Lambert ten Kate and Justus-Georg Schottelius: Theoretical similarities between Dutch and German early modern linguistics

Until now the Dutch linguist Lambert ten Kate (1674–1731), famous for his early discovery of Ablaut, has not been honoured with a publication concerning his relationship to German 17th-century linguists. Such an interpretation, however, shows great similarities between ten Kate and especially Justus-Georg Schottelius (1612–1676) with regard to three fundamental theoretical issues: the primacy of the roots, the authority of historical material, and the importance of analogy and regularity. They both integrate these when assuming the existence of a suprahistorical system of roots on the basis of which the rational processes of derivation and composition create language as it is.