Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics

Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics
Author: Klaus Zimmermann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2015-03-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 311040320X

A lot of what we know about “exotic languages” is owed to the linguistic activities of missionaries. They had the languages put into writing, described their grammar and lexicon, and worked towards a standardization, which often came with Eurocentric manipulation. Colonial missionary work as intellectual (religious) conquest formed part of the Europeans' political colonial rule, although it sometimes went against the specific objectives of the official administration. In most cases, it did not help to stop (or even reinforced) the displacement and discrimination of those languages, despite oftentimes providing their very first (sometimes remarkable, sometimes incorrect) descriptions. This volume presents exemplary studies on Catholic and Protestant missionary linguistics, in the framework of the respective colonial situation and policies under Spanish, German, or British rule. The contributions cover colonial contexts in Latin America, Africa, and Asia across the centuries. They demonstrate how missionaries dealing with linguistic analyses and descriptions cooperated with colonial institutions and how their linguistic knowledge contributed to European domination.

Lingüí?stica Misionera III

Lingüí?stica Misionera III
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027246028

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.

American Languages in New France

American Languages in New France
Author: Claudio R. Salvucci
Publisher: Arx Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2002
Genre: Indians of North America
ISBN: 1889758353

This volume collects valuable fragments of linguistic data and accounts of Native language as used among the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes of New France. Volume 1 documents not only observations on the languages themselves, but also on the mutual intelligibility and geographical extent of various dialects, the various pidgins and jargons which came into use as a result of cultural contact, and the use of European languages such as French and Basque in native North America. This volume also includes several extended tracts in various Native American languages, including Bribeuf's 1636 description of Huron grammar, Lalemant's interlinear translation of a Huron prayer, Vimont's letter in Algonquin, Le Jeune's description of Montagnais, and many others. A map showing the location of the various missions and the approximate distributions of the Native languages is also included, as well as three useful appendices.

Lingüística Misionera

Lingüística Misionera
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2004
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781588115812

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 Linguistics VI

Missionary Linguistics VI
Author: Otto Zwartjes
Publisher: Studies in the History of the Language Sciences
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021
Genre: Missions
ISBN: 9789027210043

This volume provides research into the history of the documentation, study and description of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Tamil, by missionary linguists primarily from the Society of Jesus, but also from Franciscans, the Order of Discalced Carmelites and other religious institutions.