A study of how the science of diachronic linguistics merged with the will to reform language in the Catholic missionary milieu of Republican China. In focus is a romanization of the Chinese language that was proposed in 1931 by two missionaries in Manchuria. The inventors of the new system claimed that their so-called 'Romanisation Interdialectique' (R.I.) could spell all dialects of Chinese using a single orthography. This feat was, allegedly, made possible by the reliance on the latest achieve

The first series of the History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Podcast looks at the history of modern linguistics. We begin in this episode by examining the pre-history of comparative-hist…

The Vivien Law Prize

Martin Burr Grants

Diedrich Westermann veröffentlichte 1925 die Untersuchung der westafrikanischen Sprachen Tschi und Guang im Hinblick auf Ihre Stellung innerhalb der Ewe-Tschi-Gruppe. Westermann vergleicht das Tschi, an die Küste des heutigen Ghanas zu verorten, und das Guang lautlich und in den grammatikalischen Hauptzügen, um den gemeinsamen Wortbesitz der beiden Sprachen im Vergleich zu den übrigen Sprachen der Ewe-Tschi-Gruppe festzustellen. Dafür bezieht er das nahestehende Agni, gesprochen an der südli

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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.

In this interview, we talk to Kristine Palmieri about comparativism in Germany of the early 19th century.

In this episode, we introduce the Neogrammarians, the dominant school of linguistics in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.

In this interview, we talk to Peter Austin about his career in field linguists and the history of language documentation in Australia, in particular how the role of Indigenous community members has…

In this episode, we take a step back to explore the earliest beginnings of functional linguistics as represented by the work of Philipp Wegener.

Brigitte NerlichUniversity 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 Routl…

We are recruiting a new Social Media/Website Officer to join the committee. We are particularly keen to hear from younger scholars and postgraduates. The role is a volunteer position that…

Martin Burr Grants

In this interview, we talk to Christopher Hutton about linguistic scholarship under National Socialism and how this relates to linguistics today.

The Philological Society Early Career Event