20th-century linguists

Robert Livinston Allen (1916 – October 9, 1982), was an American professor of linguistics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University known for his development of Sector Analysis, a grammatical system used in the teaching and analysis of languages in the United States and around the world.Born in 1916 in Hamadan, Iran, the son of Presbyterian missionaries, Robert Allen was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated as valedictorian from Hamilton College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his MA (1953) and PhD (1962) in Teaching of English with an emphasis on linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York.

Reidar Djupedal (March 22, 1921 – July 29, 1989) was a professor of North Germanic languages and literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Djupedal was born in Oslo. After graduating from the English program at Firda Upper Secondary School in Sandane in 1941, Djupedal studied at the University of Oslo until the fall of 1943. He was arrested on November 30 that year and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp as one of the approximately 650 male students at the University of Oslo interned in German prison camps during the Second World War II from December 1943 to liberation in May 1945 and known as the "German students" (Norwegian: Tysklandsstudentene). He returned home in the spring of 1945 and resumed his studies at the University of Oslo, and in 1950 he received a degree in historical linguistics with a dissertation titled Noko om Ivar Aasen i åra 1840–60 (Ivar Aasen in the Years 1840–1860).In 1950 and 1951 he worked on the Norsk Ordbok (Norwegian Dictionary). From 1951 to 1956 he taught Norwegian at the University of Copenhagen and in Aarhus, and from 1962 to 1969 he taught Nordic linguistics at the University of Bergen. In 1969 he became a professor at the Norwegian College of General Sciences, remaining in this position until he retired in 1988.
Djupedal is especially known for his work on Ivar Aasen; among other things, he published Aasen's letters and diaries in three volumes, and together with Johannes Gjerdåker he also published Aasen's Norske ordsprog (Norwegian Proverbs) and wrote a long afterword for the work. Djupedal's Aasen collection is kept at the Ivar Aasen Documentation Center (Norwegian: Aasentunet) in Ørsta.Djupedal also wrote extensively about Faroese, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, the literary magazine Dølen, and Norwegian folk tales and poetry. He also worked to give Olea Crøger the attention he thought she deserved in efforts to collect Norwegian folk tales.
Reidar Djupedal was the father of the politician Øystein Djupedal.

Edith Frances Ruth Bradley Holmes (November 26, 1924 – September 2, 2021) was an American linguist, educator, and polyglot who authored two Cherokee language textbooks. Holmes served on the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education from 1975 to 1985. She taught Russian language at Louisiana State University and Russian and Cherokee language adult education courses in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Christian Schweigaard Stang (15 March 1900 – 2 July 1977) was a Norwegian linguist, Slavicist and Balticist, professor in Balto-Slavic languages at the University of Oslo from 1938 until shortly before his death. He specialized in the study of Lithuanian and was highly regarded in Lithuania.

Moritz Schönfeld (9 February 1880 – 4 October 1958) was a Dutch linguist who specialized in Germanic linguistics. Moritz Schönfeld was the author of several reference works on Germanic names and Dutch etymology which have been highly influential and are still in use today.

Paul Thieme (German: [paʊl ˈtiːmə]; 18 March 1905 – 24 April 2001) was a German Indologist and scholar of Vedic Sanskrit. In 1988 he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for "he added immensely to our knowledge of Vedic and other classical Indian literature and provided a solid foundation to the study of the history of Indian thought".

Cyrus Herzl Gordon (June 29, 1908 – March 30, 2001) was an American scholar of Near Eastern cultures and ancient languages.

Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Reinhold Trautmann (16 January 1883 – 4 October 1951) was a German Slavist. He is best known for his translations of the works of Slavic literature, such as his 1931 translation of the Primary Chronicle into German. He also conducted research of Slavic languages spoken in Germany.

Gerhard Rohlfs (July 14, 1892 – September 12, 1986) was a German linguist. He taught Romance languages and literature at the universities in Tübingen and Munich. He was described as an "archeologist of words".