The Tetense language, spoken in Mozambique: exceptionally rare Mozambique imprint

Courtois, Victor José, SJ. Elementos de grammatica tetense. Lingua chi-nyai ou chi-nyungwe, idioma fallado no districto de Tete.

€ 4.500,00

First edition of this very rare handbook for missionaries in Mozambique learning the languages of the indigenous people in Tete, on the Zambezi River. It and the work bound with it are important not only for recording the language, but also as early examples of printing in Mozambique.

The French-born Courtois, a Jesuit missionary, arrived in the Zambezi region in 1883 and founded missions at Boroma and São José de Mongue. He discusses grammar and syntax in some detail, and even includes a chapter on poetry, but the riveting section is the one on conversational phrases (pp. 133-152), where he offers such gems as these: "Não ha gente, porque os colonos foram expulsos pela guerra, ou morreram á fome" (There is no one here, because the settlers were driven out by war or died of hunger), or "Não dormi, não quero comer, não posso trabalhar, nem tão pouco estar de pá" (I did not sleep, I do not want to eat, I cannot work, I cannot even stand up).

Rare, according to OCLC we locate copies at California State, Harvard, National Library of South Africa, British Library; Porbase locates a copy at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal; KVK adds Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg. A second edition of Courtois's handbook was printed in Coimbra 1899, and a third in 1900. Sixty years later, many of his phrases were incorporated into P. Luís Feliciano dos Santos's Guia de conversação Portugues-Chope (1946).

Bound with the first edition of a handbook for missionaries learning the languages of the indigenous people in the district of Quelimane, on the coast of Mozambique. Pinto Lopes (b. 1864), a high-ranking civil servant in Mozambique from 1886 to 1926, offers four pages of grammar and an extensive vocabulary list. A six-page appendix explains terms unique to the region for fortifications, political ranks, furniture, household goods, etc.

Rare, according to OCLC we locate copies at New York Public Library, Yale, Harvard; Porbase locates four copies: one at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal and three at the Biblioteca Central da Marinha.

Printing began on the Island of Mozambique with the "Boletim do governo da Província de Moçambique" in 1854. The first non-periodical imprint was a pamphlet, "Regulamento geral das alfândegas a’d [!] Província de Moçambique", which appeared the same year. In 1859 the first book came off the press: "Almanach civil ecclesiastico historico-administrativo da Província de Moçambique para o anno de 1859, 3o depois do bissexto", by J. V. da Gama. Little is known about other works, if any, published in the colony between 1854 and the late 1860s. All examples of printing in Mozambique in the 19th century are rare.