- Heimann Hariton Tiktin
Heimann Hariton Tiktin (
August 9 ,1850 –March 13 ,1936 ), born Heimann Tiktin, was aSilesia n-bornRomania nJew ish linguist and academic, one of the founders of modern Romanian linguistics.Biography
Born in Breslau (part of
Prussia at the time), into arabbi nic family which took its name from theshtetl of Tyktin, ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] Mehr] he was himself destined to a rabbinic vocation, and received a classical education.Graur, p.69–70] At the age of 18, Tiktin moved toIaşi , 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 poetMihai Eminescu , who acquainted him with Romanianlexicography , grammar, folklore, literature and history. Tiktin's interest in Romanian language would develop into a major scientific preoccupation. [ Tiktin, "Festrede zum 80..."] He was also a friend ofNicolae Iorga andGheorghe Kirileanu , being well acquainted withTitu Maiorescu ,Grigore Tocilescu ,Alexandru Philippide ,A. C. Cuza ,Ovid Densusianu ,Alexandru Vlahuţă andBogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu .Tiktin received his
Ph.D. from theUniversity 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 theRomanian Academy in 1919.Tiktin rejoined his daughter in
Berlin during the late 1920s. He died there, but was buried in Iaşi.Work
Formed at the
Neogrammarian School inLeipzig , Tiktin was especially interested in phonetics and grammar, which he analyzed from an historical perspective. Like his fellow "Junimea " members, he advocatedphonetic transcription in creating theRomanian alphabet .A a frequent contributor to "Junimea"'s "
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") inHeidelberg , as the first Romanian-language textbook for foreigners. He also translated works by Eminescu andIon 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", whileConstantin 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".Rizescu, p.10–11, 166-169]His work is considered seminal in the fields of grammar and etymology —
Eugenio Coşeriu regarded Tiktin as a precursor ofstructural syntax , andMarius Sala considers that Tiktin created a method in the etymological research. [Golopenţia] 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)elected 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, 1925Notes
References
*The 1905 "
Jewish Encyclopedia " article [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=214&letter=T "Tiktin"] , byIsidore Singer ,Schulim Ochser , andMax Seligsohn
*S. Golopenţia, "La postérité de Tiktin", in "Romance Philology", 50(1), 1996, p.60-74
*Alexandru Graur , Lucia Wald, "Scurtă istorie a lingvisticii",Editura Ştiinţifică , Bucharest, 1965
*ro icon [http://www.romanianjewish.org/db/pdf/nr247/pagina12.pdf B. Mehr, "Un mare filolog român - Heimann Tiktin", in "Realitatea Evreiască", 247 (1047), February-March 2006]
*I. Rizescu, "H. Tiktin, Omul şi opera", Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1971
*Heimann Hariton Tiktin, "Festrede zum 80. Geburtstag, Allgemeiner Deutscher Neuphilologenverband",Charlottenburg , 1930
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