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ic languages) and V.von Humboldt (“On the comparative study of languages in various periods of their
development”, 1820, etc.). Humboldt theoretically justified the status of comparative-historical linguistics
as not only distinct, but an autonomous linguistic discipline, which findings are, however, of paramount
importance when studying the culture, intellectual activity, folk psychology. Humboldt’s merit was the
selection of linguistics as a new science of historical cycle “of comparative anthropology”.
Franz Bopp got involved in Sanskrit language and went to study it in Paris, where he stayed for 5
years. His first work made already the era of Bopp in linguistics. Relationship between Sanskrit, Greek,
Latin and German languages had been known already before him, but F. Bopp was first to raise the compar-
ative linguistics at the height of science, taking as a basis for comparison not the random sounds of words,
but the overall structure of the language, how it manifests itself in modification and word-formation, and
was the first to explain “that the similarity of languages denotes their origining from one shared primitive
language “ [2].
He sets two goals to achieve : 1) scientifically prove (on facts) relationship between the Indo-European
languages, 2) reveal the mystery of flection occurence (as ancient roots are general, and flections are never
borrowed). In his work “ On the system of conjugations... “ Bopp: 1) makes rules of word building , 2)
restores the view of Indo-European language based on a comparison of words from different languages, 3)
is searching for pro-forms. In “Comparative grammar” he focuses on the morphology and phonetics, and
a little bit on syntax.
The influence of F.Bopp did not confine only to this branch of languages, but his method was applied
to all other languages, and thus he can fairly be called the founder of Comparative Linguistics. Having
left for London for the further study of the Sanskrit language, he made a number of publications of the
abstracts from the great Indian epic “Mahabharata”. These publications, as well as numerous variations of
the Sanskrit grammar were a comfortable and accessible guide to familiarize yourself with this language.
Science owes to Bopp the creation of the first comparative-historical grammar of Indo-European lan-
guages (1833-1849), which introduced a series of similar grammar books of large language families; de-
velopment of methodology for consistent comparison of forms in related languages; an attempt to interpret
the phenomenon of related languages. Of particular significance was the appeal to Sanskrit, which in time
and space was the most removed from European languages, having no contact with them in its history, and
yet has retained the fullness of the ancient state.
For the subsequent development of linguistics of great importance was not so much surveillance of F.
Bopp over the formation of the Indo-European language family and its genetic construction (this part of
his works relatively quickly outdated), but the developed by him method of investigation. F. Bopp himself
argued, that the study of the relationship of languages is not an end in itself, but a tool of penetration into
the secrets of language development. “Bopp aimed at opening an end source for the flectional forms, and
instead created the comparative Linguistics” (O. Jespersen) [3].
Starting with Grimm, the notion of “historical grammar” of the group of languages, and especially of
a separate language in linguistics has become reality (in contrast to the experience of the Grimm-the “com-
parative” part in such historical grammars often receded into the background or was present in the hidden
form). Thus, by the years 30-40 of the 19th century comparative-historical linguistics had gained a strong
place in Linguistics and began to have a significant impact on its other areas. It’s at that time,when the
comparative-historical linguistics, its principles, methods and techniques of research were being formed.
J. Grimm (1785-1863) was a German philologist, the founder of Germanic studies,who explained the
law of the first movement of the consonants, also addressing general linguistic problems. In the history
of linguistics Jacob Grimm came primarily as the author of the “German grammar” in four volumes. The
first volume of itfocusses on morphology and phonetics, the second mainly on morphology, the third on
word formation ,and the fourth on syntax. The study is based on a comparison of the historical basis of all
Germanic languages, covering a huge material, starting with the first written monuments.
Together with the study by F. Bopp “conjugation system of Sanskrit in comparison with the conju-
gation of Greek, Latin, Persian and Germanic languages” German grammar “by J. Grimm became the
very primary basis on which subsequently occurred comparative-historical linguistics. The founders of
comparative linguistics did not confine to language. In a number of their works, primarily in the “German
grammar” J. Grimm studied the historical development of individual languages and language groups.
Anticipating the ideas of Humboldt, Jacob Grimm called a language a permanently changing category,
in which there are conflicting forces or antinomies. All language changes caused unconsciously by its spirit
cause at the same time difficulty and ease of a language, both of a foreign and a native one. It should be
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