William Dwight Whitney
William Dwight Whitney [ wɪtneɪ ] ( born February 9, 1827 in Northampton, Massachusetts, † June 8, 1894 in New Haven ( Connecticut ) ) was an American linguist, orientalist and Sanskritist.
Whitney studied since 1849 in Yale College Newhaven and 1850-53 in Berlin, Albrecht Weber, and in Tübingen under Rudolf von Roth oriental languages, especially Sanskrit, received in 1854 the professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology at Yale College Newhaven and was founded in 1856 at the same time librarian of the American Oriental Society in Boston, and in 1857 was appointed corresponding secretary of the same. Became known for his remark on the difficulty of dating in Indian history: "All data given in Indian literary history are like back to the overturning patch cone. " He wrote:
- Language and its study New York 1867 German Jolly, Munich 1874; ed in an abbreviated form. Morris, London 1876; 4th Edition, 1884;
- German grammar New York in 1869;
- German reader with notes and vocabulary New York in 1870;
- Oriental and linguistic studies New York, 1872, second series, 1874;
- The life and growth of language London 1875; German from August Leskien, Leipzig 1876;
- Sanskrit grammar edition, London. 1889; German by Heinrich Zimmer, Leipzig. 1879; together with an appendix;
- The roots, verb-forms, and primary strains of the Sanskrit language, German Zimmer, Leipzig 1885;
- Letter German grammar in 1885;
- A practical French grammar with exercises and illustrative sentences from French authors, New York / Boston in 1886;
- Key to Whitney's French grammar, New York / Boston in 1886;
- Practical French, taken from the author's larger grammar, and supplemented by conversations and idiomatic phrases, New York / Boston 1887;
- A brief French grammar, New York / Boston in 1891;
- Introductory French reader (along with MP Whitney ), New York / Boston 1891.
He also gave the Athatva Veda ( with Rudolf von Roth, Berlin 1856) out, translated and explained the Sûrya Siddhânra and Atharva Veda Prâtiçâkhya ( Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol 6 and 8) and made important contributions to the St. Petersburg Sanskrit Dictionary and an index verborum to the published text of the Atharva Veda ( Newhaven 1881). Wight was since 1873 a corresponding member of the Berlin- Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.