This paper examines particular aspects of 18th-century British linguistic thought by focusing upon discussions of American Indians which depicted them as poetic and eloquent. The paper places this depiction within the context of the larger British concerns of the time to show how it was used by some to portray the ‘primitive’ Indians and their languages as inferior, by others as superior, to the ‘modern’ Europeans and their languages. It is argued that this contextualizing of the idea of the ‘savage poet’ helps us to understand the terms of the debates over which European language could rightfully lay claim to the crown of linguistic supremacy.
Adair, James. 1775. The History of the American Indians; […] Containing an acount of their origin, language, manners. London: Printed by Edward & Charles Duly. (Repr., New York: Johnson, 1968.)
Adams, James. 1794. Euphonologia Lingua Anglicanae […]. London: R. White.
Anon. 1781. A View of North America, in its Former Happy, and its Present Belligerent State. Being a compendious description of the several colonies, previous to these disturbances […] Containing a concise account of the Indians. Glasgow: Printed by William Smith, for the author.
Anon. 1786. An Essay on the Gift of Tongues, Proving that it was not the gift of languages […]. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell.
Bailey, Nathan. 1730. Dictionarium Britannicum: or a more compleat universal etymological English dictionary than any extant. London: Printed for T. Cox.
Barton, Benjamin Smith. 1798. New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America. Philadelphia: Printed by John Bioren, for the author.
Bartram, John. 1750. Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals and Other Matters […]. London: J. Whiston & B. White.
Bayly, Anselm. 1789. The Alliance of Musick, Poetry, and Oratory. London: Printed for John Stockdale.
Beatty, Charles. 1768. The Journal of a Two Months Tour; with a view of promoting religion among […] the Indians […]. London: Printed by William Davenhill & George Pearch.
Beattie, James. 1788. The Theory of Language. In two parts. London: A. Strahan & T. Cadell. (Repr., with an introd. by R. W. Rieber, New York: AMS Press, 1974.)
Beattie, James. 1787. Scotticisms; designed to Correct Improprieties of Speech and Writing. Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech.
Blackwell, Thomas. 1735. An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer. London: n.p. (Repr., New York: Garland, 1970.)
Blair, Hugh. 1763. A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian. London: Printed for T. Becket & P. A. De Hont.
Blair, Hugh. 1853 [1783]. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes.
Boswell, James. 1785. The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly. (New ed. by R. W. Chapman, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1974.)
Buchanan, James. 1766. An Essay toward Establishing a Standard for an Elegant and a Uniform Pronounciation of the English Language. London: Edward & Charles Dilly.
Burke, Edmund. 1757. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. London: R. & J. Dodsley. (Repr., Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990.)
Carver, Jonathan. 1779. The New Universal Traveller: containing a full and distinct account of all the empires, kingdoms […]. London: G. Robinson.
Cleland, John. 1766. The Way to Things by Words, and to Words by Things; being a sketch of an attempt at the retrieval of the antient Celtic, or, primitive language of Europe […]. London: L. Davies & C. Reymers.
Colden, Cadwallader. 1755. The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada. London: Lockyer Davis, J. Wren & J. Ward.
Dennis, John. 1701. The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. Printed for Richard Parker.
Donaldson, John. 1780. The Elements of Beauty. Also reflections on the harmony of sensibility and reason. Edinburgh: Printed for Charles Elliot & T. Cadell.
Drake, William. 1776. “A Letter to the Secretary, on the Origin of the English Language”. Archaeologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts, Relating to Antiquity (1770–1779) ed. by The Society of Antiquaries of London, vol.V1, 304–312. London.
Edwards, Jonathan. 1788. Observations on the Language of the Muhhe-kaneew Indians. New-Haven, Conn.: Printed by Josiah Meigs. London: reprinted by W. Justins.
Fenning, Daniel. 1771. A New Grammar of the English Language. London: Printed for S. Crowder.
Ferguson, Adam. 1980 [1767]. An Essay on the History of Civil Society. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731–1922. London: Printed by Edward Cave.
Harris, James. 1751. Hermes: or, a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar. London: Printed by H. Woodfall, for J. Nourse & P. Vaillant.
Henley, John. 1726. [Compleat Linguist] An Introduction to an English Grammar. London: Printed by J. Roberts, J. Woodman, J. Stone & R. King.
Hemes, John, A. M.1773. The Elements of Speech. London: Edward & Charles Duly.
