In the late 18th century, a British jurist who had been studying native Indian law codes gave an address in Calcutta and offered an interesting hypothesis. Who was this man, and what did he suggest?

TabbyTom

I think this is Sir William Jones. In an address to the Asiatic Society in 1786, he suggested that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin might be descended from a common source. Subsequent scholars were to develop this theory and tentatively re-create the original Aryan or proto-Indo-European language. http://www.ss.ucalgary.ca/JArchibald/209Jones.htm May 28 05, 5:36 PM

lanfranco

TT, you have it! Yay! Jones was a remarkable linguist, who went into law solely to make a living. Sad to say, after making this important leap, he died in 1794, at the age of only 48. May 28 05, 6:05 PM

gmackematix

We briefly discussed him a couple of months ago after Mochyn asked a question about who introduced the Greek letter pi to represent the circular circumference to diameter ratio. The answer was William Jones and his son was the William Jones you were referring to. May 28 05, 7:30 PM