GABELENTZ

gabelentz, hans conon von der (1807-1874), german linguist and ethnologist, born at altenburg on the 13th of october 1807, was the only son of hans karl leopold von der gabelentz, chancellor and privy-councillor of the duchy of altenburg. from 1821 to 1825 he attended the gymnasium of his native town, where he had matthiae (the eminent greek scholar) for teacher, and hermann brockhaus and julius lobe for schoolfellows. here, in addition to ordinary school-work, he carried on the private study of arabic and chinese; and the latter language continued especially to engage his attention during his undergraduate course, from 1825 to 1828, at the universities of leipzig and gottingen. in 1830 he entered the public service of the duchy of altenburg, where he attained to the rank of privy-councillor in 1843. four years later he was chosen to fill the post of _landmarschall_ in the grand-duchy of weimar, and in 1848 he attended the frankfort parliament, and represented the saxon duchies on the commission for drafting an imperial constitution for germany. in november of the same year he became president of the altenburg ministry, but he resigned office in the following august. from 1851 to 1868 he was president of the second chamber of the duchy of altenburg; but in the latter year he withdrew entirely from public life, that he might give undivided attention to his learned researches. he died on his estate of lemnitz, in saxe-weimar, on the 3rd of september 1874. in the course of his life he is said to have learned no fewer than eighty languages, thirty of which he spoke with fluency and elegance. but he was less remarkable for his power of acquisition than for the higher talent which enabled him to turn his knowledge to the genuine advancement of linguistic science. immediately after quitting the university, he followed up his chinese researches by a study of the finno-ugrian languages, which resulted in the publication of his _elements de la grammaire mandchoue_ in 1832. in 1837 he became one of the promoters, and a joint-editor, of the _zeitschrift fur die kunde des morgenlandes_, and through this medium he gave to the world his _versuch einer mordwinischen grammatik_ and other valuable contributions. his _grundzuge der syrjanischen grammatik_ appeared in 1841. in conjunction with his old school friend, julius lobe, he brought out a complete edition, with translation, glossary and grammar, of ulfilas's gothic version of the bible (1843-1846); and from 1847 he began to contribute to the _zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen gesellschaft_ the fruits of his researches into the languages of the swahilis, the samoyedes, the hazaras, the aimaks, the formosans and other widely-separated tribes. the _beitrage zur sprachenkunde_ (1852) contain dyak, dakota, and kiriri grammars; to these were added in 1857 a _grammatik u. worterbuch der kassiasprache_, and in 1860 a treatise in universal grammar (_uber das passivum_). in 1864 he edited the manchu translations of the chinese sse-shu, shu-king and shi-king, along with a dictionary; and in 1873 he completed the work which constitutes his most important contribution to philology, _die melanesischen sprachen nach ihrem grammatischen bau und ihrer verwandschaft unter sich und mit den malaiisch-polynesischen sprachen untersucht_ (1860-1873). it treats of the language of the fiji islands, new hebrides, loyalty islands, new caledonia, &c., and shows their radical affinity with the polynesian class. he also contributed most of the linguistic articles in pierer's _conversations-lexicon_. gabelle (french, from the med. lat. _gabulum_, _gablum_, a tax, for the origin of which see gavelkind), a term which, in france, was originally applied to taxes on all commodities, but was gradually limited to the tax on salt. in process of time it became one of the most hated and most grossly unequal taxes in the country, but, though condemned by all supporters of reform, it was not abolished until 1790. first imposed in 1286, in the reign of philip iv., as a temporary expedient, it was made a permanent tax by charles v. repressive as a state monopoly, it was made doubly so from the fact that the government obliged every individual above the age of eight years to purchase weekly a minimum amount of salt at a fixed price. when first instituted, it was levied uniformly on all the provinces in france, but for the greater part of its history the price varied in different provinces. there were five distinct groups of provinces, classified as follows: (a) the _pays de grandes gabelles_, in which the tax was heaviest; (b) the _pays de petites gabelles_, which paid a tax of about half the rate of the former; (c) the _pays de salines_, in which the tax was levied on the salt extracted from the salt marshes; (d) the _pays redimes_, which had purchased redemption in 1549; and (e) the _pays exempts_, which had stipulated for exemption on entering into union with the kingdom of france. _greniers a sel_ (dating from 1342) were established in each province, and to these all salt had to be taken by the producer on penalty of confiscation. the _grenier_ fixed the price which it paid for the salt and then sold it to retail dealers at a higher rate. see j.j. clamageran, _histoire de l'impot en france_ (1876); a. gasquet, _precis des institutions politiques de l'ancienne france_ (1885); necker, _compte rendu_ (1781).