comparative dictionaries

[Anthony Grant]

Alan:

As someone who is also an Americanist and who has also worked for the
OED, I can say that there is a lot of comparative lexiocgraphical
material out there which is unpublished and much of this seems fair set
to remain so.  I know of comparative lexica of Sahaptian, Uto-Aztecan,
Muskogean and Tanoan whch are as yet unpublished.   David Pentland has
an ongoing comparative Algonquian dictionary.   I've also seen fragments
of an early version of the CSD.  For some families deep inter-branch
fissures mean that comparative dictionaries could be of limited scale -
Caddoan, Iroquoian and arguably Algonquian if you inciroprate Blackfoot
(and, if you like, the Catawba-Woccon wing of Greater Siouan) would fit
here.   For myself, I wish people would publish comparative Swadesh
lists of some of these languages - at least then one has a start towards
a comparative dictionary.

Anthony

>>> ahartley at d.umn.edu 19/05/2004 15:56:49 >>>
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unpublished comparative lexical material (and wisdom) that exist for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