Japhetic theory
The Japhetitentheorie (later New theory of language ) is a now obsolete theory of linguistics that emanates from a common basis of Caucasian and Indo-European languages, and Basque.
It was developed by Russian linguist Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (1865-1934) and was until 1950 the officially accepted basis of Soviet linguistics.
Theory Historical Background
The Japhetitentheorie arose against the backdrop of the end of the 19th century extremely Euro-centric dominated Indo-European and colonial ideology of imperialism which sought an ideological justification for the hegemony of the Europeans in the world and this developed the view (especially in Germany ) that the Indo-European peoples in connection with Christianity historically required the highest culture of the world have produced what they legitimized to direct the destinies of other peoples.
During this period it was common to use labels from the flood myth and the history of the tribes of Noah adopted for population genetic relationships, as they are biblically narrated in the table of nations in Genesis ( Semites, Hamites, among others).
This Japhetitentheorie tried the biblical idea that the descendants of Japheth through the Caucasus to Western (Europe) and eastward ( Far East ) had migrated and had spread there. Also, Indians and Iranians belong to that language group, would have mixed with the peoples of the Orient, but their Satemsprachen ( Ostindogermanische languages of satem = 100) to keep.
Marr calculated accordingly to the Caucasian, Turkic and Indo-European languages the Japhetic language, a common Metasprachfamilie.
Early Soviet Japhetitentheorie
In Soviet times, the biblical background resigns in favor of an anti -imperialist ideology formation. Marr was in this situation as the only Nichtindogermanisten soon the role of opinion leadership to.
In Soviet times the Japhetitentheorie was marked with the name New theory of language and contained, in addition to the original core theory or ideology following additional modules:
- Superstructure thesis: the language is to be regarded as a superstructural phenomenon on the basis of production and relations of production.
- Doctrine of the class nature of language: the language is like any class due superstructure phenomenon.
- Stadialtypologie: the language states follow each other with the change of social formations. The theory of language families had to be replaced by a theory of linguistic stages. Each company structure produces a its corresponding language stage. Even communism would bring him a completely new language corresponding state.
- Theory of uniform glottogonischen process: ' The development paths of all languages are equal.
- Cross language theory: the intersection of languages is mainly responsible for the divergence of closely related dialects. Languages may not like split in the family tree model of one another, but only cross each other and thereby create new languages. It can be transformed beyond recognition, a language in a social explosion. For example, is spoken in the Caucasus Swanische a transformed back into the Japhetic speech state language.
- Linguistic paleontology / Four Elements Analysis: The language has its origins in the Urlauten that were ejected in the human labor. In all words of all languages can therefore be the four primordial elements via jon rosch sal, (English: ber, yon, rosh, sal ) prove.
The social class states correspond to respective states of language. For example, is the Latin as the language of patricians and plebeians no japhetitische not the language, while, for example, in the language of the Basque minority oppressed the japhetitische stage have received.
The theses Marrs were never supported by evidence or critical enactment of the allegations, but bribed the non-experts, even within the science of language by an immense data available from a variety of exotic languages , and incomprehensibility and hardly nachvollziehbarem jumping between different theoretical assumptions.
Syntactic Stadialtypologie Meschtschaninows
From the 30s builds Ivan Ivanovich Meshchaninov Marrs Japhetitologie on the basis of syntactic studies of a theoretically sophisticated, but still unsatisfactory model.
Therefore passed through within the uniform glottogonischen process the following languages language states:
- Passive: In this stage, which is characterized by a linguistic structure be incorporated (for example, in Indian languages ), execute the collective defense to the summary generalization of beings and objects to groups that are to be designated as language classes. In this state merge logical subject and object, and the world is presented as directed passively through a mythological subject.
- Ergative: In this transitional stage to the active linguistic structure the acting subject of the transitive sentence from the inkorporativen complex is first extracted and labeled separately. Representatives of this type are the Caucasian languages , Basque and some others.
- Active: In this final stage, the speech separation in nominative - accusative and appears finally completed for the intransitive statements.
End of Japhetitentheorie
In a much-publicized article in the newspaper Pravda, Stalin declared on 20 June 1950, the Japhetitologie Marrs for un-Marxist. As a result reinforced the neogrammarian school methods was used in Soviet linguistics again.