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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

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