Antiquity
Which civilization created cuneiform writing, one of the earliest forms of linguistic analysis?
Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians)
What was the first encyclopedic dictionary of a European vernacular language?
Sanas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary, 10th century, Irish).
Which invention revolutionized the spread of dictionaries and Bible translations?
Printing press.
Which empire promoted Persian as a court language in India?
Mughal Empire (Persian as court language in India).
Who wrote the Aṣṭādhyāyī (“Eight Books”) of Sanskrit grammar?
Pāṇini – Aṣṭādhyāyī (Eight Books), a systematic grammar of Sanskrit.
The First Grammatical Treatise analyzed which language?
Old Norse (First Grammatical Treatise, 12th century)
Name one European writer who elevated their vernacular language.
Any of these: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio (Italy); Rabelais (France); Cervantes (Spain); Shakespeare (England).
The Yongle Dadian encyclopedia was compiled during which dynasty?
200: Ming Dynasty (Yongle Dadian, 1403–1408).
0: True or False – The Stoics believed language was purely conventional.
0: True or False – The Stoics believed language was purely conventional.
Who introduced the idea of universal grammar in the 13th century?
The Modistae (speculative grammarians).
Erasmus of Rotterdam is linked with which linguistic discipline?
Philology (the study of language and texts).
In Japan, which two writing systems were studied alongside each other during this era?
Kana syllabaries and kanji (Chinese characters).
Which Greek philosopher divided sentences into “subject” (noun) and “predicate” (verb)?
Plato
In De vulgari eloquentia, Dante classified European languages into which three families?
Greek, Slavo-Germanic, and Romance families.
Martin Luther’s Bible helped standardize which language?
German (Luther’s Bible standardized German).
Name the scholar often called the “father of Arabic grammar.”
Sibawayh – author of al-Kitāb fī al-naḥw (The Book on Grammar).
Dionysius Thrax is known for writing the first grammar of which language?
Greek (the first grammar of Greek by Dionysius Thrax).
True or False – Medieval scholars believed languages never change over time.
False – Dante and others recognized that languages do change over time.
True or False – Renaissance scholars created philosophical “universal languages” to aid science.
True – Renaissance scholars experimented with universal languages.
True or False – In the Islamic tradition, the study of Arabic grammar was motivated by the preservation of the Qur’an.
True – Preserving the Qur’an was the main motivation for Arabic grammar study.