Linguistic description and language philosophy in Wilhelm von Humboldt’s North American grammars

Abstract

Abstract The focus of this paper is on three grammars of native North American languages (Massachusett, Mahican, Onondaga) that Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote in 1822–1823. The first part of the paper describes these grammars and situates them in the context of early comparative Americanist linguistics that was emerging in Germany and North America. The second part presents an example of Humboldt’s descriptive work drawn from his analysis of the Massachusett verb and shows how his attempt at understanding the Algonquian system of expressing grammatical relations is linked to the evolution of his language philosophy.

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