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Codex Heinricus Pontarius: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "'''(Hænrīk Pontāri Codex)''' The Codex Heinricus Pontarius is a late 9th Century manuscript discovered in 1998 in the Croatian city of Split. The codex was discovered in 1...") |
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The location of the missing pages is not known, nor if there are any other copies of the codex in existence. However in 2012 there arose some tantalizing evidence that the missing quires or even a second copy have been sighted even if not at first hand. The research papers of Doctor Reinholt Stern, a professor of Germanic languages at Universität München, came to light after the death of his daughter in 2011. | The location of the missing pages is not known, nor if there are any other copies of the codex in existence. However in 2012 there arose some tantalizing evidence that the missing quires or even a second copy have been sighted even if not at first hand. The research papers of Doctor Reinholt Stern, a professor of Germanic languages at Universität München, came to light after the death of his daughter in 2011. | ||
Reinholt Stern was a known Nazi sympathiser during the Third Reich. His published works during that time were of dubious scientific value and appeared to be aimed at proving that, the origin of the Aryan languages was in Germany and that the Germanic languages and German in particular was the purist and least debased of the Indo-European | Reinholt Stern was a known Nazi sympathiser during the Third Reich. His published works during that time were of dubious scientific value and appeared to be aimed at proving that, the origin of the Aryan languages was in Germany and that the Germanic languages and German in particular was the purist and least debased of the Indo-European languages. Professor Stern was disgraced at the end of the Second World War. | ||
His recently discovered research notes include an unpublished paper written the 1950s. It describes the journeys through the Mediterranean and the Balkans of a Seventeenth Century noble, Friederich Herzog von Memel. Baron Friederich did exist historically but his voyages appear to be a fiction of Reinholt Stern. Baron Friederich was allegedly an educated man, fluent in German, Latin and Italian and French. In Baron Friederich’s journeys, he encounters a maritime people living on both coasts of the Adriatic. The people, who belonged to two tribes or lineages were called the ''Kwasks'' and the ''Markmen''. | His recently discovered research notes include an unpublished paper written the 1950s. It describes the journeys through the Mediterranean and the Balkans of a Seventeenth Century noble, Friederich Herzog von Memel. Baron Friederich did exist historically but his voyages appear to be a fiction of Reinholt Stern. Baron Friederich was allegedly an educated man, fluent in German, Latin and Italian and French. In Baron Friederich’s journeys, he encounters a maritime people living on both coasts of the Adriatic. The people, who belonged to two tribes or lineages were called the ''Kwasks'' and the ''Markmen''. | ||
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The Kwasks and Markmen are said to be itinerant traders, spending more time on their small ships than ashore. There are said to mostly keep their homes on their boats but there were small enclaves of them living in many port cities and towns on the Adriatic coast. They plied trade routes in that area and occasionally sailed as far abroad as the Black Sea or the Barbary Coast. Some families were known to be pirates and raiders. Upon meeting them, Baron Friederich, was astounded to discover that the languages of the Kwasks and Markmen strongly resembled that of the Saxons and the Swedes. He noted that the languages were akin with German, but were closer in form to Low Saxon or Swedish than to High German. He had several conversations with literate persons, priests and lawyers. From this, with great enthusiasm and zeal, Baron Friederich assembled a list of common words -- this list had the majority of words in common with other Germanic languages. The baron also reveals that the Kwasks were nominally Roman Catholic and wrote their language in the Roman alphabet. The Markmen were nominally Eastern Orthodox and used a modified Cyrillic alphabet. | The Kwasks and Markmen are said to be itinerant traders, spending more time on their small ships than ashore. There are said to mostly keep their homes on their boats but there were small enclaves of them living in many port cities and towns on the Adriatic coast. They plied trade routes in that area and occasionally sailed as far abroad as the Black Sea or the Barbary Coast. Some families were known to be pirates and raiders. Upon meeting them, Baron Friederich, was astounded to discover that the languages of the Kwasks and Markmen strongly resembled that of the Saxons and the Swedes. He noted that the languages were akin with German, but were closer in form to Low Saxon or Swedish than to High German. He had several conversations with literate persons, priests and lawyers. From this, with great enthusiasm and zeal, Baron Friederich assembled a list of common words -- this list had the majority of words in common with other Germanic languages. The baron also reveals that the Kwasks were nominally Roman Catholic and wrote their language in the Roman alphabet. The Markmen were nominally Eastern Orthodox and used a modified Cyrillic alphabet. | ||
