Antoine Meillet (Paul-Jules-Antoine Meillet, November 11, 1866 - September 21, 1936), was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the Sorbonne, where he was influenced by Michel Br�al, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Annee Sociologique. In 1890 he was part of a research trip to the Caucasus, where he studied Armenian. After his return he continued his studies with Saussure. November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The Sorbonne today, from the same point of view La Sorbonne was the name of the former University of Paris, in Paris, France, one among the most ancient in Europe. ... Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist. ... LAnn e Sociologique was a sociology journal founded in 1898 by Emile Durkheim, who also served as its editor. ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Caucasus , a region boardering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus mountains and surrounding lowlands. ...

Meillet completed his doctorat - Research on the Use of the Genitive-Accusative in Old Slavonic in 1897. In 1902 he took a chair in Armenian at the �cole des Langues Orientales. In 1905 he was elected to the College de France, where he taught on the history and structure of Indo-European languages. The Coll ge de France is a higher education teaching and research establishment located in Paris, France. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

Today Meillet is remembered as the mentor of an entire generation of linguists and philologists who would become central to French linguistics in the twentieth century, such as �mile Benveniste, Georges Dum�zil, and Andr� Martinet. Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ...

Antoine Meillet and Homeric Studies

At the Sorbonne, beginning in 1924, Meillet supervised Milman Parry. In 1923, a year before Milman Parry began his studies with Miellet, Miellet wrote the following (which, in the first of his two French theses, Parry quotes): Milman Parry was a classical scholar who between 1933 and 1935 was in Yugoslavia studying the oral traditions among the South Slavs. ...

Homeric epic is entirely composed of formulae handed down from poet to poet. An examination of any passage will quickly reveal that it is made up of lines and fragments of lines which are reproduced word for word in one or several other passages. And even lines, parts of which are not found in another passage, have the character of formulae, and it is doubtless pure chance that they are not attested elsewhere.

Miellet directed Parry to study how oral tradition operates in its native setting snd suggested to Parry that he observe the mechanics of a living oral tradition rather than simply a text (i.e. Iliad) that appears to have the marks of oral tradition upon it. As a result, Meillet introduced Parry to the Prague scholar Matija Murko, who had written extensively about the heroic epic tradition in the Balkans among the South Slavs. From this research, which is now housed at Harvard University, Parry and his student Albert Lord, revolutionized Homeric studies.