Nineteenth century: historical linguistics

Before the nineteenth century, language in the western world was of interest mainly to philosophers. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle made major contributions to the study of language. 1786 is the year which many people regard as the birthdate of linguistics. On the 27th September, 1786, an Englishman, Sir William Jones, read a paper to the Royal Asiatic Society in Calcutta pointing out that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Celtic and Germanic all had striking structural similarities.