The anonymous compiler of the Vocabulaire Chacta, ca.1820, gathered 149 elementary words in the Choctaw language with French equivalents, the basic numerals, and six "useful" (if not always appropriate) phrases. Arranged alphabetically by French. The notebook was donated to the American Philosophical Society by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau in 1827.
An early and avid linguist and ethnographer, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau nurtured the core collection of vocabularies of American Indian languages begun by Thomas Jefferson. By the time of his death in 1844, Du Ponceau had established the American Philosophical Society as one the nation's premier centers for the study of the indigenous languages of North America.
The Vocabulaire Chacta is a slender notebook assembled in about 1820 by an unidentified author containing vocabulary words in French with Choctaw equivalents. The vocabulary includes parts of the body, basic nouns and a few verbs, with numerals and simple phrases added at the end of the volume. The six phrases elicited are of particular interest, and are suggestive of the interests and attitudes of the collector:
Provenance
Gift of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, January 19, 1827.
Preferred citation
Cite as: Vocabulaire Chacta, American Philosophical Society.
Processing information
Recatalogued by rsc, 2002.
Other finding aids
Indexed in Freeman and Smith A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to the American Indian in the Library of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: APS, 1966), no.184 (on-line at http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/indians/).
Early American History Note
This volume contains Choctaw words with French equivalents. Acquired by Peter Du Ponceau in 1827, it is part of the APS's large collection of language materials from the early-nineteenth century.
Genre(s)
- Language Material
Personal Name(s)
- Anonymous
- Du Ponceau , Peter Stephen, 1760-1844
Subject(s)
- Choctaw language--Dictionaries--French
- Language and Linguistics
- Native America