He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language, ethnolinguistics and to the theory and practice of education. August Schleicher, Valentin Voloshinov, Alexander Potebnja, Joxe Azurmendi, John Stuart Mill, Noam Chomsky, Ernst Cassirerįriedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt ( / ˈ h ʌ m b oʊ l t/ German: 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949 (and also after his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist).