Georges-Jean Pinault

Georges-Jean Pinault (; born 4 July 1955) is a French linguist who is professor of linguistics at the École pratique des hautes études. He is one of the leading experts on Tocharian languages and has published more than two hundred articles on Indo-European linguistics. He is one of the editors of the journal Tocharian and Indo-European Studies.

Biography Born on 4 July 1955, Georges-Jean Pinault studied at the École Normale Supérieure (1974–1980), then at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle and the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE). Initially teaching at Sorbonne Nouvelle, he later became professor at Blaise Pascal University, then director of research at the EPHE.

He is well known for having discovered Pinault's law, according to which laryngeals are lost word-medially following a consonant and before a yod: > ∅/ C __ y