Lahontan’s Bestseller
Summary Among the early descriptions of the Algonquian languages of New France, the Petit Dictionaire (1703) of the baron de Lahontan stands out, despite its modest size, as the first vocabulary to appear in print. Thanks to the remarkable success of his Nouveaux Voyages , to which it forms an appen...
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
1989
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.16.1-2.02wol.pdf |
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol 2024-06-09T07:38:10+00:00 Lahontan’s Bestseller Wolfart, H. Christoph 1989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.16.1-2.02wol.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company Historiographia Linguistica volume 16, issue 1-2, page 1-24 ISSN 0302-5160 1569-9781 journal-article 1989 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol 2024-05-15T13:26:43Z Summary Among the early descriptions of the Algonquian languages of New France, the Petit Dictionaire (1703) of the baron de Lahontan stands out, despite its modest size, as the first vocabulary to appear in print. Thanks to the remarkable success of his Nouveaux Voyages , to which it forms an appendix, Lahontan’s Algonquin (Ojibwa) vocabulary became very widely known, serving as either model or source for many successors (including, it appears, the first printed vocabulary for Cree). On the evidence of a set of verb stems exhibiting a common non-initial morpheme (*-êl-) , Lahontan’s analytical approach appears consistent in the segmentation of the inflexional prefixes, but the morpheme which defines this set is variously recorded with either l or r . The further variation between the French and English editions of 1703 sheds some light on the editorial process, and the general congruence between the occasional Algonquin word in his travel narratives and those in the Petit Dictionaire seems to corroborate Lahontan’s account of his efforts at language learning. The political establishment and his Jesuit detractors notwithstanding, Lahontan’s Algonquin vocabulary proved to be as influential in its domain as his narrative and philosophical writings were in the intellectual and literary world of the 18th century. Article in Journal/Newspaper algonquin John Benjamins Publishing Company Historiographia Linguistica 16 1-2 1 24 |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company |
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Summary Among the early descriptions of the Algonquian languages of New France, the Petit Dictionaire (1703) of the baron de Lahontan stands out, despite its modest size, as the first vocabulary to appear in print. Thanks to the remarkable success of his Nouveaux Voyages , to which it forms an appendix, Lahontan’s Algonquin (Ojibwa) vocabulary became very widely known, serving as either model or source for many successors (including, it appears, the first printed vocabulary for Cree). On the evidence of a set of verb stems exhibiting a common non-initial morpheme (*-êl-) , Lahontan’s analytical approach appears consistent in the segmentation of the inflexional prefixes, but the morpheme which defines this set is variously recorded with either l or r . The further variation between the French and English editions of 1703 sheds some light on the editorial process, and the general congruence between the occasional Algonquin word in his travel narratives and those in the Petit Dictionaire seems to corroborate Lahontan’s account of his efforts at language learning. The political establishment and his Jesuit detractors notwithstanding, Lahontan’s Algonquin vocabulary proved to be as influential in its domain as his narrative and philosophical writings were in the intellectual and literary world of the 18th century. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wolfart, H. Christoph |
spellingShingle |
Wolfart, H. Christoph Lahontan’s Bestseller |
author_facet |
Wolfart, H. Christoph |
author_sort |
Wolfart, H. Christoph |
title |
Lahontan’s Bestseller |
title_short |
Lahontan’s Bestseller |
title_full |
Lahontan’s Bestseller |
title_fullStr |
Lahontan’s Bestseller |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lahontan’s Bestseller |
title_sort |
lahontan’s bestseller |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
1989 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.16.1-2.02wol.pdf |
genre |
algonquin |
genre_facet |
algonquin |
op_source |
Historiographia Linguistica volume 16, issue 1-2, page 1-24 ISSN 0302-5160 1569-9781 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.16.1-2.02wol |
container_title |
Historiographia Linguistica |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
1-2 |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
24 |
_version_ |
1801370765443989504 |