Justus Georgius Schottelius (1612–1676) and European Linguistic Thought

Abstract

Summary This article re-evaluates the significance of the 17th-century grammarian Justus Georgius Schottelius (1612–1676) not just for German linguistic thought (where the importance of his cultural-patriotic Spracharbeit and his contribution to grammatography and lexicography is undisputed), but also in Europe more widely. Contributing to the complex story of the rootword in European linguistic thought, it also demonstrates how the notion of grammatical analogy which Schottelius took from Vossius was applied, through his influence, in grammars of Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Russian, and how his development of the humanist cultural-patriotic concept of the rootword influenced debates on the origin of language, and European studies of the Semitic and even Sanskrit languages.