Innovation in Tradition

Tönnies Fonne’s Russian-German Phrasebook (Pskov, 1607)
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-90-420-3830-1
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 41, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics

This study explores the history of the language of a manuscript known as Tönnies Fonne’s Russian-German phrasebook (Pskov, 1607).

The phrasebook is not, as many scholars have assumed, the result of the efforts of a 19-year-old German merchant, who came to Russia to learn the language and who recorded the everyday vernacular in the town of Pskov from the mouths of his informants. Nor is it, as other claim, a mere compilation by him of existing material.

Instead, the phrasebook must be regarded as the product of a copying, innovative, meticulous, German-speaking professional scribe who was acutely aware of regional, stylistic and other differences and nuances in the Russian language around him, and who wanted to deliver an up-to-date phrasebook firmly rooted in an established tradition.

By careful textological analysis and by comparing the text with the earlier phrasebook of Thomas Schroue, this study lays bare the modus operandi of the scribe and shows how the scribe acted as an agent of change when a phrasebook was handed down from one generation to the other.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Interdisziplinäres Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften Buchgeschichte, Bibliotheksgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Mehrsprachige Wörterbücher

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Legend and editorial remarks
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The scribe and his work
Chapter 3: The phrasebook as a copy
Chapter 4: Exploring textual depth
Chapter 5: Spelling and sounds
Chapter 6: Nominal and pronominal forms
Chapter 7: Verbal forms
Chapter 8: Russian and German
Chapter 9: Conclusions
References
Appendix A. Tables of Contents (F, S, A)
Appendix B. Concordance (F, S, A)
Appendix C. List of numbered phrases from F
Appendix D. Electronic text edition (e-book)

Über Autor(innen)

Pepijn Hendriks (1977) studied Slavic Linguistics and Literature at Leiden University between 1995 and 2001. In the Wintersemester of 1998-1999, he studied at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin (Germany) as an exchange student. After his graduation (cum laude) he was a lecturer in Dutch at the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland) for one year. From January 2002 until his return to Academia as a doctoral candidate in September 2005, he was a fulltime language consultant at Genootschap Onze Taal in The Hague. Since February 2011, he has been working as a sub-editor at an Amsterdam-based press agency.