What is Philology?

If a man says "I'm talking my old lady out to dinner tonight," do you think he's referring to his mother or wife? If a woman says "I'm taking my old man out to dinner tonight," do you think she's referring to her father or husband?

Phenomenology of Philology. Philology is the study of meanings and expressions in languages. Some European philologists of centuries ago would sometimes focus on people's geographic and racial attributes and connect them to their perspective languages. Some philologists thought that the "so called" Northern European Peoples (English, Dutch and German) had less rhythm and expression when they spoke than the Southern European Peoples (Italians, Spanish and Greeks), as a result; the Northern European languages tended to be more flat and dull sounding than the Southern European languages were. Furthermore, some philologists (pre Darwinian philologists) would make unfounded claims by saying that the Northern Races of Europe were more serious and steadfast than the Southern Races were.... --- Of course, today, science and psychology have proven philologists of previous centuries wrong in many of their theories....

At first, only Greek and Latin were of any consequence in Europe, with all of the other languages being considered ghetto or vernaculars. One of the first things philologists did after the modern Languages of Europe became official, was to translate The Bible from Greek and Latin to those modern languages.

‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Feliz Navidad’ - Textual Philology
‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Feliz Navidad’ - ‘Merry Christ’s Mass’ and ‘Happy Nativity’ are the literal meanings of these phrases. Let’s examine this phrase from a philological perspective. English is considered a Germanic Language and Spanish is considered a Romance Language (daughter language of Latin). The word happy means pleasure, and pleasure is something the English have a problem associating God with (according to philologists). The word merry means lively and cheerful - a step down from pleasure, which is the literal meaning of happy. ‘Christmas’ is a made up word by philologists and it has double meaning: ‘Christ and Mass’, or the ‘Mass of Christ’ - ‘Navidad,’ or ‘Nativity’ implies the year end season. If you ask a Spanish speaking person (who has a slight knowledge of the English language of course) how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in Spanish, they’ll tell you ‘Feliz Navidad’, these two phrases have no literal similarities to each other whatsoever, yet for all intense and purposes mean the exact same thing - this was the work of philologists.

One of the most important contributions made by philologists was the "The King James Bible." Philologists decided to romanticize the English language by emulating Italian, French and Spanish. By doing so, they used symmetry and lyricism never the likes of before in the English Language. It wasn't until Shakespeare and Milton that English would be treated in such an eloquent and poetic fashion again.

Four of the men which influenced modern Western Culture were: Darwin, Marx, Freud and Einstein. Darwin was one of the first scientists that attempted to abolish the idea of race in his theories of evolution which he eloquently expounds upon in his magnum opus “On The Origin of Species.” Marx and Freud followed shortly after him with their ideas about sociology, human rights, and how it is that the human mind functions. Einstein discovered that gravity was a constant energy and proved Newton wrong (although some have said that Newton knew gravity was an energy and not a force, however, by admitting this, a God wouldn’t have been needed. Some have said that Newton was afraid of being accused of heresy by the then very powerful Church of England, and some have concluded this was the reason he said that a force or entity was behind the unlimited supply of energy which keeps our universe operational....). Case and point: as many people became more and more knowledgeable about science and psychology, race and religion became less and less important in European societies. Today, racial components in philology are seldom if ever used - the four branches of philology are: comparative, textual (e.g. the Merry Christmas vs. Feliz Navidad example given), cognitive and decipherment.

Final thoughts:
There are many other expressions put together by philologists. And, just like the previous example (Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad), they have no literal similarities in common whatsoever, yet mean the exact same thing - Christmas Eve vs. Noche Buena is another good example of textual philology.... Like philosophy today, philology has taken a back seat to science and psychology.