Edward Spencer Dodgson an Hugo Schuchardt (039-02397)

von Edward Spencer Dodgson

an Hugo Schuchardt

Paris

19. 06. 1892

language Englisch

Schlagwörter: Revue des bibliothèques (Paris) Eskualdunalanguage Baskischlanguage Spanischlanguage Französisch Abbadie, Antoine d' Charencey, Hyacinthe de Calvin, Jean Inchauspe, Emmanuel Azkue y Aberasturi, Resurrección María de Campión y Jaymebon, Arturo Priebsch, Josef Leizarraga, Joanes Dubarat, Victor Baskenland Saint-Jean-de-Luz Pau Schuchardt, Hugo (1892)

Zitiervorschlag: Edward Spencer Dodgson an Hugo Schuchardt (039-02397). Paris, 19. 06. 1892. Hrsg. von Bernhard Hurch (2015). In: Bernhard Hurch (Hrsg.): Hugo Schuchardt Archiv. Online unter https://gams.uni-graz.at/o:hsa.letter.3101, abgerufen am 29. 03. 2024. Handle: hdl.handle.net/11471/518.10.1.3101.


|1|

Dear Dr Schuchardt,

I was, as usual, glad to have your hasty note this evening. The 2 nd copy of the abdruck of your “Vinson Recension” which it included has been passed on as I promised to MrD’Abbadie but I will ask the Comte de Charencey to look for it in the publication where it saw the light. I am not sure if I can at this moment tell you where to find an occurrence of amor eman or ematen1 but it is common enough in Labourdin. The other is in 62 Gal: 173 and represents Que nul desormais ne me baille peine4 of Calvin. I knew it was supposed to come, as Inchauspe tells me,5 from eman or eguin but I do not think this satisfactory - I think it must be from some other root meaning strictly “give”. “to give” and “to make” are only rarely synonymous ideas, and “eman” does not always mean “to give” but often “to put”, “to place”. My opinion is that the non Semitic and non aryan languages of antiquity are likely to contain some Basque. I feel also certain that there is some Keltic in Basque and some Basque in Keltic; that the Basque is a very, very ancient language and has once long ago been far more widely spread than history records. I send you a separately printed copy of my partly Inchauspefied Domum, with the latin text opposite it: Instead of dugun o (though I believe that might be defended in Spanish Basque, and my version is chiefly in that language) read, without italics, my origin]c[al and primitive dezagun 6|2| instead of Piarres which ought to have been italics read one of Inchauspes other alternatives Manech, and put ichil in ordinary type. Kindly gum this into a blank page inside one of your Basque Books. I agree with you that Azkues innovations and inventions are astounding. He openly tells me he despises the ancientest authors and seems to think because he is provincial professor he is empowered to coin and authorise a new dialect to supersede the ancient and still spoken Biscayan. He is however one of the openmindedest priests among the Basques and only 28 years old. He would I think answer you if you wrote in Basque, Spanish, or French and it would encourage him to hear from you and if as he hopes his work reaches another edition he would print your criticisms and mine and those of others therein. He has lately been on a four days visit to Campion at Pamplona (Iruñan) and they went up mount Aralar to the sanctuary of San Miguel in Excelsis and prayed God to help me in |3| my Basque studies. I think of making a special study this summer of Roncales, Aezcoano, & Salazares. Would I had more funds I would visit every village where Basque is still used - the quicker I travel the quicker my mind appropriates knowledge and draws conclusions. Priebsch goes to England next week I believe. Next week only will appear the May number of the Revue des Bibliothèques with my twice corrected Supplement to Vinson, in which I speak I think four times of you. I shall send you a copy. My young St Jean le Vieux friend here says that about there they say mahuli for strawberry, amorz (as Leiçarraga at least once has it, in Galatians) for fifteen, and pleka, as on the fronton of Ainhoua, for bleka, which made some people think of English “play”, the call accompanying games like fives, rackets, cricket. I noticed as a Wykehamist, when I first went to Basqueland in June 1886, that in some parts they use the same two kinds of fives - bats of wood as we did as boys at Winchester |4| College founded in 1393 - A nice essay for an historian would be - “the English occupation of Basqueland and its influence there” - one mark of it is the Basque “Franchiman” for a foraner - I was called so on arriving at Mauleon. Evidently our Frenchman. MrD’Abbadies certamen takes place this year at St Jean de Luz. If I can I will make Mr. Dubarat the aumônier of the Lycée at Pau send you the number of his Revue containing my remarks on Azkue. You ought to subscribe to the Eskualduna. It is a fine reading exercise and goes as near as can be to the Basque of the peasants who are not sophisticated by Spanish or French speech and manners. I would I had a phonograph and a means of photographing all Basques who only speak Basque! I would like to publish a Book showing the portrait of the individual and the transcription of the words spoken by him which would be phonetically recorded in the phonograph. A scientific despotism would do all this perhaps. The books of this century as compared with the older onesv show how great the need is of a school to train Basques to write their own language correctly. Campion rightly pointed out in his grammar the deadly nature of the growing habit in French Basque of dropping the datival forms of the verb: it will be the death of Basque if it goes on!

I remain yours truly
E. S. Dodgson.
12 Rue de la Sorbonne, Paris
June 19, 1892.


1 Dodgson hatte hier offensichtlich etwas Platz gelassen, um die Quelle später noch einzufügen: /E. Lapeyre p. 298 SinhestenDut. Joannateguy Sainduen Bicitzea p. 501.

2 Nachträglich hinzugefügt.

3 Nachträglich hinzugefügt.

4 Auch das Zitat „Que [...] peine“ wurde erst später eingefügt.

5 Hier fügte Dodgson „/he says it is the contraction of dizadala” ein.

6 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite: Try to get “Pachico Cherren” a nice little novel in Guipuzcoan with many non-Dictionary words.

Faksimiles: Universitätsbibliothek Graz Abteilung für Sondersammlungen, Creative commons CC BY-NC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (Sig. 02397)