Founding of Indo-European studies
Fundación de la filología indoeuropea
- Date
- 1786 · confidence high
- Place
- Calcutta, India
- Credited to
- William Jones
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
British judge and philologist William Jones, in an address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta, noted that Sanskrit shares with Greek and Latin a resemblance in verb roots and grammar too strong to be accidental, and proposed a common origin.
Jones mistakenly included Egyptian, Japanese and Chinese in the same family and omitted Hindi; it was his method, not all his conclusions, that was revolutionary.
What it led to
- Birth of comparative linguistics
- Reconstruction of the Indo-European language family
- Oriental studies programs in Europe