Editing History of linguistics (section)

==Middle Ages==

===Arabic grammar===
{{main|Islamic grammatical tradition}}
Owing to the rapid expansion of [[Islam]] in the 8th century, many people learned [[Arabic language|Arabic]] as a [[lingua franca]]. For this reason, the earliest grammatical treatises on Arabic are often written by non-native speakers.

The earliest grammarian who is known to us is [[Abi Ishaq|{{Transliteration|ar|DIN|ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍramī}}]] (died 735-736 CE, 117 [[Islamic calendar|AH]]).<ref>Monique Bernards, "Pioneers of Arabic Linguistic Studies." Taken from ''In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture'', pg. 213. Ed. [[Bilal Orfali]]. [[Leiden]]: [[Brill Publishers]], 2011. {{ISBN|9789004215375}}</ref> The efforts of three generations of grammarians culminated in the book of  the [[Persian people|Persian]] linguist [[Sibawayh|{{Transliteration|ar|DIN|Sibāwayhi}}]] (c. 760–793).

Sibawayh made a detailed and professional description of Arabic in 760 in his monumental work, ''Al-kitab fi al-nahw'' (الكتاب في النحو, ''The Book on Grammar''). In his book he distinguished [[phonetics]] from [[phonology]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Talmon |first1=Rafael | year=1982 |title="NAḤWIYYŪN" IN SĪBAWAYHI'S "KITĀB" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43530401 |journal=Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik |issue=8 |pages=12–38 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |jstor=43530401 |access-date=September 28, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=THE KITAB OF SIBAWAYH - THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE |url=https://www.sifatusafwa.com/en/grammar-an-nahw/the-kitab-of-sibawayh-the-ultimate-reference.html |website=Sifatu Safwa |access-date=September 28, 2023}}</ref>

===European vernaculars===
The [[Irish language|Irish]] ''[[Sanas Cormaic]]'' 'Cormac's Glossary' (10th century) is Europe's first etymological and [[encyclopedic dictionary]] in any non-Classical language. The [[Auraicept na n-Éces]], compiled over the course of several centuries — possibly starting as early as in the 8th century — is a treatise on that same [[Old Irish|language]] and the first instance of a philosophical defence of a spoken European vernacular over Latin.

A milestone in the early history of Germanic linguistics, the [[First Grammatical Treatise]] (12th century) offers a wealth of information on [[Old Norse]] lexicon, grammar and phonology.

In the 13th century, the [[Modistae]] or "speculative grammarians" introduced the notion of [[universal grammar]]. In the treatise ''[[De vulgari eloquentia]]'' ("On the Eloquence of Vernacular"), dating to 1303-1305, the Italian poet [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] presented a [[theory of language]] and discussed the origin of languages after the confusion of tongues following the events of the [[Tower of Babel]]. By recognizing the instrinsically human nature of language, Dante first recognized that — like customs and traditions — languages are bound to evolve over time and to differentiate in space giving birth to dialects.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Dante|Dante Alighieri]], [[De Vulgari Eloquentia]], 1, IX</ref> He argued that the wave of human populations migrating westward to Europe after the confusion of tongues were already differentiated into three linguistic families: the [[Greek language|Greek]] family, one that can be defined as [[Slavic languages|Slavo]]-[[Germanic languages|Germanic]], and the one that is today known as [[Romance languages|Romance]] family.<ref>[[Dante|Dante Alighieri]], [[De Vulgari Eloquentia]], 1, VIII</ref> Each of these families independently underwent differentiation into several branching languages. The Romance family, in particular, appeared to Dante as split into three closely related languages, namely [[Old French]] ("langue d'oïl"), [[Old Occitan]] ("langue d'oc") and [[Italian language|Italian]] ("lingua del sì").<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The writer then focused on the additional subdivision of Italian into 14 dialectal varieties, whence it could be possible to extract a noble and elevated vulgar language not inferior in dignity to Latin.<ref>[[Dante|Dante Alighieri]], [[De Vulgari Eloquentia]], 1, X</ref><ref>[[Dante|Dante Alighieri]], [[De Vulgari Eloquentia]], 1, XVI</ref>

The [[Renaissance]] and [[Baroque]] period saw an intensified interest in linguistics,<ref name="FPencyclo" /> notably for the purpose of [[Bible translations]] by the [[Jesuits]], and also related to philosophical speculation on [[philosophical language]]s and the [[origin of language]].

In the 1600s, Joannes Goropius Becanus was the oldest representative of Dutch linguistics. He was the first person to publish a fragment of Gothic, mainly The lord's prayer. Franciscus Juniuns, Lambert ten Kate from Amsterdam and George Hickes from England are considered to be the founding fathers of [[Germanic linguistics]].<ref>Noordegraaf, J., Versteegh, K., & Konrad, K. E. (1992). The history of linguistics in the low
countries. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.</ref>