Vater, Johann Severin b. May 27, l772;Altenburg,Thuringia d. March 15, 1826; Halle, Prussia

German linguist and theologian with works on Bible interpretation, church his­tory, and general and comparative linguis­tics, including the first comprehensive analysis and reference work of the known American Indian languages (Mithridates, 1806-1817).

languages to the Mithridates, a work that compared all known languages of the world by analyzing translations of the Lord’s Prayer. For volume three, Vater col­lected all accessible language samples, lin­guistic information, and ethnographical data concerning Africa and America. The volume, finally published in 1812, de­scribed more than 500 American languages and included ethnographic information. Prior to the third volume of the Mithri­dates, Vater published the first results of his studies about American languages. He in­cluded two samples from Central Ameri­can Indian languages (Mexico) of the Lord’s Prayer with grammatical and etymo­logical analyses in 1808 (Proben

Amerikanischer Sprachen [Samples of American Languages]).

Vater’s language concept was, like that of his predecessor Adelung, embedded in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Vater saw languages as key to understand­ing different cultures and sought to provide practical knowledge about languages for a broad range of readers with his works. Be­cause Vater assumed that language and cul­ture are intertwined, he considered histori­cal and ethnographical data as crucial for the understanding of languages. Building on this theory, he introduced sociolinguis- tic factors in his studies. Vater, like many scientists at the time, also assumed a con­nection between language science and nat­ural science, especially biology and com­parative anatomy. He supported a symbio­sis of these disciplines. In the Mithridates he expressed his conviction that compara­tive anatomy would provide crucial infor­mation about the relationship between American peoples in the future.

For the analysis of languages, Vater considered grammatical structure as cru­cial. Therefore, he rejected simple compar­isons of word lists, which had been the main methodology of many other studies. For the third volume of the Mithridates, Vater relied more on the comparison of grammatical structures than Adelung. The focus on grammatical structures was the reason why Vater did not support Adelung’s choice of the Lord’s Prayer as a main source for the Mithridates. He con­sidered the text to be too short and too formulaic. Nevertheless, Vater used the Lord’s Prayer for his contribution about African and American languages, wanting to hold to Adelung’s structure for the Mithridates.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (the latter translated by Ad elung in 1809). Other important sources were grammars by missionaries and unpublished informa­tion he received from fellow researchers. Vater communicated intensely by letters with Friedrich von Adelung as well as with Alexander von Humboldt. Von Adelung provided Vater with information and sam­ples of non-Russian languages in the Rus­sian Empire. That data was important for Vater to prove a linguistic relationship be­tween East-Asian languages and languages in America.

In the Untersuchungen uber Amerika’s Bevolkerung and in the Mithridates, Vater concluded that American and Asian lan­guages have a common root. However he was not able to identify this root. Vater drew the conclusion that many American people were not the first inhabitants of their area, but migrated from Asia to northwestern America and continued their migration further south. According to Vater, this theory was supported by anthro­pological data that showed a relationship between American and Asian peoples. In spite of this connection and the many dif­ferences between languages within the American continent, Vater considered American languages to be one distinct lan­guage group (stem) with several subgroups (branches).

Vater gained most recognition for his studies about Slavic languages. However, his contributions to American linguistics had some impact on language science. With his contribution to the Mithridates, Vater provided the first comprehensive study about American Indian languages. His Untersuchungen of 1810 represented only a preliminary study of the American languages, but presented more informa­tion than any study before. Vater’s ap­proach has been criticized as not being suf­ficiently analytical. He did, however, gain recognition for his copious sources and samples presented and for his classification of American languages. He was marginally successful, as some of the genetic language relationships he described were incorrect, but he described others correctly for the first time. The Mithridates is often de­scribed as the last large work of the lan­guage science of the nineteenth century; a time when large collections of languages dominated the field of comparative lin­guistics. The following generation of com­parative linguists shifted the focus on in­depth research about single language groups. Nevertheless, Vater’s work would influence new generations of linguists with his integration of historical and ethno­graphical data. His linguistic studies proved to be important for the research of language history, language groups, and later for sociolinguists.

Jorg Meindl

See also Adelung, Johann Christoph;

Humboldt, Wilhelm von

References and Further Reading

Kuhn, E. “Vater, Johann Severin.” In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 38. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1971, pp. 503-508.

Schmidt, Isolde. “‘Giebt es etwas schoneres als die Geschlechter der Menschen wie die Familien der Pflanzen geordnet zu sehen!’ Johann Severin Vaters Studien uber amerikanische Sprachen.” Beitrage zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 6 (1996): 79-94.

Vater, Johann Severin. “Proben Amerikanischer Sprachen mit Uebersichten ihres Baues in den beigefugten grammatischen Bemerkungen.“ Allgemeines Archiv fur Ethnographie und Linguistik 1 (1808): 341-354.