Cover not available
Article published In:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 23:1/2 (1996) ► pp.123–158

Savage eloquence in America and the linguistic construction of a British identity in the 18th century

| Carleton University

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.

Published online: 1 January 1996
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.23.1-2.07lau
References

A.Primary sources

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.)Google Scholar
Adams, James
1794 Euphonologia Lingua Anglicanae […]. London: R. White.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
1786 An Essay on the Gift of Tongues, Proving that it was not the gift of languages […]. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell.Google Scholar
Bailey, Nathan
1730 Dictionarium Britannicum: or a more compleat universal etymological English dictionary than any extant. London: Printed for T. Cox.Google Scholar
Barton, Benjamin Smith
1798 New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America. Philadelphia: Printed by John Bioren, for the author.Google Scholar
Bartram, John
1750 Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals and Other Matters […]. London: J. Whiston & B. White.Google Scholar
Bayly, Anselm
1789 The Alliance of Musick, Poetry, and Oratory. London: Printed for John Stockdale.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar
1787 Scotticisms; designed to Correct Improprieties of Speech and Writing. Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech.Google Scholar
Blackwell, Thomas
1735 An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer. London: n.p. (Repr., New York: Garland 1970.)Google Scholar
Blair, Hugh
1763 A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian. London: Printed for T. Becket & P. A. De Hont.Google Scholar
1853 [1783] Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes.Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar
Buchanan, James
1766 An Essay toward Establishing a Standard for an Elegant and a Uniform Pronounciation of the English Language. London: Edward & Charles Dilly.Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar
Carver, Jonathan
1779 The New Universal Traveller: containing a full and distinct account of all the empires, kingdoms […]. London: G. Robinson.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Colden, Cadwallader
1755 The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada. London: Lockyer Davis, J. Wren & J. Ward.Google Scholar
Dennis, John
1701 The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. Printed for Richard Parker.Google Scholar
Donaldson, John
1780 The Elements of Beauty. Also reflections on the harmony of sensibility and reason. Edinburgh: Printed for Charles Elliot & T. Cadell.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Edwards, Jonathan
1788 Observations on the Language of the Muhhe-kaneew Indians. New-Haven, Conn.: Printed by Josiah Meigs. London: reprinted by W. Justins.Google Scholar
Fenning, Daniel
1771 A New Grammar of the English Language. London: Printed for S. Crowder.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Adam
1980 [1767] An Essay on the History of Civil Society. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
The Gentleman’s Magazine
1731–1922 London: Printed by Edward Cave.Google Scholar
Harris, James
1751 Hermes: or, a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar. London: Printed by H. Woodfall, for J. Nourse & P. Vaillant.Google Scholar
Henley, John
1726 [Compleat Linguist] An Introduction to an English Grammar. London: Printed by J. Roberts, J. Woodman, J. Stone & R. King.Google Scholar
Hemes, John, A. M.
1773 The Elements of Speech. London: Edward & Charles Duly.Google Scholar
