308 NORTH AMERICAN LINGUISTICS. 
1600 Gravier {Rev. James). Diotiouary of the Illinois Language. * 
Manuscript. Mentioned by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, iu his Forty Algonkin 
Versions of the Lord's Prayer, p. 99. In a note on the Illinois ver.sion of the 
prayer, printed by Bodoui, 1806, "ex MS.," Dr. Trumbull says: "A copy of this 
version, evidently from the same original, was communicated to Dr. John Pick- 
ering in 1823 as from a MS. grammar and dictionary of the Illinois language. 
The MS. may have been that of Father Boulanger, missionary to the Illinois in 
1721. The version is more probably that of Father James Gravier, S. J., mission- 
ary from 1687 to 1706, who ' was the first to analyze the language thoroughly 
and compile its grammar, which subsequent missionaries brought to perfection.' 
I have recently had the good fortune to discover the long-lost dictionary of 
Gravier, with additions and corrections by his successors in the Illinois Mission, 
and by its aid I am enabled to correct some — though not all — of the errors of 
Bodoni's copy." 
Dr. Shea (History of Catholic Missions, 1855, p. 415, note) had mentioned the 
fact that "a catechism and dictionary [by Gravier] were extant some years 
since, but seem to have perished." 
Of the manuscrijrt dictionary mentioned by Dr. Trumbull, he gives me the 
following description : 
"It is a stout volume in quarto or small folio, the leaf measuring llj by 8J 
inches. It has been bound, but is now, and probably for many years has been, 
without its covers. It has lost the first two or three leaves at the beginning, 
and perhaps as many at the end, and a few other leaves have been somewhat 
injured by mice. There remain 293 leaves (586 pages), which average about 38 
lines to the page, indicating a total of about 22,000 words. The arrangement is 
Illinois-French (not French-Illinois). The dialect is that of the Peorias (Peoua- 
ria), readily distinguished from the Miami-Illinois by the use of r for Miami I. 
Occasionally, however, words and phrases are introduced which are marked as 
'Miami.' The manuscript is very neat and legible. The handwriting and the 
orthography, iu my opinion and in that of French scholars who have inspected 
it, show that it was written before or not many years after the beginning of the 
18th century; certainly, I should say, not later than 1710. If so, it cannot have 
been the work of the Rev. Jos. I. Le BoUlanger, whose connection with the Illi- 
• nois Mission has not been traced before 1719. On nearly every page, however, 
there are additions, corrections, or explanations in at least two later and distinct 
hands; but these are not more frequent than two or three to the page on the 
average. 
"Throughout the work references are made to another volume or volumes, 
which contained a grammar, lists of radicals, names of animals, plants, medi- 
cines, etc. 
"I conclude that this dictionary was compiled by Gravier, though I cannot 
positively say that it is in his autograph, and that the additions and emenda- 
tions were made by his successors iu the mission, some of them, perhaps, by Le 
Boulanger. 
"The French-Illinois dictionary, discovered by the late Hon. Henry Clay Mur- 
phy (see the Historical Magazine, vol. 3, pp. 227, 228; New York, 1859), which 
Dr. .1. G. Shea proposed to edit, and which was unfortunately lost about 1865, 
may have been the Freuch-Illiuois vounterjmrt of the Illinois- French dictionary 
of Gravier, or may have been a transcript of that counterpart revised and com- 
pleted by Le Boulanger; but from the article above cited it appears that Mr. 
Murphy's manuscript was in the Jl^ia?Ki-iniuois dialect, while the earlier work I 
have described is unquestionably in that of the Peottana-Illinois, among whom 
Gravier labored. Mr. Murphy (to whom I showed the volume here described) 
believed it to be of earlier date than the counterpart (French-Illinois), which 
disappeared from his office-desk about 1865, after the first form of it had been 
printed by Dr. Shea. (See No. 2230.)" 
