Gonçalo Fernandes
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Hans-Josef Niederehe (28 May 1937 – 27 October 2026), one of the most influential scholars in the historiography of linguistics, whose remarkable academic achievements and intellectual legacy have left an enduring mark on our field.
Read more ›Durand, Jacques & Chantal S. Lyche. 2026. Paul Passy, A Radical Linguist: Language Teaching, Spelling Reform, and the Creation of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 268 p. ISBN 9780198929857
Publisher’s webpage
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the life and work of the French linguist Paul Passy (1859-1940), with a focus on his significant contributions to the fields of linguistics and phonetics. Renowned as a pioneering educator, Passy was the driving force behind the creation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is widely used today in the teaching of modern languages and in phonetic descriptions of the languages of the world. Jacques Durand and Chantal Lyche explore how Passy’s advocacy for spelling reform and his promotion of the Direct Method in foreign language teaching were deeply rooted in his social and spiritual commitments as a Christian socialist. The chapters also shed light on the influence that contemporary British linguists such as Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander John Ellis, Isaac Pitman, and Henry Sweet had on his thought, as well as on his later productive collaboration with Daniel Jones in the creation of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Durand and Lyche’s close examination of Passy’s scholarly and pedagogical output reveals a visionary figure whose legacy continues to resonate in modern descriptive and applied linguistics.
Read more ›
In this interview, we talk to Micaela Verlato about how the work of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt on Native American languages contributed to the development of comparative linguistics.
Read more ›Apply until 06 October 2026, 23:59 (Brussels time)
Further information: https://jobs.ugent.be/job/Ghent-Post-doctoral-assistent-department-of-Linguistics-9000/1372212357/
Read more ›
In this interview, we talk to Martin Konvička about the Dutch Signific Movement, which adapted the ideas of Lady Welby in the early 20th century.
Read more ›
In this interview, we talk to Kristine Palmieri about comparativism in Germany of the early 19th century.
Read more ›
In this interview, we talk to Peter Austin about his career in field linguistics and the history of language documentation in Australia, in particular how the role of Indigenous community members has changed over the past 50 years.
Read more ›
Brigitte Nerlich
University of Nottingham
My old book Change in Language: Whitney, Bréal, and Wegener has just come out as an ebook. It was first published in 1990 and has now been reissued in Routledge’s History of Linguistic Thought Series. That is a good occasion to look back at one of the book’s protagonists: Philipp Wegener (1848–1916). His work has a lot to offer to linguists, as well as computer scientists and people dealing with AI’s famous Large Language Models.
The following summary of his work is based on a chapter of the book devoted to Wegener, which I had also summarised in a 1988 contribution to the Bulletin of the Henry Sweet Society, a society then in its infancy and a haven for me as a budding historian of linguistics.
Read more ›
In this interview, we talk to Adam Schembri about the nature of sign languages, how they have been studied in the past, and how they are studied today.
Read more ›
