Is There a Term for a Lover of Linguistics or a Lover of Language?

Linguistics is a study of human language and in this field, people learn about the structures of sentences and words, pronunciations and many more related to language. Morphology, Phonology, Phonetics, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, and Psycholinguistics are some of the branches of linguistics.

Some people who learn linguistics love this field and there is a term for them. What is it?

A Term for a Linguistics Lover

Someone who loves language or word or linguistics is called a linguaphile. The way to pronounce this term is [ling-gwuh-fahyl] as described on the Dictionary site.

lover of languages

The Origin of Linguaphile Term

Linguaphile is a term which comes from the Latin “lingu” or “lingua” which means “tongue”. In this context, it refers to speech and language. How about the suffix “-phile”? The meaning of it is “lover of”. Often the term linguaphile is used to refer to people who are multilingual. It is because they love learning languages. To be a linguaphile, you do not need to be fluent in more than one language because a linguaphile likes all the things related to language such as how it looks and how it sounds.

The Reason Why Someone is Called a Language Lover

Someone can be a language lover because they genuinely love the culture of a language. People who are a language lover, as explained on the Doublespeakdojo, do not only find affinity to a particular language, but its culture because language and culture are linked each other.

The Term of Someone Who Likes Learning a Language

Now, how about the term used for someone who likes learning a language? Generally, someone who likes to learn languages is called a linguist.

So, why do some people like learning a language? Each person may have their own reason. However, according to the Doublespeakdojo, generally people like learning a language because of two reasons namely, the language itself and the act of learning a language. What do they mean? People enjoy learning a language because of the language itself where it means that they like a part of a specific language. For example, they like learning English because of its vast vocabulary. And then, the meaning of the act of learning a language is that there is no specific language matters, but the general process of acquiring languages.

Some Other Terms

Besides linguaphile and a linguist, there are also some other terms related to linguistics or language as you are able to read below.

    • Polyglot
      A polyglot is someone who has the ability to speak or understand a lot of languages.
    • Hyperpolyglot
      A hyperpolyglot is someone who is fluent in a lot of different languages where it is around six or more than that.
    • Glossophilia
      This is the love of languages whether they are foreign or native.
    • Bilingual
      A Bilingual person means that the person has the ability to speak two languages fluently.
    • Language Enthusiast
      As explained on the How Do You site, in the Oxford Dictionary of Current English, the word an enthusiast is defined as a person who is highly interested in a particular activity or subject. So, we can define a language enthusiast as a person who is very interested in learning a language.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *