comparative dictionaries

[Alan Hartley]

In working on North American ethnonyms (and some other words of native
American origin) for the OED, I've often benefited from the treasure of
unpublished comparative lexical material (and wisdom) that exist for
most language families. Most recently, it was the terminology of wild
cats (as it relates to 'Erie') in Iroquoian, but it's also been 'Mandan'
in Siouan and 'Peoria' in Algonquian on the "large" end of the scale and
'camas' in Sahaptian on the "small," as well as Chinookan and Athapaskan
and Muskogean...

My queries about plans for comparative dictionaries are usually met with
the same plaintive response: "it's a long-standing personal goal of mine
and of others, but there's nothing likely in the near future."

There must be many hurdles to such a project: two that come immediately
to mind are money, and the natural (and laudable) academic inclination
not to publish until one's research is "complete."

Can those with experience of the Comparative Siouan Dictionary project
(and any similar undertakings) comment briefly on the nature of those
obstacles and what might be done to surmount or obviate them?

The Web would certainly facilitate the publication of comparative
dictionaries "in progress," even one word at a time, and the
availability of even a limited amount of material would have the effect
of encouraging other contributions and creating a basis for further work.

I hope I'll be excused for my temerity in raising this subject:
ignorance of the practical difficulties makes it easier!

Thanks for any thoughts,

Alan