Philology
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:''see [[comparative linguistics]] for the narrower field of "comparative philology".''
'''Philology''', derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|φιλολογία}} (''philologia''<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23111282 ''Philologia'', Liddell and Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon", at Perseus]</ref>, from the terms {{lang|grc|φίλος}} ''philos'' meaning "loved, beloved, dear, friend" and {{lang|grc|λόγος}} ''[[logos]]'' "word, articulation, reason") is a branch of the [[human sciences]] dealing with [[language]] and [[literature]], specifically a [[literary canon]], combining aspects of [[grammar]], [[rhetoric]], [[historical linguistics]] ([[etymology]] and [[language change]]), [[interpretation (logic)|interpretation]] of authors, [[textual criticism]] and the [[critical theory|critical traditions]] associated with a given language.
Philology considers both [[morphology (linguistics)|form]] and [[Meaning (linguistics)|meaning]] in linguistic expression, combining [[linguistics]] and [[literary studies]].
[[Classical philology]] is the philology of the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] and [[Latin]] and languages. Classical philology is historically primary, originating in European [[Renaissance Humanism]], but was soon joined by philologies of other languages both European ([[Germanic philology|Germanic]], [[Celtic studies|Celtic]], [[Slavic studies|Slavic]] etc.) and non-European ([[Sanskrit grammarians|Sanskrit]], [[Oriental studies|Oriental languages]] such as Persian or Arabic, [[Sinology|Chinese]] etc.) [[Indo-European studies]] involves the philology of all [[Indo-European languages]] in comparison.
Any [[classical language]] can be studied philologically, and indeed describing a language as "classical" is to imply the existence of a philological tradition associated with it.
Because of its focus on historical development (diachronic analysis), philology came to be used as a term contrasting with [[theoretical linguistics|linguistics]]. This is due to a 20th century development triggered by [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]'s insistence on the importance of [[Synchronic analysis (linguistics)|synchronic analysis]], and the later emergence of [[structuralism]] and [[Chomskian]] linguistics with its heavy emphasis on spoken language ([[linguistic performance|performance]]) and [[syntax]].
==The term==
The term ''[[:wikt:philology|philology]]'' itself enters the English language in the 16th century, from the [[Middle French]] ''philologie'', in the sense of "love of literature". The Latin term ''philologia'' could mean "love of learning", like the original Greek term, {{lang|grc|φιλολογία}}, which described love of learning, of literature as well as of argument and reasoning, reflecting range of activities included under the notion of {{lang|grc|[[logos|λόγος]]}}.
The adjective {{lang|grc|φιλόλογος}} meant "fond of discussion or argument, talkative", in [[Koine Greek|Hellenistic Greek]] also implying an excessive ("[[sophism|sophistic]]") preference of argument over the love of true wisdom,
{{lang|grc|[[philosophy|φιλόσοφος]]}}.
As an [[allegory]] of literary erudition, ''Philologia'' appears in 5th century post-classical literature ([[Martianus Capella]], ''De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii''), an idea revived in Late Medieval literature ([[Chaucer]], [[John Lydgate|Lydgate]]).
The meaning of "love of learning and literature" was narrowed to "the study of the historical development of languages" ([[historical linguistics]]) in 19th century usage of the term due to the rapid progresses made in understanding [[sound law]]s and [[language change]], the "golden age of philology", taken to last throughout the 19th century, or "from [[Friedrich Schlegel]] to [[Nietzsche]]".<ref>so Nikolaus Wegmann, Princeton University Department of German[http://german.princeton.edu/index.php?app=people&id=158]</ref> In [[British English]] usage, and in British academia, "philology" remains largely synonymous with "historical linguistics", while in [[US English]], and US academia, the wider meaning of "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition" remains more widespread.<ref>A. Morpurgo Davies Hist. Linguistics (1998) 4 I. 22.</ref>
== Branches of philology ==
=== Comparative philology ===
{{main|Comparative philology}}
One branch of philology is [[comparative linguistics]], which studies the relationship between languages. Similarities between [[Sanskrit]] and [[European languages]] were first noted in the early 16th century<ref>This fact is noted in Juan Mascaro's introduction to his translation of the ''Bhagavad Gita'', in which he dates the first ''Gita'' translation to 1785 (by Charles Williams). Mascaro claims Alexander Hamilton stopped in Paris in 1802 after returning from India, and taught Sanskrit to the German critic Friedrich von Schlegel. Mascaro says this is the beginning of modern study of the roots of the Indo-European languages.</ref> and led to the speculation of a common ancestor language from which all of these descended — now named [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]. Philology's interest in ancient languages led to the study of what were in the 18th century "exotic" languages for the light they could cast on problems in understanding and [[decipher]]ing the origins of older texts.
