Article published In:
Historiographia LinguisticaVol. 14:1/2 (1987) ► pp.39–60
Letters from bloomfield to Michelson and Sapir
editor
Between 1919 and 1930, Leonard Bloomfield corresponded with the anthropologist Truman Michelson (1879–1938) concerning Algonquian linguistics, and between 1924 and 1925 with Edward Sapir (1884–1939), with regard to American Indian languages, linguistic theory, and Bloomfield’s appointment as field-worker for the Canadian Bureau of Mines. The surviving letters are enumerated and discussed, and non-technical portions of them are reproduced, for the light which they shed on three of Bloomfield’s professional concerns: his work in Algonquian; his move from Illinois to Ohio State in 1921 ; and the planning and founding of the Linguistic Society of America in 1924–25. They also afford a few glimpses of his (in general little known) personal life and attitudes.
References
The following alphabetical list includes books, articles, and some of the people referred to in the foregoing (insofar as they are not already adequately identified), together with expansions of abbreviations and explanations of a few possibly puzzling terms. For people, birth and death dates are given when known, with references to sources of further information.
AA = American Anthropologist
Journal of the American Anthropological Association and affiliated societies.
Alford, Clarence Walworth
(1868–1928), American historian, at the University of Illinois 1897–1920; editor of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1914–1923.
American Mercury
see Sapir.
Anthology = A Leonard Bloomfield Anthology
edited by C. F. Hockett. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press 1970.
APA American Philological Association.
Baraga, Frederic
. Materials on Ojibwa, published in 1870s and 1880s.
Bloomfield, Leonard
(1887–1949) First German Book. Columbus: R.G. Adams & Co. 1923.
(1887–1949) Language. New York: Holt 1933.
(1887–1949) The Menomini Language. Edited by C. F. Hockett. New Haven and London: Yale University Press 1962.
(1887–1949) “Notes on the Fox Language,” IJAL 31.219–332 (1925), 41.181–219 (1927).
(1887–1949) “On the Sound System of Central Algonquian,” Language 11.130–156 (1925) 
Boas, Franz
(1858–1942; Lg 191.198 1942; AA 431:3 part 21 1943; PoL 21.122–39).
Bolling, George Melville
(1871–1963; Lg 401.329–36 1964).
Collitz, Hermann
(1955–1935; Lg 111.286–7 1935; PoL 21.74–77).
Cuoq, Jean-André
. Materials on Algonquin (Ojibwa dialect), published in 1890s.
Finck, Franz Nikolaus
(1867–1910; PoL 21.278–83). Lehrbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner. Marburg, W.G. Elwert 1903.
(1867–1910; PoL 21.278–83). Die Sprachstämme des Erdkreises. Leipzig, B.G. Teubner 1909.
Hoffman, Walter James
(1846–1899; AA 21.187–88 1900) The Menominee. Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report no. 141 1896.
IJAL = Intern. Journ. Amer. Ling. = International Journal of American Linguistics
Jespersen, Jens Otto Harry
(1860–1943; PoL 21.148–73).
Jones, William
(?-1909; AA 111.137–39 1909) Of Fox Indian extraction. Trained by Boas; collected extensive Fox and Ojibwa material, mostly edited for posthumous publication by Michelson.
Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci. = Journal of the Washington [D.C.] Academy of Sciences
Lacombe, Albert
Materials on Cree published in 1870s.
Laufer, Berthold
(1874–1934; Lg 101.387–8 1934; AA 381.101–11 1936).
Les langues du monde
see Meillet.
Lawe, Jerome
A Menominee, Bloomfield’s most reliable guide in the language.
Leskien, August
(1840–1915; PoL 11.469–73).
Lg = Language
Journal of the Linguistic Society of America.
Meillet, Antoine
(1866–1936; PoL 21.201–49).
Meillet, Antoine and Marcel Cohen
. Les langues du monde Paris: Hachette 1924.
Menominee, Menomini
Bloomfield uses the first spelling in 1919, then shifts to the second, which is retained in all his publications. In the early 1970s it was determined that the Menominee themselves prefer the first, which is therefore now being restored in learned material.
Michelson, Truman
(1879–1938; Lg 141.314 1938; AA 411.281–85 1939) The Owl Sacred Pack of the Fox Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 72 (1921), Washington, D.C.
MLA Modern Language Association.
Morris, Mrs Alice Vanderbilt
(1874-?), active in the international language movement in the 1920s.
Oldfather, William Abbott
(1880–1945), in Department of Classics at the University of Illinois for many years; on editorial committee of U. of I. Studies in Language and Literature when Bloomfield’s Tagalog materials were published in 1917.
Pack = Owl Sacred Pack
see Michelson.
PCA = Primitive Central Algonquian (proto replaced primitive as the English equivalent of German Ur- only in the mid 1930s).
PoL = Thomas A. Sebeok ed. Portraits of Linguists. 2v1. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press 1966.
Prokosch, Eduard
(1876–1938; Lg 141.310–13 1938).
Sapir, Edward
(1884–1939; Lg 15.132–5 1939; AA 41.465–77 1939; PoL 2.489–92). “The Grammarian and his Language,” American Mercury 1:2.149–55 (1924).
(1884–1939; Lg 151.132–5 1939; AA 411.465–77 1939; PoL 21.489–92). “Sound Patterns in Language,” Language 11.137–51 (1925).
(1884–1939; Lg 151.132–5 1939; AA 411.465–77 1939; PoL 21.489–92). The Southern Paiute Language. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 651 (1930).
Satterlee, John V.
(?-c1927) A Menominee, source of much of the information published by Skinner and of many of the texts taken down by Bloomfield.
Saussure, Ferdinand de
(1857–1913; PoL 21.87–110). Cours de linguistique générale. Constructed posthumously from class notes by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. Paris & Lausanne, Payot 1916; 2d ed. 1922.
Skinner, Alanson Buck
(1885–1925; AA 281.275–86 1926) Various ethnographic studies of the Menominee and of other Central Algonquian and northern Siouan peoples, published 1913–1920 mainly in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History and in Indian Notes and Monographs of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Southern Paiute
see Sapir.
Streitberg, Wilhelm
(1864–1925; PoL 21.182–87).
Streitberg volume = J. Friedrich and others
, Stand und Aufgaben der Sprachwissenschaft; Festschrift für Wilhelm Streitberg. Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung 1924.
Sturtevant, Edgar Howard
(1875–1952; Lg 281.417–34 1952; PoL 21.365–84).
Wackernagel, Jacob
(1852–1938; PoL 21.52–55).
Weiss, Albert Paul
(1879–1931; Lg 71.219–21 1931).
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
Goddard, Ives
1987. Leonard Bloomfield’s descriptive and comparative studies of Algonquian. Historiographia Linguistica 14:1-2 ► pp. 179 ff. 
Silverstein, Michael
2003. Charles Francis Hockett (1916-2000). American Anthropologist 105:1 ► pp. 225 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Chapter 7. Edward Sapir. In Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 128], ► pp. 164 ff.
[no author supplied]
2021. Bibliographie. In Aux origines des sciences humaines, ► pp. 865 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 august 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.