Jan Baudouin de Courtenay's place in the history of Linguistics

Jan Baudouin de Courtenay is best-known for his views on the distinction between phonetic and phonemic analysis of sounds. His theory of the phonemic and phonetic alternations has lead to the modern phonological schools of linguistics. De Courtenay was in fact a pioneer of the modern linguistics who anticipated most of the basic concepts of structuralist theories. In particular, his formative influence on modern phonology is generally acknowledged. However, unfortunately, his name is missed in the history of linguistics as the one who first introduced the most basic concepts in this science. This paper, deals with his beliefs and achievements in modern linguistics.