Encyclopedia > Wilhelm von Humboldt

Article Content

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Wilhelm von Humboldt (June 22, 1767 - April 8, 1835), German linguist, government functionary, foreign diplomat, philosopher; founder of Humboldt University in Berlin; friend of Goethe and Schiller.

Humboldt is credited with being the first linguist to identify human language as being dynamic rather than static. This idea is the foundation of Noam Chomsky's theory of language.

See Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article

Father Damien

... born in Tremeloo, Belgium, the son of a farmer. He entered the novitiate of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary[?] at Louvain, and was admitted to th ...