His parents were Jean Gabriel, a teacher, and Henriette, the owner of a clothing store.
From 1913 to 1939 he had a professorship for general linguistic and comparative Indo-European studies which he took over from Ferdinand de Saussure.
He was active in interlinguistics, serving as a consultant to the research association that presented Interlingua in 1951.
[1] In terms of modern stylistics he dealt with the expressive function of signs.
Bally was married three times: first to Valentine Leirens, followed by Irma Baptistine Doutre, who was sent into a mental institution in 1915, and finally to Alice Bellicot.