This dissertation research will investigate the relationship between language sciences and Oriental studies in Germany from 1875 to 1900. Based on the observation that this period witnessed a methodological shift from ancient, often textual, evidence of language history to contemporary spoken data, it asks: In what ways did researchers interested in Near Eastern languages claim their work was "scientific"?
Methodologically, the project draws from the history of science, nineteenth-century German intellectual and political history, and the historiography of linguistics. It analyzes leading journals of comparative linguistics and German Oriental studies, such as the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (Journal of Comparative Linguistic Research) and the Zeitschrift der Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (Journal of Oriental Society). It requires archival research in Halle (Saale), Leipzig, Berlin, and Göttingen involving the papers of linguists and their professional organizations. Based on an analysis of these sources, it will outline the institutional development of Sprachwissenschaft (Linguistics) and Orientalistik (Orientalism) in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. At its core, the project will carry out case studies of linguists who worked on the Iranian sub-family of Indo-European, notably, J. H. Hübschmann (1848-1908) and F. C. Andreas (1846-1930).
This project poses fundamental questions about how boundaries of the scientific enterprise have been defined and controlled over time. In this period, German linguists actively debated the position of language study in relation to other fields. In particular, the "Neogrammarians" associated with the University of Leipzig claimed scientific status for their work by prioritizing method over the particularities of cultural and social history. The institutional and intellectual consequences of their work are essential to an understanding of "science" during this time of remarkable academic growth and self-conscious university modernization. Thus, this interdisciplinary project seeks to relate a context-specific understanding of science to later divisions between science and the humanities.
