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 Löbe 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 Göttingen. 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 Éléments de la grammaire mandchoue in 1832. In 1837 he became one of the promoters, and a joint-editor, of the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, and through this medium he gave to the world his Versuch einer mordwinischen Grammatik and other valuable contributions. His Grundzüge der syrjänischen Grammatik appeared in 1841. In conjunction with his old school friend, Julius Löbe, 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 morgenländischen 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 Beiträge zur Sprachenkunde (1852) contain Dyak, Dakota, and Kiriri grammars; to these were added in 1857 a Grammatik u. Wörterbuch der Kassiasprache, and in 1860 a treatise in universal grammar (Über 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 rédimés, 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 à 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. Clamagéran, Histoire de l’impôt en France (1876); A. Gasquet, Précis des institutions politiques de l’ancienne France (1885); Necker, Compte rendu (1781).
GABERDINE, or Gabardine, any long, loose over-garment, reaching to the feet and girt round the waist. It was, when made of coarse material, commonly worn in the middle ages by pilgrims, beggars and almsmen. The Jews, conservatively attached to the loose and flowing garments of the East, continued to wear the long upper garment to which the name “gaberdine” could be applied, long after it had ceased to be a common form as worn by non-Jews, and to this day in some parts of Europe, e.g. in Poland, it is still worn, while the tendency to wear the frock-coat very long and loose is a marked characteristic of the race. The fact that in the middle ages the Jews were forbidden to engage in handicrafts also, no doubt, tended to stereotype a form of dress unfitted for manual labour. The idea of the “gaberdine” being enforced by law upon the Jews as a distinctive garment is probably due to Shakespeare’s use in the Merchant of Venice, I. iii. 113. The mark that the Jews were obliged to wear generally on the outer garment was the badge. This was first enforced by the fourth Lateran Council of 1215. The “badge” (Lat. rota; Fr. rouelle, wheel) took generally the shape of a circle of cloth worn on the breast. It varied in colour at different times. In France it was of yellow, later of red and white; in England it took the form of two bands or stripes, first of white, then of yellow. In Edward I.’s reign it was made in the shape of the Tables of the Law (see the Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. “Costume” and “Badge”). The derivation of the word is obscure. It apparently occurs first in O. Fr. in the forms gauverdine, galvardine, and thence into Ital. as gavardina, and Span. gabardina, a form which has influenced the English word. The New English Dictionary suggests a connexion with the O.H. Ger. wallevart, pilgrimage. Skeat (Etym. Dict., 1898) refers it to Span. gaban, coat, cloak; cabaña, hut, cabin.
GABES, a town of Tunisia, at the head of the gulf of the same name, and 70 m. by sea S.W. of Sfax. It occupies the site of the Tacape of the Romans and consists of an open port and European quarter and several small Arab towns built in an oasis of date palms. This oasis is copiously watered by a stream called the Wad Gabes. The European quarter is situated on the right bank of the Wad near its mouth, and adjacent are the Arab towns of Jara and Menzel. The houses of the native towns are built largely of dressed stones and broken columns from the ruins of Tacape. Gabes is the military headquarters for southern Tunisia. The population of the oasis is about 20,000, including some 1500 Europeans. There is a considerable export trade in dates.