Japhetic theory (linguistics)

Japhetic theory is a term used to describe a linguistic theory developed by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr (1864-1934). In linguistics it is considered to be the equivalent of Lysenkoism in biology: a theory that was promoted and supported for ideological rather than scientific reasons, because it was thought to represent "Marxist science" as opposed to "bourgeois science."

Marr adopted the term "Japhetic", from Japheth, the name of one of the sons of Noah, in order to characterise his theory that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area were related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East (named after Shem, Japheth's brother). This initial theory pre-dated the Soviet revolution. In 1917 Marr enthusiastically endorsed the revolution, and offered his services to the new regime. He was soon accepted as the country's leading linguist.

Under the Soviet government Marr developed his theory to claim that Japhetic languages had existed across Europe before the advent of the Indo-European languages. They could still be recognised as a substratum over which the Indo-European languages had imposed themselves. Using this model, Marr attempted to apply the Marxist theory of class struggle to linguistics, arguing that these different strata of language corresponded to different social classes. He even claimed that the same social classes in widely different countries spoke versions of their own languages that were linguistically closer to one another than to the speech of other classes who supposedly spoke "the same" language. This aspect of Marr's thinking was an attempt to demonstrate that the Marxist theory of international class consciousness applied to language and that the notion that a people could be united by common language was nothing more than false consciousness created by "bourgeois nationalism".

In 1950, after Marr's death, his claims were officially discredited as a misprepresentation of Marxist theory in an article nominally written by Stalin.