Lambert ten Kate (23 January 1674 – 14 December 1731) was a
Dutch linguist. Specialised in comparative
historical linguistics
Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...
, he was also a well-known art collector.
Early life
Ten Kate was born in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
to
Mennonite
Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...
parents.
He studied at the Haarlem Collegium Physicum and was a pupil of
Adriaan Verwer.
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
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
,
he wrote linguistic and theological treatises on Dutch and other
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
. 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
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...
').
Death
He died of a lingering illness in Amsterdam in 1731,
and was buried in the
Noorderkerk
The Noorderkerk (Dutch language, Dutch for "northern church") is a 17th-century Protestant church in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Noorderkerk is located along Prinsengracht canal, on Noordermarkt square. The church is used for Dutch Reformed Ch ...
.
See also
*
Canon of Dutch Literature
References
External links
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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kate, Lambert ten
1674 births
1731 deaths
17th-century linguists
18th-century linguists
Linguists from the Dutch Republic
Writers from Amsterdam
Phoneticians
Art collectors from Amsterdam