Heimann Hariton Tiktin
Encyclopedia
Heimann Hariton Tiktin born Heimann Tiktin, was a Silesia
n-born Romania
n Jewish linguist and academic, one of the founders of modern Romanian
linguistics.
at the time), into a rabbi
nic family which took its name from the shtetl
of Tyktin
, he was himself destined to a rabbinic vocation, and received a classical education. At the age of 18, Tiktin moved to Iaşi
, where he married Amalia Mayerhoffer one year later, becoming a Romanian citizen in the early 1870s.
After having taught himself Romanian, Tiktin instructed courses in Latin
, Ancient Greek and German
in several of Iaşi's colleges (the Commercial School, the Alexandru cel Bun College, and the National Lyceum). He took active part in the cultural and scientific life of the city, and attended meeting of the highly influential Junimea
circle. He became a friend of the poet Mihai Eminescu
, who acquainted him with Romanian lexicography
, grammar
, folklore, literature
and history. Tiktin's interest in Romanian language would develop into a major scientific preoccupation. He was also a friend of Nicolae Iorga
and Gheorghe Kirileanu, being well acquainted with Titu Maiorescu
, Grigore Tocilescu
, Alexandru Philippide, A. C. Cuza
, Ovid Densusianu
, Alexandru Vlahuţă
and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
.
Tiktin received his Ph.D.
from the University of Leipzig
in 1884, with the thesis Studies on Romanian Philology. Beginning in 1889, he headed the linguistics section of the journal Albina.
In 1900 he converted to Christianity, taking the Christian name of Hariton. In 1904, Tiktin was appointed as a lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin
. Two years later he founded a seminary of Romanian Linguistics inside the University, one sponsored by the Romanian state; it was the first Romanian-language teaching unit outside Romania. He returned to Romania in the late 1910s, being elected honorary member of the Romanian Academy
in 1919.
Tiktin rejoined his daughter in Berlin
during the late 1920s. He died there, but was buried in Iaşi.
School in Leipzig
, Tiktin was especially interested in phonetics
and grammar
, which he analyzed from an historical perspective. Like his fellow Junimea
members, he advocated phonetic transcription
in creating the Romanian alphabet
.
A a frequent contributor to Junimeas Convorbiri Literare, Tiktin also published numerous studies of linguistics in other prestigious Romanian and German journals, and completed a Romanian Grammar in 1883. He was co-founder of Societatea ştiinţifică şi literară (The Literary and Scientific Society) . In 1905 he published his Rumänisches Elementarbuch ("Elementary Romanian") in Heidelberg
, as the first Romanian-language textbook for foreigners. He also translated works by Eminescu and Ion Creangă
into German.
Tiktin's chief work is the Romanian-German Dictionary, still considered as the most authoritative work in the field. Iorgu Iordan
regarded it as "the best dictionary among those ever to have been completed in our language", while Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
considered that "the Tiktin dictionary is and will still remain for a long time a fundamental work". Nicolae Iorga
called the dictionary "a monument of labour and intelligence".
His work is considered seminal in the fields of grammar and etymology — Eugenio Coşeriu
regarded Tiktin as a precursor of structural syntax, and Marius Sala considers that Tiktin created a method in the etymological
research. Iorgu Iordan considers that his work, though not very sizeable, has a "definitive character, in the sense that following research did not challenge its essence".
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n-born Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Jewish linguist and academic, one of the founders of modern Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
linguistics.
Biography
Born in Breslau (part of PrussiaPrussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
at the time), into a rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
nic family which took its name from the shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
of Tyktin
Tykocin
Tykocin is an old, smaller size town in north-eastern Poland, with 1,800 inhabitants , located on the Narew river. Tykocin has been situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship since 1999. Previously, it belonged to Białystok Voivodeship...
, he was himself destined to a rabbinic vocation, and received a classical education. At the age of 18, Tiktin moved to Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, where he married Amalia Mayerhoffer one year later, becoming a Romanian citizen in the early 1870s.
After having taught himself Romanian, Tiktin instructed courses in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Ancient Greek and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
in several of Iaşi's colleges (the Commercial School, the Alexandru cel Bun College, and the National Lyceum). He took active part in the cultural and scientific life of the city, and attended meeting of the highly influential Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
circle. He became a friend of the poet Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, who acquainted him with Romanian lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
, grammar
Romanian grammar
Standard Romanian shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, viz...
