lexicographer

/ˌlɛksɪˈkɒɡɹəfə(ɹ)/

From French lexicographe + -er, from Ancient Greek λεξικός (lexikós, “of words”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write”). By surface analysis, lexico- + -grapher.

der

Lexico′grapher. […] A writer of dictionaries; a harmleſs drudge, that buſies himſelf in tracing the original, and detailing the ſignification of words.

[1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “Lexico′grapher”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume II (L–Z), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton; […], →OCLC, column 1:

Pitt has furnish'd us a word or two / Which lexicographers declined to do.

1811, George Gordon Byron, Hints from Horace:

The best lexicographer may well be content if his productions are received by the world with cold esteem.

1860, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Biographies contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica:

One who writes or compiles a dictionary.


linguist

Etymology tree
Latin lingua
English -ist
English linguist
Borrowed from Latin lingua (“language”) + -ist.

etymon

The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:


Ugricist

A linguist specializing in the Ugric family of languages.


papyrologist

From papyro- + -ologist, after the model of earlier papyrology.

A student of or expert in papyrology, the study of papyrus and ancient writings on papyrus.


onomastician

Coordinate term: nomenclaturist

A person who studies onomastics; one who studies or researches names.

專名學家 /专名学家

person who studies onomastics, person who studies names


syntactician

Thus, Jackendoff's analysis of Aspectual Auxiliaries as Specifiers which expand V-bar into V-double-bar seems to have some empirical support (though we should point out that by no means all X-bar syntacticians are happy to treat Aspectuals as Specifiers which expand V-bar into V-double-bar: some prefer to treat them as Verbs which head their own VP, for reasons which you can work out for yourself when you come to Exercise VII).

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 240:

One who studies syntax; especially, a linguist who does so expertly.


lexicologist

From Ancient Greek λεξικός (lexikós, “of words”), from λέξις (léxis, “a saying, speech, word”), from λέγειν (légein, “to speak”). By surface analysis, lexico- + -logist.


Turkologist

A scholar specializing in the languages, history or cultures of Turkic peoples, including for example Turkish, Kazakh, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, Tuvan, Altai, Shor, and Karakalpak.


Semitist

someone who studies the history, languages and cultures of the Semitic peoples


Hellenist

From Ancient Greek ἑλληνιστής (hellēnistḗs, “somebody who speaks Greek”), from ἑλληνίζειν (hellēnízein, “to speak Greek, to behave like a Greek, to become Greek, hellenize”) (infinitive of ἑλληνίζω (hellēnízō)), from Ἕλλην (Héllēn, “Greek”).

der

A person who adopted the Greek customs, language and culture during the Hellenistic period, especially a Hellenized Jew.

希利尼人

person who adopted the Greek culture during the Hellenistic period


grammarian

/ɡɹəˈmɛəɹɪən/

Inherited from Middle English gramarien, form Middle French gramarien, gramairien.

Huddleston and Pullum are well-known grammarians of the 21st century.

en:studier of grammar, linguistically or otherwise

A person who studies grammar, either scientifically or (traditionally) unscientifically.


Esperantist

Calque of Esperanto esperantisto. Equivalent to Esperanto + -ist.

A growing number of Esperantists all over the world are using the services of the U. E. A.

1914, Richard Bartholdt and A. Christen, Esperanto: Hearings before the Committee on Education, U.S. Government Printing Office, Project Gutenberg transcription

It is said that many of the early Catholic Esperantists, in particular, were frightened by this prospect—and it is, indeed, true that the Catholic element in early Idism is striking.

1969, Eco-logos, volumes 15-16, page 124:

A specialist or speaker of Esperanto, the international auxiliary language designed by L. L. Zamenhof.


philologist

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class IV § 492. Scholar

Foucault's incisive scrutiny and consistent analysis of antique culture has opened the eyes of many a philosopher, philologist or anthropologist who considered himself an expert on the very texts and issues that Foucault addresses. In the years following the publication of Foucault's works an intense debate arose on the subject of sexuality in antiquity, perhaps primarily in feminist and homosexual circles, although by no means exclusively.

2013, Vigdis Songe-Møller, Philosophy Without Women: The Birth of Sexism in Western Thought, page 130, pub. A&C Black, isbn: 978-1-84714-350-1

A person who engages in philology (historical linguistics), especially as a profession; a collector of words and their etymologies.


Arabist

en-adj

Arabist (comparative more Arabist, superlative most Arabist)

more Arabist (comparative)
most Arabist (superlative)

Pertaining to Arabism; medieval Arabic scholarship.


orthoepist

/ɔːˈθəʊɪˌpɪst/

/ˈɔːθəʊˌiːpɪst/

/ɔɹˈθoʊəpɪst/

/ˈɔɹθoʊˌɛpɪst/

An expert at orthoepy: a person who studies the pronunciation of words, especially (historical) one of the orthoepists, 16th- and 17th-century linguists who tried to establish standard English pronunciations and spellings.


phonetician

(linguistics) A dialectologist; a person who studies regional differences in speech sounds.


dialectologist

A person who studies regional differences in speech sounds.


phonologist

(linguistics) A person who specializes in phonology, the functional use of sounds in language.


semantician

One who studies semantics, the science of meaning in words.


ethnolinguist

A scholar of ethnolinguistics; a linguistic anthropologist who studies the language of a specific ethnic group.


missionary-linguist

although we do not meet among the missionary linguists that marvellous variety of languages which excites our wonder, yet we find in them abundant evidences of a solid and practical scholarship

1858, C. W. Russell, The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, page 29:

While he had fulfilled what was expected of him as a missionary linguist, his eagerness for the welfare of the Africans led him to occupy himself with other plans

1881, John Ebenezer Honeyman Thomson, Memoir of George Thomson, Cameroon Mountains, West Africa, by one of his nephews, page 20:

the valuable work of the excellent and indefatigable missionary-linguist, the late Father Marcoux, on the Iroquois language, is about to be published by the Bureau of ethnology.

1883, H. Hale, “The Iroquois institutions and language”, in Science, volume 2, number 36, page 497:

Even the famous missionary-linguist J.G. Christaller could not break away from the spell of this 'priestcraft'-theory.

1979, J.G. Platvoet, “The Akan Believer and his Religions”, in Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies, page 595:

Many missionary-linguists leave the familiarity of their home and their social network to go spend many years (often decades) in local communities, learning the local language and local customs and beliefs.

2006, Lenore A. Grenoble, Lindsay J. Whaley, Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization, page 196:

A missionary who seeks to study a people's language in order to facilitate religious conversion.


missionary linguist

Alternative spelling of missionary-linguist


Romanist

This is enough & too much, that when the Romaniſts doe boaſt that their iuriſdiction is ſpirituall, it is eaſy to ſhewe that there is nothing more contrary to the order inſtitute of Chriſte, and that it hath no more likeneſſe to the auncient cuſtome than darkneſſe hath to light.

1587 [1536], John Calvin, translated by Thomas Norton, The Institution of Christian Religion, London: H. Midleton, translation of Institutio Christianae Religionis (in Latin), page 406:

In quarrels with the Pope if the Clergy ſhould diſown to be ſubject to that temporal Prince who conteſts with him, if they refuſe to contribute for the defence of the Nation, if they foment any ſecret deſigns at the Popes command, then the ſtricteſt Romaniſt would preſently ſee the inſecurity of that Kingdom.

1674, William Squire, Some more Considerations proving the Unreasonableness of the Romanists in Requiring us to Return to the Communion of the Present Romish-Church, H.M., pages 112-113:

The manner of the Romanists however hanging their Churches with red Damask, & making Musick in a regular Orchestra there—is a despicable Effort—and defeats its own purpose completely, by turning the house of God into a Theatre […].