Hume, David. 1985. Essays: Moral, Political and Literary. Ed. by E. F. Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.
Johnson, Samuel. 1963[1755]. Johnson’s Dictionary: A modern selection. Ed. by E. L. McAdam & George Milne. New York: Pantheon.
Johnson, Sir William. 1773. “Extracts of some letters from Sir William Johnson Bart, to Arthur Lee, M.D. F.R.S. on the customs, manners, and language of the Northern Indians of America”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 631.142–148. London.
Jones, Rowland. 1764. The Origin of Language and Nations, Hieroglifically, Etymologically, and Topographically Defined and Fixed, After the Method of an English, Celtic, Greek and Latin English Lexicon […]. London: Printed by John Hughs.
Jones, Rowland. 1768. Hieroglyfic: or, a Grammatical introduction to an universal hieroglyfic language. Ibid.
Jones, Rowland. 1769. The Philosophy of Words, in two dialogues […] containing an explanation, with various specimens, of the first language, and thence of all its dialects, […]. Ibid.
Jones, Sir William. 1771. Grammar of the Persian Language. London: Printed by W. & J. Richardson.
Jones, Sir William. 1773. “The History of the Persian Language”. The History of the Life of Nader Shah. London: Printed by J. Richardson, for T. Cadell.
Karnes, Henry Home, Lord. 1762. Elements of Criticism. 21 vols. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & J. Bell.
Karnes, Henry Home, Lord. 1779. Sketches of the History of Man. Dublin: Printed by James Williams.
Kenrick, William. 1784. A Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language. London: R. Cadell & W. Longman.
Lamotte, Charles. 1730. An Essay upon Poetry and Painting. London: Printed for F. Fayram.
Locke, John. 1959 [1690]. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: Dover.
Long, J.1968[1791]. Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader, Describing the Manners and Customs of the North American Indians. New York: Johnson Reprint.
Lonsdale, Roger, ed. 1969. The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Olliver Goldsmith. Harlow: Longmans.
Macpherson, James. 1773[1771]. An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland: or, an inquiry into the origin, […] language, government, kings, […] of the Britons, Scots, Irish and Anglo-Saxons. Rev. in 3rd ed. London: Printed for T. Becket & P. A. DeHondt.
Malcolme, David. 1738. An Essay on the Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland: Wherein they are placed in a clearer light than hitherto. Designed as an introducction to a larger work, especially an attempt to shew an affinity betwixt the languages of the ancient Britains and the Americans […]. Edinburgh: Printed by T. & W. Ruddinmans.
Martin, Benjamin. 1737. Bibliotheca Technologica or, a Philological library of literary arts and sciences. London: Printed by S. Idle, for John Noon.
Martin, Benjamin. 1759–1764. A New and Comprehensive System of Philology. London: Printed by W. Owen.
Monboddo, James Burnet, Lord. 1773–1792. Of the Origin and Progress of Language. 61 vols. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & W. Creech. (Repr., New York: Garland, 1970.)
Morton, Sarah Wentworth. 1790. Ouabi: or the virtues of nature. An Indian tale. In four cantos. By Philenia, a lady of Boston. Boston: Printed by I. Thomas & E. T. Andrews.
Parsons, James. 1767. Remains of Japhet, being historical inquiries into the affinity and origin of the European languages. London: Printed for the author.
Priestley, Joseph. 1762. A Course of Lectures on the Theory of Language, and Universal Grammar. Warrington: Printed by W. Eyres.
Priestley, Joseph. 1768. The Rudiments of English Grammar. London: T. Becket, P. A. De Hondt & J. Johnson.
Priestley, Joseph. 1777. A Course of Lectures on Oratory and Criticism. London: J. Johnson. (Repr., Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1965.)
Saint-Simon, Maximilien Henri, Marquis de. 1774. Temora, poeme épique en VIII chants, composé en langue Erse ou Gallique, par Ossian fils de Fingal. Traduit d’après l’édition anglaise de Macpherson, par M le Marquis de St Simon. Amsterdam: no pub.
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of. 1963[1710]. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Ed., with an introd. by John M. Robertson. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith.
Shaw, W.1780. A Galic and English Dictionary. London: Printed by W. & A. Strahan, for the author.
Sheridan, Thomas. 1756. British Education: or, the Sources of Disorders of Great Britain. London: R. & J. Dodsley.
Sheridan, Thomas. 1761. A Dissertation on the Causes of the Difficulties Which Occur in the Learning of the English Tongue. Ibid.
