Rasmus Rask

Reprint of the original, first published in 1838.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1838.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1843.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1843.

Johann Severin Vater (1771–1826) was professor of theology and Oriental languages at Halle, but his linguistic interests also included Slavonic and Native North American languages. This book, first published in 1822, was a landmark publication of the first generation of Indo-European comparative philology, and was intended as a resource for future comparative study. It includes a substantial contribution by Rasmus Rask, the influential and prolific early Danish linguist, comparing members of the 'Thracian' family of languages, as he called Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Slavonic and Germanic (including Old Norse), which he had proved to be related. Vater translated this so as to make it available to linguists who could not access the original Danish edition. In addition there are chapters on Albanian, Gaelic, and Georgian (which later research showed to be a Caucasian language), and the book includes numerous comparative tables for easy reference.

Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) was a Danish scholar who, having devoted the early part of his career to the Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon languages and literature, embarked upon a journey overland through Russia to India in search of the cradle of the Indo-European languages. He was delighted to rediscover the Avestan Zoroastrian texts preserved by the Parsis which Anquetil du Perron had first reported on sixty years earlier, and further Avestan materials, as well as a lively Zoroastrian community. On his return, he published, first in Danish and then in this German translation (1826), a thorough phonological and morphological analysis which showed that, contrary to the opinion of Anquetil's opponents, the Avestan language and its religious texts were neither a dim folk memory or a deliberate coinage based on Sanskrit, but a very ancient language, originating in Persia, and an important member of the Indo-European language family.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.