1786 June 27, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana:

The principal magazines devoted to the subject are—Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur (ed. Wolff, Ebert, and Lembcke), later only für romanische Literatur; Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen (ed. Herrig), of a more popular character; Romania (a quarterly, ed. Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, since 1872), contains ariticles of the most eminent Romanists; Revue des Langues Romanes (Montpellier, from 1870 onwards), chiefly devoted to Provençal; Romanische Studien (ed. Boehmer); Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (ed. Gröber, since 1877); and Romanische Forschungen (ed. Vollmöller, since 1884).

1886, Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume 20, PRU-ROS, page 668:

(humanities) A scholar of Romance languages; a Romanicist.

(historical, Ireland, derogatory) someone perceived to be in favor of Rome Rule in Ireland.


dialectician

/ˌdʌɪəlɛkˈtɪʃn/

/ˌdaɪəlɛkˈtɪʃən/


sinologist

From sinology (“study of China”) + -ist (“(agent)”). Equivalent to sino- (“China”) + -logist (“student of, expert on”).


Hispanist

Someone specialising in the study of Hispanic culture, language etc.


Hebraist

(obsolete) A proponent of Hebrew as the language of the Zionist movement.


Indo-Europeanist

The Nostratic hypothesis was postulated for the first time by the Danish Indo-Europeanist, Holger Pedersen, at the beginning of the 20th century. Today we suppose a Nostratic origin for Afroasiatic (Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Omotic), with perhaps a rather independent position; Kartvelian, Indo-European, Uralic (Fenno-Ugric and Samoyed), Dravidian (probably together with the extinct Elamite) and Altaic (Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusian, Korean, Japanese).

1992, Václav Blazek, Who are you, homo sapiens sapiens?, page 139:

It had been assumed that the two series merged by the time of Common Balto-Slavic until the Indo-Europeanist Werner Winter proposed in the 1970s that the distinction had persisted for longer, at least between *dh and *d.

2004, Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture, page 365:

The vast majority of Indo-Europeanists posit either three or four laryngeals for the Indo-European parent language, while Dolgopolsky posits a multitude of controversial phonemes here, most conveniently subsumed under cover symbols, without further explanation as to their phonetic make-up, their vowel-coloring or lengthening effects, or their development in the Indo-European daughter languages.

2009, Allan R. Bomhard, The Glottalic Theory of Proto-Indo-European Consonantism and Its Implications for Nostratic Sound Correspondences, page 7:

Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies

(Indo-European studies) A scientist (usually a linguist or anthropologist) engaged in Indo-European studies.

հնդեվրոպաբան

person specialised in Indo-European studies


Romanicist

A person who studies or teaches Romance languages and/or literature.


Germanist

Borrowed from German Germanist, along the model of earlier English Romanist (“scholar of Romance languages”). By surface analysis, German + -ist, doublet of Germanicist.

m+

(humanities; dated) A person who studies the Germanic languages, the associated literatures and/or cultures.

germanista

person who studies Germanic languages and cultures


Austronesianist

A linguist specializing in Austronesian languages.


Australianist

A linguist who specialises in studying Australian languages.


onomast

A person who studies onomastics; a person who studies (proper) names.


phoneticist

One who advocates a phonetic system of spelling.


Russicist

A linguist specializing in the Russian language.


semiologist

/ˌsɛmaɪˈɒləd͡ʒɪst/


Latinist

As the best plan will be to allow it to speak for itself, I here give the black-letter fac-simile, together with the original Latin without the contractions, from which it will be seen that the writer was a fair mediæval Latinist.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

A scholar who studies the Latin language.


Italianist

Someone who studies the Italian language, literature, and culture.


comparative linguist

en-noun

comparative linguist (plural comparative linguists)

Back-formation from comparative linguistics.

back-form

comparative linguistics
comparative linguistics

linguist whose field is comparative linguistics.


Klingonist

If a controversy breaks out among scholars about the dating of the Great Vowel Shift, or among Klingonists about the correct translation of 'loaves and fishes', the effect on most people's lives is negligible.

