Edwin Norris (24 October 1795 – 10 December 1872) was a British

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and intrepid orientalist who wrote or compiled numerous works on the languages of Asia and Africa. His best-known works are his uncompleted ''Assyrian Dictionary'' and his translation and annotation of the three plays of the Cornish ''

Ordinalia The are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are (The Origin of the World, also known as , 2,846 lines), (The Passion of Christ ...

''.

Description

Norris was born in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, Somerset,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, on 24 October 1795 and served as a Clerk for the

East India House East India House was the London headquarters of the East India Company, from which much of British India was governed until the British government took control of the Company's possessions in India in 1858. It was located in Leadenhall Street ...

and was also an assistant secretary in the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

during the 1830s. He translated and annotated the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a List of revived languages, revived language, having become Extinct language, extinct as a livin ...

manuscript from the Middle Ages known as the 'three plays of the Ordinalia' which is one of the most important relics of the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

dialect of Cornish (published in 1859 by the Oxford University Press as ''Ancient Cornish Drama''): it is one of the more recognized aspects of his work. E. Norris also worked on Assyrian culture with major contributions. He deciphered the

Assyrian lion weights The Assyrian lion weights are a group of bronze statues of lions, discovered in archaeological excavations in or adjacent to ancient Assyria. The first published, and the most notable, are a group of sixteen bronze Mesopotamian weights found at ...

from Nineveh and he discovered the weight measurement system of this civilisation and established conversions in 1853 and started the ''Assyrian Dictionary''. This uncompleted work is one of his more well known works outside Cornwall and widely considered a landmark in the history of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

. The work was meant to further the study of the cuneiform inscriptions of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

and

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

but was unfinished at the time of his death in 1872.

Works

* * * (Reissued in 2 vols.:- New York; London: Benjamin Blom, 1968) * (part of ''The Ancient Cornish Drama'', vol. 2) * (Contains A-Nst; no more published. Reissued by Adamant Media Corporation, 2004 ISBNs 1421262886, 1421262878, 142126286X)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Edwin 1795 births 1872 deaths English philologists Linguists from England English Assyriologists People from Taunton Cornish language Cornish-speaking people Assyriologists