=== Textual philology and text editing ===
{{main|Textual criticism}}
Philology also includes the close study of texts and their history. It includes elements of [[textual criticism]], trying to reconstruct an author's original text based on variant manuscript copies. This branch of research arose in Biblical studies and has a long tradition, dating back to the [[Reformation]]. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the [[Bible]] from the manuscript variants that have come down to us. This method was then applied to Classical Studies and to medieval texts for the reconstruction of the author's original. This method produced so-called '''critical editions''' which provided a reconstructed text accompanied by a '''critical apparatus''', i.e. footnotes listing the various manuscript variants available, thus enabling scholars to gain insight into the entire manuscript tradition and argue about variants.
A related study method, known as [[higher criticism]], which studies the authorship, date, and provenance of texts, places a text in a historical context. These philological issues are often inseparable from issues of interpretation, and thus there is no clear-cut boundary between philology and [[hermeneutics]]. As such, when the content of the text has a significant political or religious influence (such as the reconstruction of Biblical texts), it is difficult to find 'objective' conclusions.
As a result, some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology. Especially in historical linguistics it is important to study the actually recorded materials. The movement known as [[New Philology]] has rejected textual criticism because it injects editorial interpretations into the text and destroys the integrity of the individual manuscript readings, hence damaging the reliability of the data. Supporters of New Philology insist on a strict '''diplomatic''', that is, faithful rendering of the text exactly as it is found in the manuscript, without emendations.
=== Decipherment ===
In the case of [[Bronze Age literature]], philology includes the prior [[decipherment]] of the language in question.
This has notably been the case with the [[Ancient Egyptian language|Egyptian]], [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] and [[Akkadian language|Assyrian]], [[Hittite language|Hittite]] and [[Luwian language|Luwian]] languages. Beginning with the sensational decipherment and translation of the [[Rosetta Stone]] by [[Jean-François Champollion]] in 1822, a number of individuals attempted to decipher the writing systems of the [[Ancient Near East]] and [[Aegean civilization|Aegean]]. In the case of [[Old Persian]] and [[Mycenean Greek]], decipherment of writing systems yielded records of languages already known from slightly younger traditions ([[Middle Persian]], [[Ancient Greek|Alphabetic Greek]]).
Work on the ancient languages of the Near East progressed rapidly. In the mid-19th century, [[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet|Henry Rawlinson]] and others deciphered the [[Behistun Inscription]], which records the same text in [[Old Persian language|Old Persian]], [[Elamite language|Elamite]], and [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], using a variation of [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform]] for each language. The understanding of cuneiform script led to the decipherment of [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]. [[Hittite language|Hittite]] was deciphered in 1915 by [[Bedřich Hrozný]].
[[Linear B]], a language used in the ancient Aegean, was deciphered in 1952 by [[Michael Ventris]], who demonstrated that the script recorded an early form of Greek, now known as [[Mycenaean language|Mycenaean Greek]]. [[Linear A]], the writing system which records the still unknown language of the [[Minoan Civilization|Minoans]], resists deciphering, despite many attempts.
Work still continues on scripts such as [[Maya hieroglyphics]] (with great progress made in the 20th century by the scholar [[Yuri Knorozov]]) and [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] (deciphered most completely by the scholar Svetislav Bilbija of the Institute of Etruscan Studies in Chicago).
==See also==
*[[Classical philology]]
*[[Western canon]]
*[[Germanic philology]]
*[[Cognitive philology]]
*[[Classical language]]
*[[Historical linguistics]]
*[[Etymology]]
*[[Codicology]]
*[[Elocution]]
*[[Palaeography]]
*[[American Journal of Philology]]
== References ==
<references />
== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wiktionary}}
* [http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology (ed. José Ángel García Landa, University of Zaragoza, Spain)]
*[http://ruthenia.ru/tiutcheviana/search/en/index.html Philology in Runet] -(A special web search through the philological sites of [[Runet]])
*[http://ajif-ucm.com/ Asociación de Jóvenes Investigadores Filólogos de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (AJIF-UCM)]
* [[Wikiversity: Topic:German philology]]
[[Category:Historical linguistics]]
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[[Category:Writing]]
[[Category:Greek loanwords]]
[[ar:فيلولوجيا]]
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