Lucien Adam (1833–1918) was a French linguist.
Life
Lucien Adam was born in
Nancy, France
Nancy is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the northeastern Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was Lorraine and Barrois, annexed by France under King Louis X ...
.
He became known for his writings on eastern
Ural–Altaic
Ural-Altaic, Uralo-Altaic, Uraltaic, or Turanic is a linguistic convergence zone and abandoned language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic (in the narrow sense) languages. It is now generally agreed that even the Altaic languag ...
dialects, and for writings on the
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
and
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...
dialects of the
Algonquin language family.
The International Congress of Americanists was organized in 1875.
Due to lack of interest in the United States, it held its first meeting in Nancy in July 1875.
Lucien Adam was Secretary at this meeting, and read a paper on "Fusang, of the Chinese Discovery of America."
Adam was one of the first to give the "
substratist" theory of the origins of
creole language
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...
s in general terms.
In
French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
and
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
he found that French words were added to a West African system of pronunciation and grammar, while in
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
they were added to a
Malagasy language
Malagasy ( ; ; Sorabe: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is one of the official languages of Madagascar, alongside French language, F ...
sub-stratum.
In the 1882 a book was published by a French Seminary student, Jean Parisot, that claimed to be the grammar and other material of the hitherto undocumented
Taensa language spoken by a people of Louisiana.
The ''Grammaire et vocabulaire de la langue Taensa, avec textes traduits et commentés par J.-D. Haumonté, Parisot, L. Adam'' was published in 1882 in Paris and caused a stir among linguists.
When the material was published, Adam provided commentary and
Julien Vinson gave his support.
Later, experts in American linguistics became increasingly convinced that the work was a hoax, but Adam was slow to withdraw his support.
In 1886, Adam was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
Work
Adam published many books and other works over a long and distinguished career. A sample:
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References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Lucien
1833 births
1918 deaths
Writers from Nancy, France
19th-century French linguists
International members of the American Philosophical Society