LINGUISTS from Switzerland

Top 8

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swiss Linguists of all time. This list of famous Swiss Linguists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.

1. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913)

With an HPI of 82.09, Ferdinand de Saussure is the most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 94 different languages on wikipedia.

Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; French: [fɛʁdinɑ̃ də sosyʁ]; 26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics, or semiology, as Saussure called it. One of his translators, Roy Harris, summarized Saussure's contribution to linguistics and the study of "the whole range of human sciences. It is particularly marked in linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, sociology and anthropology." Although they have undergone extension and critique over time, the dimensions of organization introduced by Saussure continue to inform contemporary approaches to the phenomenon of language. As Leonard Bloomfield stated after reviewing Saussure's work: "he has given us the theoretical basis for a science of human speech".

2. Charles Bally (1865 - 1947)

With an HPI of 63.91, Charles Bally is the 2nd most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Charles Bally (French: [bali]; 4 February 1865 – 10 April 1947) was a Swiss linguist who was a representative of the Geneva School of linguistics. In addition to his edition of Ferdinand de Saussure's lectures Course in General Linguistics (co-edited by Albert Sechehaye), Charles Bally also played an important role in linguistics.

3. Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861 - 1936)

With an HPI of 61.42, Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke is the 3rd most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (Swiss Standard German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈmaɪər ˈlʏpkɛ]; 30 January 1861 – 4 October 1936) was a Swiss philologist of the Neogrammarian school of linguistics.

4. Jules Gilliéron (1854 - 1926)

With an HPI of 59.47, Jules Gilliéron is the 4th most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Jules Gilliéron (21 December 1854 – 26 April 1926) was a Swiss-French linguist and dialectologist. Born and initially educated in Switzerland, he studied linguistics at the École pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life. His mentors included Michel Bréal and Gaston Paris, who supported his academic career; Bréal helped him secure a lectureship at the École practique in 1883. He became a French citizen in 1886, a professor in 1894, and assistant director of the École practique by 1913, the same year he was awarded the Légion d'honneur. Gilliéron's early publications in the field of linguistic geography included an 1880 study of the dialect of the Swiss town of Vionnaz and the Pétit Atlas phonétique de Valais roman ("Little Phonetic Atlas of Roman Valais"). In the latter, he developed the methods he would later apply to larger projects, such as the use of a pre-prepared questionnaire. He co-founded an academic journal, the Revue des patois gallo-romans ("Journal of Gallo-Romance Dialects"), with Jean-Pierre Rousselot in 1887. He used a novel phonetic transcription system, developed with Rousselot, for the Atlas Linguistique de la France ("Linguistic Atlas of France"; ALF), a complete linguistic atlas of the Gallo-Romance area. The ALF, which he produced in collaboration with a fieldworker, Edmond Edmont, was the first major linguistic atlas of a Romance language, and its methodology influenced subsequent works of linguistic geography. Karl Jaberg and Jakob Jud, two of Gilliéron's students, later applied his methods to Italy and southern Switzerland. Gilliéron considered the proper object of etymology to be the whole history of words, rather than only their origins. He opposed the Neogrammarian view that language evolves through exceptionless laws of sound change, arguing that linguistic changes are not always uniform and are influenced by human psychology. He believed that speakers could only differentiate concepts for which they had discrete linguistic forms, and therefore viewed phenomena such as folk etymology as potentially "pathological" forces which could reduce the complexity and so usefulness of a language, and which require speakers to use "therapies" to counteract them. He has been called "the master of linguistic geography", and credited as the founder of scientific dialectology in France.

5. Albert Sechehaye (1870 - 1946)

With an HPI of 59.19, Albert Sechehaye is the 5th most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Albert Sechehaye (French: [sɛʃə.ɛ]; 4 July 1870 – 2 July 1946) was a Swiss linguist. He is known for editing Ferdinand de Saussure's lectures, Course in General Linguistics. He was born and died in Geneva.

6. Walther von Wartburg (1888 - 1971)

With an HPI of 56.57, Walther von Wartburg is the 6th most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Walther von Wartburg (-Boos) (18 May 1888; Riedholz – 15 August 1971; Basel) was a Swiss philologist and lexicographer. He was the editor-in-chief of the Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (FEW).

7. Heinrich Schmid (1921 - 1999)

With an HPI of 55.94, Heinrich Schmid is the 7th most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Heinrich Schmid (6 April 1921 – 23 February 1999) was a Swiss linguist and "father" of the Rhaeto-Romance Dachsprachen ("umbrella languages") Rumantsch Grischun and Ladin Dolomitan.

8. Rudolf Thurneysen (1857 - 1940)

With an HPI of 52.10, Rudolf Thurneysen is the 8th most famous Swiss Linguist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (14 March 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist and Celticist.