YOUNG, THOMAS

Young, Thomas: translation

(1773–1829)

British scholar. He was born at Milverton, Somerset, England, on 13 June 1773. He studied medicine at the University of London and the University of Edinburgh and undertook further studies at the University of Gottingen and University of Cambridge. He was extremely precocious and gained a reputation as a polymath interested in both science and linguistics. He attempted to decipher the hieroglyphiclanguageand was the first to recognize that it was in fact partly alphabetic. He identified several of the letters from the cartouches in the Rosetta Stone. He later abandoned his studies, but they were continued by Jean-Francois Champollion, who made the major breakthrough in the decipherment; however, Champollion never acknowledged his debt to Young, claiming inaccurately that he was unaware of his work. Young died in London on 10 May 1829.