Lahontan’s Bestseller

Abstract

Summary Among the early descriptions of the Algonquian languages of New France, thePetit 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 hisNouveaux 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 eitherlorr. 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 thePetit Dictionaireseems 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.

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