#OTD 171 years ago, Maurice Bloomfield (1855–1928) was born 🎉 He was a comparative linguist and a student of comparative mythology. As a specialist in Sanskrit, he translated Vedic texts into English. His nephew, Leonard, was also a linguist. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 176 years ago, Wilhelm Braune (1850–1926) was born 🎉 He was a historical linguist, a Neogrammarian, and a specialist in Old High German and Gothic. In 1873, he co-founded the journal "Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur" together with Hermann Paul. #LinguisticBirthdays

Not just one, but two episodes of our podcast explore the life and work of August Schleicher - have a listen! 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2020/04/29/p... 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2020/05/31/p... #Histlx

#OTD 90 years ago, Renate Steinitz (1936–2019) was born 🥳 She was a member of the East German Academy of Sciences and worked on German grammar. She also edited several of her father’s works on the Khanty language and wrote about her family history. #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx #LinguisticBirthdays

Calls: Special Session of SLE: Communicating Linguistic Research

A lovely appreciation of John Haiman by Stephanie Farmer www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Interested in language, cognition, drawing, comics, and/or visual communication? My publisher @bloomsburyling.bsky.social is having a sale all week, including my new graphic novel, Speaking in Pictures: A Vision of Language, that comes out officially on Thursday! www.bloomsbury.com/us/speaking-...

"Almost paradoxically, Sequoyah’s numerals could not succeed because they had not yet succeeded, and came into existence in a social context where a prestigious, common notation had been adopted almost universally."

Episode 55 is out 🤩 This time, James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) interviews Janette Friedrich - in German! - about her career in (the history of) philosophy, psychology, and linguistics. 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2026/02/15/p... #Histlx

#OTD 140 years ago, Maria Klingenheben-von Tiling (1886–1974) was born 🎉 She specialised in the Cushitic and Bantu languages of Africa, including Somali and Swahili, respectively. She was also active at the Hamburg Colonial Institute. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

If you’re interested in the Copenhagen Linguistic Circle and the people involved - including Eli Fischer-Jørgensen - then episode 24, an interview with Lorenzo Cigana, is exactly what you’re looking for! 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2022/04/01/p... #Histlx

For a more detailed discussion of Whitney’s conception of language and his intellectual background, check out episode 8 of our podcast! 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2020/09/01/p... #Histlx

Yey, gestern sind erschienen: ein Aufsatz von Joel Feldkamp und mir zur Bedeutungsentwicklung der Ausdrücke Melancholie und Depression (In Sprachwissenschaft Heft 2, 2025) und eine Rezension von mir zu James McElvennys "Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Linguistik" (in der ZfAL als Pre-Print)

One common misconception about the Neogrammarians is that they were defenders of the Tree Model.* In fact, they took up Schuchardt's ideas and expressed the still common view that Tree and Wave describe different aspects of language history. 1/2 *This misconception is NOT found in the quoted post.

#OTD 184 years ago, Hugo Schuchardt (1842–1927) was born 🎉 He was a specialist in Romance historical linguistics, an expert on Basque, and a pioneer of creole studies, he was a leading critic of Neogrammarian ideas and a prominent advocate of the wave model. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

All: Obituary for Elisabeth Leiss (1957 – 2026)

Solomon Barrett (1800-1882), teacher in Madrid (NY), wrote *The principles of language* in 1837. In 1842 he adds the infamous plate with grammatical trees, influenced by James Brown. In 1857 he adds two frontispieces with possibly the most exquisite grammatical trees in the history of linguistics.

I'm on the excellent @hiphilangsci.bsky.social podcast talking about linguistics and my research on visual languages. Check it out!

When pictures speak, they podcast 😉 Neil Cohn (@neilcohn.bsky.social) joins James McElvenny (@jamesmcelvenny.bsky.social) to talk about his new book and the shared cognitive foundations underlying visual art and spoken language. 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2026/02/01/p... #Histlx

#OTD 165 years ago, Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861–1936) was born 🥳 A historical-comparative linguist, a member of the Neogrammarian school, and an expert on the history of the Romance languages. He was the nephew of the Swiss novelist Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825–1898). #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 112 years ago, Felicitas D. Goodman (1914–2005) was born 🎉 She was an expert in both anthropology and linguistics. In her work, she focused particularly on researching the phenomenon of glossolalia in Pentecostal communities in Mexico. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

The first 2026 edition of our newsletter on recently published works in the history and philosophy of the language sciences is here 🤩 🔗 hiphilangsci.net/2026/01/29/p... #Histlx

Virtually every paragraph in my PhD thesis chapter on diversification is followed by a footnote such as "cf. Hermann Paul (1880) for a similar line of reasoning" - the guy already knew it all 😎 21st cent. linguist: this was first proposed by linguist x in 2002 Hermann Paul: excuuuse me???

