history of Linguistics

history of Linguistics

Welcome to  the History of Linguistics. It’s important to distinguish between the History of Linguistics (a scientific discipline), and the history of languages. Languages have been spoken for thousands of years, and the history of language is rich. However the History of Linguistics arguably started off as early as 6th century BC with Pāṇini’s description of Sanskrit grammar (Sanskrit was an early language spoken in India). The majority of early linguistic thought was based around the study of religious texts. In modern day History of Linguistics however, the main focus of study is what people of the past thought about language. This is done as the way people thought about language can be used to find out about their opinion of the world around them. In this sub-section, we will be exploring the History of Linguistics; interviewing the only Professor of the History of Linguistics in the world, Andrew Linn; and testing any knowledge you might have gained here. Below is an image of the Tower of Babel, a story from the Old Testament in which people of one language came together and built a tower up towards heaven, the power of which was said to threaten God.  God therefore created different languages to prevent people collaborating in this way again.