1995, Deborah Cameron, Verbal hygiene, page 223:


grammatist

/ˈɡɹæmətɪst/

From French grammatiste, from the Medieval Latin grammatista, from the Ancient Greek γραμματιστής (grammatistḗs), from γράμμα (grámma, “letter”).

der

γραμματιστής


ecolinguist

Back-formation from ecolinguistics, equivalent to eco- + linguist.


runologist

I drove on, wondering how runologists of the future would account for that isolated glyph.

1982, Ralph Blum, The Book of Runes, New York: St. Martin's Press, page 38:


onomatologist

Diego the Prior of Xodar, the onomatologist lived to read this passage

1834–1847, Robert Southey, The Doctor, &c., volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, →OCLC:


aphasiologist

(speech therapy) One who studies or practices aphasiology.

afazjolog

one who studies or practices aphasiology


creolist

A linguist who studies creole languages.


Iranianist

A linguist who specializes in studying Iranian languages.


word-lover

So the first watch word I will leave you with would be to listen for this word-lover and perhaps as well, to ask yourselves as you listen and watch: how can a film film words, the love of words, or the experience of falling in love with a word?

2007, Helene Cixous, Insister of Jacques Derrida:

Perfect for word-lovers and writers and for getting creativity flowing.

2012, Jane Teresa Anderson, Dream Alchemy: The Ultimate Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams:

A frightened word-lover might start to wish that the stuff had never been invented at all. It is, after all, possible to run a society without any money.

2012, Mark Forsyth, Mark Forsyth's Gemel Edition:

Someone who is fond of or devoted to the knowledge, study, and history of words; synonym of logophile.


Altaicist

A linguist who subscribes to the Altaic language group hypothesis.


Russianist

A person who studies Russian language, culture or history.

ռուսագետ

a person who studies Russian language, culture or history


Mongolist

One who studies Mongolia, the Mongolic languages or Mongolian culture.

монголи́ст

one who studies Mongolia, the Mongolic languages or Mongolian culture


Iranicist

/ɪəɻɔːnɪsɪst/

A linguist specializing in Iranian languages.


tonologist

Perhaps the most basic problem which confronts the tonologist is how to formally represent multiple tone heights, both in underlying and in derived representations.

1993, Keith Snider, Harry van der Hulst, “Issues in the Representation of Tonal Register”, in Keith Snider, Harry van der Hulst, editors, The Phonology of Tone: The Representation of Tonal Register, Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 2:

The letter was written by the late Jan Voorhoeve, a major Africanist and tonologist.

2001, Larry M. Hyman, “Fieldwork as a State of Mind”, in Paul Newman, Martha Ratliff, editors, Linguistic Fieldwork, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 31:

The concept of language universals by generative grammarians directs the Japanese tonologists to view Japanese pitch-accent from a more global perspective[…].

2002, Esther Yuk Wah Lai, Prosody and Prosodic Transfer in Foreign Language Acquisition: Cantonese and Japanese (LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition; 08), Munich: Lincom Europa, →ISBN, page 176:

Indeed, the proposals might be said to bring together the South-East Asianist's conception of ‘register’ and the tonologist’s conception of ‘register’.

2004, Katrina Hayward, Justin Watkins, Akin Oyètádé, “The Phonetic Interpretation of Register”, in John Local, Richard Ogden, Rosalind Temple, editors, Phonetic Interpretation: Papers in Laboratory Phonology VI, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 307:


Pama-Nyunganist

A linguist who specializes in studying Pama-Nyungan languages.


Bantuist

A linguist who specializes in studying Bantu languages.


Mongolicist

A linguist who specializes in studying Mongolic languages.


Nilo-Saharanist

A linguist who specializes in studying Nilo-Saharan languages.


Austroasiaticist

A linguist who specialises in studying Austroasiatic languages.


Polynesianist

A linguist who specializes in studying Polynesian languages.


Indo-Aryanist

A linguist who specializes in studying Indo-Aryan languages.


Tocharianist

A linguist who specializes in studying Tocharian languages.


Balticist

A linguist who specializes in studying Baltic languages.


Finnicist

A linguist who specializes in studying Finnic languages.


Finno-Ugricist

A linguist who specializes in studying Finno-Ugric languages.

fennougristi

linguist who specialises in studying Finno-Ugric languages


Quechuanist

A linguist who specializes in studying Quechuan languages.


Kartvelianist

A linguist who specializes in studying Kartvelian languages.


pidginist

A linguist who specializes in studying pidgins.


Californianist

Californianists have argued that areal patterns in the region show that phonological and grammatical convergence is more prominent than lexical borrowing, challenging the usual understanding that lexical items are universally more "borrowable", needing less intense language contact than is required for convergence of traits of grammar and phonology.

2019, Daniel Siddiqi, The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages, page 579:

A linguist or anthropologist who specializes in studying the peoples and languages of California.


Fennist

Derived from or influenced by Finnish fennisti. By surface analysis, Fenn- + -ist.


Philippinist

A linguist who studies Philippine languages.


Tungusologist

As the handwriting is quite good, the photogravured reproduction made under the auspices of the Minzokugaku Kyökai (Ethnological Society), in Tokyo, in 1944, with the title "A Tungus Dictionary, Tungus-Russian and Russian-Tungus, photogravured from the Manuscripts, by the Late Prof. S. M. Shirokogoroff is an extremely valuable aid to the Tungusologist […]

Today, when the entire Tungusic territory is accessible to scholars from all over the world, it is possible and, in fact, necessary for all Tungusologists, domestic or foreign, to collect and exchange fresh field information.

1997, Hiroshi Shōji, Juha Janhunen, Northern minority languages: problems of survival, page 184:

They were taken down by V. A. Avrorin, a distinguished Tungusologist and linguist, during an expedition in 1948.

2000, Lauri Honko, Textualization of Oral Epics, page 145:


Slavist

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Slavist.wav

A specialist in the Slavic languages, literature or culture.


xenolinguist

(linguistics, science fiction) One who studies the languages spoken by extraterrestrials.


Khoisanist

A linguist who specializes in Khoisan languages.


cryptolinguist

One who applies linguistic knowledge to identify cryptographic communications in a given language.


metalinguist

A linguist whose speciality is metalanguage


translatologist

To the translatologist, however, the concept of pragmatics is of utmost importance because it is "texts-in-function" (Schmidt 1973) which are translated—verbal expressions utilized in communication acts.

1987, Gideon Toury, Translation Across Cultures, page 48:

This paper traces in short the history of translation in India from ancient times to modern times and leads into different models adopted by translatologists in India, with a special reference to Hindi.

1997, International Journal of Translation, volume 9, page 109:

Following suit, cognitive translatologists have revised their view on the very object of translation process research [...]

2020, John W. Schwieter, Aline Ferreira, The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, page 290:


Gaelicist

One who studies the Gaels or the Gaelic language(s).


Ethiopist

Equivalent to Ethiopia + -ist. Likely a Germanism or Frenchism.

A person; one who is skilled in or professes or practices Ethiopian studies.

etiopista

A person; one who is skilled professes or practices Ethiopian studies


papyrographer

From papyro- (“papyrus, paper”) + -grapher (“writer”) and papyrograph + -er.


Indo-Iranianist

In the Indian field, despite the heroic labours of generations of scholars, the bulk of standard translations are woefully inadequate; and even if the position in other classical fields is not so tragic, all are to some extent affected by misinformation emanating from the pen of Indo-Iranianists.

1966, J[ack] Clifford Wright, Non-Classical Sanskrit Literature: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered on 24 November 1965, School of Oriental and African Studies, page 4:

Though there is no clear Indo-European etymology for this word, it is hard to imagine the Indo-Iranianists accepting it as a loan from Dravidian.

