Introduction a L'Etude Comparative Des Langues Ind

by Antoine Meillet

First published in 1903, Antoine Meillet's Introduction a l' tude comparative des langues Indo-Europ ennes exemplifies the key methodologies and insights of early twentieth-century comparative linguistics. Its primary aim, as Meillet states, was 'tr?'s limit ': to provide a brief but comprehensive overview of the Indo-European languages and their shared linguistic structures. He accomplished this object and more in his Introduction, outlining a theory of language change that would influence a generation of linguists, including his students mile Benveniste and Andr Martinet. Meillet's debt to his own mentor, Ferdinand de Saussure, is evident in his conception of language as simultaneously social and structural, a lived reality and a constantly evolving grammatical system. This second edition (1908) includes Meillet's extensive revisions and a new chapter on the development of Indo-European dialects. It remains a valuable introduction to the phonology, morphology, and grammar of the Indo-European language family.

516 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1964

About the author

Antoine Meillet, an Indo-Europeanist of France, authored more than two dozen still widely consulted books and reference works, including The Comparative Method in Historical Linguistics (1925).

The most important Paul Jules Antoine Meillet began his studies at the Sorbonne, where Michel Bréal, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Année Sociologique influenced him.

In 1890, he, part of a research trip, in the Caucasus studied Armenian. After his return, Ferdinand de Saussure went back to Geneva and continued the series of lectures on grammar that the Swiss formerly gave. Meillet completed his doctorate, Research on the Use of the Genitive-Accusative in Old Slavonic , in 1897.

In 1902, he took a chair in Armenian at the École des langues orientales. In 1905, people elected him to the Collège de France, where he taught on structure. He closely noted Paul Pelliot and Robert Gauthiot.

Today, people remember Meillet as the mentor of an entire generation of central philologists, such as Émile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, and André Martinet, in the 20th century.