HiPhiLangSci

#OTD 202 years ago, Max Müller (1823–1900) was born 🎉 He was an expert on Sanskrit and the study of religion, as well as a scholar of language evolution and a translator. Müller later became the first Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 98 years ago, William Labov (1927-2024) was born 🥳 He was a pioneering sociolinguist studying language variation, dialectology, but also AAVE. In 1966, Labov published his landmark study "The Social Stratification of English in New York City".

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 100 years ago, Joseph R. Applegate (1925–2003) was born 🎉 He was, among other things, a specialist in Tashelhit, a Berber language spoken in Morocco, as well as an expert in machine translation. In 1955, Applegate became the first Black faculty member at MIT.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 213 years ago, Matthias Castrén (1813–1852) was born 🥳 He undertook several journeys through Lapland, Karelia, and Siberia, and became an expert in the Finnic, Ugric, and Samoyedic languages. In 1841, he also translated the Finnish epic poem Kalevala into Swedish.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Confs: Colloque International "La Linguistique ‘Fonctionnelle’ Cent Ans après la Fondation du Cercle Linguistique de Prague" In Honorem L’année 2026 marque le 100e anniversaire de la fondation du Cercle linguistique de Prague, dont les travaux, les théories et les concepts ont laissé une empreinte profonde sur toute la linguistique moderne. À cette occasion, le Département d’études romanes de l’Université de Sofia « Saint Clément d’Ohrid », en partenariat avec l’Université Masaryk (Brno), organise un colloque international consacré à l’histoire de cette organisation informelle de chercheurs, mais aussi à la notion pr

Confs: Colloque International "La Linguistique ‘Fonctionnelle’ Cent Ans après la Fondation du Cercle Linguistique de Prague"

#OTD 146 years ago, Ethel S. Drower (1879–1972) was born 🎉 She published a number of romantic novels under her maiden name Stevens, but later became an authority on Mandaean culture and an important collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx #WomenInLinguistics

Podcast episode 53: Paul Kiparsky on Pāṇini In this interview, Paul Kiparsky introduces us to the ancient Indian grammarian Pāṇini and the philosophical significance of his grammatical description of Sanskrit.

New episode (no. 53) alert 🚨

James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) talks to Paul Kiparsky about the ancient Indian grammarian Pāṇini and the philosophical significance of his grammatical description of Sanskrit.

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2025/12/01/p...

#Histlx #Panini #Sanskrit

#OTD 83 years ago, Robin Lakoff (1942–2025) was born 🎉 She was a pioneering sociolinguist, focusing on the relationship between language and gender. She also studied power relations, politeness, and the role of frames in meaning.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx #WomenInLinguistics

The 17th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS XVII) will take place from 23 to 27 August 2027 in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Call for Papers

ICHoLS XVII (23–27 August 2027), Niterói (Rio de Janeiro)

🔗 hiphilangsci.net/2025/11/26/c...

#Histlx

Happy World Linguistics Day 🎉

Not Saussure how to celebrate? Episodes 12 and 13 of our podcast will give your plans some structure...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/02/01/p...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/03/01/p...

#LinguisticBirthdays #LinguisticQuotes #Histlx #WorldLinguisticsDay

#OTD 152 years ago, Osborn Bergin (1873–1950) was born 🎂 Bergin was an expert on (Old) Irish language and literature, a translator of early Irish texts, and a poet. He formulated the so-called Bergin’s Law pertaining to word order in Old Irish.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 175 years ago, Eduard Sievers (1850–1935) was born 🎂 A historical linguist and one of the leading Neogrammarians, he is best known for his analysis of Old English metre and for formulating the so-called Sievers’ Law.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 175 years ago, Gustav Meyer (1850–1900) was born 🎉 A pioneer in the study of Albanian, he is famous for demonstrating that it belongs to the Indo-European family. A school in Tirana is named after him, and the Albanian Post has issued a stamp with his name.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Books: Die Melanesischen Sprachen: Von der Gabelentz (2025) Das Buch bietet den ersten Versuch weitere melanesische Sprachen neben der Fidschisprache näher zu untersuchen und die Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen der melanesischen Sprachen unter sich und zu den polynesischen Sprachen zu erforschen. Die Ermittlung des grammatikalischen Charakters der Sprachen und Dialekte, der weit über einen reinen Vergleich der Wörter hinausgeht, ist hierfür zentral. Der Autor H. C. von der Gabelentz nutzte hier die für 1860 üblichen verfügbaren Quellen: so untersuchte er 10

