Nothing new since Lichtenstein? – Or, the idea of a common origin of Arabic and German Cover Image

Seit Lichtenstein nichts Neues? – oder: zur Idee einer Urverwandtschaft des Arabischen mit dem Deutschen
Nothing new since Lichtenstein? – Or, the idea of a common origin of Arabic and German

Author(s): Michael Knüppel
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: etymology; diachrony; language contact; areal linguistics; linguistic history

Summary/Abstract: The following review article deals with the dilettantish attempts of cAbdal-Ḥaqq Fāḍil to connect German and Arabic in the sense of genetic language relationship. The author of the book under review is neither able to clarify whether he means “German” or “Germanic”, nor whether he wants to postulate Arabic as a kind of worldproto-language or to create a new language family. In addition, he ignores all well-known Lautgesetze (sound laws) as well as all researches in the field of historical linguistics of the last two hundred years.

  • Issue Year: 17/2012
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 179-183
  • Page Count: 5
  • Language: German