How Were Foreign Languages Taught in Early Modern Europe?
Sep 23, 2026 · 28 min · 8 segments
Sep 23, 2026 · 28 min · 8 segments
Natalia FilatkinaGuest
Kerstin RothGuest
Brynn QuickHost
Miriam HinterholzerGuest
Bryn, once again, thanks for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to present our project and what we do with these language manuals.
I would say the project started with small individual studies and with fascination for these language manuals.
We've been all doing research on these language manuals, and the more we were doing this research, the more we discovered that this is an area that is hugely understudied, and actually it's very rare.
that in the area of linguistics, particularly in the area of historical linguistics, you find sources, you find domains that are so heavily understudied.
And the more, the deeper we were diving in, the more we were observing that this these language manuals are pretty unique.
As you mentioned in your introduction, they give us insights into the everyday communication of people in the early modern times.
And there are very, very few sources that can actually nowadays provide these insights.
So this is a very rare group of historical manuscripts and printed books that enable us to gain insights actually really in the everyday communication in the early modern times.
And also what fascinates us is they provide us with insights in the way of thinking of people who are actually who rarely, who seldom have voices in the research in the area of historical linguistics.
They are maybe not so important in terms of that they are not influential scientists, they are not influential writers.
And this is precisely one of the reasons why the linguistic research didn't pay much attention to the language manual.
who were teaching languages, but they were also doing something else in their lives.
Bryn, once again, thanks for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to present our project and what we do with these language manuals.
I would say the project started with small individual studies and with fascination for these language manuals.
We've been all doing research on these language manuals, and the more we were doing this research, the more we discovered that this is an area that is hugely understudied, and actually it's very rare.
that in the area of linguistics, particularly in the area of historical linguistics, you find sources, you find domains that are so heavily understudied.
And the more, the deeper we were diving in, the more we were observing that this these language manuals are pretty unique.
As you mentioned in your introduction, they give us insights into the everyday communication of people in the early modern times.
And there are very, very few sources that can actually nowadays provide these insights.
So this is a very rare group of historical manuscripts and printed books that enable us to gain insights actually really in the everyday communication in the early modern times.
And also what fascinates us is they provide us with insights in the way of thinking of people who are actually who rarely, who seldom have voices in the research in the area of historical linguistics.
They are maybe not so important in terms of that they are not influential scientists, they are not influential writers.
And this is precisely one of the reasons why the linguistic research didn't pay much attention to the language manual.
who were teaching languages, but they were also doing something else in their lives.
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