early sources in Church Romanization

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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Henning Kloeter

early sources in Church Romanization

Post by Henning Kloeter »

Dear all,

does anyone of you know where to find some of the Amoy spellers or Bible translations (extracts) in Church Romanization compiled BEFORE the 1860s. Are there any missionary archives in Xiamen?

I am especially interested in the following publications by John Van Nest Talmage:

(1) Tng-oe hoan-ji chhoo-hak / Amoy Spelling Book (Amoy 1852)
(The National Library in Taiwan only has an edition of 1867)
(2) Thian lo lèk thêng / Pilgrim's progress (Amoy 1853, 77 pp.)
(3) Lo-tek ê chheh / Book of Ruth (Amoy 1853, 20 pp.)
(4) Ióng sim sin si / Hymn Book in the Amoy dialect (Amoy 1859, 26 pp.)
(5) Yêw t'ae t'e t'oô / Map of Judea (1861, large sheet)

Best,
Henning
Sim Lee

Re: early sources in Church Romanization

Post by Sim Lee »

Hi there Henning,

Fancy meeting you here! :-)

My mother tells me that my great-grandfather (her mother's father) worked for the "China Inland Mission" in Fujian. It must have been at the beginning of the 20th Century. Though I never knew my great-grandfather, I actually met one of the missionaries who had worked with him, when I was very young. By this time she was very old, and back in her home in England. From my grandmother I inherited a copy of the "Sin Ku Iok e Seng Keng".

Have you tried to access the archives of this organisation (if it still exists)?

I did a search on Google and came up with 3000+ hits, to my amazement.

Please excuse me if you have already long known about and tried this source.

Sim.
ppk

Re: early sources in Church Romanization

Post by ppk »

probably yes. the earliest missionaries probably arrived in ming dynasty, but they were either spanish or portuguese.
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