The purpose of this page is to provide an integrated online directory of the works of the Danish linguist and English expert Otto Jespersen (1860-1943). His œuvre was for some time a lost treasure of linguistics, but in recent years a number of his books have been reprinted by various publishers, and a number of his interlinguistic works have been published on the internet.
The following list is not intended to be complete, but to assist in the location of Jespersen's books and articles.
Sections:
Reprinted books
Out of print books
Articles
Books and articles on Otto Jespersen
Progress in Language with Special Reference to English
London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1894
New York: Macmillan & Co.
The principal exposition of Jespersen's lifelong belief in linguistic progress.
Partly a translation of his 1891 PhD. thesis submitted to the University of Copenhagen,
Studier over Engelske Kasus, med en Indledning: Fremskridt i Sproget.
Reprint:
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1993
Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series I - Amsterdam Classics
in Linguistics, 1800-1925, Volume 17
Foreword by E. F. K. Koerner
Introduction by James D. McCawley, University of Chicago
John Benjamins Publishing - use the Catalog to find
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Related works: Efficiency in Linguistic Change - Energetik der Sprache - Language
The Philosophy of Grammar
London: Allen & Unwin, 1924
New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Jespersen's main theoretical work on language structure, whose most important themes are Inner Meaning and Outer Form, Nexus and Junction and the Three Ranks.
Reprint:
University of Chicago Press, 1992
Introduction by James D. McCawley
This book at University of
Chicago Press
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Related works: Analytic Syntax - The System of Grammar - Logic and Grammar
Essentials of English Grammar
London: Allen & Unwin, 1933
Manageable digest of the monumental seven-volume Modern English Grammar on Historical
Principles.
Reprints:
University of Alabama Press, 1965
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Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd
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HarperCollins
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Related works: Modern English Grammar - Growth and Structure of the English Language
Analytic Syntax
London: Allen & Unwin, 1937
Jespersen's attempt to formulate a universal notation for showing the grammatical relationships
between the elements of a sentence.
Reprint:
University of Chicago Press, 1984
This book at University of
Chicago Press
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Related works: Philosophy of Grammar - Logic and Grammar
Chapters on English (reprinted from Progress in Language)
London: Allen & Unwin, 1918
"A brilliant and suggestive essay on the contemporary evolution of English grammar." - The Times.
Reprint:
Jespersen Press, 2007
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Related works: Modern English Grammar - Growth and Structure of the English Language
Find used copies of these books at abebooks.com - enter author and title in full for best results
Language: its Nature, Development and Origin
London: Allen & Unwin, 1922
New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Jespersen's most general work, covering such diverse areas as History of Linguistics, Child Language, Language Change and Progress in Language.
Related works: Progress in Language
Growth and Structure of the English Language
Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1905
Jespersen's most general work on the English language, explores the history and main features of the language on which he was a leading expert.
Related works: Modern English Grammar - Essentials of English Grammar
Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (7 vols.)
London: Allen & Unwin, 1909-49
Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard
Jespersen's monumental work on every aspect of the structure of English.
Related works: Essentials of English Grammar - Growth and Structure of the English Language
How to Teach a Foreign Language
New York: Macmillan, 1904
Introduction to Jespersen's revolutionary language teaching methods.
Related works: The Teaching of Grammar - Lehrbuch der Phonetik - What is the Use of Phonetics?
Lehrbuch der Phonetik
Authorized translation from the Danish by Hermann Davidson
Leipzig & Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1904
Jespersen's principal work on phonetics, the science of speech sounds.
Related works: What is the Use of Phonetics?
Mankind, Nation and Individual; from a linguistic point of view
Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1925
Paris: H. Champion
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Efficiency in Linguistic Change
Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard, 1941
A revised and extended statement of Jespersen's theory of linguistic progress.
Related works: Progress in Language - Energetik der Sprache - Language
Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French and German
Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1933
An International Language
London: Allen & Unwin, 1928
Exposition of Jespersen's international language Novial, as well as a survey of previous schemes
and appraisal of the case for a planned language for international communication.
German translation:
Eine Internationale Sprache
by Siegfried Auerbach
Related works: Novial Lexike - Interlinguistics - Artificial Languages after the World War
Novial Lexike
Heidelberg: Carl Winter's, 1930
Dictionary of the international language Novial.
Related works: An International Language
En Sprogmands Levned
Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1938
Jespersen's intellectual autobiography.
Selected Writings of Otto Jespersen
London: Allen & Unwin, 1960
International Language and Science
with L. Couturat, R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, L. Pfaundler
London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1910
Considerations on the introduction of an international language into science.
The Classification of Languages
Scientia, Vol. 28, 1920
The Teaching of Grammar
The English Journal, 1924
The System of Grammar
Linguistica, 1933
Negation in English and Other Languages
Historisk-filologiske Meddeleser 1, 1917
Voiced and Voiceless Fricatives in English
Linguistica, 1933
Monosyllabism in English
Linguistica, 1933
What is the Use of Phonetics?
Educational Review, February 1910
Adversative Conjunctions
Linguistica, 1933
Energetik der Sprache
Scientia 16, 1914
L'Adoption Universelle des Caractères Latins
Dossiers de la Cooperation intellectuelle, League of Nations, Paris 1934
English translation:
The Universal Adoption of Latin Letters
by James Chandler, 1998
Vilhelm Thomsen's Interpretation of the Orkhon Inscriptions
Translated from the Danish by Mrs. Helen Fogh
Illustreret Tidende (No. 31), 1894
Nature and Art in Language
American Speech 5, 1929
Interlinguistics
International Communication, London 1931 (Kegan Paul)
Artificial Languages After the World-War
Translated into Ido from the Danish by Miss Gunvar Mönster and published
in Hjælpesprogstidende for March and April 1918 and turned from Ido into English by Gilbert H. Richardson
Two Papers on International Language in English and Ido, Ido-Society, London 1920
Historio di Nia Linguo
Copenhagen, June 1912
English translation:
History of Our Language (Ido)
Two Papers on International Language in English and Ido, Ido-Society, London 1920
Men Labore por un International Lingue - 1. Ante li mondemilite
Men Labore por un International Lingue - 2. Pos li monde-guere
Novialiste (Per Ahlberg), Stockholm 1937-38
Discussion pri International Lingue
with Edgar de Wahl
Novialiste (Per Ahlberg), Stockholm 1935
Modifikat Anglum kom Universal-Lingue
Novialiste (Per Ahlberg), Stockholm 1934
English translation:
Modified English as a Universal Language
by James Chandler, 1999
Otto Jespersen: Facets of his Life and Work
by Arne Juul and Hans F. Nielsen (editors)
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1989
Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, Vol. 52
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A Grammatical Miscellany Offered to Otto Jespersen on His 70th Birthday
Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard, 1930
London: Allen & Unwin
The following article, written in Novial, is taken from this volume:
Pri Nonmediati Derivatione in li International Lingues
by Siegfried Auerbach
Otto Jespersen (1860-1943)
by Niels Haislund, 1943
Nécrologie Otto Jespersen
by Louis Hjelmslev
Acta Linguistica 3, 1942-43
Otto Jespersen - His Work for an International Auxiliary Language
by Henry Jacob
Loughton: International Language (Ido) Society of Great Britain, 1943
James Chandler 10-Jun-01