Sheridan, Thomas. 1762. A Course of Lectures on Elocution. London: Printed by W. Strahan, for A. Millar, R. & J. Dodsley, T. Davies, C. Henderson, J. Wilkie & E. Duly.
Sheridan, Thomas. 1781. A Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language. Dublin: Printed for W. Price & H. Whiteston, Sleater, Sheppard, G. Burnet, R. Cross, Flin, Stewart, Mills, Wilkinson, Exshaw, Perrin & Byrne.
Sheridan, Thomas. 1786. Elements of English: Being a New Method of Teaching the Whole Art of Reading. London: Printed for C. Dilly.
Smellie, William, ed. 1771. Encyclopedia Britannica. Edinburgh: A. Bell & C. MacFarquar.
Smith, Adam. 1985[1762], Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.
Smith, Adam. 1967[1795]. Essays on Philosophical Subjects: The early writings of Adam Smith. Ed. by J. Ralph Lindgren. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.
Smith, William, D.D.1754. Some Account of the North American Indians, their genius, characters, customs, and dispositions, towards the French and English nations […]. London: R. Griffith.
Smollett, Tobias. 1960[1771]. The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. New York: New American Library.
Stackhouse, Thomas. 1731. Reflections on the Nature and Property of Languages. London: Printed by J. Batley.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. 1896–1901. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 731 vols. Cleveland, Ohio. (Repr., New York: Pageant, 1959.)
Tytler, Alexander Fraser, Lord Woodhouselee. 1978 [1791]. Essay on the Principles of Translation. Reprint of 3rd ed. [1813] with a new introd. by Jeffrey F. Huntsman. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Walker, John. 1787. The Melody of Speaking. London: Printed for the author.
Wilson, Thomas. 1724. The Many Advantages of a Good Language to any Nation. London: Printed for J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, J. Sprint, D. Midwinter, W. Innys and J. Osborne.
Wise, Francis. 1758. Some Enquiries Concerning the First Inhabitants Languages Religion Learning and Letters of Europe. By a member of the society of Antiquaries in London. Oxford: Printed for J. Fletcher, S. Parket & D. Prince.
Wood, Robert. 1775. An Essay on the Original Genius and Writings of Homer. London: Printed by H. Hughs, for T. Payne & P. Elmsly. (Repr., New York: Garland, 1971.)
B.Secondary sources
Aarsleff, Hans. 1967. The Study of Language in England, 1780–1860. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Aarsleff, Hans. 1982. From Locke to Saussure: Essays in the study of language and intellectual history. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Attridge, Derek. 1987. “Language as History / History as Language: Saussure and the romance of etymology”. Post-Structuralism and the Question of History ed. by D. Attridge, Geoff Bennington & Robert Young. 183–211. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Auroux, Sylvain & Francisco Quiexalos, eds. 1984. Histoire de la linguistique amerindienne en France. (= Amerindia, Numero spécial, 6.) Paris: A. E. A.
Bate, Walter Jackson. 1970. The Burden of the Past and the English Poet. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Bergheaud, Patrice. 1985. “Le mirage celtique: Antiquaires et linguistes en Grand-Bretagne au XVIIIe siècle”. La linguistique fantastique ed. by Sylvain Aurouxet al., 51–60. Paris: Denoèl.
Bisseil, Benjamin. 1925. The American Indian in English Literature of the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.
Bonfante, Guiliano. 1954. “Ideas of the Kinship of the European Languages from 1200 to 1800”. Cahiers d’histoire mondiale 11.679–699.
Cohen, Murray. 1977. Sensible Words: Linguistic practice in England 1640–1785. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 1974. Of Grammatology. Transl, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
Douthwaite, Julia. 1994/95. “Rewriting the Savage: The extraordinary fictions of the ‘Wild Girl of Champagne’”. Eighteenth-Century Studies 28:2.163–192.
Droixhe, Daniel. 1978. La linguistique et l’appel de l’histoire (1600–1800): Rationalisme et révolutions positivistes. Genève: Droz.
Droixhe, Daniel & Pol.-P. Gossiaux, eds. 1985. L’homme des lumières et la découverte de l’autre. Vol.III1: Éudes sur le XVIIIe siècle. Bruxelles: Éditions de l’Uni-versité de Bruxelles.
Eco, Umberto. 1995. The Search for the Perfect Language. Oxford: Black-well.
