LAMBERT TEN KATE AND THE ORIGIN OF 19th-CENTURY HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS by GERRIT H. JONGENEELEN
The history of linguistics in the Low Countries. Ed. by Jan Noordegraaf, Kees Versteegh and Konrad Koerner. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
0. Introduction
0.1 The first decade of the 18th century witnessed a boom of Dutch linguistic writing: in 1700 David van Hoogstraten (1658-1724) published his Aenmerkingen over de geslachten der zelfstandige naemwoorden; in 1703 Jacobus Nyloë (1670-1714) followed with his Aenleiding tot de Nederduitsche taal; in 1706 Arnold Moonen's (1644-1711) Nederduitsche spraekkunst appeared; in 1707 followed by Adriaan Verwer's (1654-1720) Lingua belgicae idea grammatica, poetica, rhetorica, and in 1708 by William Séwel's (1654-1720) Nederduytsche spraakkunst (cf. Knol 1977:64-112). Following this rapid sequel of Dutch grammars appeared, in 1710, Lambert ten Kate's (1674-1731) Geméénschap tussen de Gottische spraeke en de Nederduytsche. Of all these publications Moonen's Nederduitsche spraekkunst was to be the most influential throughout the 18th century, but ten Kate's Geméénschap was to have the most lasting influence, as I hope to show in this paper.
0.2 In what follows I will deal with the linguistic portion of ten Kate's writings, especially with his two-volume publication of 1723, Aenleiding tot de kennisse van het verhevene deel der Nederduitsche sprake, which was subtitled "Behelzende den grondslag beneffens twee proeven van geregelde afleiding" (Introduction into the cognition of the sublime part of the Dutch language: Concerning its foundations together with two regular specimens of word derivation). In this work ten Kate developed the theoretical base of his etymological dictionary, notably the "twee proeven van geregelde afleiding" in volume two, starting with the ablaut rule in strong verbs he had published in 1710 in the Geméénschap. I shall first show ten Kate's dependence on the linguistic and philosophical conceptions of his teacher Adriaan Verwer (see section 1.0); then, I shall analyse the extensions ten Kate makes by analyzing in some detail the Aenleiding; and, finally, I shall trace his influence on 19th-century historical linguistics and especially on Jacob Grimm.
0.3 Lambert ten Kate was born on 23 January 1674 of Mennonite parents. His father, Herman ten Kate (1644-1706), played a prominent role in the lamist movement of Galenus Abrahamszoon de Haan (1622-1706), the leader of those Mennonites who were willing to accept Cartesian and Spinozistic philosophy within their religious credo. Due to these activities Lambert ten Kate got himself involved in the educational affairs that may have motivated him to write his Aenleiding. 1
1 His silent partnership in the wheat trade provided him with the means for his extensive art collection;2 the physics of Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and the phonetics of Johan Conrad Amman (1669-1724) he had studied earlier in the Haarlem Collegium Physicum.3 Aesthetic subjects are treated in his correspondence with Hendrik van Limborch (1682-1759) (cf. Ms. Ic23 University Library, Amsterdam) and linguistic matters since about 1705 with the Rotterdam Mennonite merchant Adriaan Verwer. Following the death of his father, ten Kate lived in his parental home with his stepmother Geertruida van Geleyn (1649-1718). On 14 December 1731 ten Kate died; six days later he was buried in the Noorderkerk in Amsterdam.
1.0 Ten Kate as a pupil of Adriaan Verwer
1.1 Verwer's activities in the Mennonite College in Rotterdam
The introductory letter of ten Kate's Geméénschap, signed LtKHz (= Lambert ten Kate Hermanszoon) and dated 25 March 1708, is addressed to A.V. (= Adriaan Verwer). In 1707 Adriaan Verwer had published his Linguae belgicae idea grammatica, poetica, rhetorica, which was the result of linguistic discussions held in Amsterdam, where Verwer had lived since 1680. It seems probable, that besides ten Kate also Tiberius Hemsterhuis (1685-1766), professor at Amsterdam university (Athenaeum Illustre) since 1704 (Gerretzen 1940:83), participated in them. Before taking up residency in Amsterdam Verwer had taken part in the religious quarrels in the Rotterdam college; initially on the side of the Spinoza-minded Jacob Ostens, later on among the opponents of Bredenburg (van Bunge 1988; van Slee 1980:241-243). Although the Bredenburg controversies did not begin before 1680, the year of Verwer's establishment in Amsterdam, he got involved in these by publishing 't Mom-aensicht der atheistery afgerukt door een verhandeling van de aengeboren stand der menschen, for which he had studied the philosophy of Spinoza and spoken with Amsterdam Mennonites who had known the deceased philosopher personally (Verwer 1683:75). The central theme in the Bredenburg controversies is the determinism inherent in the philosophy of Spinoza. In his Enervatio tractatus theologico-politici Joannes Bredenburg (1630?-1691) concludes, that, according to Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), "God acts according to the necessity of His nature because His will cannot be distinguished from His intellect" (van Bunge 1989:231) and that finally "Spinoza identifies God with nature, and nature with an infinite machine, operating according to blind necessity" (van Bunge 1989:233), so that "we will have to adhere [...] to the distinction between His will and intellect" in order to preserve His freedom (van Bunge 1989:235; cf. van Bunge 1990). The same distinction is advocated by Verwer to be made between natura naturans (generating nature) and natura naturata (generated nature) in order to refute those who cherish deterministic feelings concerning the "aangeboren stand der menschen" (inherited state of man), because such feelings are contrary to the mathematical concept of natural reason Verwer developed.4
1.2 Verwer's concept of analogy
1.2.1 The mathematics of Simon Stevin (1548-1620), which must be indicated as the source of Verwer's concept of 'natural reason', also figures in the Idea (= Verwer 1707), where the 'analogy' concept is derived from it.5 In order to stop the decline and to restore the Dutch gemeenlands ("common speech"), both Verwer and ten Kate postulated a historical period of language perfection. Verwer calls this period the 'seculum analogum', the period of perfect analogy as it was represented by the Middle Dutch of Melis Stoke:
si attendimus ad scripta anteriorum seculorum (ante ann. 1600) reperimus communem eam normam se multò latius exporrexisse; [...] in tantùm ut ad instar Simonis Stevini, Mathematici, cum suo seculo erudito) jus sit statuendi, fuisse aliquando tempus, quo nostrae linguae res grammatica erat in statu maximè analogo; quodque tempus mihi concedatur vocare Seculum analogum. (Verwer 1707:6-7; cf. Stevin 1608:9-24 (Wysentijt, i.e., seculum eruditum)
(If we study carefully the writings of the past centuries (i.e., before 1600), we will find, that this common norm had a far wider extension; [...] even to such an extent that it seems proper to state, just like the mathematician Simon Stevin with his Golden Age, that there once was a period in which the grammar of our language was in a state of perfect analogy, which I would like to call the 'Age of Analogy'.)
Like the Greek koinè Dutch 'gemeenlands' was distinguished from its dialects. Verwer (p.3r.) defines them in rhetorical terms:
Lingua communis iis erat Idioma grammaticis legibus absolutissimum; in analogiá precipuè fundatum; denique Etymologicâ & Syntacticâ figurâ quasi vacuum. Dialectus Poëtica contrà in hoc distinguebatur, quod esset undequaque luxurians multiplici figurâ, tum etymologicâ (metaplasmo nempe) tum syntacticâ.
(The common language was the most absolute norm for the laws of their grammar, preeminently founded on analogy and almost devoid of etymological and syntactical [= rhetorical: GHJ] transformations. The literary language differs from it in this respect, that it widely uses all kinds of rhetorical ornamentation, both etymological (i.e., transformation) and syntactical.)
In a slightly different way Tiberius Hemsterhuis (1685-1766), too, relates the common language to its dialects rhetorically:
Sed usu procedente et illa analogiae lege vim suam exserente, ornationes cultioresque sunt factae; ab ipsa prima simplicitate significandi et denotandi recessum est aliquantulum, et figurae orationis coeperunt usurpari.6 (Quoted after Gerretzen 1940:131)
(But as language was in use for some time and this analogy law was having its influence, ornamentations and cultivations were introduced, and language lost its original simplicity in signifying and denoting, and rhetorical figures began to take possession of it.)
1.2.2 Besides this regularity concept of analogy, developed in the Idea, civil authority had a prominent function in establishing the 'gemeenlands':
Want zonder dat het de Hooge-Overigheit by ons doe, is onze tael gantsch onontfankelyk van veranderinge in't stuk van Gebruik: zy is't alleene welke oppermogentlyk kan gebieden en ook doen gehoorzamen, dat het gene nu tarwe heet morgen rogge moet heten: [...] (Verwer 1708:529)
(For without civil authority doing it for us, our language is absolutely insensitive to change concerning its use; only Civil Authority is able to command and make obey, that what is called wheat today, will be called rye tomorrow.)
The language used by civil authority in its legislation preeminently contained the analogy norm Verwer was looking for, whereas individuals may make use of (rhetorical) 'ciertalen' like those of Vondel and Hooft. Because the State General of the Republic had approved the translation of the Holy Scripture (1637), it contained the same analogy norm as the Middle Dutch of Melis Stoke, according to Verwer. He therefore saw in it a first restoration of the lost 'analogy' of the Dutch 'gemeenlands'. Moreover Verwer conceived of his Idea in reaction to the Nederduitsche spraekkunst of Arnold Moonen, which was based on the concept of common language of the German linguist Justus Georg Schottel (1612-1676) in his Ausfúhrliche Arbeit von der Teutschen Haubtsprache of 1663 (cf. Schaars 1988).
1.3 Ten Kate's concept of 'gemeenlands'
Although ten Kate used the grammatical writings of Schottelius for his Aenleiding, he took over the concept of 'gemeenlands' from Verwer, though not without modifying it. In the first place he substitutes the pre-Roman era as the golden age of language perfection for the Middle Dutch of Stoke (I. 402), because the discovery of the ablaut made him presuppose a period in which all the dialects having the ablaut constituted one language (ten Kate 1710:7-8). In this period the forebears had introduced phonetic and conceptual perfection into the 'gemeenlands' (cf. Stevin 1686:dD3v.). In the Aenleiding ten Kate confronts his physicotheological concepts, which can be seen as the consequence of his methodology, with the anti-metaphysical Hobbist position of Verwer. At the end of the tenth dialogue, about the categorical system of the parts of speech, N., who stands for Verwer, states:
Maer ik denk immers niet, dat je de Oeffening in de Theologische Verschilpunten voor uw beter vermaek rekent, vermits zaken, welker duisterheid meest veroorzaekt is, of door Waen, of door Onkunde, of ook grootelijks door Gloriezucht van de genen die deze Geschillen eerst op de baen brachten, en die sedert van velen met zo veel bitterheid van wederzijde aengestookt zijn: ik denk ook niet, dat het die hoge Metaphysique beschouwingen zijn, die van velen zo stoutelijk ondernomen en mislijk voorgestelt worden, dat men hen vergelijken mag bij de genen, die verwaendelijk met strakke oogen het Zonnelicht willende bezien, zo verblind raken, dat ze, 't gene voor hare voeten ligt, naeulijks onderscheiden konnen. (I.332)
(But I do not believe, however, that you consider the study of theological disputes to be your better delight, as it is a matter of which the obscurity is mostly caused by opinion or inability, or even by the vainglory of those who first introduced those disputes that ever since were fed by the bitterness of their participants; I do not believe either that it is the study of the sublime Metaphysics boldly undertaken by the many but executed so badly, that they are like those who, wanting to see the light of the sun, dazzle themselves, and hardly distinguish what lies before their feet.)
To which L. (= Lambert ten Kate) replies:
Beschouwingen die tot een vrolijk Gemoed behooren, hebben mijnes agtens vrij wat heerlijkers in, dan 't gene gij daer noemt; de zulken namelijk, die ons helpen tot het voornaemste en nutste gebruik van al 't Zichtelijke, en van alle Wetenschappen, om overal zo binnen als buiten ons die Goddelijke Prediking van al 't Geschapene te verstaen, die den Schepper groot maekt en ons klein en nederig. (I.332)
(Speculations familiar to a cheerful mind, will bring about much more delight than those just mentioned by you; that is to say, such as will help us to make good use of all what is visible and of all the Sciences; in order to be able to understand the divine Preaching of the entire creation within and outside ourselves, which glorifies the Lord and will make us small and humble.)
Inspired by the optimism of Enlightenment, ten Kate expected his physicotheological scientific and religious insights to put an end to the religious quarrels that had ravaged the Republic during the 17th century.
2.0 Ten Kate's linguistic method
2.1 Ten Kate's study of the phonetics in Amman's Surdus loquens (1692), and of the physics of Newton as it had been passed on to the Collegium Physicum Harlemense by the Leyden Academy, appear to have determined ten Kate's religious views and methodological insights before he entered into linguistic deliberations with Verwer in Amsterdam. As I have noted earlier, the role of civil authority in establishing the 'gemeenlands' is the same in ten Kate's argument as in Verwer's. Ten Kate even often draws a parallel between "Staet- en Taelwetten": when two different groups of the same people after a period of separation reunite, each group had to give up some of the linguistic and political institutions it has developed during the intervening period (1723 I,10). Although these institutions have been constituted by means of reason, civil authority does not use reason in order to tie them together; it would have to discover, not to invent the linguistic and political institutions: "De Tael-wetten, evenals de Land-wetten, nu van agteren te vinden en niet te maken" (to discover a posteriori linguistic as well as political rules; not to invent them a priori I.398; cf. ibid., 13-14). This famous statement of ten Kate that clearly articulates the empiricism of his method, is directly related to the function of the civil authority in establishing the 'gemeenlands' as Verwer had defined it. Ten Kate realizes that much research into the language history has to be done in order to bring about a 'gemeenlands' that will be acceptable for all.
2.2 Ten Kate's 'gemeenlands' did not have an explicit form,7 but functioned as a grammatical 'competence' for those who wanted to write according to a grammatically correct system (I.152-154). The difference, for instance, between 'hard' and 'soft' E and O and between EI and Y, lost in the prestigious Holland dialect of Amstel- and Rijnland, had to be maintained in the 'gemeenlands' and the written languages (schrijftalen) based on it, because, he argues, it was in use by the forebears in the pre-Roman era and the speakers of cognate languages (I.174). For his historical investigations with a view to re-establishing the 'gemeenlands' ten Kate develops a conceptual framework that greatly resembles the 20th century framework of Eggers (1977:45-47) in his classification of the history of the German language. Eggers' Schriftdialekt, in which the sounds of some vernaculars are recorded mostly according to the Latin value of the letters resembles ten Kate's Schrijfdialect (I.120; II.18-23). Similarly Eggers' Schreibsprache, called Schrijftaal by ten Kate, presupposes a general grammatical system underlying it; each town, each region and each individual could have his own 'schrijftaal' according to him (I.158). Lastly, Eggers' Schriftsprache, referring to the common language of Schottelius, figures as 'gemeenlands' in ten Kate and is conceived of as the grammatical system underlying the grammatical systems of all the 'schrijftalen'. By 'gemeenlands' ten Kate not only understands the developing common language of the Republic, but also any language to which several dialects not forming a political unity belong. Thus in this view Swedish and Danish for instance are dialects of the old Cimbric (I.54). For this historical 'gemeenlands' the term Spraek (Sprake) is used by ten Kate (I.1 and 2v). The 'schrijftalen' of the dialects are interrelated and reduceable to the pre-Roman 'gemeenlands' by the 'sound laws' (dialectregels). For the vowels for instance ten Kate formulates the following paradigm: [Figure 1: ten Kate 1723:I,165
These 'sound laws', that are the immediate result of ten Kate's discovery of the ablaut in the Germanic languages, form the starting point of his etymological work in the second volume of his Aenleiding. The physical analysis of natural sound (I.132-150) and the phonetic analysis of speech8 give it a scientific base that was unique for his time. P, V and F for example, can replace each other, ten Kate observes, because they are all labials (I.74; cf. section 3.2 below).
