William Dwight Whitney
Encyclopedia
William Dwight Whitney was an American linguist
, philologist, and lexicographer who edited The Century Dictionary
.
on February 9, 1827. His father was Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786–1869) of the New England Dwight family
. His mother was Sarah Williston (1800–1833).
He entered Williams College
at fifteen, graduating in 1845. He continued studying and worked at a bank in Northampton
for several years, then assisted his older brother Josiah Whitney
on a geological survey of the Lake Superior
region in 1849. For three years, he studied Sanskrit
in Germany
, and gained wide reputation for his scholarship in the field. At Yale, he became professor of Sanskrit in 1854, adding comparative philology
in 1869. He also taught modern languages at the Sheffield Scientific School
. He served as secretary to the American Oriental Society
from 1857 until he became its president in 1884. He died at his home, on Whitney Avenue, on June 7, 1897
Whitney revised definitions for the 1864 edition of Webster's American Dictionary
, and in 1869 became a founder and first president of the American Philological Association
. He wrote metrical translations of the Vedas
, and numerous papers on the Vedas and linguistics, many of which were collected in the Oriental and Linguistic Studies series (1872–74). He wrote several books on language
, and grammar textbooks of English
, French
, German
, and Sanskrit.
His Sanskrit Grammar (1879) is notable in part for the criticism it contains of the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar attributed to Panini. Whitney describes the Ashtadhyayi as 'containing the facts of the language cast into the highly artful and difficult form of about four thousand algebraic-like rules (in the statement and arrangement of which brevity alone is had in view at the cost of distinctness and unambiguousness).'
In his Course in General Linguistics
in the chapter on the 'Immutability and Mutability of the Sign', Ferdinand de Saussure
credits Whitney with insisting on the arbitrary nature of the linguistic signs
.
Although he suffered from a heart ailment in his later years, he was editor-in-chief of the first edition of the respected Century Dictionary
, which appeared from 1889 to 1891.
On August 28, 1856 he married Elizabeth Wooster Baldwin.
She was the daughter of Roger Sherman Baldwin
, US Senator and Governor of the State of Connecticut
.
They had six children:
NB: Dates marked * may not be first publication.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, philologist, and lexicographer who edited The Century Dictionary
Century Dictionary
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia was one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations...
.
Life
William Dwight Whitney was born in Northampton, MassachusettsNorthampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
on February 9, 1827. His father was Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786–1869) of the New England Dwight family
New England Dwight family
The New England Dwight family had many members who were military leaders, educators, jurists, authors, businessmen and clergymen.Around 1634 John Dwight came with his wife Hannah, daughter Hannah, and sons Timothy Dwight and John Dwight, from Dedham, Essex, England to North America where the town...
. His mother was Sarah Williston (1800–1833).
He entered Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
at fifteen, graduating in 1845. He continued studying and worked at a bank in Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
for several years, then assisted his older brother Josiah Whitney
Josiah Whitney
Josiah Dwight Whitney was an American geologist, professor of geology at Harvard University , and chief of the California Geological Survey...
on a geological survey of the Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
region in 1849. For three years, he studied Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and gained wide reputation for his scholarship in the field. At Yale, he became professor of Sanskrit in 1854, adding comparative philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
in 1869. He also taught modern languages at the Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, the railroad executive. The school was...
. He served as secretary to the American Oriental Society
American Oriental Society
The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship....
from 1857 until he became its president in 1884. He died at his home, on Whitney Avenue, on June 7, 1897
Whitney revised definitions for the 1864 edition of Webster's American Dictionary
Webster's Dictionary
Webster's Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century, and also to numerous unrelated dictionaries that added Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term is a genericized trademark in the U.S.A...
, and in 1869 became a founder and first president of the American Philological Association
American Philological Association
The American Philological Association , founded in 1869, is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization...
. He wrote metrical translations of the Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
, and numerous papers on the Vedas and linguistics, many of which were collected in the Oriental and Linguistic Studies series (1872–74). He wrote several books on language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, and grammar textbooks of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Sanskrit.
