Women in the History of Linguistics

Women in the History of Linguistics is a ground-breaking investigation into women's contribution to the description, analysis, and codification of languages across a wide range of different linguistic and cultural traditions. Notably, the volume looks beyond Europe to Africa, Australia, Asia, and North America, offering a systematic and comparative approach to a subject that has not yet received the scholarly attention it deserves. In view of women's often limited educational opportunities in the past, their impact is examined not only within traditional and institutional contexts, but also in more domestic and less public realms. The chapters explore a variety of spheres of activity, including the production of grammars, dictionaries, philological studies, critical editions, and notes and reflections on the nature of language and writing systems, as well as women's contribution to the documentation and maintenance of indigenous languages, language teaching and acquisition
methods, language debates, and language use and policy. Attitudes towards women's language-both positive and negative-that regularly shape linguistic description and analysis are explored, alongside metalinguistic texts specifically addressed to them as readers. Women in the History of Linguistics is intended for all scholars and students interested in the history of linguistics, women's studies, social and cultural history, and the intersection between language and gender

About the Author:
Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Helena Sanson, Professor of Italian, History of Linguistics, and Women's Studies, University of Cambridge

Wendy Ayres-Bennett is Professor of French Philology and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. She specializes in the history of French and the history of linguistic thought, focusing primarily on questions of standardization and codification, linguistic ideology and policy, and variation and change, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Her major publications include Sociolinguistic Variation in Seventeenth-century France: Methodology and Case Studies (CUP, 2004), as well as critical editions of key texts in the history of the codification of French. She has led an international research project on the genre of observations on the French language and a flagship interdisciplinary research programme promoting the value of languages for key issues of our time (Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies).

Helena Sanson is Professor of Italian, History of Linguistics, and Women's Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her interdisciplinary research brings together the history of linguistic thought and the history of women. She has published extensively in both fields. Among her main publications are Donne, precettistica e lingua nell'Italia del Cinquecento (Accademia della Crusca, 2007), Women, Language and Grammar in Italy, 1500-1900 (British Academy/OUP, 2011), and Conduct Literature for and about Women in Italy, 1470-1900: Describing and Prescribing Life, co-edited with Francesco Lucioli (Éditions Classiques Garnier, 2016), as well as a number of critical editions of early modern conduct literature texts for women. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of the book series Women and Gender in Italy 1500-1900 (Éditions Classiques Garnier), and the peer-reviewed journal Women Language Literature in Italy/Donne Lingua Letteratura in Italia.