Lambert ten Kate
{{Short description|Dutch linguist (1674–1731)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lambert ten Kate
| image = Portret van Lambert ten Kate Lambert ten Kate, Hermansz. (titel op object), RP-P-OB-48.671.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Lambert ten Kate
(engraving by Jacob Houbraken)
| birth_date = 23 January 1674
| death_date = {{death date and age|1731|12|14|1674|1|23|df=y}}
| birth_place = Amsterdam
| death_place = Amsterdam
| children =
| signature =
}}
Lambert ten Kate (23 January 1674 – 14 December 1731) was a Dutch linguist. Specialised in comparative historical linguistics, he was also a well-known art collector.
Early life
Ten Kate was born in Amsterdam to Mennonite parents.{{cite book|last=Auroux|first=Sylvain|title=Auroux, Sylvain; Koerner, E.F.K.; Niederehe, Hans-Josef; Versteegh, Kees: History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire des sciences du langage. 2. Teilband|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z00QBOsUgcsC&pg=PA1116|accessdate=20 January 2013|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-019421-0|pages=1116–}} He studied at the Haarlem Collegium Physicum and was a pupil of Adriaan Verwer.{{cite book|last1=Noordegraaf|first1=J.|last2=Koerner|first2=E. F. K.|title=The History of Linguistics in the Low Countries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sapWlrzqBNMC&pg=PA203|accessdate=24 January 2013|year=1992|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-4551-9|pages=203–}}
Career
Early in his career, ten Kate was a merchant, as a partner with his father, Herman ten Kate (1644–1706). The ten Kates engaged in the business of trading in corns, but it was not a preference for the younger man. He eventually left the family business, giving his attention to linguistics, especially, historical-comparative work, etymology, methodology and the standard language. An early phonetician,{{cite book|last=Dekker|first=Cornelis|title=The origins of Old Germanic studies in the Low Countries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOV5_giY6ssC&pg=PA343|accessdate=24 January 2013|year=1998|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-11031-1|pages=343–}} he wrote linguistic and theological treatises on Dutch and other Germanic languages. His first published work on linguistics was at the instigation of Verwer. In his Aenleiding tot de kennisse van het verhevene deel der Nederduitsche sprake (1723), he made scientific comparisons of older language stages. By observation of the written and spoken language of his own time, he developed linguistic rules to detect and capture language changes. As his publications were all in his native Dutch and not in Latin, he was not known internationally. His notable work, Geméénschap tussen de Gottische spraeke en de Nederduytsche ('Affinities and Similarities between the Dutch and Gothic Languages) was published anonymously in 1710. Thirteen years later, his magnum opus was a two-volume Aenleiding tot de kennisse van het verhevene deel der Nederduitsche sprake ('Introduction to the Knowledge of the Most Important Part of the Dutch Language').{{Cite web|url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/18138/2002a_ten%20Kate-Beitraege%5B1%5D.pdf?sequence=6|format=pdf|title=Lambert ten Kate and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Linguistics|accessdate=21 January 2013|publisher=Open Access Leiden University}}
Death
He died of a lingering illness in Amsterdam in 1731, and was buried in the Noorderkerk.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commonscatinline}}
- [http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=kate002 Lambert ten Kate at The Digital Library of Dutch Literature] (in Dutch)
- Steffen Ducheyne, 'A Matter of Method: Lambert ten Kate's New Methods in the Study of Language and the Natural Philosophical Method of Isaac Newton'. In: BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 137 (2022) 1, 28-49. https://bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view/7030
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kate, Lambert ten}}
Category:17th-century linguists
Category:18th-century linguists
Category:Linguists from the Netherlands