Lemuel Dole Nelme
Encyclopedia
Lemuel Dole Nelme was an English craftsman, now remembered for wide-reaching theories on language.

Life

He was a maker of instruments and dealer in ships' merchandise of the eighteenth century. Nelme was in business in Exchange Alley in London around 1750. He held a Government post as Clerk in 1764, and participated in the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

 at the end of the 1760s.

Language and symbols

Nelme was the author of An essay towards an investigation of the origin and elements of language (1772), a speculative book on the origin of languages, and alphabet symbolism. Nelme was interested in Anglo-Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 as proto-language
Proto-language
A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...

, and compiled (or suggested the compilation of) an Anglo-Saxon dictionary. He is said to have deferred later to the theory of Rowland Jones
Rowland Jones
-Life:He was the second son of John Williams of Bachellyn, Llanbedrog, Carnarvonshire, where he was born. He spent some time as clerk in the office of his father, who was a solicitor, but he then obtained a similar situation in London. He married a young Welsh heiress, and was enrolled as a member...

 on Celtic
Proto-Celtic language
The Proto-Celtic language, also called Common Celtic, is the reconstructed ancestor language of all the known Celtic languages. Its lexis can be confidently reconstructed on the basis of the comparative method of historical linguistics...

 as proto-language. Johanna Drucker
Johanna Drucker
Johanna Drucker is an author, book artist, visual theorist, and cultural critic. Her scholarly writing documents and critiques visual language: letterforms, typography, visual poetry, art, and lately, digital aesthetics...

 attributes to Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

's Stromateis some of his symbolic theory, outlines his version of Biblical history and the 'ol' ("all") key to symbols, and reproduces some of his illustrations.

Works

  • An Essay towards an Investigation of the Origin and Elements of Language and Letters, London, Printed by T. Spilsbury for S. Leacroft (1772); reprinted: R. C. Alston, ed., English Linguistics, 1500-1800: a Collection of Facsimile Reprints, No. 354. Menston, Scolar Press, (1972). ISBN 0854178694. Google Books.
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