Historisches zum begriff des Monosyllabismus im Chinesischen
Summary
The paper traces-the origin of the concept of ‘monosyllabism’ as found in language typology and elsewhere in connection with Chinese and other East Asian languages. It turns out that the concept is part of the tradition of missionary linguistics by Jesuits in the 16th century, which is identified here as the first phase in the development of the idea of the monosyllabic nature of Chinese. This tradition is still maintained in the work of J.-H. M. de Prémaire (1666–1736), whose brief treatise on the pronunciation of Chinese is published here (in an annex) for the first time. The second phase in the evolution of the concept falls into the divulgativa-phase of Jesuit missionary work, which is the period during which Leibniz takes an interest in Chinese. The third, still pre-scientific phase is characterized by idiosyncratic interpretations of the structure of Chinese, in Germany in the work of J.C. Adelung and Humboldt, in France in the work of Abel Rémusat (1788–1832), by which time the concept of ‘monosyllabism’ could be found everywhere. The present paper leaves aside the contribution of other Christian missions such as those of the Dominicans, as they have thus far (unlike the Jesuits) not researched their archives on those questions.