This document outlines the history and development of linguistics from ancient traditions through modern times. It traces the origins and evolution of linguistic study from early traditions in Babylon, India, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages in Europe, and colonialism. Major developments included Panini's work in India, the establishment of comparative linguistics by William Jones, and modern linguistics founded by Ferdinand de Saussure. Schools of thought then diversified with the Prague School, British Structuralism, and American Structuralism influencing the field. Generative grammar has remained influential along with technological advances that have facilitated linguistic research.

12. 2 0 0 0 B C E
B a b y l o n i a t r a d i t i o n ( 4 0 0 0 y e a r s
b e f o r e t h e p r e s e n t )

13. 1 0 0 0 B C E
H i n d u T r a d i t i o n s ( 1 0 0 0 B C ) The Indu tradition of linguistics had its
origins in the first millennium BC and
was simulated by changes in Sanskrist
(indo European, India) the sacred
language of religious texts.
01
Ritual required the exact verb performance
of the religious texts, and gramatical
tradition emerged that set out rules for the
ancient languages.
02
The best known grammarian from this
tradition is Panini, whose grammar
covered phonetic and morphology.
03
The study of grammar and linguistic
analysis in the Sanskrit language, known
as Vyākaraṇa, also flourished during this
period. Scholars like Pāṇini and Yāska
made significant contributions to
Vyākaraṇa.
04

14. 5 0 0 B C E
G r e e k l i n g u i s t i c s ( 5 t h C e n t u r y B C
O n w a r d s )
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15. 1 0 0 B C E
R o m a n T r a d i t i o n s ( 1 s t C e n t u r y B C t o
a p r r o x i m a t e l y 5 0 0 A D )
The primary interest was in
morphology, parts of speech, the
form of nouns and verbs. Syntax was
ignored. Roman linguistic Varro
produced a multi volume grammar of
Latin of wich only about a quarter has
survived. Later grammmars of
Donatus and Priscan were hight
influential in the Middle Ages.

16. A r a b i c a n d H e b r e w T r a d i t i o n s ( 7 t h
c e n t u r y )
The Greek grammatical
tradition had a strong
influence on the Arabic
tradition and focussed on
morphology and accurate
phonetic descriptions. Its
beginning are considered to
be in the seventh century AD,
with the work of Abu al
Aswad.
The Arabic tradition
served in turn as a
major influence on the
Hebrew traditions, later
in the ninth century.
Saadya Ben Joseph
produced the first
grammar and
dictionary of Hebrew.

17. M i d d l e A g e s i n E u r o p e ( 5 0 0 - 1 4 0 0
A D )

18. Colonization brought
europeans into contact with a
variety of languages in Africa,
the Americas, Asia and the
Pacific.
01
Scholars compiled word lists in
many languages and used them in
language comparisons. It emerged
the notion that most European
languages formed a family of
related languages.
02
Information about them was
gathered by explorers,
colonial administrators,
travellers, missionaries.
03
William Jones discovered the
r e l a t e d n e s s o f t h e
I n d o e u r o p e a n a n d t h e
founding of comparative
linguistics.
04
E u r o p e a n C o l o n i a l i s m ( 1 4 0 0 A D )

19. E u r o p e a n C o l o n i a l i s m ( 1 7 0 0 A D )
Rasmus Rask
The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask
drew together the various
threads of historical linguistics of
that period into a coherent
system of principles for
establishing the relatedness of
languages.
01
He stressed the importance
of grammatical evidence
and of regular sound
correspondences between
related words (cognates).
02

20. M o d e r n L i n g u i s t i c s - B e g i n n i n g s
( M a r 2 1 , 1 8 0 0 )
Ferdinand de
Saussure
Modern Linguistics
In addition

21. D i v e r s i f i c a t i o n - T h e
P r a g u e S c h o o l
( M a r 2 1 , 1 8 9 5 )
The Prague School is a tradition of
linguistic thought. It was a group of
Czech and other linguists who formed
the Linguistic Circle of Prague. This
group held regular meetings and
published a journal. Its primary interest
was phonological theory. It also made
contributions to syntax. The most
famous representative was Roman
Jakobson.

22. British
Structuralism
( M a r 2 1 , 1 9 0 0 )
Daniel Jones took up and
extended Sweet´s work
on phonetics. J.R. Firth
held the first chair in
linguistics in the
University of London. He
brought a number of
original and provocative
perspectives to
linguistics. He stablished
the London School.
John Rupert
Firth
Daniel
Jones

23. Danish
Structuralism
(Mar 22, 1940)
The Copenhagen School
was headed by Louis
Hjelmslev who
developed an approach
called glossematics.
Glossematics focused
on the relations between
units in the language
system. It is a algebraic
theory of language.
Louis
Hjelmslev

24. A m e r i c a n s t r u c t u r a l i s m
( M a r 2 2 , 1 9 5 0 )
Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and Leonard
Blommfield were responsible for setting
American linguistics on its course. Boas
gathered information on the languages
and cultures Native Americans. He
upheld the notion that all languages
should be described in their own terms.
He maintained psycological and
anthropological orientations, seeing
language as intimately connected with
the way of life and thought of its
speakers. Bloomfield established
linguistics as a science.

25. (Sep 8, 1960)
Scope of
Modern
Linguistics
Generative grammar continues as a
major force guiding their orientations
and goals. Besides, other theories
have also had some impact.
Technological developments have
facilitated the task of language since
the beginning of the twentieth century.
It includes audio and video recorders,
and computers. As well as, in the
computational field, including to
machine generation and recognition of
speech, automatic parsing of texts,
translation, and building and
maintaining large corpora.

26. References
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-linguistic
https://www.britannica.com/science/historical-linguistics
https://prezi.com/p/ok7qc3yyfcu8/historical-timeline-of-noteworthy-
linguists/