Lucien Adam (1833–1918) was a French linguist.

Life

Lucien Adam was born in

Nancy, France Nancy ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Nanzisch'' 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, an ...

. He became known for his writings on eastern

Ural–Altaic Ural-Altaic, Uralo-Altaic or Uraltaic is a linguistic convergence zone and former language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic (in the narrow sense) languages. It is generally now agreed that even the Altaic languages do not share ...

dialects, and for writings on the

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

and

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

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 natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

s in general terms. In

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

he found that French words were added to a West African system of pronunciation and grammar, while in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

they were added to a

Malagasy language Malagasy (; ) is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language, brought to Madagascar by the settlement of Austronesian peoples from the Sunda islands around the 5th ce ...

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 The Taensa language was an attempt at creating a fake Natchez language-variant, supposedly spoken by the Taensa people originally of northeastern Louisiana, and later with historical importance in Alabama. The language is was created by two yo ...

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 Julien Vinson (21 January 1843 – 21 November 1926) was a French linguist who specialized in the languages of India, mainly Tamil, and also in the Basque language. Early years Julien Vinson was born in 1843 to a French family living in Pondic ...

gave his support. Later, expert 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), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Work

Adam published many books and other works over a long and distinguished career. A sample: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

Citations Sources * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Lucien 1833 births 1918 deaths Writers from Nancy, France Linguists from France Members of the American Philosophical Society