philology
Sign in to savePhilology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics.
AI overview
Philology is the study of language as it appears in historical texts and oral records, combining textual analysis, literary criticism, history, and linguistics to understand what those sources originally meant and whether they're authentic. It matters because philologists help us accurately interpret historical documents and understand how language has evolved over time.
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Article
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Branches
- Comparative
- Textual
- Cognitive
- Decipherment
- Contention
- In popular culture
- See also
- References
- External links
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics.
Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BC, and was continued by the Ancient Greeks and then the Romans throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empire. It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other European (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, etc.), Asian (Cuneiform, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, etc.), African (Egyptian, etc.), and American (Mayan, etc.) languages. Indo-European studies involve the comparative philology of all Indo-European languages.