Meillet, Antoine

Autor: Meillet, Antoine
Rok: 1866-1936
Oblast působnosti: lingvisté, slavisté

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Francouzský lingvista, slavista a indoevropeista.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Paul Jules Antoine Meillet (French: [ɑ̃twan mɛjɛ]; November 11, 1866, Moulins, Allier – September 21, 1936, Châteaumeillant) was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the Sorbonne, where he was influenced by Michel Bréal, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Année Sociologique. In 1890 he was part of a research trip to the Caucasus, where he studied Armenian. After his return, since de Saussure had gone back to Geneva, he continued the series of lectures on comparative grammar that the Swiss linguist had formerly given.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 he was elected to the Collège de France, where he taught on the history and structure of Indo-European languages. One of his most famous quotes is "anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant." He worked closely with noted linguists Paul Pelliot and Robert Gauthiot. Today Meillet is remembered as the mentor of an entire generation of linguists and philologists who would become central to French linguistics in the twentieth century, such as Émile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, and André Martinet.