author
Willem Sijbrand Logeman
1850–1933
A Dutch linguist and teacher with an international career, he helped bring the study of language change to a wider English-speaking audience. His work connects philology, language teaching, and the lively realities of multilingual life in South Africa.
1 Audiobook
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 Haarlem on April 15, 1850, Willem Sijbrand Logeman was a Dutch scholar of language whose career crossed several countries and traditions of learning. He studied in the Netherlands and later became known as a teacher and linguist with a strong interest in how languages are actually spoken and how they change over time.
Logeman is best remembered as one of the authors of Introduction to the Study of the History of Language (1891), a book that helped explain major ideas in historical linguistics for students and general readers. He also worked in South Africa, where he was associated with the South African College in Cape Town as a professor of modern languages, and he played an early role in the history of its library.
What makes Logeman especially interesting is the range of his work: he was not only a scholar of language history, but also an observer of speech, language learning, and multilingual society. He died in 1933, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both solid scholarship and curiosity about the living forms of language.