Paul Passy

Paul Passy was born into a notable French family: his father Frédéric, a noted economist and politician, was the first recipient (along with Henry Dunant) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

Passy mastered English, German, and Italian as a child, and studied Sanskrit and Gothic Latin[clarification needed] at the École des Hautes Études.

[1] He graduated from university at 19 and spent ten years as a language teacher (English and German) in public schools as an alternative to military service.

In 1894, he took up a chair in General and Comparative Phonetics at the École des Hautes Études (a position created especially for him), and by 1897 had become an assistant director of the school.

Apart from a four-year hiatus beginning in 1913, when he was dismissed on political grounds for opposing an extension to mandatory military service, he remained at the École des Hautes Études until his retirement in 1926.