Vorwort des Herausgebers

Vorwort des Herausgebers

Publications and reports

Bleek's consequential essay ''On the origin of language'' (1868 [in German]) comes after his 1851 Bonn doctoral thesis and the publishing of Part 1 of his 'A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages' (1862) and 'Reynard, the Fox, in South Africa: Hottentot Fables and Tales' (1864). The essay's English edition notes that Part 2 of his forthcoming 'A Comparative Grammar...' (1869) was then in press with LW Schmidt of New York (Bleek, 1869: xxi). Here, Bleek presents his theory of language origin, arguing an interdependence of language, thought, and culture where a meeting of emotional cries and imitative instincts-connecting feelings to sounds-ultimately begot symbolic language. Bleek theorised that language arose through cultural and historical transmission rather than a biologically innate "language instinct" (popularly theorised in modern linguistics). Bleek advanced that sex-denoting grammatical categories support mythic thinking or greater poetic conception, consequently informing a stratification of language and its evolution. While not explicitly promoting sex-denoting languages (like "Hottentot") as superior to prosaic languages (like "Bantu" languages), he does suggest a hierarchical typology of thought and expression that implies a form of cognitive or imaginative superiority. ''On the origin of language'' marries evolutionary philosophy and comparative philology, emphasising the gradual development of language through cultural evolution, social practices, and the symbolic use of analogy.

several loose half-folded sheets inside a manila folder

Ink on paper

1867

Bleek's handwritten 'copy' (a draft?) of Haeckel's editorial preface for the Weimar edition of 'On the origin of language'. Bleek's 'copy', on blue paper, features detailed marginalia and corrections with some partially cancelled sentences.

Language (its origin), WHI Bleek (his handwritten copy), Ernst Haeckel (his foreword or preface), Weimar edition (for the), On the Origin of Language (by Wilhelm Bleek)

If written after the fact, as the reverse of D1.10.3's description card tentatively ('[?]') suggests, it is unclear why Bleek wrote out ('copied') Ernst Haeckel's editorial preface if it wasn't a draft contributing suggestions to Haeckel. This interpretation may be supported by the UCT BC 151 fonds item C12.4 (an 1868 letter from WHI Bleek to E Haeckel).