, folklore, literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
and history. Tiktin's interest in Romanian language would develop into a major scientific preoccupation. He was also a friend of Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
and Gheorghe Kirileanu, being well acquainted with Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore George Tocilescu was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy....
, Alexandru Philippide, A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
, Ovid Densusianu
Ovid Densusianu
Ovid Densusianu was a Romanian poet, philologist, linguist and folklorist. He is known for introducing new trends of European modernism into Romanian literature.He was a professor at the University of Bucharest, and a member of the Romanian Academy....
, Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
.
Tiktin received his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
in 1884, with the thesis Studies on Romanian Philology. Beginning in 1889, he headed the linguistics section of the journal Albina.
In 1900 he converted to Christianity, taking the Christian name of Hariton. In 1904, Tiktin was appointed as a lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
. Two years later he founded a seminary of Romanian Linguistics inside the University, one sponsored by the Romanian state; it was the first Romanian-language teaching unit outside Romania. He returned to Romania in the late 1910s, being elected honorary member of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
in 1919.
Tiktin rejoined his daughter in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during the late 1920s. He died there, but was buried in Iaşi.
Work
Formed at the NeogrammarianNeogrammarian
The Neogrammarians were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change...
School in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Tiktin was especially interested in phonetics
Romanian phonology
This article discusses the phonology of the Romanian language. For other details on this language the reader is referred to that article....
and grammar
Romanian grammar
Standard Romanian shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, viz...
, which he analyzed from an historical perspective. Like his fellow Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
members, he advocated phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds . The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet....
in creating the Romanian alphabet
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
.
A a frequent contributor to Junimeas Convorbiri Literare, Tiktin also published numerous studies of linguistics in other prestigious Romanian and German journals, and completed a Romanian Grammar in 1883. He was co-founder of Societatea ştiinţifică şi literară (The Literary and Scientific Society) . In 1905 he published his Rumänisches Elementarbuch ("Elementary Romanian") in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, as the first Romanian-language textbook for foreigners. He also translated works by Eminescu and Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
into German.
Tiktin's chief work is the Romanian-German Dictionary, still considered as the most authoritative work in the field. Iorgu Iordan
Iorgu Iordan
Iorgu Iordan was a Romanian linguist, philologist, diplomat, journalist, and left-wing agrarian, later communist, politician. The author of works on a large variety of topics, most of them dealing with issues of the Romanian language and Romance languages in general, he was elected a full member...
regarded it as "the best dictionary among those ever to have been completed in our language", while Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
Constantin Radulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as centre-left nationalist politician with a noted anti-fascist discourse...
considered that "the Tiktin dictionary is and will still remain for a long time a fundamental work". Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
called the dictionary "a monument of labour and intelligence".
His work is considered seminal in the fields of grammar and etymology — Eugenio Coşeriu
Eugenio Coseriu
Eugenio Coşeriu July 27, 1921, Mihăileni, Bălţi, Republic of Moldova – September 7, 2002, Tübingen, Germany) was a linguist that specialized in Romance languages at the University of Tübingen, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy....
regarded Tiktin as a precursor of structural syntax, and Marius Sala considers that Tiktin created a method in the etymological
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
research. Iorgu Iordan considers that his work, though not very sizeable, has a "definitive character, in the sense that following research did not challenge its essence".
Awards
- Special Prize of the Romanian Academy (1926)
- Golden Medal "Bene Merenti" of the Romanian Academy (1928)
Selected works
- Studien zur rumänischen Philologie, I, Leipzig, 1884
- Studien zur rumänischen Philologie, II: Einfluss von ú und j auf benachbarte Laute, Leipzig, 1884
- "Der Vokalismus des Rumänischen", in Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, X, (1886) p.246–255; XI, (1887) p.56–85; XII, (1888) p.220–241, 436-462
- "Die rumänische Sprache", in Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, vol. I, Strassburg, 1888
- "Der Konsonantismus des Rumänischen", in Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, XXIV (1900) p.319–328, 489-500
- Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, vol. I (A – C), Bucharest, 1903
- Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, vol. II (D – O), Bucharest, 1911
- Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, vol. III (P – Z), Bucharest, 1925