Hugo Schuchardt
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Hugo Ernst Mario Schuchardt was born on 4 February 1842 in Gotha (Thüringen) and died on 21 April 1927 in Graz (Styria).
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[edit] In Germany
Schuchardt grew up in Gotha. During 1859-1864, he studied in Jena and Bonn with many important linguists of the time, notably August Schleicher and Kuno Fischer in Jena, as well as Friedrich Ritschl and Otto Jahn in Bonn. In 1864, Schuchardt earned a doctorate with a dissertation entitled "De sermonis Romani plebei vocalibus" which in 1866-1868 was published in a three volume German language edition("Der Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins"). In 1870, Schuchardt was promoted to professor ('habilitation') at the University of Leipzig, and in 1873, Schuchardt became professor of Romance Philology at the university of Halle which was then a stronghold of the neogrammarians. During this time, Schuchardt primarily worked on classical romance topics with a strong historic orientation, but also developed an interest in language contact and language mixing.
[edit] Moving to Graz, Austria
In 1876, Schuchardt is serving as the chair for Romance Philology at the University of Graz, with the help of Johannes Schmidt. He is also doing field research travelling to Wales (1875) and Spain (1879) where he is collecting material for his celtistic and basque/romance research. Schuchardt also gets interested in two new fields, Creole and Basque linguistics, thereby becoming a respected forefather of both linguistic subdisciplines. With his 1888 publication "Auf Anlass des Volapüks" he stands up for the creation of a new 'world language' for all nations. In the same period (1885), he publishes an influential critique of the methods of the 'neogrammarians' with the title "Über die Lautgesetze. Gegen die Junggrammatiker".
Schuchardt may be most eminent as a bascologist. L.L. Bonaparte arranges in 1887 Schuchardt's journey to the village of Sara (Lapurdi, Basses Pyrénées) where Schuchardt made a field study and seems to have learned the Basque language. Following this journey, he publishes numerous (>100!) works on basque and romano-basque, but never returns to the Basque country again. In various publications, Schuchardt is discussing possible relationships of Basque with other language families, although today Basque is known as a language isolate. Schuchardt firmly takes side with the outdated viewpoint of the Vasko-Iberian hypothesis, which stands in stark contrast to his earlier open-mindedness.
Similarly, in the then actual discussion about ergativity, Schuchardt takes a strong viewpoint seeing the ergative construction as an obligatorily passive clause (as opposed to a similarly questionable theory of the ergative construction being a nominalized clause); with this viewpoint, he specifically opposes to Nikolaus Finck in Vienna with whom he has a scientific dispute in a succession of articles (cf., e.g., Finck, N. 1907: Der angeblich passivische Charakter des transitiven Verbs. in: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 41: 209-282.).
[edit] Late period
Although Schuchardt is invited to get professorships in Budapest and Leipzig (around 1890), he refuses to leave Graz. In 1900, however, Schuchardt is retiring prematurely from his chair. Being then free from his teaching duties, he undertakes prolongated travels to Southern Italy, Egypt, and Skandinavia. Then he builds a huge villa in Graz (Johann Fux Gasse nr. 30) for himself and his huge library. This villa is christianed 'Villa Malvine', after his much loved mother (Malvine von Bridel-Brideri).
The last two decades of his life, he is doing research predominantly on Basque. Disappointed from the unjust peace after WWI, the Italian irredenzia and French nationalism ('chauvinism'), he is no longer interested in Romance research, partly even giving up contacts to colleagues from these countries. In an article (Bekenntnisse und Erkenntnisse 1919), he gives some oral history insights into his youth and historic events of that time as well as his viewpoint of the outcome of WWI.
[edit] Schuchardt today
Hugo Schuchardt is one of the most eminent linguists of Austria. Today, of course, this is mainly of historiographic interest. For the Basque community, he is one of the most eminent foreign scholars, beside Wilhelm von Humboldt and only few others.
His huge library became part of the university library of Graz; his 'Villa Malvine' hosted the Romance philology department for a long time, but is today an administrative building of the university. Researchers in Graz have constantly worked on Schuchardt ever since, among them Michaela Wolf and the linguist Bernhard Hurch (himself being a bascologist with a strong interest in historiography of linguistics) who finally even managed to compile an online archive of the entire work of Schuchardt (see Weblinks).
[edit] References
- Schuchardt, Hugo 1928: Hugo Schuchardt-Brevier: Ein Vademecum der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft. ed. by Leo Spitzer. rev. 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1922). Halle/Saale: Niemeyer.
- Vennemann, Theo & Terence H. Wilbur 1972: Schuchardt, the neogrammarians, and the transformational theory of phonological change. Four essays by H. Schuchardt, Th. Vennemann & T.H. Wilbur. Frankfurt/M. (= Ling.Forsch. 26).
- Georg Bossong 1984: Wilhelm von Humboldt y Hugo Schuchardt: dos eminentes vascólogos alemanes. in: Arbor 467/468: 163-182.
