Note on Father Breton's Carib-French Dictionary. 



FROM THE " ACTES DE LA SOCIETE PHILOLOGIQUB, 1883." 



Translated by Lady Chalmers. 



'HIS work comprises a French and Carib 

 Diftionary, in which not only the words are 

 given, but also many short phrases and 

 idioms, a little catechism, some prayers and several 

 pages of conversations in French and Carib. 



Father Breton resided in the Island of Dominica, 

 near Guadeloupe. 



As the work does not contain any grammar properly 

 so called, I have been obliged to try to discover the 

 grammatical rules from the study of the text. 



This study has yielded me the following results :— 

 That the French communicated with the Caribs at that 

 time by means of a Carib patois, the words of which 

 were Indian, but in which the grammatical rules were 

 singularly simplified in order to facilitate the study of 

 the language — precisely as the negroes speak at the 

 present day a French patois, from which all grammatical 

 difficulties have been eliminated, 



Galihi is a Carib diale6l. I find universally :— 



That the plural of substantives takes the forms em, 

 um, num. Example — Ouekeli, man, ouekeliem ; maboya, 

 devil, mahoyanum. The substantive is indeclinable. 

 The noun in the objeflive is usually placed before the 

 noun or the verb which governs it. Example — The 

 daughter of Felix, Felix ouoli, and not ouoli Felix 

 (Galibi). Give me a potato, napi (potato) amiarou 

 (give me). (Galibi). 



M2 



