Missionary Linguistics in East Asia

Missionary Linguistics in East Asia
Author: Sandra Breitenbach
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2008
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9783631504413

This book examines the language studies of Western missionaries in China and beyond. The goal of this study is to examine the purpose, methods, context, and influence of missionary language studies. The book reveals new insights into the hitherto less well-known and unstudied origins of language thinking. These publically unknown sources virtually form our «hidden history of language». Some key 17thcentury and pre-17thcentury descriptions of language not only pass on our Greco-Latin «grammatical» heritage internationally for about two millennia. They also reveal grammar, speaking, and language as an esoteric knowledge. Our modern life has been formed and influenced through both esoteric and common connotations in language. It is precisely the techniques, allusions, and intentions of language making revealed in rare, coded texts which have influenced our modern identities. These extraordinary and highly controversial interpretations of both language and Christianity reveal that our modern identities have been largely shaped in the absence of public knowledge and discussion.

Missionary Translators

Missionary Translators
Author: Jieun Kiaer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2021-09-27
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1000473198

Exploring the history of missionary translation of Christian texts in East Asia, Missionary Translators offers a comparative perspective between the features of East Asian languages and the historical context of the translation. Focusing on the Bible and Christian theological works, it looks at the intersection of linguistics, translation studies and history. This book discusses the real-life challenges faced by missionary translators in producing Christian texts in East Asian languages. Students, historians, scholars and those interested in the study of East Asian cultures or translation will find this book to be an insightful and invaluable resource.

Missionary Linguistics III / Lingüística misionera III

Missionary Linguistics III / Lingüística misionera III
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2007-11-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 902729173X

This third volume on Missionary Linguistics focuses on morphology and syntax. It contains a selection of papers derived from the international conferences on missionary linguistics held in Hong Kong/Macau and Valladolid. As with the previous two volumes (2004, on general issues, and 2005, on orthography and phonology), this volume looks at methodology and descriptive techniques from a historical point of view, offering articles of interest to historiographers of linguistics, typologists, and descriptive linguists. It presents research into languages such as Tarasco (Pur’épecha), Massachusett, Nahuatl, Conivo, Sipibo, Guaraní, Vietnamese, Tamil, Southern Min Chinese dialects, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Tagalog and other Austronesian languages, such as Yapese and Chamorro.

Missionary Linguistics V / Lingüística Misionera V

Missionary Linguistics V / Lingüística Misionera V
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9027270589

The object of this volume is the study of missionary translation practices which occur within a colonial context of political domination and spiritual conquest. Missionary translation becomes especially manifest in bilingual ethnographic descriptions, in (bilingual) catechisms and in the missionaries’ lexicographic condensation of bilingual dictionaries. The study of these instances permits the analysis and interpretation of their guiding principles, their translation practice and underlying reasoning. It also permits the modern linguist to discern semantic changes that can be revealed in these missionary translations over certain periods. Up to now there has hardly been any study available that focuses on translation in missionary sources, of the different traditions in the Americas or Asia. This book will fill this gap, addressing the legacy of missionary translation practices and theories, the role of translation in evangelization and its particular form in the context of colonialism, the creation of loans from Spanish or Latin or equivalents or paraphrases in the indigenous languages in texts and dictionaries as translation strategies followed in bilingual editions. The process of acculturation and transculturation imposed by European religious systems is noted. This volume presents research on languages such as Nahuatl, Tarascan (Pur’épecha), Zapotec, Tamil, Chinese, Japanese, Pangasinán, and other Austronesian languages from the Philippines.

Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960

Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960
Author: Gina Anne Tam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2020-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 110847828X

Analyzes how fangyan (local Chinese languages or dialects) were central to the creation of modern Chinese nationalism.

