A scholar who studies the relationship between language and culture, especially how language reflects and shapes ethnic identity.
From ethno- (Greek ethnos, 'people') + linguist (from Latin lingua, 'language'). The field emerged in the 1950s-60s as linguists realized language couldn't be separated from cultural context.
An ethnolinguist studying Navajo would discover that the language contains grammatical structures reflecting how Navajo people traditionally viewed time, action, and movement through space—language is like a window into how minds work.
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