Apart from the rule of root stress9 language distribution, determined by the workings of the 'sound laws' (steekhoudende Dialect-regels; see figure 1) on individual words, is analysed in the etymological dictionary (I.21;II.7).
2.3 Ten Kate's first concern, however, was the re-establishment of the Republic's 'gemeenlands', in which the forebears had distinguished three levels of style in order to express conceptual content (I.334). Ten Kate here applies the eclectic idealistic aesthetics he had developed earlier (Thijm 1869:110-114) to his theory of language cultivation (I.16-17; cf. Knolle 1984). Unlike his linguistic ideas ten Kate's aesthetic ideas was widely shared all over Europe during the 18th century as the "discours préliminaire sur le beau idéal" in Jonathan Richardson's (1665-1745) Traitée la peinture, that had been translated from English by A. Rutgers "avec l'assistence de Monsieur ten Kate" (Richardson 1728 I, 8 (*2r.)). Lessing for his part mentions Richardson's Traité more than five times, without being able to harmonize the concept of 'Mitleid' his aesthetics was based on, with the idealism of ten Kate and Richardson. Winckelmann, however, whose account of the Laokoon was the starting point of Lessing's Laokoon, had a far better appreciation of ten Kate's idealism, possibly due to the fact that he had studied the empirico-rationalism of Herman Boerhaave's (1668-1738) medicine (Justi 1923 I,104-105) that also formed the background of ten Kate's physics. Indeed, Winckelmann's conception of the 'beau idéal' can be directly traced back to ten Kate (Justi 1923 III,196-215).
3.0 19th-century historical linguistics and ten Kate
3.1 A.W. Schlegel's (1767-1845) review of volume I of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Altdeutsche Wälder in the Heidelberger Jahrbuch (1815) is generally considered to have led Grimm to his "Wendung zu strenger Wissenschaftlichkeit" (Raumer 1870:452; Koerner 1989:305-306). Schlegel advises Grimm among other things to consult ten Kate's Geméénschap (1710) in order to improve his linguistic acumen. No consensus exists about the use Grimm made of ten Kate. Rompelman (1952:271,280) does not believe that "Grimm had known, that is to say read ten Kate personally" Brink (1986:133-134) is of the same opinion. However, the facts tell a different story. In a letter to Meinhard Tydeman (1741-1825), a representative of Tiberius Hemsterhuis' school of Dutch philologists who provided Grimm with the Dutch literature he needed for his research, Grimm writes (Kassel, 28 February 1817):
Ich bin diesen Winter fleissig hinter unsern ältesten deutschen Quellen hergewesen [...] In Absicht auf die heutige holländische Sprache bin ich auf Wm Séwels nederduytsche Spraakkonst (2te Aufl. Amsterd. 1724) als einziges Hülfsmittel, das mir zu Gebote stünde, beschränkt. Leider Besitze ich ten Kates besseres Werk nicht. (Grimm 1883:62-63)
The next year Tydeman sent him ten Kate's grammar. For his Deutsche Grammatik he used a copy of the Göttinger library, as he writes to Tydeman on 15 December 1818:
Mit dem Ankauf des ten Kate für 6f. bin ich sehr zufrieden, zum Nachschlagen wird es mir immer nützlich seyn wiewohl ich seit dem halben Jahre, dass ich mir ihn von der Göttinger Bibl. kommen lassen, wenig daraus gelernt habe, und fast in Bilderdijks Urteil einstimmen muss, wiewohl ich mich bescheidener ausdrücken werde. (Grimm 1883:67)
Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1831), with whom Grimm corresponded since 1812 (Schokker 1933:92; Kollewijn 1891 II,29; Soeteman 1989), practised the kind of etymology Schlegel had chastised Grimm for in his 1815 critique. Bilderdijk had lectured in 1811:
Ten Kate heeft grooten naam, en als wegwijzer eene verdienste ten aanzien van ons, die men zonder ondankbaarheid niet miskennen kan. Maar des mans eenvoudige stompheid, die hem in zich-zelf achtenswaardig maakte, maar aan allerlei misgreepen blootstelde, maakte hem tot een slecht voorganger op den weg dien hy opende; en die in zijne voetstappen blijven, brengen het niet verr' op de baan, waar de lauwer te halen is. (Bilderdijk 1875 [1811]:9)
(Ten Kate has great fame and in respect of us a merit, that must gratefully be recognized. But his simple stupidity, that made him respectable for himself, but exposed him to all kinds of mistakes, made him a bad guide on the road he opened up and those who follow in his footsteps, will not go far on the path where laurels are gained.)
