Pedersen's alleged racism

[Harry Perridon]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------


Re: Benji Wald's comments on Pedersen's alleged racism.

The Danish text was published in 1924, and copied in 1978 (with an
introduction by Jens Juhl Jensen):
Holger Pedersen Videnskaben om sproget. Historisk sprogvidenskab i det 19.
århundrede , reprinted in 1978 (Aarhus: Arkona).

The relevant passage about Nubian and Hausa (actually spelled with a single
s in the Danish version) is on p. 111. 

Specially interesting for the current discussion on this list is the
following passage on p. 92:

"Herav må man ikke slutte, at der er nogen inderlig sammenhæng mellem sprog
og rase. Det er tvertimod en av de forste iagttagelser, man ved en
gennemgang av sprogene vil göre, at sprog og rase ikke har de samme
grænselinjer." etc.

Pedersen exposes time and again nationalistic and possibly racist ideology
in linguistics, e.g. when describing the finno-ugric language family:

"Men Ungarerne fölte sig ikke just smigrede over slægtskabet med Lapperne:
det lugtede dem for meget av tran. De ville megete hellere være i slægt med
Tyrkerne, særlig med de berömte Hunner," etc. 

Probably Pedersen believed in 'races', but I don't think he can be called a
racist for that reason. In fact, he actually demolishes part of the
foundation of racist theory by showing that there is no connection between
"race" and language-type. 


Harry Perridon
Scandinavische talen
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Harry.Perridon at hum.uva.nl