Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics

Emanuel J. Drechsel is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Notable publications include Mobilian Jargon (Clarendon Press, 1997) and Language Contact in the Early Colonial Pacific (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

• Preface; Acknowledgments; List of Figures; Part I. Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Americas: Essentials; 1. Introduction: The Elder Humboldt as an Americanist Linguist and Anthropologist; 2. Research on Wilhelm von Humboldt and His Brother Alexander as Americanist Linguists: Biography, Ethnohistory, and Philology; Part II. The Early Lives of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt; 3. The Humboldt Brothers' Youth and Bildung in Europe of the Late Eighteenth Century; 4. Alexander von Humboldt on His Explorations of the Americas and in His Role as His Brother's Intermediary (1799–1804); 5. Wilhelm von Humboldt's Linguistic and Ethnographic Field Experiences with Basque in the Pyrenees of Spain (1799 and 1801); Part III. Wilhelm von Humboldt's Americanist Linguistics; 6. First Exposure to American Languages at the Vatican Library in Rome and the Significance of Alexander's American Resources (1803–1808); 7. Expansion and Intensification of Humboldtian Americanist Linguistics: Methodological and Theoretical Implications (1811–1819); 8. Les langues du Nouveau Continent: An Early Book on the American Languages in the Making, but Falling Short (1820–1827); 9. From the Americas to the Pacific: Americanist Linguistics as Methodological-Conceptual Midwife to the Study of Malayo-Polynesian Languages (1827–1835); Part IV. Wilhelm von Humboldt's Impact on Americanist Linguistics and Anthropology; 10. First Generation of American Humboldtians of the Early Nineteenth Century: American Languages in a Comparative Linguistics (Duponceau, Pickering, and Gallatin); 11. Second Generation of American Humboldtians in the Nineteenth Century: Language Typology, History, and Evolution (Lieber, Gatschet, and Brinton); 12. Third and Fourth Generations of American Humboldtians at the Turn of Nineteenth Century: Linguistic and Cultural Relativism (Boas, Kroeber, and Sapir); Part V. Wilhelm von Humboldt as an Americanist Linguist and Anthropologist; Summary; Conclusions; References; Appendix 1: List of Abbreviations for Frequently Used Publication Titles, Their Full Counterparts and English Translations; Appendix 2: Historical and Biographical Timetable of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt; Index.

'In an agreeable style, and with an impressive depth of scholarly erudition, Drechsel argues cogently that Humboldt not only nourishes American linguistics but engaged in a mutually enlightening dialogue with American scholars. This contribution highlights the significance of Humboldt's thinking for linguistic anthropology worldwide, and will be welcomed by linguistics and translation scholars as a fine contribution to the new wave of Humboldt scholarship in Germany and the English-speaking world.' James W. Underhill, Full Professor of Translation and Ethnolinguistics, University of Normandy