text: please translate this french word to english, "saussurianism "  its in a book about history of french lang ...   i believe that refers to ferdinand saussure, the linguist who developed the theory of laryngeals in common indo-european phonetics (ancestor to most european, north indian, iranian languages). it was a controversial theory for a long time, proposing a sound that no longer exists in any of the modern indo-european languages. saussurianism, i guess, is a school of thought on indo-european phonology.