Hugo Schuchardt Archiv

Dear Professor Schuchardt,

my address till further notice, probably the 7^th of August will be 42 sur le quai Ciboure, B.P. I have been there for two nights, after two at the hôtel des Basques at Bayonne, where one hears plenty of Basque, some of those who speak it being natives of Bayonne, (Vinson the fool doubts Basque having ever been the language of Bayonne) and one in the train. I will try as soon as I can to obtain answers to your questions, and try to draw up a list of persons for you to write to, but I have a few enemies in le pays who consider me a heretic and a sinner. I find more and more omissions, misprints, & faulty definitions and translations in the works of Stempf and Vinson. Oh that we had a weekly critical journal to survey Basque literature and philology! I am convinced of this that the poorer Basques are thankful for Basque books, but will not buy them. As they are the masters of the situation it is most important to distribute books to them gratuitously. where is the money to come from? In the Tresor des Trois Langues which I read all through at Paris I find certes translated by guertuz, which confirms my view that this is the latin certus = kertus. What think you? A statue of the Madonna has been put up near the railway station at Donibane Lohizun with this inscription 1. Gure Ama Maiteari on-eginen oroikarri. Torso de Olazabal. Ramona de Eulate. 2. 40 Egunen barkamendua agur mari bat erratiarekin. Baionaco Aphezpikuak. 3. 1892-garren urtean. Why do Basques say and write, at least in Labourdin, heldu naiz instead of heltzen naiz = Ich komme, I am coming, j’arrive, je viens, venio? Cluzeau is closing his bookshop in the Rue d’Argenterie, Bayonne. He has a few old editions which you might wish for, and one little book quite unknown to Vinson and to me of 64 pages & entitled Haurren Liburua 1862. I hope to get a copy for you. In the preface of the book numbered 266 in Vinson no one here can explain norhabe¹gazteen. It seems to be equivalent to norbeit.

Yours truly
E. S. Dodgson.
26 July, 1893.