JONES, (Sir) William

JONES, (Sir) William [1746–94]. British philologist and jurist, born in London of Welsh parentage, and educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford. His Grammar of the Persian Language (1771) was considered definitive for many years. He studied law and was called to the Bar in 1774, becoming a judge of the high court in Calcutta in 1783. His philological pursuits, interest in Indian legal literature (rare among Europeans of his time), and his liberal political outlook, introduced him to Indian languages, including SANSKRIT. He founded the Asiatic Society in 1784, and in his presidential address of 1786 announced his view that ‘the Sanscrit language … bear[s to GREEK and LATIN] a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick … had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family.…’ By concentrating on systematic resemblances in the form of grammar, accepting that the common source no longer exists, and listing most of the chief language families that descended from that source, this statement embodies the founding principles of the historical study of the INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. See ETYMOLOGY, PHILOLOGY.