Abstract
The ‘Dutch grammar’, composed by the grammarian and lexicographer Pieter Weiland (1754-1842), served for many decades as an official government document. As such it was instrumental in codifying the Dutch standard language. It presented an authoritative practical grammar for the correct use of contemporary written Dutch, in particular within the context of the mother tongue education. Modelled upon the works of the influential German grammarian J.C. Adelung, Weiland's book is also the summa of the eighteenth-century Dutch linguistic tradition. His grammar is characterized by the linguistic and philosophical traits of Dutch Enlightenment Linguistics, such as an empirico-social approach, and appears to be inspired to a considerable degree by internationally renowned compatriots such as Lambert ten Kate, Tiberius Hemsterhuis and Albert Schultens.
Keywords: normative-practical grammar, empirico-social approach, language and thought, Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde.
Introduction
In 1805 the Reverend Pieter Weiland published his Nederduitsche Spraakkunst (‘Dutch grammar’), which was to be the first and also last book of grammar to be officially prescribed by a Dutch government as a writing-regulation. At the behest of the authoritative Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde (‘Society of Dutch Language and Literature’), the book had been peer reviewed by a committee of three distinguished Leiden scholars, namely Meinard Tydeman, Adriaan Kluit, and Matthijs Siegenbeek. Weiland had also presented a copy of the text to Johannes van der Palm, a member of the Council of Home Affairs. They had all deemed it to be an excellent and comprehensive grammar. Their judgement was endorsed by the influential Batavian Society for Language and Poetry. Subsequently, Weiland's grammar was published ‘on behalf of and at the behest of the Government of the Batavian Republic’ and was to hold sway into the 1850s, due to the simple fact that many textbooks, both in and outside the Netherlands, were based on it.
In 1804, Siegenbeek's treatise on orthography, the Verhandeling over de Nederduitsche spelling, had also been published at the behest of the ‘Batavian Republic’. This book provided the very first official rules for spelling in the Dutch language. The publication of the Verhandeling and the Spraakkunst, two complementary works, can be seen as inaugurating the final phase of the codification of the Dutch standard written language.