SECTION H GERMANIC LANGUAGES 



(Hall 3, September 24, 3 p. TO.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR GUSTAF E. KARSTEN, Cornell University. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR EDUARD SIEVERS, University of Leipzig. 

 PROFESSOR HERMANN COLLITZ, Bryn Mawr College. 

 SECRETARY: PROFESSOR OTTO HELLER, Washington University. 



THE RELATION OF GERMAN LINGUISTICS TO INDO- 

 GERMANIC LINGUISTICS AND TO GERMAN PHILOLOGY 



BY EDUARD SIEVERS 



(Translated from the German by Rudolph Tombo, Jr., Columbia University) 



[Eduard Sievers, Professor of German Literature, University of Leipzig, since 1892. 

 b. Lippoldsberg, Prussia, 1850. Studied, Leipzig and Berlin. Professor Extra- 

 ordinary of Germanic and Romance Philology, University of Jena, 1871-76; 

 Professor of Germanic Philology, ibid. 1876-83; Professor, University of 

 Tubingen, 1883-87; Professor, University of Halle, 1887-92; Rector, Univer- 

 sity of Leipzig, 1901-02. Author of Tatian; Murbadier Hymnen; Heliand ; 

 Die AUhochdeutschen Glossen ; Oxf order Benediktinerregel ; Der Heliand und die 

 angelsachsische Genesis; Angelsdchsische Grammatik ; Zum angelsachsischen 

 Vokalismus ; Altgermanische Metrik ; Grundzuge der Phonetik; and editor of 

 several noted compilations.] 



IF we wish to understand and estimate properly the present and 

 future problems with which a given scientific discipline may at 

 any time be confronted, it is advisable to turn at the very outset 

 from the present to the past, for a correct estimate of what has been 

 accomplished in a certain field and proper directions for future 

 efforts can be acquired only by means of a critical examination of the 

 historical development of the science in question. Moreover, this 

 historical method seems to be demanded especially where we have 

 to deal with the determination of the reciprocal relations of two or 

 more branches of science, which, in spite of possible differences in 

 problem, viewpoint, and method, are nevertheless in the very nature 

 of things constrained to aid each other, according as one is at any 

 given time in advance of the other. 



German linguistic science, which we are to consider to-day, main- 

 tains such reciprocal relations more particularly in two directions. 

 In the same way that the German language is a member of the Ger- 

 manic family and also of the great Indo-Germanic group of languages, 

 so. too, German or Germanic linguistic science constitutes an integral 

 part of comparative Indo-Germanic linguistics. On the other hand. 

 German linguistics is none the less closely interwoven with German 



