[An-lang] query on the notion of "lesser Australian language" in 1799

[Yoram Meroz]

Crook was on board James Wilson's missionary ship, the Duff. The terms "Greater Australia" and "Lesser Australia" were proposed by Samuel Greatheed, in the "Preliminary Discourse" to the description of the voyage (A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean
Performed in the Years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the Ship Duff, Commanded by Captain James Wilson. London, 1799). A footnote to p. lxxxvii reads:
"On the general chart that describes Captain Wilson's track, those countries of the Pacific Ocean, which lie within, or southward of the tropics, are comprehended under the general name of Australia, after the example of foreign geographers. As they appear to be divided between two distinct races of inhabitants, one of which almost wholly possesses the more extensive countries situated in the south-western part of the ocean, these are distinguished from the rest by the title of the Greater Australia: the numerous small islands inhabited by the fairer race being included under that of Lesser Australia. To the whole group, of which a part was discovered by Cook, and called by him the Friendly Isles, the title of United Archipelago is assigned upon the chart. The propriety of these innovations is submitted to the judgment of such among our readers as are accustomed to geographical researches."

An image of the map issued with the book is here:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b23001339/f1.item

The term is purely geographical, but Crook, I presume, would be acquainted with Polynesian and Fijian languages but no others from the region, and so reasonably created the term "Greater Australian Language".

Yoram


> On May 15, 2020, at 4:49 PM, Mary Laughren <mary.laughren at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know the answer to Serge's query about what Crook meant by 'lesser Australian language' in this context?
> 
> Thanks
> Mary
> ______________________________
> 
> Mary Laughren
> Mobile: +61 417004970
> 6 Kalmia Avenue, CRAFERS SA 5152, Australia
> 
> 
> Début du message transféré :
>> 
>>> Expéditeur: Serge TCHERKEZOFF <STcherk at PACIFIC-CREDO.FR>
>>> Date: 13 mai 2020 à 23:22:40 UTC+2
>>> Destinataire: ESFO-L at segate.sunet.se
>>> Objet: query on the notion of "lesser Australian language" in 1799
>>> Répondre à: Serge TCHERKEZOFF <STcherk at PACIFIC-CREDO.FR>
>>> 
>>> Bonjour, some of you knowledgeable in the history of Pacific linguistics classification might be able to help. I am being asked by my friends the Koenig in Papeete who intend to publish a translation of  W P Crook's " An Essay toward a dictionary and grammar of the lesser-Australian language, according to the dialect used at the Marquesas, 1799" (via the English edition in 1998 by Hughes and Fischer) some advice for translating the title, but I must confess I am at loss with this strange (at least to me) notion of "lesser-Australian language". This is about Marquesan. So what was the group of languages that was, at least among LMS people, designated by this qualification, in 1799? A specific geo-linguistic classification in the early days of the LMS, via Samuel Greatheed?
>>> 
>>> Thanks, take care,
>>> 
>>> Serge T
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> rendre raison du monde social doit rester un exercice de plein air et de liberté (P-P Zalio, hommage à JC Chamboredon)
>>> The Pacific is a vibrant space of ongoing indigenous knowledge production
>>> not just a reserve of raw materials for anthropology's theoretical innovations,
>>> 
>>> EHESS (DE Emeritus) / ANU-CAP-CHL (Prof Hon.)
>>> titulaire/Fellow:
>>> ---CREDO (AMU-CNRS-EHESS)     www.pacific-credo.fr
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>>> ---http://troca.unc.nc/membres/tcherkezoff/
>>> ---MSHP (UPF)
> 
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