Taylor, Isaac

Related Category: Language and Linguistics: Biographies

1829–1901, English clergyman, antiquarian, and author, chiefly noted for researches in philology. In 1885, Taylor became canon of York. His inclination toward controversy led to the writing of several theological pamphlets, among them The Liturgy and the Dissenters (1860). His study of Islam resulted in Leaves from an Egyptian Notebook (1888). Early philological investigations were incorporated in Words and Places (1864); Etruscan Researches (1874); and Greeks and Goths (1879), dealing with the origin of the runes. His most celebrated work, The Alphabet, was published in 1883. Taylor's Origin of the Aryans (1890) challenged the theory of Max Müller, then generally accepted, that central Asia was the cradle of the Indo-European peoples.