John Carter Brown Library

Indian Languages Database

Record Details

 

Volney, C. F. (Constantin-François), 1757-1820.

C. F. Volney’s... Schilderung der Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, vorzüglich in Hinsicht ihrer Lage, Naturbeschaffenheit und ihrer Ureinwohner. Aus dem Französischen, auszugsweise übersetzt. Herausgegeben von Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann.

Weimar: Im Verlage des F. G. privil. Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1804

Physical Description: viii, 283, [1] p., [1] folded leaf of plates: map ; 20 cm. (8vo)

Call number: E804 V928s

Accession number: 77-224

Notes: Contains “Allgemeine Bemerkungen über die Indianer oder Wilden von Nordamerika, nebst einem Wörterbuch über die Sprache der Miamis, eines Stammes am Wabasch” (p. 213-283). The vocabulary (p. 275-280), listing nearly 200 terms in Miami with German equivalents, is printed in double columns and arranged in Miami alphabetical order, using orthography slightly modified from 1803 French edition. Alternative English orthography provided in that edition is here omitted; remarks are printed in footnotes. Vocabulary is followed by several verb paradigms (p. 280-283). Text comments on Native American verse as mnemonic device and on hieroglyphics (p. 272); references to B.S. Barton, New views of the origin of the tribes and nations of America, 1798, are minimal and omit discussion of his linguistic comparisons found in 1803 French edition. Extracts translated from author’s Tableau du climat et du sol des États-Unis d’Amérique, first published Paris, 1803. Also issued with series title: Bibliothek der neuesten und wichtigsten Reisebeschreibung zur Erweiterund der Erdkunde, Bd. 15. “Herausgegeben von Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann” (t.p.); “Vorrede” (p. [iii]-vi) signed “T.F. Ehrmann”. In spring of 1795 the author, a member of the French senate, travelled to North America, where his plans to remain indefinitely were interrupted by accusations of espionage and conspiracy in the midst of widespread anti-French sentiment in spring of 1798.

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Languages: Miami

Genre: Vocabulary

Region: North America