Prelude to Baltic linguistics : : earliest theories about Baltic languages (16th century) / / Pietro U. Dini.

• Superior document: On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics ; 36
• VerfasserIn: Dini, Pietro U.,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam, Netherlands : : Rodopi,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: On the boundary of two worlds ; 36.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (165 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book is a study of the relatively unknown field of Baltic linguistic historiography associated with the 16th century. This has been the saeculum mirabile of Baltic philology, not only on account of the first books having appeared during that period, but also due to the diverse linguistic ideas about the Baltic languages which were circulating during Renaissance Palaeocomparativism: the Slavic and the closely connected Illyrian theory, the Latin theory (with its variants: the semi-Latin, the neo-Latin, and the Wallachian), also the Quadripartite theory. Minor but significant linguistic ideas are also discussed here, for example the emergence of a Hebrew theory and the Greek theory about Old Prussian. The synoptic juxtaposition of the different ideas shows very well the state of knowledge in Europe about the languages which later would be called ‘Baltic’ and the modernity of those ideas within European Renaissance linguistic debate leading to the rise of comparative linguistic genealogy.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Palaeocomparativism and Earliest Baltic Linguistics -- The Slav Theory and Polyglossia in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania -- An Illyrian Theory of the Baltic Languages -- The Latin Theory and Vilnius Latinizers -- Polyglossia and Linguistic Variations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Quadripartite Theory -- The Idea that Prussian Derives from Greek -- The Emergence of a Hebrew Theory -- Marcin Bielski’s ideas on the Lithuanian -- The Disappearance of the Baltic languages in Edward Brerewood’s Enqvireies (1614) -- Concluding Remarks: Was there a Baltistics before Baltistics? -- Notes -- Sources -- References.