Mare di libri 32 2004.

Web links

• Works by and about Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn  in the German Digital Library
• Publications by and about Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn in VD 17 .
• Franz Xaver von Wegele :  Boxhorn, Marcus Suerius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 218 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Goropius Becanus (Jan van Gorp van der Beke): Origines Antwerpianae, sive Cimmeriorum Becceselana novem libros complexa, Atuatica, Gigantomachia, Niloscopium, Cronia, Indoscythica, Saxsonica, Gotodanica, Amazonica, Venetica et Hyperborea . ex officina Christophori Plantini, Antwerp 1569.
2. ↑ Adrianus Scrieckius (Adriaan van Schrieck): Van t'beghin the eerster volcken van Europen, in-sonderheyt vandenberg oorspronck end sacks of Neder-Landren, xxiii Boecken, Met Betoon Vande dwalinghen the Griecken end Latinas op t'selve Beghin end of the ghemeynen Oorspronck. 'Ende dat de Neder-Landren metten Ga-halen ende Tuytschen t'samen in d'eerste tijden ghenaemt Kelten, ghecomen uuten Hebreen op t'Noorden ofte den Kelteghen cant des weerelts / ghelijck de Caldeen op t'Oosten / ende different na t 'Heet-Op of the Suns; verre te boven gaen den Griecken ende Romainen in ouderdom ende spraecke. Af-beleet vanden Beghinne, totten tijd van Carolus Magnus; end of the year over 4900 years . ex Typographia Francisci Belletti, Ipris Flandrorum 1614.
3. ↑ Gerda Hassler (ed.). History of Linguistics 2008: Selected papers from the eleventh International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS XI), August 28 - September 2, 2008, Potsdam. Volume 115 of Studies in the History of the Language Sciences. John Benjamin Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9027287171 . P. 159: “ From 1647 onwards, in several of his writings, Boxhorn elaborated the idea that Scythian was the original mother language of Persian, Greek, Latin, the Germanic languages, Turkish, Welsh, Lithuanian, Russian and Latvian (cf. Boxhorn 1647). "
4. ↑ Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn: Bediedinge van de tot noch toe onbekende afgodinne Nehalennia over de dusent ende Meer jaren onder het sandt begraven, then onlancx ontdecks op het strandt van Walcheren in Zeelandt . Willem Christiaens vander Boxe, Leiden 1647.
5. ↑ Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn: Antwoord van Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn Gegeven op de Vraaghen, hem voorgestelt over de Bediedinge van de afgodinne Nehalennia, onlancx uytghegeven, in welcke de ghemeine herkomste van der Griecken, Romeinen ende Duytschen tale uyt den Scythen duyden du different oudheden van des volckeren grondelijck was discovered at the end . Willem Christiaens vander Boxe, Leiden 1647.
6. ^ Bonaventure Vulcanius (Bonaventura de Smet): De literis et lingua Getarum sive Gothorum. Item de notis Lombardicis. Quibus accesserunt specimina variarum linguarum, quarum indicem pagina quae praefationem sequitur ostendit . ex officina Plantiniana, apud Franciscum Raphelengium, Leiden 1597.
7. ^ Johann Elichmann: Tabula Cebetis graece, arabice, latine. Item aurea carmina Pythagorae . Typis Iohannis Maire, Leiden 1640.
8. ↑ Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux: Mémoire [letter to Abbot Barthélémy of 1767]. In: Memoires de littérature de [. . .] l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres No. 49 (Anquetil Duperron, Paris 1784-93), pp. 647-67.
9. ^ Andreas Jäger: De lingua vetustissima Europae, Scytho-Celtica et Gothica . Wittenberg 1686.
10. ↑ Lord Monboddo [James Burnet]: Of the origin and progress of language . J. Balfour, Edinburgh and T. Caldwell, London 1773-92; Lord Monboddo [James Burnet]: Antient metaphysics . 6 volumes. Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh and T. Caldwell, London 1779-99.
11. ^ Sir William Jones: Third anniversary discourse: on the Hindus . [Speech on February 2, 1786]. In: Asiatick Researches No. 1 1798, pp. 415-31.