VOCABULARIES FROM THE NORTHWEST COAST OF AMERICA.
Boas, Frans [ed]:
Worcester, Ma.: American Antiquarian Society, 1916. 20pp. Original printed wrappers. Bookplate of John Lawson on front wrapper verso. Wrappers lightly foxed and lightly chipped at edges. Titlepage foxed, light scattered foxing throughout. Overall very good. Reprinted from the PROCEEDINGS of the American Antiquarian Society for April, 1916. A slim but important volume containing vocabularies for the Nootka, Haida, Tlingit, and Eskimo languages collected during a late 18th-century voyage, long before American settlement in the Pacific Northwest. The original document containing the vocabularies was an anonymous manuscript acquired by the AAS in the 1910s, "doubtless written by an officer of one of the ships which visited the northwest coast in 1791." Working with the "inadequate" orthography of the manuscript, Franz Boas edited the volume, identifying words and supplying more standard spelling with the aid of works by Edward Sapir, John R. Swinton, and Francis Barnum.
(Item ID: WRCAM39665) $45.00