Accusations of ‘racialism’ against Wilhelm von Humboldt’s (1767–1835) theory of language have been based in large measure on remarks in Humboldt (1836) concerning the inferiority of Chinese as an organ of thought. His other comments asserting its excellence are either marginalised or used to suggest that his account of the language is incoherent and irrational. However, when read in the context of the work in which they were originally formulated, Humboldt’s 1826 letter to the Sinologist J.-P. Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832), their coherence becomes apparent. Reacting to a polarisation between Sinologists and Sanskritists in the Société Asiatique of Paris, he rises to the challenge put to him by Rémusat to solve the paradox of how, if synthetic, inflecting languages are to be credited with the development of higher thought, Chinese, the ultimate analytic language, could have produced one of the world’s great civilisations. Humboldt conducts his enquiry in the classical form of a thesis, largely corresponding to Rémusat’s views of the superiority of Chinese; an antithesis, corresponding in part to the strong view of the inferiority of Chinese put forward by Rémusat’s student Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852); and a synthesis, which locates the excellence of Chinese in the realm of ideas and that of the inflecting languages in the realm of thought, then explains how it is that Chinese acquired a structural defect and subsequently turned it into an advantage.
Aarsleff, Hans. 1988. “Introduction”. First ed. of Heath’s translation of Humboldt (1988[1836]),vii–lxv.
Benson, Phil. 1996. Contributions to debate following Joseph (1996b). Current Issues in Language and Society 31,181–182. (Also in Wright & Kelly-Holmes, eds. 1997.75–76.)
Bopp, Franz. 1824. Ausf ührliches Lehrgebäude der Sanskritasprache. Berlin: Ferdinand Dummler. (2nd ed., 1827.)
Bopp, Franz. 1825. “Vergleichende Zergliederung der Sanskrita-Sprache und der mit ihm verwandten Sprachen. Erste Abhandlung: Von den Wurzeln und Pronomen erster und zweiter Person”. Abhandlungen der K öniglichen Akademie der Wissen-schaften zu Berlin, Philosophisch-historische Klasse 1825.117–148. (Repr. in Kleine Schriften zur vergleichendenden Sprachwissenschaft: Gesammelte Berliner Abhandlungen 1824–1854, 1–32. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der DDR, 1972.)
Brown, Roger Langham. 1967. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Conception of Linguistic Relativity. The Hague: Mouton.
Grossman, Jeffrey. 1997. “Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Linguistic Ideology: The problem of pluralism and the absolute difference of national character – Or, where do the Jews fit in?”. German Studies Review 201.23–47.
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 1979. “Zur philosophischen Grammatik des Altchinesischen im Anschluss an Humboldts Brief an Abel-Rémusat”. Published together with Brief an M. Abel-Rémusat über die Natur grammatischer Formen im allgemeinen und über den Geist der chinesischen Sprache im besonderen. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog. [German transi, of Humboldt 1826a.]
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 1992. “La connaissance du chinois”. Histoire des idées linguistiques ed. by Sylvain Auroux, vol.II1, 299–312. Liège: Mardaga.
Harris, Roy & Talbot J. Taylor. 1997. Landmarks in Linguistic Thought I: The Western Tradition from Socrates to Saussure. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1823–1824. “Ueber die in der Sanskrit-Sprache durch die Suffixa twâ und yâ gebildeten Verbalformen”. Indische Bibliothek 11.433–473; 21.71–134.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1825. “Ueber das Entstehen der grammatischen Formen, und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwicklung”. Abhandlungen der historisch-philologischen Klasse der k önigliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin aus dem Jahren 1822 und 1823, 401–430.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1826a. “Lettre à Monsieur Abel-Rémusat”, 7 mars 1826. Sections 1–7, 20–23 and 27–28 published as “Sur le génie grammatical de la langue chinoise, comparé à celui des autres langues” in Journal Asiatique 9 (1826), 115–123. First complete publication: Lettre à Monsieur Abel-Rémusat sur la nature des formes grammaticales en général et sur le génie de la langue chinoise en particulier par monsieur Guillaume de Humboldt. Observations sur quelques passages de la lettre précédente, par M. A[bel] R[émusat]. Paris: Doudey-Dupré, 1827. Repr. in Humboldt (1841–1852), vol.V1, 254–308. [For German translation, see Harbsmeier 1979.]
