Vowels.me • Linguistics Micro Lesson: What Is a Linguist?

Linguistics Micro Lesson: What Is a Linguist?

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and that means that a linguist is a person who scientifically studies language.

Linguists go beyond simply studying the grammatical rules and vocabulary of a particular language. Among many other things, for example, linguists study language structure, why words are the way they are, how and why language X is related to language Y, how language shapes and changes who we are, how who we shape and change our language, and how languages have changed over time.

Most people automatically assume that linguists can speak several languages. That’s not necessarily the case, though. You can be a linguist and speak only your native language. In practice, most linguists do speak at least one other language, but that’s not a part of the definition of a linguist.

The average person might think of polyglots (people who speak multiple languages), translators, or interpreters as linguists but again, this is not always the case. You can be extremely proficient with one or multiple languages, but that doesn’t mean you’re a linguist. That’s not saying that polyglots or interpreters can’t be linguists, just that being a translator doesn’t make you a linguist.

Just remember this: a linguist studies a language (or languages) from a scientific standpoint.