Louis: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

Object 6. A Dictionary of the Circassian Language

Brighton, 1854



Description:

On the call of the Philological Society of London, Louis Loewe spent half a year in the Caucasus region, between the rivers Laba, the Lower Kuban and the Black Sea, studying and recording the Circassian language (nowadays the territory is the Karachay–Cherkess Republic, part of Russia). Loewe claimed the Circassian language had no alphabet, no written grammar or dictionary, no literature whatsoever, when he started researching it; he saw his work as of pioneering nature: the scholar composed the Circassian grammar, dictionary and dialogues from scratch, through interaction with the 'Addee-ghey' people, the natives of Circassia - Loewe adapted the Arabic alphabet with some of the Persian and Turkish letters, in order to be able to express all sounds in the 'Addee-ghey' language. He used Turkish to communicate, and wrote down, in their presence, every word he heard from them; he notes:

"... in the whole of the Dictionary as well as in my Grammar and the Dialogues, there is not a single word which I have copied from any printed book, or manuscript; but that I have extracted, as it were, every word from the mouth of the Circassian and tested the accuracy of my pronounciation ... "

Exhibited is the title page of the dictionary; note the dedication 'to Lady Montefiore with the author's respectful compliments' above the title proper.

To download the entire preface in a pdf format, click below:

VVVVVVVV2