Books: Die Melanesischen Sprachen: Von der Gabelentz (2025)

#OTD 152 years ago, Matteo Giulio Bartoli (1873–1946) was born 🎂 A historical linguist and dialectologist, he is best known for his descriptions of the now-extinct Dalmatian language. He is also known as the founder of the linguistic school known as Neolinguistics.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 238 years ago, Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) was born 🎉 A comparative historical linguist and author of a number of grammar books, he is today best known for showing the systematic links between the (North) Germanic languages and other Indo-European languages.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 212 years ago, Franz von Miklosich (1813–1891) was born 🎂 He was a pioneering scholar of historical-comparative Slavic linguistics. He also studied Romani dialects as well as the areal convergence between Slavic and Romance varieties in the Balkans.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 89 years ago, Suzette Haden Elgin (1936–2015) was born 🎉 Best known for her work on verbal self-defence and for the conlang Láadan from her Native Tongue series. The Elgin Award for the best sci-fi poetry collection is named in her honour.

#WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Podcast episode 52: Gereon Müller on Lanes to Language In this interview, Gereon Müller discusses his new book Lanes to Language, which unites the worlds of history of linguistics and cycling.

Episode no. 52 is out 🚲

James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) talks with Gereon Müller (@unileipzig.bsky.social) about his new book Lanes to Language, which unites the worlds of history of linguistics and cycling.

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2025/11/15/p...

#Histlx

#OTD 223 years ago, August Friedrich Pott (1802-1887) was born 🥳 He started working as a schoolmaster in Celle, but would later become one of the pioneers of (historical comparative) linguistics as well as the leading scholar of Romani in the 19th century.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 206 years ago, Daniel Sanders (1819–1897) was born 🎉 A lexicographer and poet, he is best known as the co-author of the Muret-Sanders English-German Dictionary and as a critic of Jacob Grimm’s dictionary. The German city of Neustrelitz awards a prize in his honour.

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

And Meillet's /Altarmenisches Elementarbuch/ (1913) is a go-to, easy-to-find-stuff-in, concise grammar.

Joyeux anniversaire, cher Antoine 🎂

To celebrate, remember that "each language forms a system where everything hangs together".

#LinguisticQuotes #Histlx

#OTD 159 years ago, Antoine Meillet (1866–1936) was born 🎉 He was one of the most influential historical linguists of the twentieth century, who formulated the so-called Meillet’s Law on Proto-Slavic accents and in 1912 coined the term “grammaticalisation.”

#LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 124 years ago, Dorothy Whitelock (1901–1982) was born 🥳 She was a leading scholar of Old English, best known today for her editions of Old English texts. She was the first woman to hold the Elrington and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon.

#WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 134 years ago, Ida Suter (1891–1974) was born 🎉 An expert dialectologist, she spent 30 years working on the Swiss German Dictionary (@ch-idiotikon.bsky.social) and contributed to the edition of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s (1746–1827) letters.

#WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Cfp: Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2026 The 2026 annual colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas will be held on 2–4 September 2026 at the University of Nottingham, UK. Confirmed plenary speaker: Cécile V…

The next Henry Sweet Society (@henrysweetsoc.bsky.social) Colloquium will be held on 2-4 September 2026 at the University of Nottingham (@uniofnottingham.bsky.social).

Thematic focus: (Non-)Native Speakers in the History of Linguistic Ideas

CfP: hiphilangsci.net/2025/11/08/c...

#Histlx

#OTD 114 years ago, Ruth Klappenbach (1911-1977) was born 🎉 She focused on lexicography, became one of the co-founders and co-editors of the Dictionary of Contemporary German Language (Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache, 1952-1977).

#WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 191 years ago, Lucy C. Lloyd (1834-1914) was born 🥳 She was an ethnologist as well as a linguist, she collected an archive of ǀXam and ǃKung texts, who, in 1913, received an honorary doctorate for her work as the first woman in South Africa.

#WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Podcast episode 42: Randy Harris on the Linguistics Wars In this interview, we talk to Randy Harris about the controversies surrounding the generative semantics movement in American linguistics of the 1960s and 70s.

I did my homework.
Very informative.
Thanks ! @randyallenharris.bsky.social @hiphilangsci.bsky.social

hiphilangsci.net/2024/11/01/p...