Philologist:
- a person who specializes in philology, the study of literary texts and written records.
An interdisciplinary collaboration between philologists, chemists, and computer scientists is yielding new insights about these medieval manuscripts, all written in different languages or scripts, and most in poor condition.- (especially in older use) a person who specializes in linguistics, especially historical and comparative linguistics.
The origin of modern historical linguistics is often traced back to Sir William Jones, the English philologist who, in 1782, observed the genetic relationship between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. [Dictionary.com]
Noted in “Catherine Conybeare On Augustine’s Life And Faith,” intro to a podcast hosted by Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish (paywall):
Catherine is a philologist with a particular focus on Augustine of Hippo. She’s both the Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities and a Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College. The author of many books, her most recent is Augustine the African. We had an exhilarating afternoon talking about this African who helped frame the West.
