William Dwight Whitney

William Dwight Whitney (February 9, 1827 – June 7, 1894) was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer known for his work on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic philology.

William Dwight Whitney

Quotes

• The calculations and conjectures of Professor Muller cannot be looked upon as having in any essential manner contributed to the final settlement of the question. Doubtless he would himself make no such pretensions in their favor; but he is in danger of being misunderstood as doing so; we have already more than once seen it stated that " Muller has ascertained the date of the Vedas to be 1200-1000 B. C.," or to that effect.
  • Whitney, W. D. [1874] 1987. Oriental and Linguistic Studies. Delhi: Satguru Publications. [3] [archive] quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press.

• Whitney ([1874] 1987) had made a point of mentioning that Muller himself had made no pretensions that his dates had "in any essential manner contributed to the final settlement of the question." But his concern is that Muller "is in danger of being misunderstood as doing so; we have already more than once seen it stated that 'Muller has ascertained the date of the Vedas to be 1200-1000 B.C.'" (78).
  • in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 12

Quotes about William Dwight Whitney

• Whitney's association with Darwin and his rivalry with Müller, both international celebrities of the Victorian age, made him a towering public presence and brought him a transatlantic fame unattainable by most Americans of his time.
  • Anna Bernard; David Attwell (13 June 2013). Debating Orientalism. Springer. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-137-34111-2.