Charles Sacleux
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Charles Joseph Sacleux,
CSSp The Congregation of the Holy Spirit (officially the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary; ) is a religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church. Members are often known as Holy ...
(1856–1943) was a French Catholic missionary and linguist. He is known also as a botanist, having collected a
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...
of over 2,000 plants in East Africa and
Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
.


Life

Sacleux was born on 5 July 1856 in Enquin,
Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...
in northern France, the second of three sons born to Auguste Sacleux, who died when he was five, and his wife, Marie Firmine Bayart. Charles joined the junior seminary at
Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...
in 1869 before spending a year at senior seminary beginning in 1874. He joined the
Holy Ghost Fathers The Congregation of the Holy Spirit (officially the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary; ) is a religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church. Members are often known as Holy ...
in 1875 and was ordained a priest in 1878. Sacleux went to
Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
in 1879 and was posted to Bagamoyo and began studying Swahili in depth. He spent almost twenty years on the East African coast. Sacleux's work on Swahili is notable for being one of the few accounts of Swahili prior to its standardization and the influence of English. In 1898, he returned to France, and took a teaching position in Chevilly. He died in
Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional ) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Re ...
on 16 May 1943. In 1890, the botanist
Henri Ernest Baillon Henri Ernest Baillon (; 30 November 1827 in Calais – 19 July 1895 in Paris) was a French botanist and physician. Baillon spent his academic career teaching natural history and publishing numerous works on botany. He was appointed to the Lé ...
published '' Sacleuxia'', a
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
s from Kenya and Tanzania, in the
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...
and named in Charles Sacleux's honor.


Works

Sacleux wrote: *''Essai de phonétique avec son application à l'étude des idiomes (1905) *''Grammaire des dialectes swahilis'' (1909) *''Dictionnaire swahili-français'' (1939).Online version (open access)
His dictionary of the Comorian language was published in 1979 in two volumes by Mohamed Ahmed Chamanga and Noël Jacques Gueunier.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sacleux, Charles 1856 births 1943 deaths 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests Holy Ghost Fathers French Roman Catholic missionaries French lexicographers 20th-century French botanists Missionary botanists French missionary linguists 19th-century French botanists