Bernhard Karlgren

Bernhard Karlgren (1889 - 1978) was a linguist Swedish, sinologist, philologist, and founder of Swedish Sinology as a scientific discipline. Its complete name was Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren , and it adopted the Chinese name of 高本漢 (Pinyin: Gāo Běnhàn).

His/her brothers were the professor Anton Karlgren and the lawyer Hjalmar Karlgren.

Karlgren published its first scientific article at the 16 years age. This one related to the Dialecte Swedish province of Dalarna. He studied later with the Université of Uppsala of 1907 - 1909, where he learned the Russian under the direction from the professor J.A. Lundell, a Slavist interested in the comparative Phonologie. He decided to apply the methods of comparative historical phonology to the Chinese Langues, which had not been studied yet. As the Chinese Langue at the time was not taught in Sweden, Karlgren went to Saint-Petersbourg, where he studied this language with the professor AD INTERIM Ivanoff for two months. Of 1910 with 1912, Karlgren lived in China, where he studied the language and wrote a phonological description of 24 dialects.

Karlgren turned over to Europe in January 1912, remaining with London, Paris, and finally Uppsala, where it presented its thesis of doctorate in 1915 (although this one was written in French language, the majority of its scientific publications will be published in English language).

Karlgren was in particular professor of Asian languages to Gothenburg in 1918, and person in charge of the be-Asian department of the Université of Stockholm in 1939.

In 1946, Karlgren started to dispute the historiography of old China, little scientifically documented at the time. Reviewing the literature related to the history pre Han in his article Legends and Cults in Ancient Clouded , it stressed that " a characteristic common to the majority of these treaties is a lack curious about critical method in handling of the matériel". Karlgren criticized in particular the nonselective use of documents of various times to establish the old Chinese history. " Consequently, of very many and complete works were carried out, but they are in fact only caricatures of treaties scientifiques". Karlgren followed in that the remarks of very many Chinese scientists to the beginning of the XXe century.

Karlgren was the first scientist to use the scientific principles developed in Europe for the compared Linguistique to study the Chinese language. It was also the first to rebuild the sounds of what is now called the medieval Chinese, then the antiquated Chinese , to leave in particular different the Dialectes mandarins. Before work of Karlgren, the Chinese scientists were satisfied to rebuild the " categories of rhymes " (韻部) of old and antiquated Chinese, that is to say for example the phonological properties, and not the properties Phonétique S. Karlgren also suggested that in the first identifiable times of the Chinese language, the personal pronouns were prone to the Déclinaison S.

Consequently, Karlgren tried to extend its research to the Chinese history itself, the characteristics of the language and from its diffusion. As he wrote it in his English adaptation Sound and Symbol in Chinese (1923), Chapitre I: " Consequently, as the Chinese tradition does not inform a trace of an emigration coming from an other country, and as there does not exist external not support chronological, there is not possible for us to establish, starting from internal sources, than the Chinese tradition which places the reign of the Empereur Yao at XXIVe century before Jesus-Christ does not mislead; that the Chinese of these old times were experienced astronomers; that they put in writing in Chinese language the big events, and that was consigned shortly after these events; in short, that developed Chinese civilization --resting undoubtedly on an old tradition of many centuries-- and the Chinese language, existed on the Chinese ground two thousand years before Jesus-Christ."

Some work published

Studies on Chinese phonology . 1915-1926.
Ordet och Pennan I Mittens Rike , 1918, adapted in English under the name Sound and Symbol in Chinese , Oxford, 1923.
Analytic Dictionary off Chinese and Sino-Japanese 1923.
" The Authenticity off Ancient Chinese Texts" , Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , 1929.
" The Early History off the Cabbage Li and Tso Chuan Texts" , Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , 1931.
" Word Families in Chinese" , Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , 1933.
" New Studies one Chinese Bronzes" , Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , 1937.
" Grammata Serica, Script and Phonetics in Chinese and Sino-Japanese" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1940.
" Hooted and Han" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1941.
" Glosses one the Kuo Feng Odes" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1942.
" Glosses one the Siao Ya Odes" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1944.
" Glosses one your Ya and Sung Odes" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1946.
" Legends and Cults in Ancient China" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1946.
" The Book off Documents" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1950.
" Compendium off Phonetics in Ancient and Archaic Chinese" , The Bulletin off the Museum off Far Eastern Antiquities , Stockholm, 1954.
Grammata Serica Counted . 1957

In Swedish, it published very many popular works on the language, the culture and the Chinese history. In the Years 1940, it published Nouvelle S under the Pseudonyme of Klas Gullman.

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