History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 35 Dictionaries of Languages, 1828-1919
Levesque, Rodrigue (2006). History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 35 Dictionaries of Languages, 1828-1919. 35. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-35-0.
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Abstract: HOM.35 (1828–1919) compiles dictionaries, vocabularies, and linguistic studies documenting the languages of Micronesia, drawing on materials produced by missionaries, colonial officials, traders, and scholars across the Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, Palau, Yap, and the Mariana Islands. The documents include early word lists and comparative vocabularies for languages such as Marshallese, Gilbertese, Chuukese (Trukese), Pohnpeian, Kosraean, Yapese, and Palauan, along with materials from Chamorro in Guam and neighboring islands. These linguistic sources originate from mission stations and colonial centers including Jaluit, Pohnpei (Ponape), Kosrae (Kusaie), Chuuk Lagoon, Yap, Koror, Saipan, and Agaña, providing geographic reference points for language use across Micronesian communities.
The volume brings together work by numerous missionaries and scholars who recorded and analyzed Micronesian languages. Among those appearing in the documents are Protestant missionaries associated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Catholic missionaries including members of the Sacred Heart Missionaries, and German scholars connected with colonial and scientific institutions. Contributors include figures such as Luther Halsey Gulick, Edward T. Doane, August Erdland, Johann Stanislaus Kubary, and other missionaries and linguists working in mission schools and translation projects across Micronesia. Many of the materials derive from missionary translation efforts—especially Bible translation, catechisms, hymnals, and school texts—which required systematic documentation of grammar and vocabulary in local languages.
The dictionaries and vocabularies reproduced in HOM.35 were compiled in locations including Jaluit, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk, Yap, Palau, and the Gilbert Islands, often in connection with mission printing presses or colonial administrative centers. These records document linguistic variation between island groups, comparative vocabulary lists linking Micronesian languages with Malay, Polynesian, and Melanesian languages, and orthographic systems developed for mission schools and publications. Together the materials provide a reference guide to the people, places, and institutions involved in the early study and documentation of Micronesian languages during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
