Cover not available

Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 17:3 (1990) ► pp.339–356

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Sir George Cornewall Lewis

Statesman and ‘New Philologist’

 | Oxford University
Published online: 1 January 1990
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.17.3.05pos
Summary
George Cornewall Lewis (1806–1863) was a Liberal statesman who attained high office, but whose interest in the ‘new philology’ was maintained throughout his life, although he also wrote extensively on politics and history. His most interesting philological work is an Essay on the For- mation of the Romance Languages (1835) which predates the more famous 4-volume Grammar, by Friedrich Diez (1794–1876), which appeared during 1836–1844, and which advances the hypothesis that a creolization process was responsible for the change of Latin to Romance, rejecting as unsubstantiated Diez’s suggestion that a popular Latin was at the origin of the Romance languages. Lewis’s work on Romance is placed in the context of the development of the study of modern languages at Oxford University, and of the ‘new philology’ which was gaining ground in intellectual circles in 19th-century Britain.
Résumé
George Cornewall Lewis (1806–1863) était un homme politique du parti libéral qui est devenu ministre dans le gouvernement anglais, mais qui néanmoins a retenu pendant toute sa vie un intérêt dans la ‘nouvelle philologie’. Il a écrit des ouvrages non seulement sur la politique et l’histoire mais aussi sur la linguistique dont le plus intéressant est son Essay on the Formation of the Romance Languages (1835) publié avant la parution de la Grammatik romanischen Sprachen, en quatres volumes, de Friedrich Diez (1794–1876), parue en 1836–1844. Dans son Essai Lewis avance l’hypothèse qu’un processus de créolisation a occasionné la transformation du latin en roman, et il rejette comme insoutenable la thèse de Diez qu’un latin populaire était à l’origine des langues romanes. La composition du livre sur les langues romanes est placée dans le contexte du développement de l’étude des langues modernes à l’Université d’Oxford, et de la nouvelle philologie qui commençait à gagner du terrain dans la vie intellectuelle britannique du XIXe siècle.
References (29)
References
Ampère, Jean-Jacques. 1841. Histoire de la Formation de la langue française pour servir d’un complément à l’Histoire littéraire de la France. Paris: Didier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burguy, Georges-Frédéric. 1853–56. Grammaire de la langue d’oïl ou grammaire des dialectes français aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Berlin: Schneider.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chambers, Raymond Wilson. 1939. “Philologists at University College, London (Centenary Lecture delivered on 2nd May, 1927, at University College London)”. Man’s Unconquerable Mind, 342–358. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diefenbach, Lorenz. 1831. Ueber die jetzigen romanischen Schriftsprachen – die spanische, portugiesische, rhätoromanische (in der Schweiz), französische, italienische und dakoromanische (in mehreren Ländern des östlichen Europas) mit Vorbemerkungen über Entstehung, Verwandtschaft u.s.w. dieses Sprachestammes. Leipzig: Ricker.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diez, Friedrich. 1826. Die Poesie der Troubadours. Zwickau: Schumann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1836–44. Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. Bonn: Weber. (2nd ed., 1856–60; 3rd ed., 1870–72.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1853. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen. Bonn: A. Marcus. (2nd ed., 1861; 3rd ed., 21 vols, 1869–70; 4th ed., 1878; 5th ed., 1887.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauriel, Claude-Charles. 1854. Dante et les origines de la langue et de la littérature italiennes. Paris: Durand.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Francescato, Giuseppe. 1978. “A propos de la thèse de Raynouard et de la ‘langue romane primitive’”. SCL 291:535–540.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, August. 1849. Die romanischen Sprachen in ihrem Verhältnisse zum Lateinischen. Halle: Schmidt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giambullari, Pierfrancesco. 1545. Il Gello ovvero origine delta lingua fiorentina. Florence: Lorenzo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hallam, Henry. 1837–39. Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heywood, James. 1853. The Recommendations of the Oxford University Commissioners, with selections from their report. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, George Cornewall. 1829. An examination of some passages in Dr Whateley’s ‘Elements of Logic’. Oxford: Baxter, for Parker; London: J. Murray.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1831. “On English diminutives”. Philological Museum 11.679–686.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1832a. “On the English Preterite and Genitive”. Philological Museum 21.243–246.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1832b. Remarks on the Use and Abuse of Some Political Terms. London: Fellowes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1835. An Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages containing An examination of M. Raynouard’s theory on the Relation of the Italian, Spanish, Provençal and French to the Latin. Oxford: Talboys. (Repr., 1839.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1839. A Glossary of Provincial Words Used in Herefordshire and Some of the Adjoining Counties. London: J. Murray. [Anon.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1862a. An Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages. 2nd rev. ed. London: Parker, Son & Bourn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1862b. An Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients. Ibid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Gilbert Frankland, ed. 1870. Letters of Sir George Cornewall Lewis to various friends. 21 vols. London: Longmans & Green.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCarthy, Justin. 1899. Reminiscences 21 vols. London: Chatto & Windus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1890–1902. Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. 41 vols. Leipzig: Reisland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raynouard, François-Juste-Marie. 1816–21. Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours. 61 vols. Paris: Firmin Didot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schlegel, August-Wilhelm. 1818. Observations sur la langue et la littérature provençales. Paris: Librairie grecque-latine-allemande. (Repr., Tübingen: Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik, 1970.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simonde de Sismondi, Jean-Charles-Léonard. 1813. De la littérature du midi de l’Europe. Paris: Treuttel & Würtz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tobler, Adolf. 1882. “Briefe von Jakob Grimm an Friedrich Diez”. ZRPh 61.501–505. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wheare, Kenneth C. 1972. “Sir George Cornewall Lewis as a Political Scientist”. Political Studies 201.407–413. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue