Lemuel Dole Nelme

Lemuel Dole Nelme (d. 1786 [ [http://lib.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/cordell/compiler.html Cordell Pre-1901 Dictionaries Etc. Searchable database] ] ) was an English craftsman, now remembered for wide-reaching theories on language.

Life

He was a maker of instruments and dealer in ships' merchandise [ [http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/research/collections/websters/n.shtml Websters Instrument Makers Database - Letter N] : listed.] of the eighteenth century. Nelme was in business in Exchange Alley in London around 1750. He held a Government post as Clerk in 1764, and participated in the Royal Society of Arts at the end of the 1760s.

Language and symbols

Nelme was the author of "An essay towards an investigation of the origin and elements of language" (1772), a speculative book on the origin of languages, and alphabet symbolism. Nelme was interested in Anglo-Saxon as proto-language, and compiled (or suggested the compilation of) an Anglo-Saxon dictionary. He is said to have deferred later to the theory of Rowland Jones on Celtic as proto-language. Johanna Drucker ["The Alphabetic Labyrinth" (1995), p.24, pp. 228-231.] attributes to Clement of Alexandria's "Stromateis" some of his symbolic theory, outlines his version of Biblical history and the 'ol' ("all") key to symbols, and reproduces some of his illustrations.

Works

*"An Essay towards an Investigation of the Origin and Elements of Language and Letters," London, Printed by T. Spilsbury for S. Leacroft (1772); reprinted: R. C. Alston, ed., "English Linguistics, 1500-1800: a Collection of Facsimile Reprints," No. 354. Menston, Scolar Press, (1972). ISBN 0854178694

References

See also

* Linguistics
* Historical linguistics
* Proto-language