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unusual facts about James Burnett, Lord Monboddo


Prosodia Rationalis

In 1774 James Burnett, Lord Monboddo published the second of 6 volumes of his On the Origin and Progress of Language containing, among much else, a section dealing with "language considered as sound".


James Burnett, Lord Monboddo

Monboddo studied languages of peoples colonised by Europeans, including those of the Carib, Eskimo, Huron, Algonquian, Peruvian (Quechua?) and Tahitian peoples.

Joshua Steele's disagreement, and subsequent correspondence, with Monboddo over details of the "melody and measure of speech" resulted in Steele's Prosodia Rationalis, a foundational work both in phonetics and in the analysis of verse rhythm.


see also