His Sanskrit Grammar (1879) is notable in part for the criticism it contains of the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar attributed to Panini. Whitney describes the Ashtadhyayi as 'containing the facts of the language cast into the highly artful and difficult form of about four thousand algebraic-like rules (in the statement and arrangement of which brevity alone is had in view at the cost of distinctness and unambiguousness).'
In his Course in General Linguistics
Course in General Linguistics
Course in General Linguistics is an influential book compiled by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye that is based on notes taken from Ferdinand de Saussure's lectures at the University of Geneva between the years 1906 and 1911...
in the chapter on the 'Immutability and Mutability of the Sign', Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics...
credits Whitney with insisting on the arbitrary nature of the linguistic signs
Sign (linguistics)
There are many models of the linguistic sign . A classic model is the one by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides : the signifier , the "shape" of a word, its phonic component, i.e...
.
Although he suffered from a heart ailment in his later years, he was editor-in-chief of the first edition of the respected Century Dictionary
Century Dictionary
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia was one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by The Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations...
, which appeared from 1889 to 1891.
On August 28, 1856 he married Elizabeth Wooster Baldwin.
She was the daughter of Roger Sherman Baldwin
Roger Sherman Baldwin
Roger Sherman Baldwin was an American lawyer involved in the Amistad case, who later became the 17th Governor of Connecticut and a United States Senator.-Early life:...
, US Senator and Governor of the State of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
They had six children:
- Edward Baldwin WhitneyEdward Baldwin Whitney-Life:Edward Baldwin Whitney was born August 16, 1857. His father was linguist William Dwight Whitney of the new England Dwight family. His mother was Elizabeth Wooster Baldwin, daughter of US Senator and Governor of Connecticut Roger Sherman Baldwin....
was born August 16, 1857, became Assistant US Attorney General, and had son mathematician Hassler WhitneyHassler WhitneyHassler Whitney was an American mathematician. He was one of the founders of singularity theory, and did foundational work in manifolds, embeddings, immersions, and characteristic classes.-Work:...
. - Williston Clapp Whitney was born April 2, 1859 but died March 11, 1861.
- Marian Parker Whitney was born February 6, 1861.
- Roger Sherman Baldwin Whitney was born January 6, 1863, but died January 17, 1874.
- Emily Henrietta Whitney was born August 29, 1864.
- Margaret Dwight Whitney was born November 19, 1866.
Works
- Atharva Veda, editor with Rudolf von Roth (1856–1857)
- Language and the Study of Language: Twelve Lectures on the Principles of Linguistic Science (1867)
- On Material and Form in Language (1872)
- Oriental and Linguistic Studies - First Series: The Veda, The Avesta, The Science of Language (1872)
- Oriental and Linguistic Studies - Second Series: The East and West, Religion and Mythology, Hindu Astronomy (1874)
- Darwinism and Language (1874)
- The Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science (1875)
- Essentials of English Grammar for the Use of Schools (1877)*
- Sanskrit Grammar: Including Both the Classical Language, and the Older Dialects, of Veda and Brahmana (1879, 2d edn. 1889)
- Language and its Study: with Special Reference to the Indo-European (lectures) (1880)*
- Logical Consistency in Views of Language (1880)
- Mixture in Language (1881)
- The Roots, Verb-forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language (supplement to Sanskrit Grammar) (1885)
- Practical French Grammar (1887)*
- A Compendious German and English Dictionary (1887)*
- The Century Dictionary (editor) (1889–1891)
- Introductory French Reader (1891)*
- Max Müller's Science of Language (1893)
- Atharva Veda Samhita 3 volumes (translator)
- The History of Sanskrit Grammar (Indian reprint edition of Sanskrit Grammar)
- Manuscript Diary (photo reprint)
NB: Dates marked * may not be first publication.
Modern collections
- Oriental and Linguistic Essays
- On the Vedas
- Whitney on Language: Selected Writings of William Dwight Whitney
External links
- William Dwight Whitney
- The Descendants of John Whitney, pages 486 - 490
- Full bibliography of William Dwight Whitney (JSTOR)
- The Century Dictionary gratis online and they are "planning a CD version".
- Judith Ann Schiff, "Advice for the language-lorn," Yale Alumni Magazine, March/April 2010 (description of life and career).