Professor Stern’s paper is most often considered to be a | Professor Stern’s paper is most often considered to be a politically motivated hoax and languages of the Kwasks and Markmen to be examples of speculative ''a posteriori'' constructed languages. The primary source, being Baron Friederich’s diaries is nowhere to be found. to be found. Apart from Professor Stern’s account of Baron Friederich’s journeys there is no mention in any other historical documents of people called Kwasks or Markmen living in that area at that time. And the most damning evidence of the hoax are Baron Friederich’s lists of words from Kwask and Markmennish. The supposed word lists, although not in exact order, were an exact match for the 207 vocabulary items used in a Swadesh list. Baron Friederich’s tale also bears a suspiciously strong resemblance to that of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, the Flemish noble who discovered and described Crimean Gothic. | ||
Although an apparent hoax, what proved to be most tantalizing were the forms that Stern used for Kwask and Markmennish words. The form of many words looked to be as if they could have evolved out of the Quadian written in the Codex Heinric Pontarius. The two languages of the Kwasks and Markmen are obviously closely related and the form of many words show regular evolutionary relationships from Quadian words. In common with Quadian, Kwask and Markmennish show an evolution of '''*'''þ to [ts], and '''*hw''' has evolved to [h] in Kwask and [j] in Markmennish. The Codex Heinric Pontarius was not discovered until 1998, so should not have been seen by Stern. These circumstances give two possibilities; the first and most unlikely one that Baron Friederich’s account was not faked and Stern’s paper isn’t a hoax. The second more likely possibility is that Professor Stern had at some time already seen an unknown second copy or the missing fragments of the codex. A search of Stern’s archives has failed to find further signs of any other copy and the truth of the matter died with him in 1971. | Although an apparent hoax, what proved to be most tantalizing were the forms that Stern used for Kwask and Markmennish words. The form of many words looked to be as if they could have evolved out of the Quadian written in the Codex Heinric Pontarius. The two languages of the Kwasks and Markmen are obviously closely related and the form of many words show regular evolutionary relationships from Quadian words. In common with Quadian, Kwask and Markmennish show an evolution of '''*'''þ to [ts], and '''*hw''' has evolved to [h] in Kwask and [j] in Markmennish. The Codex Heinric Pontarius was not discovered until 1998, so should not have been seen by Stern. These circumstances give two possibilities; the first and most unlikely one that Baron Friederich’s account was not faked and Stern’s paper isn’t a hoax. The second more likely possibility is that Professor Stern had at some time already seen an unknown second copy or the missing fragments of the codex. A search of Stern’s archives has failed to find further signs of any other copy and the truth of the matter died with him in 1971. | ||
After the discovery of Stern’s hoax, the credibility of the Split copy of the Codex was | After the discovery of Stern’s hoax, the credibility of the Split copy of the Codex was immediately called into question. Questions were raised whether it might be a fake planted in Split by Stern during the German occupation or by some unknown accomplice. But the molecular and chemical and archeological evidence is that the codex does indeed date to the ninth century. Although there is a very real possibility that a second copy of codex exists or until recently existed and Reinholt Stern’s hoax inadvertently revealed its existence. | ||
But many questions remain; who were the the Kwedisk people of the codex, where did they live, where did they come from, when did they migrate to the Balkans and for how long did their Germanic language survive there? | But many questions remain; who were the the Kwedisk people of the codex, where did they live, where did they come from, when did they migrate to the Balkans and for how long did their Germanic language survive there? | ||