Meillet, Antoine

Meillet, Antoine

(born Nov. 11, 1866, Moulins, France—died Sept. 21, 1936, Châteaumeillant) French linguist. He argued that any attempt to account for linguistic change must recognize that language is a social phenomenon. His Introduction to the Comparative Study of the Indo-European Languages (1903) explained the relationships of the Indo-European languages to each other and to their parent tongue. Meillet suggested that languages that develop farther from a centre of common origin are less disturbed by changes at the point of origin and more likely to retain archaic characteristics. He produced authoritative grammars of classical Armenian and Old Iranian and made notable contributions to Slavic studies.