It seems, however, that Grimm did adopt Bilderdijk's opinion indeed until German linguistics took a more scientific course in the 1840s (Fiesel 1927:216, 222-23; Verburg 1952:437-38). In his survey of the sources, in the first volume of his Deutsche Grammatik (1819), republished in 1890, Grimm writes:
in Holland wird Lambert ten Kate aenleiding, ein werk von zwei starken quartanten (Amst. 1723) höchst geschätzt [...] an geist und historischer sicherheit gebricht es aber zusehends [...]; dem ganzen liegt der richtig erkannte satz von der höheren wichtigkeit der starken conjugation zum grunde und auf ihm beziehen sich die im zweiten band entwickelten wortableitungen; sie sind einseitig und nehmen auf andere nicht minder wichtige grundtriebe der sprache keine rücksicht; beim nachschlagen und weiteren prufen können sie aber nützlichen dienst leisten. (Grimm 1890 [= 1819] VIII;92)
However, by 1857 Grimm had changed his opinion:
Ten Kate nennt sein ganzes werk aanleiding [...], es soll die erhabene, hohe sprache darstellen, und die niemals unter hochdeutsches joch gebeugten Niederländer dürfen in ihrer sprache unbedenklich einen hohen und niederen stil unterscheiden. jede sprache musz, wenn sie vom sinnlichen boden zu abstracten gedanken übergeht und sich vergeistert, in der reinsten bedeutung dieser worte, sich erheben, und so verlangt auch leibnitz [par.] 10 von unseren deutschen sprache, sie soll durchgehends erhoben werden. (Grimm 1884 VII,401)
With this conception of ten Kate as the creator of a sublime 'gemeenlands' Grimm surpasses earlier evaluations, conveyed to him by Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) during the Vienna Congress of 1815.10
3.2 It should be recalled that Grimm's kind of etymologizing in particular had been attacked by A.W. Schlegel in the Heidelberger Jahrbuch:
Die Etymologie is für beide Hrn. Grimm eine Klippe, welche sie niemals berühren ohne zu scheitern [...] (Schlegel 1847 [1815]:416)
It had no scientific base in phonetic matters; no explanation was offered to quotations like
In welchen Fällen und unter welchen Einschränkungen treten diese Buchstaben (= b, k, d) verscheidener Sprachwerkzeugen einer an die Stelle des andern? (Schlegel p.396; cf. 2.2 above)
Schlegel concludes:
Man möchte Hrn. Gr. einen etymologischen Heraclitus nennen. Dieser Philosoph lehrte, wie bekannt, alle Dingen seien fliessend, ohne festen Bestand und in stätiger Verwandlung. (Schlegel p.403)
Instead, he advises Grimm to adopt the following route to philological method:
[Die Philologie] schämt sich dessen nicht bei den geringsten Überresten des klassischen Altertums: warum sollte sie es bei den altdeutschen Denkmalen? Dazu ist scharfe Kritik, sprachliche Genauigkeit und gründliche Auslegungskunst erforderlich, und hierin ist, einige rühmliche Ausnahmen abgerechnet, noch fast nichts geleistet worden11
The "Philologie als strenge Wissenschaft", as it was practised by Tiberius Hemsterhuis and his school, according to A.W. Schlegel, was in need of grammatical support:
Man kann es nicht genug wiederholen, die Beschäftigung mit den alten einheimischen Schriften kann nur durch Auslegungskunst und Kritik gedeihen; und wie sind diese möglich ohne genaue grammatische Kenntniss?