Evans, Joan. 1956. A History of The Society of Antiquaries. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Formigari, Lia. 1974. “Language and Society in the Late Eighteenth Century”. Journal of the History of Ideas. 35:2.275–292.
Foucault, Michel. 1970. The Order of Things. New York: Vintage.
Frank, Thomas. 1994. “Language Standardization in Eighteenth-Century Scotland”. Towards a Standard English 1600–1800 ed. by Dieter Stein & Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, 51–62. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hanzeli, Victor Egon. 1969. Missionary Linguistics in New France. The Hague: Mouton.
Howell, Wilbur Samuel. 1971. Eighteenth Century British Logic and Rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Huddlestone, Lee Eldridge. 1967. Origins of the American Indians: European concepts, 1492–1729. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
Hudson, Nicholas, 1994. Writing and European Thought 1600–1830. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Hymes, Dell, ed. 1974. Studies in the History of Linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
Land, Stephen K.1986. The Philosophy of Language in Britain: Major themes from Hobbes to Thomas Reid. New York: AMS Press.
Leonard, Sterling Andrus. 1962. The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage 1700–1800. New York: Russell & Russell.
McCosh, James. 1966. The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, expository, critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
Pagden, Anthony. 1993. European Encounters with the New World. London: Yale Univ. Press.
Paxman, David B.1991. “The Genius of English: Eighteenth-century language study and English poetry”. Philological Quarterly 701.27–46.
Paxman, David B.1993. “Language and Difference: The problem of abstraction in eighteenth-century language study”. Journal of the History of Ideas 54:1.19–36.
Paxman, David B.1995. “‘Adam in a Strange Country’: Locke’s language theory and travel literature”. Modern Philology 92:4.460–481.
Pilling, James Constantine. 1888. Bibliography of the Iroquoian languages. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Richards, Eric. 1991. “Scotland and the Uses of the Atlantic Empire”. Strangers within the Realm: Cultural margins of the first British empire ed. by Bernard Bailyn & Philip D. Morgan, 67–114. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
Ricken, Ulrich. 1978. Grammaire et philosophie au siècle des lumières: Controverses sur l’ordre naturel et la ciarté du français. Lille: Publications de l’Université de Lille.
Ricken, Ulrich. 1994. Linguistics, Anthropology and Philosophy in the French Enlightenment. New York: Routledge.
Salmon, Vivian. 1979. The Study of Language in 17th-Century England. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (2nd ed., 1988.)
Salmon, Vivian. 1985. “The Study of Foreign Languages in Seventeenth-Century England”. Histoire Épistémologie Language 7:2.45–70. (Rev. version published in V. Salmon, Language & Society in Early Modern England, 173–194. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1996.)
Schreyer, Rüdiger. 1984. “Evidence and Belief: Arguments in the eighteenth-century debate on the origin of language”. Matériaux pour une histoire des théories linguistiques ed by Sylvain Aurouxet al., 325–336. Lille: Publications de l’Université de Lille III.
Shortland, Michael. 1987. “Moving Speeches: Language and elocution in eighteenth-century Britain”. History of European Ideas 8:6.639–653.
Simonsuuri, Kirsti. 1979. Homer’s Original Genius: Eighteenth-century notions of the early Greek Epic (1688–1798). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Smith, Janet Adam. 1970. “Eighteenth-Century Ideas of Scotland”. Scotland in the Age of Improvement: Essays on Scottish History in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. by N. T. Phillipson & Rosalind Mitchison, 107–124. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Smith, Olivia. 1984. The Politics of Language, 1791–1819. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Stam, James Henry. 1976. Inquiries into the Origin of Language: The fate of a question. New York: Harper & Row.
Thomson, Ian. 1982. “Rhetoric and the Passions, 1760–1800”. Rhetoric Revalued: Papers from the International Society for the History of Rhetoric ed. by Brian Vickers, 143–148. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies.
Trudgill, Peter. 1983. On Dialect. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Ulman, H. Lewis. 1994. Things, Thoughts, Words, and Actions: The problem of language in late eighteenth-century British rhetorical theory. Carbon-dale: Southern Illinois Press.
Vaughan, Alden T.1982. “From White Man to Redskin: Changing Anglo-American perceptions of the American Indian”. American Historical Review 87:4.917–953.
Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1987. Languages in Competition: Dominance, Diversity, and Decline. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Weinbrot, Howard D.1993. Britannia’s Issue: The rise of British literature from Dryden to Ossian. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Whitney, Lois. 1934. Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.