Sebastian Rale-A Maine Tragedy of the Eighteenth Century: Rale's Dictionary. Page 141-144 John Francis Sprague Boston, Mass. Printed by the Heintzemann Press 1906 Rale's Dictionary. The Abenaki dictionary which was being prepared by Rale, and which was taken by Colonel Westbrook and after- wards published, is practically the foundation of what knowledge scholars now have of the lan- guage of the Maine Indians. The late Rev. Michael Charles O'Brien, Vicar General of Bangor, Maine, was probably the most pro- found student of Indian dialects and tribal his- tory that has ever lived in Maine. His re- searches in this respect attracted the attention of men of letters and learning all over New England, and especially were the late James G. Blaine and the late Chief Justice John A. Peters interested in his work. On December 23, 18 8 2, he read a most able and entertaining paper before the Maine His- torical Society at Portland, which has been published in the " Collections of the Maine His- torical Society (Vol. IX, page 261), entitled, " Grammatical Sketch of the Ancient Abnaki, Outlined in the Dictionary of Father Sebastian Rale', S. J." The following are extracts from this paper: " My principal sources of materials for the study are the 'Dictionary of the Abnaki,' written by Father Sebastian Rale, S. J., and the old Indian prayers and catechism, yet in use (in a modified form) among the Penobscots and Passamaquoddies, which probably are the work of the same author. " The field has been already traversed by other students, but so little has been gleaned from it that it may be said to be yet almost untouched. "The dictionary was in the hands of Dupon- ceau and Pickering, and others of less note, but it has hitherto remained a sealed book so far as the grammatical outline of the aboriginal lan- guage of Maine, which may be read in its pages, is concerned. The little catechism, which the Indians call from its first question, the Aweni Kisi hoskesa (Who made thee)? and the old formulas of prayer have been published by Fathers Demilier and Vetromile, and are extant in manuscript in the handwriting of the former. These serve chiefly as illustrations, and supple- ment in several particulars some of the defi- ciencies of the dictionary, which is my main authority. This dictionary consists of about 7,500 dis- tinct Abnaki words, with the meanings of nearly all of them in French; but on every page it contains grammatical notes, examples and Indian phrases. These phrases would fill a dozen or more pages of foolscap paper. The grammati- cal notes consist not merely of marks of singular and plural, indications of moods, tenses, and persons, but also several short grammatical ob- servations in Latin. "Scattered as all these bits of information are up and down the pages, and applied to so many different words, they at first only bewilder the curious reader. But when the words to which they are severally appended are classified and compared, and the principles of grammatical induction are introduced to complete the pro- cess, they furnish at least an outline more or less distinct of the language to which they re- fer. Of a certain portion of the grammar, that especially to which this paper will extend, the outline is very clear and full. Until such an outline shall be studied, the language of the Abnakis will continue to remain the puzzle it has been hitherto, notwithstanding all that has been written and published concerning it." * * In this paper the author gives the alphabet employed by Father Rale of the following letters: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, 8, z and n nasal, and the pause or aspirate, '. (c) 1998 Courtesy of the Androscoggin Historical Society & Somerset County Maine US Gen Web Project ************************************************* NOTICE: Printing the files within by noncommercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ************************************************* The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.