[...] Für die Geschichte unserer Grammatik ist bisher durch Ausländern mehr geleistet worden als durch deutsche Gelehrte. Wir nennen hier vorzüglich ausser Hickes und Lye, eine holländische Schrift: Gemeenschap tussen de Gottische Spraeke en de Nederduytsche von Lambert ten Kate. Sie umfasst nicht die ganze gothische Grammatik, sondern bloss die Konjugation und Deklination, diese sind aber meisterlich behandelt.
[...] Lambert ten Kate hat den Satz durchgeführt, die sämmtliche Zeitwörter des Ulfilas nach Klassen geordnet und ihre Analogie bis in die feinsten Verzweigungen nachgewiesen. (Schlegel 1847 [1815]:405-407)
In other words, ten Kate's Geméénschap thus was to be used by Grimm as a grammatical guide for his own investigations.
4.0 Conclusion
The two periods that can be distinguished in the linguistic writings of Jacob Grimm are characterized by a growing appreciation of ten Kate's linguistics. In the first period contacts with the Schlegel brothers during the Vienna Congress make him abandon his earlier romantic conceptions and adopt the sound based linguistics of ten Kate. In the second period (after 1850) Grimm's linguistics become more rationalistic, giving the 'gemeenlands' a schottelian interpretation;12 even then Grimm does not see, however, the relation with Dutch Renaissance linguistics that can be laid, over ten Kate's teacher Adriaan Verwer.
NOTES
*1) On Galenus Abrahamszoon see Meihuizen (1954). For the Mennonite contribution to Dutch cultural life, see Groenveld (1980).
*2) See Uffenbach (1754 III, 651-656). Though there is some doubt about ten Kate's mercantile activities, a funeral poem by O.M.F.D.R. in ten Kate (1732:C2v) is quite certain: "Aan 't lastig Koopgewoel kon hy zig niet gewennen" (He could not warm up to throwing himself into commercial troubles.) Cf. ten Cate (1987:16-24).
*3) Jongeneelen (1989). Wagenaar (1767 XI,350-352) stresses his Newtonian studies. The same is done by Peeters (1990b:153).
*4) Verwer (1683:23). "In de Meet-konst moeten wy de lijnen en vlakken voor-onderstellen als onlichamelijk; in de Weeg-konst, daar-en-tegen, als swaarte hebbende, en by gevolg immers lichamelijk; [...]." (pp.3-4) (In mathematics we have to conceive of lines and planes as incorporeal; in mechanics, however, as substantial and consequently as corporeal.)
*5) The linguistics of both Verwer and ten Kate have a strongly anti-Cartesian character. In the Aenleiding (I.111), written 1712-1713, the preceding 50 years are termed a period of decline and the preface of ten Kate (1716) the author disagrees with the determinism of Cartesian mechanics.
*6) In Hemsterhuis the following analogy concept is formulated (quoted after Gerretzen 1940:116): "Infixum est scilicet hominibus a summo rerum auctore Deo principium aliquod tanquam forma analogica ad quam expediantur et explorentur non tantum actiones humanae, sed et quidquid ore profertur, quidquid manibus, quidquid corpore menteque agitur. Hoc principium analogiae internum omnibus est infixum; sine eo principio nil quod gratiam habet agimus, nil dicimus". [From the Supreme Creator of all things mankind had received some inborn principle or analogic form to which not only all human actions are related and regulated, but also what is done by the mouth, what by the hands, and what with the body and the soul. This analogy principle is inborn to all; without it we cannot accomplish anything that deserves blessing.]
