Editorial Reviews
Language Notes
Text: English
Product Description:
This dictionary, compiled nearly 150 years ago, remains the most
comprehensive and accurate lexicon available of the Ojibway language. Baraga
(1797-1868), a priest from Slovenia, was sent in 1833 as a missionary among
the Ojibway living in the Lake Superior region. The multilingual Baraga
quickly learned the Ojibway language and over many years worked within the
community to produce the phonetic spellings on which modern orthography is
based. In 1853 the first edition of A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language
Explained in English was published. An enlarged edition of the dictionary
followed in 1878 and is the version now reprinted.
Product Details
- Paperback: 731 pages
- Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press; Reprint edition
(October 1, 1992)
- ISBN: 0873512812
- Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
- Average Customer Review:
based on 2 reviews.
Customer Reviews
Avg. Customer Review:
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 historical
value, June 22, 2003
when I look closely it becomes pretty obvious that long vowels are
marked sporadically, and I doubt its a matter of replacing every
circumflex with a double letter, some long ones are not marked at all; I
also suppose the language could have changed (that's what people say
about Petitiot, a different language, but it's the same); this book has
certain historical value, regarding the language, linguistics, but I
wouldn't use it to learn the language, it would just give me a terrible
accent, go for Nyholm and Nichols |
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 A
Useful Reference, June 18, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
In addition to words for basic conversational speech, Father Baraga's
dictionary contains translations of household items, tools, implements
and transactions as various as coffee, lamp, augur, pulley, bill of
divorce and trading license. Although Baraga authored his work prior to
the Civil War, his method of spelling the Ojibwe words utilizes familiar
letters and accent markings which a standard keyboard reproduces;
however, with an acceptably moderate amount of effort, one can make the
slight alterations to Baraga's spelling in order to accommodate usage of
the double-vowel system that one can see in modern literature or in
personal use on the internet. Within a new forward to the dictionary,
Professor John D. Nichols highlights the differences between the two
orthographies. The greatest strength of this dictionary lies within the
size and diversity of its vocabulary. |
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