Indian Languages Database
Record Details
[French-Huron dictionary and vocabulary]
[Québec Province, Canada?]: , [between 1640 and 1693]
Physical Description: [130] leaves; 19 cm. (4to)
Call number: Codex / Ind / 12
Accession number: 16444
Notes: Ms. codex. Title supplied by cataloguer. Can be attributed to Pierre Joseph Marie Chaumonot from a ms. inscription by a Père Gosselin, dated 1909, in a similar anonymously composed French-Huron dictionary located at Université de Laval in Québec City, Canada. Jesuit father Pierre Joseph Marie Chaumonot arrived in Canada in 1639 and was active in the mission to the Huron Indians between 1640 and 1673. He learned the Huron [i.e. Wyandot] language circa 1640. He embarked on the mission to the Onondaga Iroquois 1655 and was there until 1658 and took part in the foundation of the Huron mission of Notre-Dame de Lorette outside Québec City in 1673. Date can be inferred from the work entitled Relation de ce qui s'est passé en la mission des peres de la Compagnie de Iesus aux Hurons, pays de la Nouuelle France, és années 1648. & 1649 by Paul Ragueneau, first printed Paris, 1650, in which Father Chaumonot sent in a report from the Huron mission.
Date of publication cannot be after 1693 when author died. The dictionary is given primarily in French translated into Huron (from "aboucher" to "vuider" [i.e. "vider']), although the first word on leaf [1 recto] is "atotrahzi" a Huron verb which means to embark into a canoe. [Vocabulary of Huron words by theme], leaves [114 recto-130 recto], includes sections on animals, parts of the body, colors, church feast days, food, hours of the day and days of the week, numbers, and clothing and other merchandise. John Carter Brown Library has correspondence related to the acquisition, attribution to Pierre Joseph Marie Chaumonot, and provenance housed in the JCB bibliographical file.
John Carter Brown Library copy bound in contemporary full vellum and housed in a green cloth phase box measuring 26 cm. tall. Provenance of the John Carter Brown Library copy: Victor Morin Montréal: bookplate on front pastedown; Notre Dame de Levis Province de Québec, Canada 2 septembre 1909 ... Revd. Prosper Vincent: ms. inscription on rear pastedown. In this inscription Reverend Vincent identifies the author as Père Jean-Marie Chaumonot Jesuite missionaire des Hurons au Canada and gives the date of composition of the work as circa 1663.
Digital facsimile copy of book available.
Languages: Huron
Genre: Dictionary / Vocabulary
Region: North America