*7) Cf. de Vooys (1923:75): "Enerzijds neemt hij, met zijn vriend Verwer, aan dat die algemeene taal bestaat; anderzijds beseft hij dat de normen wel in wording zijn, maar nog niet vaststaan". [On the one side he and his friend Verwer accept, that this common language exists; on the other he realizes, that its standard still is in development, but not fixed yet.]
*8) Ten Kate (I.109-131) shares his distinction between 'critique' and 'politique' with Verwer: 'dogmatique' and 'critique' (cf. Vanderheyden 1957:627).
*9) Ten Kate was not the first to articulate "The fundamental Germanic characteristic of root stress" (Brink 1986:126); before him Stevin already stated "datse [= accentus acutus/hoochbyclanck] voor ghemeen reghel altijt comme op des doende woorts (verbi activi) ende dieder uyt spruyten, voornaemste silb, als in Hooren, Verhoorende, Ghehoort, Behoorende, Hoorende, dat de langhe silb altijd op Hoor valle, die aldaer de weerdichste is, wantmen inden eersten persoon seght ick Hoor, d'ander silben als en, ver, ende, ghe, be, en siin maer by ghesette, daer men alle woorden me verandert" (Stevin 1585:dD4r.) [that stress generally falls on the root syllable of the active verb and its derivatives, as in Hooren, Verhoorende, Ghehoort, Behoorende, Hoorende; that the accent always falls on Hoor, as being the most important syllable, because the first person is ick hoor, and the other syllables like en, ver, ende, be, are only affixes, that change the word accidentally.]
*10) Grimm attended with F. Schlegel the Vienna Congress of 1815. On 26 August 1815 F. Schlegel writes to his brother: "auch Grimm, der als Legations Secretär mit Graf Keller den ganzen Congress über hier war hat das [Nibelungen] Manuscript trotz aller Mühe nur drei Tage lang habhaft werden können, wie er mir sagte, wo er sich denn einige Varianten herausgeschrieben. Was ist das für ein Grimmiges Produkt unter den vielen, welches du recensirt hast?" (Schlegel 1980:76)
*11) A.W. Schlegel (1847:396). Cf. Friedrich Schlegel (1797:42): "Soll die Philologie als strenge Wissenschaft und echte Kunst getrieben werden: so erfordert sie eine ganz eigene Organisation des Geiste; nicht minder als die eigentliche Philosophie [...]".
*12) Schmarsow (1877) investigates the relation between the linguistic concepts referred to by Grimm and those of Schottelius. For a more recent account, see Dascal (1975).
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SUMMARY
In this paper it is argued that the source of the linguistic concepts of Lambert ten Kate (1674-1731) is to be found in the debates in the Rotterdam Mennonite college, where Adriaan Verwer (1654-1720) participated in the Bredenburg religious quarrels. These induced Verwer to formulate a concept of natural reason, based on the mathematics of Simon Stevin (1548-1620), that also would be the base of the analogy concept in the 'gemeenlands' of both Verwer and ten Kate. The extension ten Kate gave to the concept of 'gemeenlands' from his phonetic and physical studies, would determine Germanic language studies in a romantic way until Jacob Grimm would renew Verwer's concept of 'gemeenlands' in the second half of the 19th century.
RÉSUMÉ
L'origine des conceptions linguistiques de Lambert ten Kate (1674-1731) doit être cherchée dans les discussions réligieuses au collège des mennonites à Rotterdam. La participation que Adriaan Verwer (1654-1720) y avait prise aux combats Bredenbourgeois ont conduit Verwer à emprunter sa conception d'une raison naturelle mathématique à Simon Stevin (1548-1620). C'est cette raison qui lui a fourni plus tard la base de son concept d'analogie, sur laquelle fut fondé le concept de 'gemeenlands' de Verwer et de ten Kate. Inspiré par ses recherches phonétiques et physiques et par sa découverte de l'ablaut, ten Kate a donné une interprétation pangermanique au gemeenlands de Verwer, qui a subsisté jusqu'à ce que Jacob Grimm eût abandonné sa propre interprétation romantique de l'historie des langues germaniques.