Adrien Reland, linguiste et orientaliste : deux contributions à la philologie comparée

Abstract

Adrian Reland is a 17th century philologist whose contributions are numerous and varied. This article evaluates the scope and originality of his contributions in the field of comparative linguistics, and more specifically in that of German-Persian kinship. In particular, he develops a methodology aimed at guiding etymologies and linguistic comparisons, whose study will make it possible to assess the reliability of the scholar. This systematic and cautious spirit which he shows in his approach is found in his catalog of correspondences between Persian and some European languages (Latin, Greek, Slavic, French, English, Dutch). It appears that his comparisons with Slavic, Latin and Greek include some previously unpublished correspondences.