Current Research

The Humboldt Working-Group at the Academy commenced its activities in March 2004. Its principal task is to coordinate the editorial work for the entire project and to function as a useful contact and center of information for all scholars and researchers interested in Humboldt but who are not directly associated with the project. Its responsibilities include the planning and organization of the regular meetings of the editorial board and the creation of an extensive Humboldt Archive.

An important part of its efforts will be directed at the digitalization of Humboldt’s manuscripts so that they may be accessed and used by the individual editors. Finally, the group will continue assembling and maintaining the extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources initiated by the participants in the Humboldt project at the University of Graz in Austria.

Members of the Berlin Working-Group are currently preparing the edition of Section 3 containing Humboldt’s extensive work on the American languages. There will be six volumes, two of which, under the editorship of Manfred Ringmacher, Berlin, the editor in charge of the section, have already been published: Humboldt’s Mexicanische Grammatik (Mexican Grammar) (1994) and the Wörterbuch der mexicanischen Sprache (Dictionary of the Mexican Language) (2000). Volume six, Nordamerikanische Sprachen (North American Languages), edited by Micaela Verlato, Göttingen, is nearing completion.

Another area of focus during the following three years will be Section 1, which is devoted to the Formation of Humboldt’s Linguistics and Language Philosophy. This section will be under the editorship of Tilman Borsche (Hildesheim) and Jürgen Trabant (Berlin) in collaboration with Inken Tegtmeyer (Hildesheim) with funding provided by the DFG (German. Research Council).