THE PRIX VOLNEY ESSAY SERIES

THE PRIX VOLNEY ESSAY SERIES

PRIX VOLNEY ESSAY SERIES Editor JOAN LEOPOLD Advisory Committee HANS AARSLEFF, Princeton University HERBERT E. BREKLE, Regensburg University YAKOV MALKIEL, (d. 1998), University of California, Berkeley ROBERT H. ROBINS, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London VOLUME II

The Prix Volney: Early Nineteenth-Century Contributions to General and Amerindian Linguistics: Du Ponceau and Rafinesque Volume II Edited by JOAN LEOPOLD SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 978-94-010-5776-9 ISBN 978-94-011-4024-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-4024-9 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1999 Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME II: EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL AND AMERINDIAN LINGUISTICS: DU PONCEAU AND RAFINESQUE ROBERT H. ROBINS School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Du Ponceau and General and Amerindian Linguistics 1 Life of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau 1 "Essai de Solution du Probleme Philologique propose en l'annee 1823 par la Commission de l'institut Royal de France, chargee de la disposition du legs de M. Le Comte de Volney" 9 Chronology 9 Summary 10 The Nature of the Text 14 Commentary 16 Chronology and Principal Publications 32 Bibliography of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau's Writings in Linguistics 34 PETER STEPHEN DU PONCEAU (1760--1844) "Essai de Solution du Probleme Philologique propose en l'annee 1823 par la Commission de l'institut Royal de France, chargee de la disposition du legs de M. Le Comte de Volney" (1826) Notes to Du Ponceau's "Essai de Solution" 37 80,92 PIERRE SWIGGERS Belgian National Science Foundation; Mellon Research Fellow of the American Philosophical Society Peter Stephen Du Ponceau's Memoire sur le systeme grammatical des langues de quelques nations indiennes de l' Amerique du Nord (1838): In Search of a Typology of Grammatical Form 100 v

VI TABLE OF CONTENTS PETER STEPHEN DU PONCEAU (1760-1844) Memoire sur Ie systeme grammatical des langues de quelques nations indiennes de ['Amerique du Nord (1838) l31 Notes to Du Ponceau's Memoire 250 CHARLES BOEWE The Filson Club The Other Candidate for the 1835 Volney Prize: Constantine Samuel Rafinesque 267 Chronology 305 Bibliography of Rafinesque's Writings in Linguistics, Ethnology, Archaeology and Prehistory 308 Contributors 323 Sources of Illustrations 329 Index 331

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece: Institut de France (housed in the Former College des Quatre Nations) 1. Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (1760-1844) viii 2. Manuscript of Du Ponceau's "Essai de Solution du Probleme Philologique propose en l'annee 1823 par la Commission de l'institut Royal de France, chargee de la disposition du legs de M. Le Comte de Volney" (1826), page 32 63 3. Volney medal won by Du Ponceau (1835) 101 4. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840) age 27 266 5. Title page of Rafinesque's "Examen Analytique des Langues Linniques de I' Amerique Septentrionale, et surtout des Langues Ninniwak, Linap, Mohigan &c avec leurs Dialects[;] ou Memoire sur ces Langues & leur structure grammatic ale" (1835) 281 6. Top row: Pictographs allegedly from the "Neobagun" included in Rafinesque's original Prix Volney submission, page [4]. The one on the right was said to depict cannibalism. 286 Bottom row: Pictographs allegedly from the "Wallam Olum" included in Rafinesque's "First Supplement" to his original Prix Volney submission, page [1] (page [257] of entire manuscript), where they are drawn in a verticle series 286 7. "Cock Turkey", a Kickapoo Indian, painted by George Catlin (1830), holding stick which would have been similar to those on which the pictographs of the "Neobagun" and "Walam Olum" were allegedly engraved 288 * The dates given for manuscripts here are the dates of the Prix Volney competition for which they were submitted, not necessarily the year in which they were written. Vll

Fig. l. Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (1760-1844)

Institut de France