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John Pickering an Wilhelm von Humboldt, 24.02.1824

|1*|
To Baron Humboldt Feb. 24. 1824.
Sir,

I take the liberty to send you the present letter by one of my young countrymen, Mr. Theodore R. Jenks, a son of the Rev.d William Jenks, of Boston; his father is one of our most profound philologists, particularly in the Oriental Languages, and is the same gentleman to whom I am indebted for one of the specimens of the Mohegan Language published in my edition of Edwards’s Observations. May I be permitted to have the honour of presenting to you Mr. Jenks’s son to you, so far as I may be allowed to have any claim on your attention in this respect.

I wait with much impatience for your Memoir on the Difference between the Grammatical Forms of the cultivated & the barbarous Languages. I am eagerly anticipating its arrival in the course of the present spring.

I avail myself of this opportunity to send you a few sheets of a Grammar of the Cherokee (or, Tsullakée) Language, which is now printing under my direction by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The work has cost me much labour (amidst the constant engagements of business) but it will be quite imperfect. Yet, imperfect as it may be found, it will, prese if I am not mistaken, present several new & striking facts in Indian Philology. I shall send you the remaining sheets of the work as fast as they are printed.[a]

You will permit me to mention, that on the 14th of February 1823, I did myself the pleasure to address a long letter to you accompanied with a small packet of books & maps papers relative to the Indian |2*| languages: I hope they were duly received.

Some months after I had sent mine, I was favoured with your letter of the 9.th of april |sic|, in which you acknowledge the receipt of D.r Morse’s Report on Indian Affairs. I am happy to learn, that this last work has been found useful in your researches.

I am &.c

Salem, Massachusetts
Feb. 24, 1824.

Fußnoten

    1. a |Editor| Der Druck dieser Grammatik des Cherokee von Pickering blieb ein Fragment und wurde nach 48 Seiten eingestellt; siehe Sylvain Auroux (Hrsg.) (2011): Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin u. a.: De Gruyter, S. 1911. [FZ]