Francis Mason
Francis Mason (born April 2, 1799 in Walmgate in York , England , † March 3, 1874 in Rangoon , Burma ) was an American missionary and naturalist . He is considered to be the originator of the theory of the Austro-Asian language family .
Live and act
youth
Francis Mason was the son of Thomas Mason, who worked as a shoemaker and was also a Baptist lay preacher in York . His grandfather († 1801), who was also called Francis Mason, was a shoemaker by profession and is considered the founder of the Baptist Society in York. According to Mason himself, he remembered meetings of this society in a small church on Peasholme Green , the poor man's place, in a dark corner of town. The pulpit there was donated by two or three different members of the Church, including his father.
At school he was taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Originally he wanted to be a printer. The printers at the time were all demanding a £ 10 bonus for taking an apprentice in, which Mason's parents could not afford. It was not until he was 60 that Mason's wish to become a printer was fulfilled. In India as an employee of the East India Company , he printed in English , Burmese , Karen , Old Pali and Sanskrit .
In 1813, Mason moved to Hull with his father and became interested in math and trigonometry. In an evening school he learned geometry , trigonometry and algebra with their applications in navigation , astronomy , optics and mechanics for three years . At the age of 19, Mason left York and went abroad in 1818.
America
In 1818 he reached Philadelphia . He lived in Cincinnati for some time before moving to Ohio as a shoemaker , from there to Vevay , on to Louisville and then to Lexington . In 1821 he went to St. Louis . In total, Mason spent 6 years in the western states. In 1824 Mason left St. Louis and from New Orleans , where he only spent a few days, he moved to Boston . In 1825 he first met the preacher Mr. Putnam in Randolph.
In December 1825, Mason married Lucinda Gill, daughter of Deacon Gill.
Up until that point, Mason was not, if his autobiography is to be believed , religious. He couldn't begin with Calvinism any more than with the Roman Catholic Church . Throughout his work, Mason described how little the various priests and preachers were initially able to inspire him for the religion and its teachings. Only his acquaintance with Mr. George Evans brought him closer to God.
Then Mason began studying the teachings of the New Testament . He eventually chose the Baptist faith because he believed it to be most in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the New Testament. In order to read the word of Jesus Christ in the language used by the sacred writers, Mason learned Greek; among other things, he began taking classical Greek lessons from Reverent Mr. Huntoon in Canton twice a week.
The Canton Church decided that Mason should become a servant of God. He received a license on October 1, 1827. In November of the same year Mason went to Newton, where he continued his studies of Greek script and the Hebrew Bible until 1830 at the Theological Institute. His wife Lucinda Gill died in 1828. On May 23, 1830, Mason married his second wife, Miss Helen Maria Griggs of Brookline, Massachusetts .
Service in Burma
After the death of his first wife, Mason signed up for missionary service. In 1829 he was called to Burma by the Baptist Council. In 1830 Mason went to Tavoy , now called Dawei, to replace his predecessor George Dana. Mason spent 120 days on the ship with his second wife. On his journey to Tavoy , which Mason finally reached in January 1831, they also stopped in Calcutta and Maulmain .
He worked in Burma (Myanmar) as a translator, mission leader and seminar teacher for 22 years . In March 1833 Mason founded the first mission society east of the Ganges in a small chapel in Tavoy . In 1842 Mason established the first local newspaper in Tavoy to be written in the Karen language. In 1846 his second wife died. Mason then married his third wife, the widow Ellen Huntly Ballard . This spread doctrine which forced the American Baptist Missionary Union to withdraw its support from 1865-1871. Mason distanced himself from his wife's statements and rebuilt the unity of the churches in the area, which resulted in the restoration of his reputation.
effect
Francis Mason learned new languages with ease. During his missionary time in Burma, where he worked as a preacher and theology teacher, he taught Sgau Karen and Pwo Karen. He wrote grammars for both dialects to make it easier for future missionaries to study the language. In 1837 he published the Gospel of Matthias in Karen . With his writings and his autobiography, he made an important contribution to the study of the Austro-Asian language family , which is now divided into the three subfamilies Munda , Nicobarese and Mon Khmer . He discovered in 1854 (and 1860) that Mon (or Talaing ) genetically belonged to the same language strain that Munda languages such as Ho and Kol belonged to, and that Mon was genetically different from languages known at the time as Indochinese. Thus Francis Mason is considered to be the originator of the Austro-Asian language theory. This was later confirmed by studies, including by Ernst Kuhn (1889), whose lexical comparisons show that Mon , like Khmer , Suk, Bahnar , Khmu , Vietnamese , Palaung , Nicobarese , Khasi and Stieng form a family of their own.
During his tenure, Mason and Sau Quala, a Karen spokesman, converted more than 6,000 people and founded 126 churches in Toungoo . He translated the biblical scriptures into Bghai Karen and Sgau Karen , published studies on the flora and fauna in Burma and created language aids in Burmese, Pali and Sanskrit . He was also elected a member of the Royal Asiatic Society . During the 1870s, while traveling, Mason collected data for his second edition of the country's Burmese history and geography and wrote his memoir, " The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America," (New York , 1870).
Works (selection)
- The Karen Apostle or, Memoir of Ko Thah-Byu, the First Karen Convert. With an historical and geographical account of the nation, its traditions, precepts, rites, & c .. Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, Boston 1847.
- Mulamuli or the Buddhist Genesis of Eastern India. From the Shan, through the Talaing and Burman. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 4. American Oriental Society, Michigan 1854.
- Burmah, Its People and Natural Productions: The Natural Productions of Burmah. Francis Mason, Rangoon 1860.
- A Pali Grammar on the Basis of Kachchayano, with Chrestomathy and Vocabulary, Mason Francis, Toungoo 1868.
- The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Francis Mason, Toungoo 1869.
literature
- Mason, Francis . In: Biographical Dictionary Christian Missions in the Google Book Search
- Mason, Francis: The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Francis Mason, Toungoo 1869.
- van Driem, Georg: Languages of the Himalayas. An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region . Brill, Leiden 2001.
- Brackney, William H .: Mason, Francis . In: Biographical Dictionary Christian Missions . Ed. V. Gerald H. Andersen. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Cambridge 1999.
- Hervey, George Winfred: The Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands: From the Time of Carey to the Present Date. Chancy R. Barns, St. Louis 1884.
- Francis Mason: The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Francis Mason, Toungoo 1869, pp. 13-279.
- William H. Brackney: Mason, Francis . In: Biographical Dictionary Christian Missions , p. 439.
- George Winfred Hervey: The Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands: From the Time of Carey to the Present Date, Chancy R. Barns, St. Louis 1884, 399.
- Georg van Driem: Languages of the Himalayas, pp. 262-264.
- William H. Brackney: Mason, Francis . In: Biographical Dictionary Christian Missions , p. 439.
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mason, Francis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American missionary and naturalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 2, 1799 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Walmgate in York, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 3, 1874 |
| Place of death | Rangoon, Burma |