author
Otto Jespersen
1860–1943
A Danish linguist who helped change how English grammar and language teaching were understood, he remains one of the most influential language scholars of his era. His work ranged from phonetics and syntax to the creation of Novial, an international auxiliary language.
3 Audiobooks
International Language and Science Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science
by Leopold Pfaundler von Hadermur, Louis Couturat, Otto Jespersen, Richard Lorenz, Wilhelm Ostwald
Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin
by Otto Jespersen
How to teach a foreign language
by Otto Jespersen
About the author
Born in Randers, Denmark, in 1860, Otto Jespersen became one of the leading linguists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He studied at the University of Copenhagen and later taught there, building an international reputation through his work on English grammar, phonetics, and the history of language.
Jespersen is especially remembered for making grammar feel like something living rather than fixed and mechanical. His books, including Growth and Structure of the English Language and the multi-volume A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, influenced both scholars and teachers, and helped reshape language teaching in Europe.
He was also deeply interested in broader questions about how language works and changes. Alongside his scholarship, he created Novial, an international auxiliary language, showing the same curiosity and practical spirit that runs through all his work.