Die baskischen Materialien Wilhelm von Humboldts

The period in which Wilhelm von Humboldt worked on the Basque language and for the first time dealt extensively with a non-Indo-European language, is generally considered to be that period, in his life which is of utmost importance for the development of his linguistic ideas. During that time he laid the foundations for the linguistic program he was to follow during his lifetime. This volume comprises five manuscripts he used as materials which have not been published to date because they were unknown or, as it is the case with Astarloa`s manuscript, cosidered to be lost. Beside the published works of that time these manuscripts are of special importance because they were essential for the development of Humboldts`s linguistic thought. Another reason to publish them now is the fact that they are a contribution to writing and completing the history of Bascology. Taking Astarloa as an example, it has to be emphasized that - apart from apologetic tendencies his work shows - he was able to formulate a grammatical theory which comes very close to what has come to be known as structuralism in the 20th century. He was also the first one to abandon the Latin method of grammar writing, the so-called "Artes", in a very systematical way, which enabled him to develop novel concepts about grammatical categories. It is above all these works that shed more light on Wilhelm von Humboldt`s originality as a scientist. He never was that kind of a scientist who simply has ingenious intuitions without a solid scientific basis but one who pursues certain scientific traditions, which of course does not mean that he was not the ingenious caracter he is generally considered.