Hume, David
1985 Essays: Moral, Political and Literary. Ed. by E. F. Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Johnson, Samuel
1963[1755] Johnson’s Dictionary: A modern selection. Ed. by E. L. McAdam & George Milne. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
1768 Hieroglyfic: or, a Grammatical introduction to an universal hieroglyfic language. Ibid.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Jones, Sir William
1771 Grammar of the Persian Language. London: Printed by W. & J. Richardson.Google Scholar
1773 “The History of the Persian Language”. The History of the Life of Nader Shah. London: Printed by J. Richardson, for T. Cadell.Google Scholar
Karnes, Henry Home, Lord
1762 Elements of Criticism. 21 vols. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & J. Bell.Google Scholar
1779 Sketches of the History of Man. Dublin: Printed by James Williams.Google Scholar
Kenrick, William
1784 A Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language. London: R. Cadell & W. Longman.Google Scholar
Lamotte, Charles
1730 An Essay upon Poetry and Painting. London: Printed for F. Fayram.Google Scholar
Locke, John
1959 [1690] An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Lonsdale, Roger
ed. 1969 The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Olliver Goldsmith. Harlow: Longmans.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Martin, Benjamin
1737 Bibliotheca Technologica or, a Philological library of literary arts and sciences. London: Printed by S. Idle, for John Noon.Google Scholar
1759–1764 A New and Comprehensive System of Philology. London: Printed by W. Owen.Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Parsons, James
1767 Remains of Japhet, being historical inquiries into the affinity and origin of the European languages. London: Printed for the author.Google Scholar
Priestley, Joseph
1762 A Course of Lectures on the Theory of Language, and Universal Grammar. Warrington: Printed by W. Eyres.Google Scholar
1768 The Rudiments of English Grammar. London: T. Becket, P. A. De Hondt & J. Johnson.Google Scholar
1777 A Course of Lectures on Oratory and Criticism. London: J. Johnson. (Repr., Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press 1965.)Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Shaw, W.
1780 A Galic and English Dictionary. London: Printed by W. & A. Strahan, for the author.Google Scholar
Sheridan, Thomas
1756 British Education: or, the Sources of Disorders of Great Britain. London: R. & J. Dodsley.Google Scholar
1761 A Dissertation on the Causes of the Difficulties Which Occur in the Learning of the English Tongue. Ibid.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
1786 Elements of English: Being a New Method of Teaching the Whole Art of Reading. London: Printed for C. Dilly.Google Scholar
Smellie, William
ed. 1771 Encyclopedia Britannica. Edinburgh: A. Bell & C. MacFarquar.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam
1985[1762], Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
1967[1795] Essays on Philosophical Subjects: The early writings of Adam Smith. Ed. by J. Ralph Lindgren. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Smollett, Tobias
1960[1771] The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Stackhouse, Thomas
1731 Reflections on the Nature and Property of Languages. London: Printed by J. Batley.Google Scholar
Thwaites, Reuben Gold
ed. 1896–1901 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 731 vols. Cleveland, Ohio. (Repr., New York: Pageant 1959.)Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Walker, John
1787 The Melody of Speaking. London: Printed for the author.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar

B.Secondary sources

Aarsleff, Hans
1967 The Study of Language in England, 1780–1860. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
1982 From Locke to Saussure: Essays in the study of language and intellectual history. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Auroux, Sylvain & Francisco Quiexalos
eds. 1984 Histoire de la linguistique amerindienne en France. (= Amerindia, Numero spécial, 6.) Paris: A. E. A.Google Scholar
Bate, Walter Jackson
1970 The Burden of the Past and the English Poet. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bergheaud, Patrice
1985 “Le mirage celtique: Antiquaires et linguistes en Grand-Bretagne au XVIIIe siècle”. La linguistique fantastique ed. by Sylvain Auroux et al., 51–60. Paris: Denoèl.Google Scholar
Bisseil, Benjamin
1925 The American Indian in English Literature of the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bonfante, Guiliano
1954 “Ideas of the Kinship of the European Languages from 1200 to 1800”. Cahiers d’histoire mondiale 11.679–699.Google Scholar
Cohen, Murray
1977 Sensible Words: Linguistic practice in England 1640–1785. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Colley, Linda
1992 Britons – Forging the Nation: 1707–1837. London: Pimlico.Google Scholar
Crawford, David
1992 Devolving English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
De Mauro, Tullio & Lia Formigari
eds. 1990 Leibniz, Humboldt, and the Origins of Comparativism. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques
1974 Of Grammatology. Transl, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Douthwaite, Julia
1994/95 “Rewriting the Savage: The extraordinary fictions of the ‘Wild Girl of Champagne’”. Eighteenth-Century Studies 28:2.163–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Droixhe, Daniel
1978 La linguistique et l’appel de l’histoire (1600–1800): Rationalisme et révolutions positivistes. Genève: Droz.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto
1995 The Search for the Perfect Language. Oxford: Black-well.Google Scholar
Evans, Joan
1956 A History of The Society of Antiquaries. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Formigari, Lia
1974 “Language and Society in the Late Eighteenth Century”. Journal of the History of Ideas. 35:2.275–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993 Signs, Science and Politics: Philosophies of language in Europe 1700–1830. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1970 The Order of Things. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Hanzeli, Victor Egon
1969 Missionary Linguistics in New France. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Howell, Wilbur Samuel
1971 Eighteenth Century British Logic and Rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Huddlestone, Lee Eldridge
1967 Origins of the American Indians: European concepts, 1492–1729. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, Nicholas
1994 Writing and European Thought 1600–1830. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell
ed. 1974 Studies in the History of Linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Jankowsky, Kurt R.
ed. 1995 History of Linguistics 1993. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Joseph, John E. & Talbot J. Taylor
eds. 1990 Ideologies of Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Juliard, Pierre
1970 Philosophies of Language in Eighteenth-Century France. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Knowlson, James
1975 Universal Language Schemes in England and France 1600–1800. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koerner, Konrad
ed. 1980 Progress in Linguistic Historiography. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ed. 1989 Practicing Linguistic Historiography: Selected essays. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Land, Stephen K.
1986 The Philosophy of Language in Britain: Major themes from Hobbes to Thomas Reid. New York: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Leonard, Sterling Andrus
1962 The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage 1700–1800. New York: Russell & Russell.Google Scholar
McCosh, James
1966 The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, expository, critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Pagden, Anthony
1993 European Encounters with the New World. London: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Paxman, David B.
1991 “The Genius of English: Eighteenth-century language study and English poetry”. Philological Quarterly 701.27–46.Google Scholar
1993 “Language and Difference: The problem of abstraction in eighteenth-century language study”. Journal of the History of Ideas 54:1.19–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 “ ‘Adam in a Strange Country’: Locke’s language theory and travel literature”. Modern Philology 92:4.460–481. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pilling, James Constantine
1888 Bibliography of the Iroquoian languages. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
1994 Linguistics, Anthropology and Philosophy in the French Enlightenment. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salmon, Vivian
1979 The Study of Language in 17th-Century England. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (2nd ed. 1988.)Google Scholar
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.)Google Scholar
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 Auroux et al., 325–336. Lille: Publications de l’Université de Lille III.Google Scholar
1987 “Linguistics Meets Caliban or the Uses of Savagery in 18th-century Theoretical History of Language”. Papers in the History of Linguistics ed. by Hans Aarsleff, Louis G. Kelly & Hans-J. Niederehe, 301–314. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shortland, Michael
1987 “Moving Speeches: Language and elocution in eighteenth-century Britain”. History of European Ideas 8:6.639–653. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simonsuuri, Kirsti
1979 Homer’s Original Genius: Eighteenth-century notions of the early Greek Epic (1688–1798). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Smith, Olivia
1984 The Politics of Language, 1791–1819. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stam, James Henry
1976 Inquiries into the Origin of Language: The fate of a question. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter
1983 On Dialect. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Alden T.
1982 “From White Man to Redskin: Changing Anglo-American perceptions of the American Indian”. American Historical Review 87:4.917–953. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wardhaugh, Ronald
1987 Languages in Competition: Dominance, Diversity, and Decline. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Weinbrot, Howard D.
1993 Britannia’s Issue: The rise of British literature from Dryden to Ossian. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitney, Lois
1934 Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Errington, Joseph
2001. Colonial Linguistics. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:1 ► pp. 19 ff. DOI logo
Joseph, John E.
2011.  Signs of Light: French and British theories of linguistic communication, 1648–1789. By Matthew Lauzon. Historiographia Linguistica 38:1-2 ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin & Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk
2012. On extremes in linguistic complexity. Historiographia Linguistica 39:2-3 ► pp. 279 ff. DOI logo
Lauzon, Matthew J.
1996.  Language and the History of Thought. Edited by Nancy Struever. Historiographia Linguistica 23:3 ► pp. 445 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 129], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 july 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.