''Synopsis Universae Philologiae'' is an early work on

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...

by Gottfried Hensel (''Godofredus Henselius''; 1687–1767), a rector in Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra),

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław. The first ...

. Its full title reads: ''Synopsis universae philologiae: in qua: miranda unitas et harmonia linguarum totius orbis terrarum occulta, e literarum, syllabarum, vocumque natura & recessibus eruitur. Cum Grammatica, LL. Orient. Harmonica, Synoptice tractata; nec non descriptione Orbis Terr. quoad Linguarum situm & propagationem, mappisque geographico-polyglottis''. It was published in 1741 in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

by commission of the Homann heirs company. A second edition appeared in 1754.

Influence of the Tower of Babel myth

The book proposes to present all the world's languages known at the time together with their various

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

s. As was common at the time due to the enduring

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

myth, Hensel attempted to derive all languages from a common origin in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, following ''A philosophicall essay for the reunion of the languages, or, the art of knowing all by the mastery of one'' (1675) by Pierre Besnier (1648–1705).Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, ''Geschichte der neuern Sprachenkunde'' (vol. 5 of ''Geschichte der Litteratur von ihrem Anfang bis auf die neuesten Zeiten''), 1807
p. 11

References

1741 non-fiction books 1754 non-fiction books History of linguistics Comparative linguistics Linguistics books Books about cultural geography 18th-century books in Latin Tower of Babel {{historical-linguistics-stub