1979, Franklin C. Southworth, “Lexical Evidence for Early Contacts Between Indo-Aryan and Dravidian”, in Madhav M. Deshpande, Peter E. Hook, editors, Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, University of Michigan Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, →ISBN, page 199:

In September 1885 he began a temporary appointment at the ethnological section of the Kaiserliche Museum in Berlin under the direction of Adolf Bastian (1826–1905), where he had the good fortune to land among three friendly and well-disposed agemates of great philological sophistication: Felix von Luschan (1854–1924), who became a noted explorer and archaeologist; Wilhelm Grube (1855–1908), who became noted as a Sinologist, a linguist and ethnographer of peoples of the Russian Far East; and Albert Grünwedel (1856–1935), an Indo-Iranianist and art historian of Buddhism.

2015, Michael Silverstein, “From Baffin Island to Boasian Induction: How Anthropology and Linguistics Got into Their Interlinear Groove”, in Regna Darnell, Michelle Hamilton, Robert L. A. Hancock, Joshua Smith, editors, The Franz Boas Papers, Volume 1: Franz Boas as Public Intellectual—Theory, Ethnography, Activism, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, pages 112–113:

A linguist who specializes in studying Indo-Iranian languages.


Yamatologist

Calque of Italian yamatologo (“Japanologist”) when used by Italian speakers, from Yamato + -logist otherwise.

clq

The most learned amongst the Yamatologists are still dependant^([sic]) upon Japanese for the information that furnishes the basis of all contributions; and why not have the authorities at the meetings, with interpreters for the benefit of those who have not acquired the necessary knowledge of Japanese?

1898 January 5, C[harles] Pfoundes, “The “Social Evil.”: To the Editor of the “Japan Mail.””, in The Japan Weekly Mail: A Review of Japanese Commerce, Politics, Literature, and Art, volume XXIX, number 2, Yokohama: Printed and published for […] , by Arthur Bellamy Brown, […] , published 1898 January 8, →OCLC, page 41, column 3:

[Epigraph:] Giuseppe Morichini, the late Italian Yamatologist, was preparing for publication in our East and West a long review on the work by Nakamura Hajime «Indo Tetsugaku Shisô» […]

1960 March, Giuseppe Morichini, “Review of Early Vedānta Philosophy”, in East and West, volume 11, number 1, page 33:

The division which provides services for non-Japanese specializes in providing support in the form of scholarships to scholars and researchers who plan to study in Japan for more than one month but less than one year, and also in inviting both Yamatologists and non-experts alike to attend international meetings or inspect various Japanese institutions for two or three weeks.

1974 November, “The Activities of the Japan Foundation”, in Morita Tohru, editor, The East, volume 10, number 9, Tokyo: The East Publications, Inc., →OCLC, page 17:

For an appropriate translation of this term [baka], I refer to one of the leading Yamatologists in Italy, Professor Adriana Boscaro of the University of Venice at Ca’ Foscari.

1997, Antonio Marazzi, “If Japanese Are Samurai, Italians are Baka: The Multiple Play of Stereotypes”, in Beverly Allen, Mary Russo, editors, Revisioning Italy: National Identity and Global Culture, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 277:

How can we interpret this attention to the “harmony between order and form” that shaped the lesson review in Japan? We have tried to reconstruct the “umbrella cultural themes” with the help of a yamatologist, who introduced us to the issue of kata or shikata.

2020, Maria G. Bartolini Bussi et al., “Mathematics Teachers’ Cultural Beliefs: The Case of Lesson Study” (chapter 5), in Despina Potari, Olive Chapman, editors, International Handbook of Mathematics Teacher Education, volume 1, Leiden: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 140:

(chiefly Italian, non-native speakers' English) Synonym of Japanologist (“one who studies Japan, its language, culture and history”)

chiefly Italian; non-native speakers' English; chiefly Italian; non-native speakers' English