We talk about Theodor Benfey in the very first episode of our podcast. Just sayin’ 😉 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2019/12/31/p... #Histlx

#OTD 161 years ago, Karl Luick (1865–1935) was born 🎂 He specialised in the history of English, but also studied the phonology of German varieties spoken in Austria, Viennese German in particular. A street in Wien-Donaustadt bears his name. #Histlx #LinguisticBirthdays

One of the 2025 achievements was the new edition of Otto Jespersen’s classic "Negation in English and other languages" 🔗 langsci-press.org/catalog/book... #Histlx

#OTD 135 years ago, Luise Berthold (1891–1983) was born 🥳 A philologist, theologian and expert in German dialectology, she was the first woman to habilitate at Marburg University. From 1934 onward, she was responsible for the Hesse-Nassau Dictionary. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 91 years ago, Kay Williamson (1935–2005) was born 🥳 An expert on the study of the languages of the Niger Delta, in particular Ijo and Igbo. In her efforts to promote literacy, she proposed a Pan-Nigerian Alphabet and published several primers. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Interested in learning more about the so-called Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis and linguistic relativity? Then episode 31 of our podcast is just what you’re looking for. 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2023/04/01/p... #Histlx

#OTD 116 years ago, Mary Haas (1910–1996) was born 🥳 An expert in historical linguistics, Thai, and Native American languages. She was the first modern linguist to document the Creek language. In 1963, she was the second female president of the LSA. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Working on a project bringing linguistics to broader audiences? The 2026 LingComm Grants are $300 USD grants to help you with your project! Please apply and/or share with any up and coming lingcommers you know! Details: lingcomm.org/grants #linguistics #langsky #lingcomm

#OTD 117 years ago, Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909–1985) was born 🎂 She specialised in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican history and archaeology. She contributed to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs by demonstrating their historical content. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Desperately sad news about Deborah Cameron today. She was such a brilliant, incisive presence in the world of linguistics and particularly language and gender. Don't know what else to say but I'm sure there will be many tributes paid to her and her work in the days to come.

Excited to share that our book "History of Ideas in the Science of AI" (co-authored with Luc Steels and Ann Dooms) is now freely available as #OpenAccess! #OpenScience, #AIResearch, #HistoryOfAI doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

#OTD 117 years ago, Morris Swadesh (1909–1967) was born 🎉 A historical linguist and expert on Indigenous American languages such as Chitimacha, Menominee, and Mahican, he used lexicostatistics to develop glottochronology and compiled the so-called Swadesh lists. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 171 years ago, Christian Bartholomae (1855–1925) was born 🎉 He was an Indo-Europeanist who specialised particularly in Sanskrit and Old Iranian. Bartholomae’s Law, a sound law affecting the Indo-Iranian language family, bears his name. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 100 years ago, Luise Hercus (1926–2018) was born 🎉 She initially focused on Middle Indo-Aryan languages, but later turned to fieldwork, documenting a number of Australian Indigenous languages such as Paakantyi, Wirangu, and Diyari. #WomenInLinguistics #Histlx #LinguisticBirthdays

#OTD 146 years ago, Wilhelm Siegling (1880–1946) was born 🎉 He was an Indologist and expert on Sanskrit, Avestan, Tibetan, and especially Tocharian. Together with Emil Sieg (1866–1951), Siegling discovered and deciphered the language, and they also coined the glottonym. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 83 years ago, Elisabeth Piirainen (1943-2017) was born 🎉 Her linguistic research focused on metaphorical language, phraseology, and varieties of Low German. In 2001, she was awarded the Johannes-Saß-Preis. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx #WomenInLinguistics

#OTD 106 years ago, Bruce Mitchell (1920–2010) was born 🥳 He was an influential Old English scholar who focused on syntax as well as Old English poetry, in particular Beowulf. He was also the co-author of a widely used introduction to Old English. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

#OTD 124 years ago, George K. Zipf (1902–1950)was born 🎂 Based on his corpus analyses, he formulated the so-called Zipf’s law and showed that the most frequent word is twice as frequent as the second, three times as frequent as the third, and so on. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

From the 1920s until the early 1950s, Soviet linguistics was dominated by Nikolai Marr (1864–1934). His teachings, known as Marrism, were a linguistic adaptation of Marxist materialist principles and represented the official linguistic policy of the Soviet Union. 1/7 #Histlx

#OTD 214 years ago, Knud Knudsen (1812–1895) was born 🎉 A Norwegian schoolteacher, language activist, and language purist, he advocated a reformed spelling of Norwegian, Riksmål, nowadays also known as Bokmål, so that it would reflect actual pronunciation. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

What better way is there to start the new year than to participate in some online seminars of the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) on the history of linguistics? 🔗 hiphilangsci.net/2026/01/05/c... #Histlx

In a curious connection between the Bonaparte dynasty and western Cornwall, Louis Lucien had this monument set up in the little Cornish village of Paul, commemorating Dorothy Pentreath, possibly (but probably not) the last native speaker of Cornish prior to its modern revival.

Let’s celebrate by listening to the second episode of our podcast, in which we discuss the emergence of comparative-historical grammar, with a focus on the work of Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm. 🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2020/01/31/p... #Histlx

#OTD 213 years ago, Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891) was born 🎂 He was Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew and was briefly also a French politician. Later he became an expert on Cornish and other Celtic languages, and particularly on the dialect cartography of Basque. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Happy birthday, lieber Konrad 🎂 #Histlx #LinguisticBirthdays

#OTD 215 years ago, Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884) was born 🎂 He was an archaeologist, pioneering Egyptologist, and author of a grammar of the Nubian languages. He also proposed the so-called Standard Alphabet to transcribe Egyptian hieroglyphics and other languages. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx