Heimann Hariton Tiktin (August 9, 1850 – March 13, 1936), born Heimann Tiktin, was a

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

n-born

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n linguist and academic, one of the founders of modern

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

linguistics.

Biography

Born in Breslau (part of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

at the time), into a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

nic family which took its name from the

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

of Tyktin,Mehr he was himself destined to a rabbinic vocation, and received a classical education.Graur, p.69–70 At the age of 18, Tiktin moved to Iaşi, where he married Amalia Mayerhoffer one year later, becoming a Romanian citizen in the early 1870s. After having taught himself Romanian, Tiktin instructed courses in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

and German in several of Iaşi's colleges (the Commercial School, the Alexandru cel Bun College, and the National Lyceum). He took active part in the cultural and scientific life of the city, and attended meeting of the highly influential ''

Junimea ''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost pers ...

'' circle. He became a friend of the poet

Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...

, who acquainted him with Romanian

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. Tiktin's interest in Romanian language would develop into a major scientific preoccupation. He was also a friend of

Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga (; sometimes Neculai Iorga, Nicolas Jorga, Nicolai Jorga or Nicola Jorga, born Nicu N. Iorga;Iova, p. xxvii. 17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet ...

and Gheorghe Kirileanu, being well acquainted with

Titu Maiorescu Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of ...

Grigore Tocilescu Grigore George Tocilescu (26 October 1850 – 18 September 1909) was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy. He was a professor of ancient history at the University of Bucharest, author of Mare ...

Alexandru Philippide Alexandru I. Philippide (; May 1, 1859 – August 12, 1933) was a Romanian linguist and philologist. Educated in Iași and Halle, he taught high school for several years until 1893, when he secured a professorship at the University of Iași tha ...

A. C. Cuza Alexandru C. Cuza (8 November 1857 – 3 November 1947), also known as A. C. Cuza, was a Romanian far-right politician and economist. Early life Born in Iași, Cuza attended secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, ...

Ovid Densusianu Ovid Densusianu (; also known under his pen name Ervin; 29 December 1873, Făgăraș – 9 June 1938, Bucharest) was a Romanian poet, philologist, linguist, folklorist, literary historian and critic, chief of a poetry school, university professor ...

Alexandru Vlahuţă Alexandru is the Romanian form of the name Alexander. Common diminutives are Alecu, Alex, and Sandu. Origin Etymologically, the name is derived from the Greek "Αλέξανδρος" (Aléxandros), meaning "defending men" or "protector of men", ...

and

Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Life He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...

. Tiktin received his Ph.D. from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

in 1884, with the thesis ''Studies on Romanian Philology''. Beginning in 1889, he headed the linguistics section of the journal '' Albina''. In 1900, he converted to Christianity, taking the Christian name of ''Hariton''. In 1904, Tiktin was appointed as a lecturer at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

. Two years later he founded a seminary of Romanian Linguistics inside the university, one sponsored by the Romanian state; it was the first Romanian-language teaching unit outside Romania. He returned to Romania in the late 1910s, being elected honorary member of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

in 1919. Tiktin rejoined his daughter in Berlin during the late 1920s. He died there, but was buried in Iaşi.

Work

Formed at the

Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change ...

School in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, Tiktin was especially interested in

phonetics 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. ...

and

, which he analyzed from an historical perspective. Like his fellow ''

'' members, he advocated

phonetic transcription Phonetic transcription (also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phones'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the ...

in creating the

Romanian alphabet The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Romanian language. It is a modification of the classical Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used b ...

. A frequent contributor to ''Junimeas ''

Convorbiri Literare ''Convorbiri Literare'' ( Romanian: ''Literary Talks'') is a Romanian literary magazine published in Romania. It is among the most important journals of the nineteenth-century Romania. History and profile ''Convorbiri Literare'' was founded by ...

'', Tiktin also published numerous studies of linguistics in other prestigious Romanian and German journals, and completed a ''Romanian Grammar'' in 1883. He was co-founder of ''Societatea ştiinţifică şi literară'' (The Literary and Scientific Society) . In 1905 he published his ''Rumänisches Elementarbuch'' ("Elementary Romanian") in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, as the first Romanian-language textbook for foreigners. He also translated works by Eminescu and Ion Creangă into German. Tiktin's chief work is the ''Romanian-German Dictionary'', still considered as the most authoritative work in the field.

Iorgu Iordan Iorgu Iordan (; also known as ''Jorgu Jordan'' or ''Iorgu Jordan''; –September 20, 1986) was a Romanian linguist, philologist, diplomat, journalist, and left-wing agrarian, later communist, politician. The author of works on a large variety of ...

regarded it as "the best dictionary among those ever to have been completed in our language", while

Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Constantin Rădulescu-Motru (; born Constantin Rădulescu, he added the surname ''Motru'' in 1892; February 15, 1868 – March 6, 1957) was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as left-nat ...

considered that "the Tiktin dictionary is and will still remain for a long time a fundamental work".

called the dictionary "a monument of labour and intelligence".Rizescu, p.10–11, 166-169 His work is considered seminal in the fields of grammar and etymology — Eugenio Coşeriu regarded Tiktin as a precursor of structural syntax, and

Marius Sala Marius Sala (September 8, 1932, Vașcău, Romania - August 19, 2018, Bucharest) was a Romanian linguist, member of the Romanian Academy. His activity gained international academic recognition in the study of Romance languages. Professional acti ...

considers that Tiktin created a method in the

etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...

research.Golopenţia Iorgu Iordan considers that his work, though not very sizeable, has a "definitive character, in the sense that following research did not challenge its essence".

Awards

*Special Prize of the Romanian Academy (1926) *Golden Medal "Bene Merenti" of the Romanian Academy (1928)

Selected works

*''Studien zur rumänischen Philologie'', I, Leipzig, 1884 *''Studien zur rumänischen Philologie'', II: ''Einfluss von ú und j auf benachbarte Laute'', Leipzig, 1884 *"Der Vokalismus des Rumänischen", in ''Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie'', X, (1886) p. 246–255; XI, (1887) p. 56–85; XII, (1888) p. 220–241, 436-462 *"Die rumänische Sprache", in ''Grundriss der romanischen Philologie'', vol. I, Strassburg, 1888 *"Der Konsonantismus des Rumänischen", in ''Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie'', XXIV (1900) p. 319–328, 489-500 *''Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch'', vol. I (A – C), Bucharest, 1903 *''Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch'', vol. II (D – O), Bucharest, 1911 *''Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch'', vol. III (P – Z), Bucharest, 1925

References

* The 1905 ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

'' articl
"Tiktin"
by

Isidore Singer Isidore Singer (10 November 1859 – 20 February 1939) was an American encyclopedist and editor of ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'' and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man. Biography Singer was born in 1859 in Weisskirchen, M ...

, Schulim Ochser, and

Max Seligsohn Max Seligsohn (April 13, 1865 – April 11, 1923 Manhattan) was an American Orientalist, born in Imperial Russia. Having received his rabbinical training at Slutsk, government ('' guberniya'') of Minsk, he went in 1888 to New York City, where he s ...

* Sanda Golopenţia-Eretescu, "La postérité de Tiktin", in ''Romance Philology'', 50(1), 1996, p. 60-74 *

Alexandru Graur Alexandru Graur (; July 9, 1900 – July 9, 1988) was a Romanian linguist. Born into a Jewish family in Botoșani, Graur graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris (1 ...

, Lucia Wald, ''Scurtă istorie a lingvisticii'', Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1965 *
B. Mehr, "Un mare filolog român - Heimann Tiktin", in ''Realitatea Evreiască'', 247 (1047), February-March 2006
* Ioan Rizescu, ''H. Tiktin, Omul şi opera'', Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1971 * Heimann Hariton Tiktin, ''Festrede zum 80. Geburtstag, Allgemeiner Deutscher Neuphilologenverband'',

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the ...

, 1930 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiktin, Heimann Hariton 1850 births 1936 deaths 19th-century German people 19th-century linguists 20th-century linguists 19th-century translators 20th-century translators Honorary members of the Romanian Academy Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Linguists from Romania Grammarians from Romania Romanian schoolteachers Romanian translators Leipzig University alumni Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Judaism Romanian people of German descent German emigrants to Romania Silesian Jews Writers from Wrocław People from the Province of Silesia 19th-century Romanian educators 20th-century Romanian educators