The first german grammar in Russia: creation and sources

Die Teutsche Grammatica... by M. Schwanwitz (St. Petersburg, 1730) was the first German grammar printed in Russia. It was bilingual: Russian and German sections were parallel. The Russian text reflected the diversity and variability of the new, early 18th century“civil” literary language. The article authors describe linguistic terminology of Schwanwitz’s textbook, study editorial changes made during its creation and examples corpus used in the grammar, first of all, anthroponyms. Comparative analysis of the structure, content and illustrative material of Schwanwitz’s grammar and Die deutsche Grammatica... by Charmyntes (Berlin, 1713) allows us to conclude that Charmyntes’s grammar was not the only source of the academic textbook. In cases where Schwanwitz borrowed material from the German source, he critically rethought and rewrote the original. The authors disagree with the assertion outspoken in scientific literature that Schwanwitz’s work was for the most part imitative to Die deutsche Grammatica... by Charmyntes and that the Berlin edition should be considered as a conductor of the Western model of grammatical description in Russia. Study of Die Teutsche Grammatica... creation allows to conclude that lack of its author’s formal education case was atoned by rich practical experience, ability to learn a lot and quickly and obvious desire to become a philologist recognized by contemporaries.