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Charles-Antoine Chancerel Manuscripts on Oidapa
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Charles-Antoine Chancerel was a French civil engineer who invented an artificial language called Oidapa in the late 19th century.
This collection consists of four bound manuscripts documenting an artificial language called Oidapa (Oïdapa, Oīdapa) that was invented by French civil engineer Charles-Antoine Chancerel in the late 19th century. The manuscripts include a French-Oidapa dictionary containing a lexicon that spans over 300 pages, along with three grammar books describing Oidapa linguistics, characters, pronunciation, and grammar in French. The differences in the grammar books from 1888 and 1892 demonstrate how Chancerel's language grew more complex over time. Chancerel's introductory writings note that these texts are written to support students learning the language on their own without an instructor. They also describe Oidapa as both a cosmopolitan language ("langage cosmopolite") and an international language ("le sans nationalité"). This collection provides insight into a less well-known constructed language that emerged in Europe around the same time as popular international auxiliary languages such as L.L. Zamenhof's Esperanto and Johann Martin Schleyer's Volapük.
Arranged chronologically.
Purchased from Eric Grangeon Rare Books in 2019 (AM 2020-24).
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This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in October 2019. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in October 2019.
No materials were removed from the collection during 2019 processing.
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- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Kelly Bolding
- Finding Aid Date
- 2019
- Access Restrictions
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Open for research.
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Collection Inventory
83 pages.
Physical Description1 folder
79 pages.
Physical Description1 folder
310 pages.
Physical Description1 folder
85 pages.
Physical Description1 folder