Linguistic Research in the Scientific Expedition to Siberia (1719–1727): D. G. Messerschmidt and Ph. J. Strahlenberg

Abstract

Linguistics is, perhaps, the only field of scientific studies of two colleagues, who were companions on the Siberian journey – D. G. Messerschmidt and Ph. J. Strahlenberg – in which historians of science cannot reach the consensus on whom give the palm and title of the pioneer in the study of the languages of the Siberian peoples and whose contribution in the formation of comparative linguistics was more significant. The article presents the materials from the personal collection of the first researcher of Siberia, German scholar D. G. Messerschmidt, stored in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It analyzes information about linguistic research conducted in the expedition of D. G. Messerschmidt (1719–1722) at the time when his Swedish companion Ph. J. Strahlenberg was on this voyage (till 1722). The research goal is to establish the degree of participation of both scholars in collecting and analyzing language materials. Comparison of the data from archival sources information contained in the book, published by Ph. J. Strahlenberg in Stockholm in 1730, shows that both German and Swedish researchers collected and processed language materials independently; they had different linguistic interests and research goals. For Ph. J. Strahlenberg, comparative language study and etymology issues were areas of his special interest; the priority of D. G. Messerschmidt lied in the purposeful and systematic compilation of natural science nomenclatures, comparative studies became the focus of his attention much later. At the same time, the research trajectories of the two traveling scholars inevitably intersected due to joint travel and long-time joint work – even if the travelers did not share their notes, they could not help but share ideas and conclusions.