Missionary Linguistics VI

Missionary Linguistics VI
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2021-11-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027258430

This is the sixth volume to be dedicated to the pioneering linguistic work produced by missionaries in Asia. This volume presents research into the documentation, study and description of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Tamil. It provides a selection of papers which primarily concentrate on the Society of Jesus and their linguistic production, but also covers linguistic works written by Franciscans, the Order of Discalced Carmelites and works of other religious institutions, such as the Propaganda Fide and the Missions Étrangères de Paris. New insights are provided regarding these works and their reception among European scholars interested in these ‘exotic’ languages and cultures. Each text is placed in its historical context and various approaches to some of the most important descriptive problems faced by these linguists avant la lettre are analyzed, such as the establishment of an adequate romanization system, the description of typological features of these Asian languages, such as tonality and aspiration in Chinese and Vietnamese, agglutination and derivational morphology in Japanese and Tamil, and, pragmatics, in particular politeness in Japanese. This volume not only looks at methodology and descriptive techniques, but also comments on missionary linguistic policies in Asia and offers articles of interest to historiographers of linguistics, historians, typologists, descriptive linguists and those interested in translation studies.

Missionary Linguistics/Lingüística misionera

Missionary Linguistics/Lingüística misionera
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2004-08-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9027285411

When the first European missionaries arrived on other continents, it was decided that the indigenous languages would be used as the means of christianization. There emerged the need to produce grammars and dictionaries of those languages. The study of this linguistic material has so far not received sufficient attention in the field of linguistic historiography. This volume is the first published collection of papers on missionary linguistics world-wide; it represents the insights of recent research, containing an introduction and papers on methodology, meta-historiography, the historical and cultural background. The book contains studies about early-modern linguistic works written in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French, describing among others indigenous languages from North America and Australia, Maya, Quechua, Xhosa, Japanese, Kapampangan, and Visaya. Topics dealt with include: innovations of individual missionaries in lexicography, grammatical analysis, phonology, morphology, or syntax; creativity in descriptive techniques; differences and/or similarities of works from different continents, and different religious backgrounds (Catholic or Protestant).

Missionary Grammars and the Language of Translation in Korea (1876–1910)

Missionary Grammars and the Language of Translation in Korea (1876–1910)
Author: Paweł Kida
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2024-03-27
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1003858430

Missionary Grammars and the Language of Translation in Korea (1876−1910) embraces the Enlightenment period in Korea (1876−1910) after the opening of the so-called Hermit Nation in describing the Korean language and missionary works. This book includes a comprehensive analysis and description of works published at that time by John Ross (1877, 1882), Felix-Clair Ridel (1881), James Scott (1887, 1893), Camille Imbault-Huart (1893), Horace Grant Underwood (1890, 1914), James Scrath Gale (1894, 1903), and Annie Laurie Baird (1911) with the particular focus on missionary activities, linguistic practices, grammatical content, and the language of translation from Korean into a native language. The topic of missionary grammar was raised by Otto Zwartjes (2012, 2018) with a focus on South America, North America, and Portuguese missions in Asia and Africa. Still, so far, Korea had not been mentioned, and there has been missing content about missionary grammar in Korea. A necessary study has been made within the framework of AMG (Average Missionary Grammar). The author has concluded that missionary works played an essential role in the formation of further linguistic research in Korea. The Greek-Latin approach applied by Western missionaries to the language is still relevant in the grammatical description of the Korean language. This book will primarily appeal to Korean language educators, researchers, and historical linguists. Postgraduates interested in missionary grammar will also benefit from the content of this volume.

Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550-1800

Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550-1800
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2011-11-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027283257

From the 16th century onwards, Europeans encountered languages in the Americas, Africa, and Asia which were radically different from any of the languages of the Old World. Missionaries were in the forefront of this encounter: in order to speak to potential converts, they needed to learn local languages. A great wealth of missionary grammars survives from the 16th century onwards. Some of these are precious records of the languages they document, and all of them witness their authors’ attempts to develop the methods of grammatical description with which they were familiar, to accommodate dramatically new linguistic features.This book is the first monograph covering the whole Portuguese grammatical tradition outside Portugal. Its aim is to provide an integrated description, analysis and evaluation of the missionary grammars which were written in Portuguese. Between them, these grammars covered a huge range of languages: in Asia, Tamil, four Indo-Aryan languages and Japanese; in Brazil, Kipeá and Tupinambá; in Africa and the African diaspora, Kimbundu and Sena (from the modern Angola and Mozambique respectively).Each text is placed in its historical context, and its linguistic context is analyzed, with particular attention to orthography, the parts of speech system, morphology and syntax. Whenever possible, pedagogical features of the grammars are discussed, together with their treatment of language variation and pragmatics, and the evidence they provide for the missionaries’ attitude towards the languages they studied.