ABSTRACT
The intellectual climate in which Hahn and other American historical linguists were working in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s had evolved out of nineteenth century historical and comparative linguistics, primarily developed in Europe for phonology and morphology, less so for syntax and semantics. What is really quite stunning is how little American historical work from Hahn’s era survived into late twentieth century American linguistics, especially work on those ancient and classical languages studied by so many of the early members of the Linguistic Society of America.
