James
Adams (1737-1802)
James Adams is one of the ‘forgotten
phoneticians’. Although his main linguistic work, The Pronunciation of the English Language Vindicated from Imputed
Anomaly & Caprice, With an Appendix, on the Dialects of Human Speech in all
Countries, and an Analytical Discussion and Vindication of the Dialect of
Scotland (1799) is available again thanks to a reprint by the Scolar Press,
his contribution to historical phonology is still underrated and our knowledge
of his life remains rather sketchy.
The aim of this paper is to show the
innovation of Adams' work on English phonology and to investigate what
motivated him to include in it a ‘vindication of the dialect of Scotland.’ The
paper will argue that Adams' views on English dialects as well as on the
origin
of language are to some extent informed by the socio-political situation at the
end of the eighteenth century, but that the decisive factor which shaped his
views on language and dialects was his religious background as an English Jesuit
in the eighteenth century: education on the continent, training in dialectical
argumentation, work under various aliases in the English mission and membership
of an officially prosecuted religious minority.