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Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 36:1 (2009) ► pp.75–95

Francis Whyte Ellis and the Beginning of Comparative Dravidian Linguistics

| Dravidian University

This article assesses Francis Whyte Ellis’s (1777–1819) “Note to the Introduction” to Alexander Duncan Campbell’s (1789–1857) Grammar of the Teloogoo Language (1816) in the context of the history of comparative linguistics in India. The idea of a ‘South Indian family of languages’, later named ‘Dravidian’ by Robert Caldwell in 1856, was first proposed by Ellis in 1816, and so a case could be made to claim for him the beginnings of a comparative methodology in the study of Dravidian languages. Until now, in the history of comparative Dravidian linguistics Caldwell (1814–1891) has been celebrated as the pioneer in this field. The present study attempts to establish Ellis’s rightful place in this history by critically evaluating his contribution. The careful examination of the data presented by Ellis indeed suggests that he should be regarded as the discoverer of the Dravidian family of languages well before Caldwell.

Published online: 6 April 2009
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.04sre
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