Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/89

 the many forms of speech that he studied he acquired a mastery of colloquial idiom and of pronunciation, as well as of the literary style. In his later years he devoted his leisure to Chinese, and at his death he had completed a dictionary of that tongue. The 'Key' which he intended to accompany it, and without which it could not be used, he did not live to complete. The MS. as it stands has been presented by his widow to the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

A scientific philologist, Atkinson was always intent upon analysis of the structure of a language rather than on its literature. His philological teaching impressed on his pupils the principle of law in language, as opposed to theories of 'sporadic changes.' Therein he long anticipated Brugmann and the new school of philologists. The most important outcome of Atkinson's study of Romance languages was a scholarly edition of a Norman-French poem attributed to Matthew Paris, and entitled 'Vie de Seint Auban' (1876). In Sanskrit learning Atkinson confined himself to the language of the Vedas and to Sanskrit grammar, planning and partially writing a Vedic dictionary, and learning by heart, as Pandits have done for twenty-four centuries, the whole of the intricate masterpiece of the great grammarian Panini.

In addition, Atkinson was both an expert scholar in Celtic and an advanced scholar in Coptic, the Christian descendant of the ancient Egyptian language. In two communications dealing with the latter, and made by him to the Royal Irish Academy (Proc. 3rd series, iii. 24, 225) in 1893, he subjected to searching examination a series of Coptic texts published during the preceding ten years by Professor Rossi and M. Bouriant. It was not perhaps difficult to show the inferior character of these publications ; but the service rendered by Atkinson was to enter a much-needed protest against a tendency to 'play hieroglyphics' with Coptic texts. In the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian language there is room, no doubt, for conjecture and hypothesis : in Coptic, as Atkinson showed once and for all, the rules of accidence and syntax are fully known, and editing and translation should proceed with the scientific regularity of any other better known Oriental language. On 11 Jan. 1876 Atkinson was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and in March became a member of its council. In 1876 he was chosen librarian. Secretary of council from 1878 to 1901, he was then elected president. Meanwhile in 1884 he was Todd professor of the Celtic languages in the academy, delivering an inaugural lecture on Irish lexicography on 13 April 1885. His connection with the Royal Irish Academy drew him to Celtic studies. His Celtic work was that of a pioneer, being undertaken before many fundamental principles of old Irish grammar were recognised. But he edited two documents which are of the utmost importance for the student of the history of the Irish language. Of these the first was 'The Passions and Homilies from the Leabhar Breac,' with translation and glossary (Dublin 1887 ; perhaps the most important source of information with regard to Middle Irish), to which he appended the 'Todd Introductory Lecture on Irish Lexicography.' His second Irish publication of great philological value was Keating's 'Three Shafts of Death ' (Tri Bior-gaoithe an Bhais, Dublin, 1890), with glossary and appendices on the linguistic forms. He also wrote valuable introductions and analyses of contents for several of the MS. facsimiles issued by the Royal Irish Academy, viz. 'The Book of Leinster ' (1880), 'The Book of Ballymote' (1887), and 'The Yellow Book of Lecan ' (1896). With Dr. John Bernard, now bishop of Ossory, he edited for the Henry Bradshaw Society in 1898 'The Irish Liber Hymnorum' (2 vols). A 'Glossary to the Ancient Laws of Ireland' which he prepared for the 'Rolls' series, 1901, was severely criticised by Whitley Stokes [q. v. Suppl. II]. To Irish, Atkinson added a knowledge of Welsh. To Welsh grammatical study he contributed a paper 'On the use of the Subjunctive Mood in Welsh' (Trans. Royal Irish Acad. 1894).

Atkinson's varied energies were by no means confined to philology, he being an accomplished botanist and a fine violinist. In 1907 his health failed. He died on 10 Jan. 1908 at his residence, Clareville, Rathmines, near Dublin, and was buried at Waltonwrays cemetery, Skipton, Yorkshire. On 28 Dec. 1863 he married, at Gateshead, Hannah Maria, fourth daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Whitehouse Harbutt of that town. The only child, Herbert Jefcoate Atkinson, became a civil engineer. [Obituary notices in the Times, 13 Jan. 1908; Athenæum, 18 Jan. 1908; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, April 1908, and Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, July 1908; information received from