In times of epochal transformations, change happens gradually. The only place where you can observe dramatic change is the language. That is why philologists are the first to notice it. Others only begin to notice when it’s too late.

Arkady Belinkov.

4 responses to “Philologists and Change”

  1. Avi Avatar
    Avi

    I think that by “philologists” he means linguists. I suppose that people with a linguistic sensibility are more attuned to this kind of changes.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      He uses the word “языковед”, which in a literal translation would be “the knower of language.” I vacillated between linguist and philologist because the word “linguist” has been murdered by the higher education system in America. People who market themselves as linguists in academia are usually specialists on the pedagogy of language teaching.

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  2. Avi Avatar
    Avi

    Thanks for clearing this up. The beauty of “языковед” is that it is perspicuous in a way that neither linguist nor philologist is.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      There is this beautiful shade of difference between языковедение and языкознание. Ведать is not the same as знать. It’s one of those things that are very hard to relay in translation.

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