author

Willem Sijbrand Logeman

1850–1933

A Dutch-born language scholar who helped shape early language study in English and later played an important part in academic life in Cape Town. His work joined philology, teaching, and library building in ways that reached far beyond the classroom.

1 Audiobook

Introduction to the study of the history of language

Introduction to the study of the history of language

by Herbert A. (Herbert Augustus) Strong, Willem Sijbrand Logeman, Benjamin Ide Wheeler

About the author

Born in 1850 and dying in 1933, Willem Sijbrand Logeman was a philologist and teacher best known as a co-author of Introduction to the Study of the History of Language (1891), written with Herbert A. Strong and Benjamin Ide Wheeler. The title page of that book identifies him as "Willem S. Logeman" and notes that he had been educated at Utrecht and was head master of Newton School in Rock Ferry, Cheshire.

Later in life, he became closely connected with the South African College in Cape Town. South African historical and archival sources describe him as a professor of modern languages there and credit him as an important figure in the founding of the library that would become part of the University of Cape Town.

The surviving source material available here is brief, but it shows a scholar whose career moved between Europe and South Africa, with lasting influence in both language study and academic institutions. In addition to his own teaching and writing, his family also appears in South African biographical records, which suggests that the Logemans became part of Cape intellectual life over more than one generation.