Thordhur Jonsson fra Hvita

Þorður Jónsson frá Hvítá (1751-1801) was an Icelandic librarian and archivist, who first worked in the Royal Archives in Copenhagen. He had a special interest in the languages of East India, and in 1780 he travelled to Frederiksnagore to work for the colony's administration. He also became a member of the Kongelige Danske Østindiske Selskab (Royal Danish East Indian Society), a scholarly society for the scientific study of Asian civilizations.

He became close friends with another society member, Xríwizáj Canðra, and together they compiled a very famous and influential "Lexicon Sanscritum, Latinum, Danicum et Germanicum". However, Hvítá died in 1801 and did not live long enough to see the completion of the lexicon, which Canðra completed in 1804. The lexicon came to set the standard for the Transcription of Indian Writing Systems in the scholarly world, especially after Hvítá's son, Paul Thordersen Xwítáw, edited a "Lexicon Sanscritum, Latinum, Anglicum, Britannicum et Gallicum" companion version, and a "Bengalsk-Rigsmaal og Rigsmaal-Bengalsk Ordbog" which used the system.