THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE: A DETACHED VIEW
The article is devoted to the work of two German orientalists, August Ludwig von Schlözer and Johann Severin Vater, and their contribution to the study of the Russian language. Both are the authors of Russian grammars (published in 1764 and 1808, respectively), both attempted to define the position of Russian among other languages of the world, studied its history, and gave objective evaluations of its merits and its perspectives for the future. Schlözer could rely only on “The Russian Grammar” by Mikhail Lomonosov in his work, while Vater, in addition to Lomonosov’s work, could also use “The Russian Grammar” by Pyotr and Dmitry Sokolov, as well as its numerous revisions and adaptations. Critics have been at variance as to the role of the two foreign scholars’ research in the realm of the Russian language.