RASK, RASMUS.

Anvisning till Isländskan eller Nordiska Fornspråket. Från Danskan öfversatt och omarbetad af Författaren.

Stockholm, A. Wiborgs Forlag, 1818.

8vo. Bound in a contemporary half calf binding with gilt spine. Gilt title label to spine. Ownership signature to front free endpaper. Insignificant water stains to top margin of the first few leaves and plate. Few scattered brownspots, otherwise internally clean. XXVIII,298,(2) pp + 1 engraved plate.


First Swedish edition, published the same year as the original Danish edition, of Rask's main work 'Undersögelse om det Gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse'.

This treatise constitutes a founding work, not only in Nordic Philology, but also in comparative linguistics altogether. For the first time, Rask emphasised the importance of examining similarities in grammatical structure as opposed to etymology in comparative linguistics. Independently of Rask, the German linguist Jacob Grimm took a similar approach in his 'Deutsche Grammatik' published in 1819.

Hjelmslev I, 27.

Order-nr.: 57135

DKK 2.500,00