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WHITNEY, WILLIAM DWIGHT (1827-1894)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 612 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WHITNEY, See also:WILLIAM See also:DWIGHT (1827-1894) , See also:American philologist, was See also:born at See also:Northampton, See also:Massachusetts, on the 9th of See also:February 1827. He was the See also:fourth See also:child and the second surviving son of See also:Josiah Dwight Whitney, a banker, and Sarah Williston, daughter of the Rev. See also:Payson Williston (1763-1856) of See also:Easthampton, See also:Mass., and a See also:sister of See also:Samuel Williston (1795-1874), founder of Williston See also:Seminary at Easthampton. Through both parents he was descended from New See also:England stock remark-able alike for See also:physical and See also:mental vigour; and he inherited all the social and intellectual advantages that were afforded by a community noted, in the See also:history of New England, for the large number of distinguished men whom it produced. At the See also:age of fifteen (1842) he entered the See also:sophomore class of See also:Williams See also:College (at See also:Williamstown,Mass.), where he graduated three years later with the highest honours. His See also:attention was at first directed to natural See also:science, and his See also:interest in it always remained keen, and his knowledge of its principles and methods exerted a See also:notice-able See also:influence upon his philological See also:work. In the summer of 1849 he had See also:charge of the See also:botany, the barometrical observations and the accounts of the See also:United States survey of the See also:Lake See also:Superior region conducted by his See also:brother, Josiah D. Whitney, and in the summer of 1873 assisted in the See also:geographical work of the See also:Hayden expedition in See also:Colorado. His interest in the study of See also:Sanskrit was first awakened in 1848, and he at once devoted himself with See also:enthusiasm to this at that See also:time little-explored See also:field of philological labour. After a brief course at Yale with See also:Professor See also:Edward Elbridge See also:Salisbury (1814–1901), then the only trained Orientalist in the United States, Whitney went to See also:Germany (185o) and studied for three years at See also:Berlin, under See also:Weber, See also:Bopp and See also:Lepsius, and at See also:Tubingen (two summer semesters) under See also:Roth, returning to the United States in 1853. In the following See also:year he was appointed professor of Sanskrit in Yale, and in 1869 also of See also:comparative See also:philology. He also gave instruction in See also:French and See also:German in the college until 1867, and in the See also:Sheffield scientific school until 1886.

An urgent See also:

call to a professorship at Harvard was declined in 1869. The importance of his contributions to science was See also:early and widely recognized. He was elected to membership in numerous learned See also:societies in all parts of the See also:world, and received many honorary degrees, the most notable testimonial to his fame being his See also:election on the 31st of May 1881, as See also:foreign See also:knight of the Prussian See also:order pour le merile for science and arts to fill the vacancy caused by the See also:death of See also:Carlyle. In 187o he received from the Berlin See also:Academy of Sciences the first Bopp See also:prize for the most important contribution to Sanskrit philology during the preceding three years—his edition of the Taittiriya-Praticakhya (See also:Journal of the American See also:Oriental Society, vol. ix.). He died at New Haven, See also:Connecticut, on the 7th of See also:June 1894. As a philologist Whitney is noted especially for his work in Sanskrit, which placed him among the first scholars of his time. He edited (1855–1856), with Professor Roth, the Atharva-Veda-Sanhita; published (1862) with a See also:translation and notes the Atharva-Veda-Praticakhya; made important contributions to the See also:great See also:Petersburg See also:lexicon; issued an See also:index verborum to the published See also:text of the Atharva-Veda (Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1881); made a translation of the Atharva-Veda, books i.-xix., with a See also:critical commentary, which he did not live to publish (edited by See also:Lanman, 1905); and published a large number of See also:special articles upon various points of Sanskrit philology. His most notable achievement in this field, however, is his Sanskrit See also:Grammar (1879), a work which, as Professor Delbriick has said, not only is " the best text-See also:book of Sanskrit which we possess," but also places its author, as a scientific grammarian, on the same level with such writers as See also:Madvig and See also:Kruger. To the See also:general public Whitney is best known through his popular See also:works on the science of See also:language and his labours as a lexicographer. The former are, perhaps, the most widely read of all See also:English books on the subject, and have merited their popularity through the soundness of the views which they See also:present and the lucidity of their See also:style.' His most important service to lexicography was his guidance, as editor-in-See also:chief, of the work on The See also:Century See also:Dictionary (1889–1891). Apart from the permanent value of his contributions to philology, Whitney is notable for the great and stimulating influence which he exerted throughout his See also:life upon the development of American scholarship. The See also:chronological bibliography of Whitney's writings appended to vol. xix.

(first See also:

half) of the Journal of the American Oriental Society, issued in May 1897, contains 36o See also:numbers. Of these the most important, in addition to those mentioned above, are: Translation of the Suryasiddhanta, a Text-book of See also:Hindu See also:Astronomy (Jour. Am. Oriental See also:Soc., vol. vi., 186o); Language and the Study of Language (1867) ; A Compendious German Grammar (1869) ; Oriental and Linguistic Studies (1873; second See also:series, 1874); The Life and Growth of Language (1875); Essentials of English Grammar (1877); A Compendious German and English Dictionary (1877); A See also:Practical French Grammar (1886); Max See also:Muller and the Science oct' Language (1892). B. E.

End of Article: WHITNEY, WILLIAM DWIGHT (1827-1894)

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