Hello LINGUIST Listers,
Thanks again for visiting our blog!
Today, we would like to give you a little insight about the beginnings of the website. Did you know that the LINGUIST List was one of the first sites on the web? (You may have guessed as much from our “classic” layout). It was originally started in the year 1990 before web browsers (or the internet for that matter) had become popular among the general public. The website began its journey at the University of Western Australia with our founders, Professor Anthony Aristar and his wife, Professor Helen Aristar-Dry. Roughly one year later, the LINGUIST List made a quick move to Texas A&M University. The main editing site, however, was established at Eastern Michigan University where most of the life of the website has been centered. In 1994, the website already had over 5,000 subscribers. This may not sound like much nowadays but considering the relative number of internet users at the time, this was quite a lot! It was around this time that the LINGUIST List even held its own online conference. In the following years the LINGUIST List made a few more moves. In 1997 it moved away from Texas A&M to its own site, in 1998 a second editing site was established at Wayne State University, and in 2006 all of the LINGUIST List’s operations moved to Eastern Michigan University. Five years later in 2013, our original founders retired and handed off the reigns to our current moderators, Professors Damir and Malgorzata Cavar. Finally, in 2014, the LINGUIST List moved to Indiana University where it currently resides today.
Over this period of time the LINGUIST List has accumulated a number of useful resources, many of which we have detailed in some of our other blog posts. We are only able to offer these services, however, with the help of our generous community members like yourself. Our fund drive is currently ongoing and we need your help to continue making the linguistics community awesome. Your donations in particular strengthen the linguistics community by providing resources and valuable information to your fellow linguists. Join us in this endeavor by donating what you can today!
One of the oldest websites on the internet
With gratitude,
The LINGUIST List Team