Nicholas Marr
Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (Georgian ნიკოლოზ იაკობის ძე მარი, Nikoloz Iakobis dse Mari; Russian Николай Яковлевич Марр, Nikolai Marr Jakovlevic; born December 25 1864jul / January 6 1865greg in Kutaisi, Georgia, .. † 20 December 1934 in Leningrad) was a Georgian- Russian linguist and orientalist.
Marr's theories enjoyed until 1950, official in the Soviet Union claim because he had associated with Marxism, and thus gained the support of the rulers.
Life and career
He was born the son of a Scottish gardener James Marr and his Georgian wife Agafia Magularija. His native language was Georgian, but different languages , but no Russian spoken in the family. He graduated from Classical High School in Kutaisi with honors and a certificate of specific linguistic talent. In 1884 he enrolled at the Faculty of Oriental Languages at the State University of Saint Petersburg and studied the Georgian, Armenian, Semitic and Caucasian languages there. In 1901 he became a professor in 1911 Dean of the Faculty of Oriental, in 1912 a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He lived in St. Petersburg until his death.
Under his guidance, found in 1892 and 1893 and from 1904 to 1917, the first thorough archaeological excavations in the ancient Armenian capital of Ani (now Turkey) instead. 1911-1912 he dug with Joseph Orbeli in Toprakkale. He published standard works on the Old Armenian and Altgeorgische.
Marr significantly developed the Japhetitentheorie, according to the Caucasian, Semitic- Hamitic and Basque languages have a common basis. In 1924, he declared that all languages of the world came from a proto-language from which four common exclamation own sal, ber, yon and rosh. Although the languages went through various stages of development, it is possible for linguistic palaeontology to recognize elements of the original exclamation in any language.
In order to win support for his speculative theory, Marr developed a Marxist foundation. He called it the "new doctrine of language." According to his hypothesis tended all the modern languages in a single language - the communist society - to open. The theory was accepted by the party and government of the Soviet Union. 1921 Marr Head of Japhetic Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1926 Head of the Russian National Library and in 1930 vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1930, he was the only member of the then Tsarist vorrevolutionäres Academy of Sciences - rare and unusual even without a trial period - was added to the Communist Party. In 1933 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, but could it personally due to stroke do not answer. He died in the night of 19 December 20, 1934, and was on 22 December, accompanied by 70,000 people buried in the cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
Stalin's turn in 1950
In June 1950, Stalin had turned in letters, among other things, in Pravda, against the linguistic theory of Marr, despite his years of support for Marr. According to the linguists, the language was part of the superstructure of society, was so dependent on the particular material ( and social ) basis. So you could in Marxist theory, it says at the Kiel historian Georg von Rauch, a new, national language of socialism anticipate that would prevail after the worldwide triumph of communism.
In these so-called letters on linguistics ( " Linguistics letters " ) ruled Stalin now, among other things, the language is somewhat Independent off of base and superstructure, it is not a class issue, but belong to all the people. If multiple languages together träfen, then there is no confusion to a new, but a language will prevail. The Russian was as always been winners. By letters linguistics, as of smoke, the communist ideology was driven further into the direction of the Russian nationalist " Soviet patriotism".
After Stalin, the language was not to be expected based ( the means of production ) because it does not produce material goods, and not for the superstructure, because the Russian language, finally before and would have remained the same after the revolution. ( Had the his formula " language is a superstructure to the base " pressure to Formula " language is a means of production" changed) to conflict between Stalin and Marr commented Amadeo Bordiga 1953: But the means of production also fabricate any material goods! Man it produces, by using the means of production. Tools are the means that people use to produce. When a child takes the spade for the first time on hand at the wrong end, so the father called out to him: ' Take it on the handle! ' This exclamation - which now belongs to the acquired knowledge of the child - is, like the spade, used in production. The spiritual implication of Stalin shows that it is he who has not right. If the language, he says, would produce material goods, so the gossips would be the richest people in the world! But is it not precisely so? The worker works with his hands, the engineer with his tongue. Which of the two is better paid? (...) Language is a means of production in all epochs, but the individual languages are part of the superstructure ...