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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 42:1 (2015) ► pp.63–83

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The Missing Meditatio

Leonhard Euler’s (1707–1783) contribution to articulatory phonetics

 | Central Washington University
 | Central Washington University
Published online: 26 May 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.42.1.04hir
Summary
This work describes the contributions of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), the 18th-century physicist and mathematician, to the fields of articulatory and experimental phonetics. First the authors provide evidence for Euler’s role in establishing the St. Petersburg Academy prize of 1780. Next, they consider a short and posthumously published work of Euler, the Meditatio de formatione vocum. It is shown that the Meditatio represents an early attempt to compare vowels in several languages, and includes a two-dimensional classification of vowels which anticipates in many ways the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart.
Résumé
Ce travail décrit les contributions du physicien et mathématicien du XVIIIe siècle Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) au domaine de la phonétique articulatoire et expérimentale. Les auteurs fournissent tout d’abord la preuve du rôle d’Euler dans l’établissement du prix de l’Académie de Saint-Petersbourg de 1780. Ensuite, ils examinent un bref ouvrage d’Euler, publié à titre posthume, la Meditatio de formatione vocum. Il est montré que la Meditatio représente un essai précoce de comparaison des voyelles de plusieurs langues et inclut une classification bi-dimensionnelle des voyelles qui anticipe de bien des façons le tableau des voyelles de l’Alphabet Phonétique International.
Zusammenfassung
Dieser Beitrag handelt von Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), einem Physiker und Mathematiker des 18. Jh.s., und seinen Erkenntnissen im Bereich der artikulatorischen und experimentellen Phonetik. Zunächst wird Eulers Rolle bei der Einrichtung des Preises der Akademie von St. Petersburg i.J. 1780 hervorgehoben. Danach gehen die Verfasser auf ein kurzes, posthum veröffentlichtes Werk Eulers ein, die Meditatio de formatione vocum. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Meditatio einen frühen Versuch darstellt, Vokale verschiedener Sprachen miteinander zu vergleichen und zu klassifizieren; eine zweidimensionale Tabelle von Vokalen antizipiert dabei in mancher Hinsicht die Darstellung der Vokale im International Phonetic Alphabet.
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