The historiography of Dutch linguistics a diachronic introduction

At the end of the 19th century one had, for a summarizing survey of the historiography of Dutch linguistics, to make do mainly with German sources, namely von Raumer (1870), and, explicitly based on this, Hermann Paul (1891).

In the decade immediately preceding the First World War the later Utrecht professor Cornells G. N. de Vooys discussed the history of Dutch in a series of papers. It was his opinion that the practice of historical linguistics in the Netherlands fell far short of its counterpart abroad. He indicated two causes for this: a distinction which he considered dogmatic between written and spoken Dutch, and an insufficient understanding of language as a social phenomenon. Nevertheless it was not until 1931 that the first edition of de Vooys’ monograph Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal, in hoofdtrekken geschetst (‘History of the Dutch language, an outline’) was published. In this study he also gave ample attention to the Dutch grammarians and their works. Quite rightly de Vooys’ book was reissued several times.

However, after his death in 1955 the need arose for a study in which the historiography of Dutch linguistics was described in its own right. This resulted in a Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taalkunde (‘History of Dutch linguistics’), published in 1977. This was a cooperative project of eleven authors from the Netherlands and Flanders, with Dirk M. Bakker and Gerardus R. W. Dibbets as editors. Although this book, too, has many merits, it has been remarkably little influenced by changing views with regard to the historiography of linguistics.