Joseph-Émile Baeteman (September 29, 1880 – 1938) was a French missionary and religious writer. He wrote a dictionary of Amharic (''Dictionnaire amarigna-français'') that was a pioneer work and became standard for the study of that language.
Life
Joseph Baeteman was born in 1880 in
Corbigny
Corbigny () is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.
Geography
Corbigny is located at the western end of the Morvan hills and is one of the five entry points of Parc naturel régional du Morvan. The river Anguison, a tributary ...
,
Nièvre
Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.Troyes and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where he joined the
Lazarists
, logo =
, image = Vincentians.png
, abbreviation = CM
, nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians
, established =
, founder = Vincent de Paul
, fou ...
. In 1905 he went to
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
for teaching, but he returned to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, in which he served at the front. In 1919 he returned to Ethiopia, to Gəwala. Around 1920 he founded the Lazarist mission of Mändida, which he left in 1929 due to illness. He then returned to France and wrote several spiritual writings.See Smidt 2003.
The ''Dictionnaire''
In 1929, Baeteman published his Amharic dictionary. It was printed in Dire Dawa (east
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
) and dedicated to
Haile Selassie I
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia ('' ...
, who was then still
Negus
Negus (Negeuce, Negoose) ( gez, ንጉሥ, ' ; cf. ti, ነጋሲ ' ) is a title in the Ethiopian Semitic languages. It denotes a monarch,
Tafāri Makwennen. The dictionary comprises more than 1000 pages and includes around 1000 proverbs, from a collection made by the Lazarist Jean-Baptiste Coulbeaux. It was based on many sources, including collections of vocabulary made by the Ethiopian Lazarist ''abba'' Tesfa Sellassie Welde Gerima.See Baeteman 1929, pp. i-vii; Smidt 2003.
Works
* 1922: ''Formation de la jeune fille''. 3rd ed. Évreux : Poussin.
* 1923: ''Grammaire amarigna''. Addis-Abéba (
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
): Imprimerie A. Desvages.
* 1927: ''Courtes méditations sur la doctrine chrétienne''. Luçon: S. Pacteau.
* 1929: ''Dictionnaire amarigna-français, suivi d'un vocabulaire français-amarigna''. Dire-Daoua ( Dire Dawa): Imprimerie Saint Lazare.
* 1929: (ed.) Jean-Baptiste Coulbeaux, ''Histoire politique et religieuse d'Abyssinie depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à l'avénement de Ménélick II''. Paris.
* 1930: ''Au pays du roi Ménélick, Croquis noirs''. Lyon: Librairie catholique E. Vitte.
* 1931: ''Les Lazaristes en Abyssinie 1839-1930''. Louvain: Xaveriana.
* 1931: ''Ames Éthiopiennes''. Louvain: Xaveriana.
References
* Collard, Maurice (1942). ''Coeur d'apôtre, Joseph Baeteman''. Paris.
* Grébaut, Sylvain (1930). "J. Baeteman, Dictionnaire amarigna-français", in: ''Aethiops, Bulletin Gəʿəz'' 3/2, pp. 31–32.
* Prévost, M. & J.-Ch. Roman d'Amat (eds.), ''Dictionnaire de Biographie française'' (Paris 1942), vol. 4, pp. 1176f.
* Smidt, Wolbert (2003). "Baeteman, Joseph-Émile", in: S. Uhlig et al. (eds.), ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' Vol. 1: A-C (Wiesbadn: Harrassowitz), pp. 434a-435a.