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1826b. “Über den grammatischen Bau der Chinesischen Sprache”. First published in Humboldt (1841–1852), vol.V1, 309–324.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1836. Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluβ auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts. Berlin: König-lichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. English version: On Language: The Diversity of Human Language Structure and its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind, transl. by Peter Heath, intro. by Hans Aarsleff, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. (2nd ed., with an Introduction by Michael Losonsky, in press.)
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1841–1852. Wilhelm von Humboldts gesammelte Werke. 71 vols. Berlin: Reimer.
Hutton, Christopher M.1999. Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother-tongue fascism, race and the science of language. London & New York: Routledge.
Hutton, Christopher M. & John E. Joseph. 1998. “Back to Blavatsky: The impact of theosophy on modern linguistics”. Language and Communication 181.181–204.
Joseph, John E.1990. “Ideologizing Saussure: Bloomfield’s and Chomsky’s readings of the Cours de linguistique générale”. Ideologies of Language ed. by John E. Joseph & Talbot J. Taylor, 51–78. London & New York: Routledge
Joseph, John E.1991. Review of Humboldt 1988[1836]. Language 671.843–851.
Joseph, John E.1996b. “English in Hong Kong: Emergence and Decline”. Current Issues in Language and Society 31.166–185. (Also in Wright & Kelly-Holmes eds. 1997. 60–79.)
Joseph, John E.1999. “Basic English and the ‘Debabelization’ of China”. Intercultural Encounters – Studies in English Literatures: Essays presented to Rudiger Ahrens on the occasion of his 60th birthday ed. by Heinz Antor & Kevin L. Cope, 51–71. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Joseph, John E.2000. “Language and ‘Psychological Race’: Léopold de Saussure on French in Indochina”. Language and Communication 20:1, in press.
Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel. 1822. Élémens de la grammaire chinoise, ou principes généraux du Kou-wen ou style antique, et du Kouan-hoa, c’est-à-dire, de la langue commune généralement usitée dans l’empire chinois. (Nouv. éd augmentée d’une table des principales phonétiques chinoises par Léon de Rosny, Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1857; repr., with an Introduction by Alain Peyraube, Paris: Ala Productions, 1987.)
Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel. 1824. Review of Humboldt (1825) and (1823–1824). Journal Asiatique 51.51–61.
Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel. 1826. See Humboldt (1826a).
Römer, Ruth. 1985. Sprachwissenschaft und Rassenideologie in Deutschland. München: Wilhelm Fink. (2nd ed., 1989.)
Said, Edward W.1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon.
Schlegel, August Wilhelm von. 1818. Observations sur la langue et la littérature provençales. Paris: Librairie Grecque-Latine-Allemande. (Repr., with a Preface by Gunter Narr, Tubingen: TBL Verlag, 1971.)
Schulz, Fréd. Edouard. 1824. Review of W. von Humboldt, “Über die Buchsta-benschrift und ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Sprachbau” (“Sur l’écriture alphabétique et ses rapports avec la structure du langage”), mémoire lu à l’Académie de Berlin. Journal Asiatique 51.369–376.
Swiggers, Pierre. 1986. Review of Harbsmeier (1979). Language 621.456–457.
Varo, Francisco. 1703[Ms.l682]. Arte de la lengua Mandarina. ed. by Pedro de la Piñuela (1650–1704). Canton: [Publisher unknown]. (New ed., with an English translation, by W. South Coblin, and an Introduction by Sandra Breitenbach, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999.)
Webb, John. 1669. An Historical Essay Endeavouing a Probability that the Language of the Empire of China is the Primitive Language. London: for Nath. Brook.
Wright, Sue & Helen Kelly-Holmes, eds. 1997. One Country, Two Systems, Three Languages: Changing language use in Hong Kong. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters.
Cited by (10)
Cited by ten other publications
Li, Shiqiao
2023. Language, Figure, Landscape in Chinese Thought. Theory, Culture & Society 40:4-5 ► pp. 57 ff.
LaPolla, Randy J.
2020. Forward to the past. Asian Languages and Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 147 ff.
Heller, Monica
2017. Dr. Esperanto, or Anthropology as Alternative Worlds. American Anthropologist 119:1 ► pp. 12 ff.
Lähteenmäki, Mika
2015. On the reception of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s linguistic ideas in the Soviet Union from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. Language & History 58:2 ► pp. 111 ff.
2000. Language and ‘psychological race’: Léopold de Saussure on French in Indochina. Language & Communication 20:1 ► pp. 29 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 august 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.