Development of Georg Mancelius’ principles of orthography

• In Event: Emerging Words and Lexicons (Hybrid Panel)

Abstract

Georg Mancelius (1593–1654) is rightly considered to be the reformer of the Latvian written language. His writings established the basic principles of the so-called Old Latvian orthography, which was used until the introduction of modern orthography in the 20th century. Mancelius' activity in Latvian literature spans more than twenty years (1631–1654), his work can be divided into three periods. It is remarkable that Mancelius' views and principles on Latvian orthography are not static, but they change with each successive period. Although Mancelius' writing and language have been studied a lot, no special attention has been paid to the development of his orthography.

While working on the project of the Latvian historical dictionary, and particularly on the development of new search tools in the project “Digital Resources of the Humanities”, a group of Latvian researchers was faced with the need to convert Mancelius' texts into orthography of Modern Latvian. It also allowed for a deeper insight into the development of Mancelius' principles and system of his Latvian orthography throughout his life. At the present stage of the research, it seems that Mancelius’ initially sought to rely on a purely phonetic principle, using in some cases a grammatical principle. From the second period onwards, he gradually started to introduce also a morphological principle of orthography. The paper will present the common and different features of the three periods and will try to better understand Mancelius' approaches to problems of the Latvian orthography and the development of his ideas.

Short Bio

Pēteris Vanags, Dr. hab., Professor, Dept. of Baltic and Slavic languages, Finnish, Dutch and German, Stockholm University, Sweden and Department of Baltic Linguistics, University of Latvia, senior researcher at the Latvian Language Institute, University of Latvia, Riga; Ph.D. thesis – 1988, University of Vilnius, habilitation – 1998, University of Vilnius; author of two books, co-author of three books and author of approximately 100 scientific articles, essays, and reviews; chief editor of the journal of Baltic linguistics Baltu filoloģija (Riga); his main fields of research are connected with the history of the Baltic languages, especially the early written period (16th–18th century) of Latvian.

Anta Trumpa, Ph. D., senior researcher at the Latvian Language Institute, University of Latvia. Ph.D. dissertation – 2006, University of Latvia. Author of two books and approximately 70 scientific articles and conference abstracts. Conducts research in linguistics (semantics, onomastics). One of the authors and editors of the Electronic Historical Dictionary of Latvian (16–17 c.). One of the editors of the “Dictionary of Latvian place names.” Participates in the National Research Programme „Digital Resources of the Humanities”. Scholarly interests: historical lexicography, historical semantics, onomastics.

Anna Frīdenberga, Ph. D., a researcher at the Latvian Language Institute, University of Latvia. Ph. D. dissertation – 2016, University of Latvia. Author of approximately 30 scientific articles and conference abstracts. Carries out research in historical linguistics. One of the authors and editors of the Electronic Historical Dictionary of Latvian (16–17 c.). Participates in the state research program ‘Latvian Language’; in the project ‘Linguistic Studies in the 21st century: Latvia in the European context’ and in the state research program ‘Digital Resources of Humanities’ Scholarly interests: historical word-formation, historical lexicography, historical semantics.

Authors

• Pēteris Vanags, Stockholm University

• Anta Trumpa, Latvian Language Institute, University of Latvia

• Anna Frīdenberga, Latvian Language Institute, University of Latvia