Missionary Linguistics

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As a missionary linguistics in the narrower sense, the research and the phonological, grammatical and lexical description of foreign languages in the context and the goal of the Christian missionary is called. The description of these languages ​​was carried out by missionaries who were usually linguistic laypeople. The primary goal of missionary linguistics was not to research the languages ​​scientifically, but to use the language descriptions in the context of missionary work. Missionaries should learn the languages ​​of foreign peoples in order to be able to proselytize these peoples in their own language. The aim of missionary linguistics is also the writing of Christian scriptures in these languages, e.g. B. Catechisms, Bible translations or song books.

In a broader sense, one also speaks of missionary linguistics if one means dealing with the work of missionaries in the context of linguistic history and linguistic history, including research on and the critical processing of missionary linguistics from the colonial era. The research on missionary linguistics partially overlaps with other research disciplines, e.g. B. Colonial linguistics , the history of religion and church as well as the history of the humanities and science.

history

Linguistic research as part of mission

The beginnings of missionary linguistics go back to the missionary endeavors of Catholic orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians and then especially the Jesuits, who wanted to spread the Christian faith on all continents since the 16th century. In doing so, they had to face the problem of how to communicate with foreign peoples. The missionaries at that time advocated proselytizing in the language of the foreign peoples. The focus of missionary linguistics was initially on the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, which were evangelized by Catholic orders. English, French, Danish and German colonies were later added. Later Protestant orders were also active in missionary linguistics. B. the Hermannsburg and the Basel missionaries like Ferdinand Kittel in southwest India. Works written by missionary linguists include dictionaries, grammars, catechisms, prayer books, exemplary sermons, stories, and plays.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) conducts modern missionary linguistics worldwide in America, Southeast Asia and Africa. The institute goes back to the Protestant businessman William Cameron Townsend and began its work first in Mexico, then in South America and finally expanded its activities worldwide.

The results of the missionary linguists were often handwritten notes and were only partially systematized and published. An initial overview is provided by a database based on the Bibliotheca Missionarum , a bibliography by Robert Streit and his successors, which, at least up to the end of the 19th century, almost completely recorded works that missionaries wrote in and about indigenous languages. According to this database, Jesuits alone have written works in at least 190 different languages ​​and 11 dialects from the beginning of their missionary work in 1542 until the 1970s. The RELiCTA project, headed by Toon van Hal at the University of Leuven, recorded more than 4000 documents in missionary linguistic works up to 1800.

Extension of the questions

Missionary linguistics also provided results that were evaluated by linguists with no interest in mission to systematically describe indigenous languages. Wilhelm von Humboldt's studies were based e.g. B. on missionary linguistic sources. The linguist Edward Sapir researched Navajo together with his father Berard Haile . Leonard Bloomfield, on the other hand, who did research on Algonquin languages, considered the results of missionary linguistics to be of little value.

Since the 1990s, mission linguistics has experienced increased interest among linguistic historians and researchers who deal with the history of linguistics. There are international congresses on missionary linguistics such as B. 1995 in Berlin and 2003 in Oslo .

Research topics in missionary linguistics

Missionary Linguistics deals with the study of indigenous languages ​​for the purpose of mission. The objects of description were Amerindian (both in North and South America), Asiatic (especially in India, China, Japan, the Philippines and the South Sea Islands) and African languages. The pronunciation of the indigenous languages ​​as well as their grammar and vocabulary as well as the creation of writing systems and the translation of religious texts were described. Missionary linguistics is an applied linguistics, because the aim of missionary linguistics is not to research the languages ​​per se, but with the aim of enabling missionaries to communicate with indigenous peoples. Literacy was a particular challenge and achievement for the missionaries: not all of the peoples they missioned had a script.

Missionary linguistics, which for a long time received little attention from linguistics, has been the focus of research into the history of linguistics since the 1990s, which deals with the following questions, among others:

  • Language lessons, catechism creation, translations
  • Missionaries field studies and data collection
  • Study of the works of the missionary linguists (e.g. grammars, dictionaries)
  • Cultural context (e.g. tribal cultures)
  • Technical instruments for language documentation and analysis

Relationship to Colonial Linguistics

Like the history of missionary linguistics , the discipline of colonial linguistics also deals with issues such as the evaluation of language descriptions by missionaries, methods and training for missionaries, the creation of norms for indigenous languages, and the influence of missionary linguistics on linguistic theories. In particular, colonial linguistics sees other researchers and actors as just missionaries. Colonial linguistics , however, goes beyond mere historiography ; it deals with the connections between colonialism and language with a broader perspective, which also includes non-linguistic issues. Questions of colonial linguistics are e.g. B. the influence of colonialism on languages, language politics in colonies, language contact and language conflicts, language planning , language ideologies and colonial discourses - topics that are not covered by a history of missionary linguistics.

Criticism and re-evaluation

In the history of linguistics, missionary linguistics has so far played a subordinate role because the work of the missionaries - usually not linguists, but lay people - from an older perspective of linguistics often did not produce results that corresponded to scientific standards. The problem with the work of the missionaries was that when describing the languages ​​they often relied without reflection on the categories of traditional Latin grammar. Missionary linguistics has therefore often been dismissed as the "prehistory of linguistics", although this assessment has meanwhile been contradicted in recent research, because in some cases it has meanwhile been proven that they also went innovatively beyond traditional concepts. Often the works of the missionaries were the very first scripts and language descriptions of these languages. The grammars and dictionaries are of varying quality, but many with new insights into the structure of these "exotic" languages. Analyzes of innovative grammar categories appropriate to the languages ​​can be found e.g. B. in Zimmermann (Hrsg.) 1997. Today they are also an indispensable source for the description of the language change in these languages.

literature

  • Catechesis, Language, Writing , Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics 29 (116), 1999.
  • Toon van Hal / Andy Peetermans / Zanna van Loon: Presentation of the RELiCTA database: Repertory of Early Modern Linguistic and Catechatical Toos of America, Asia, and Africa. Contributions to the history of linguistics 28.2 (2018), pp. 293–306.
  • Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): ... and the Word was God. Missionary Linguistics and Missionary Grammar . Nodus publications, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-89323-125-0 .
  • Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon. Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Narr, Tübingen, 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 .
  • Klaus Zimmermann (ed.): La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial . Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main / Iberoamericana, Madrid 1997.
  • Klaus Zimmermann, Birte Kellermeier-Rehbein (Eds.): Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-036048-6 .
  • Klaus Zimmermann: Missionary Linguistics in Colonial Contexts: A Historical Overview . In: Thomas Stolz, Ingo H. Warnke / Daniel Schmidt-Brücken (Eds.): Language and Colonialism: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Language and Communication in Colonial Contexts . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2016, pp. 169–191.
  • Otto Zwartjes: The historiography of Missionary Linguistics. Present state and further research opportunities . In: Historiographia Linguistica 39: 2/3, 2012, pp. 185–242.
  • Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics / Lingüística Misionera. Selected papers from the first international conference on missionary linguistics . Oslo, March 13-16, 2003. John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, ISBN 90-272-4597-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zwartjes, Otto / Zimmermann, Klaus / Schrader-Kniffki, Martina (eds.): Missionary Linguistics V / Lingüística Misionera V: Translation theories and practices . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2014.
  2. ↑ Henrike Foertsch: Language work between theory and practice: Early modern Jesuits in southeast India, northwest Mexico and Peru . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 75-76 .
  3. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial . Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main / Iberoamericana, Madrid 1997.
  4. ↑ Reinhard Wendt: "Talking" and "Writing" in the evangelism strategies of Basel missionaries and Jesuits in south-west India and in southern Mindanao in the 19th century . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 131 .
  5. ^ Henrike Foertsch: Missionaries as language collectors. To the extent of the language description of the Jesuits in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Evaluation of a database . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 44, 46 .
  6. ↑ Discover SIL. May 1, 2012, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  7. ^ EFK Koerner: Notes on Missionary Linguistics in North America . In: Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, ISBN 90-272-4597-5 , pp. 72 .
  8. ↑ R. Streit, J. Dindinger: Bibliotheca Missionarum , 30 volumes. Münster / Aachen 1916-1974.
  9. ^ Henrike Foertsch: Missionaries as language collectors. On the extent of the philological work of the Jesuits in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Evaluation of a database . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 44, 46 .
  10. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann, J. Trabant, K. Mueller-Vollmer (eds.): Wilhelm von Humboldt and the American languages. Berlin Symposium from September 24 to 26, 1992 . Schöningh, Paderborn 1994.
  11. ^ EFK Koerner: Notes on Missionary Linguistics in North America . In: Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, ISBN 90-272-4597-5 , pp. 72-73 .
  12. ↑ Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (ed.): Missionary Linguistics / Lingüística Misionera. Selected papers from the first international conference on missionary linguistics. Oslo, March 13-16, 2003 . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, ISBN 90-272-4597-5 .
  13. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: La construcción del objeto de la historiografía de la lingüística misionera . In: Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics - Lingüística Misionera . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, p. 20.
  14. ↑ Even Hovdhaugen: Missionary Grammars - An Attempt at Defining a Field of Research . In: Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): ... and the Word was God. Missionary Linguistics and Missionary Grammar . Nodus publications, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-89323-125-0 , p. 10 .
  15. ↑ Reinhard Wendt: Introduction. Paths through Babylon or: Ranger in the jungle of idioms . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 20 .
  16. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: La construcción del objeto de la historiografía de la lingüística misionera . In: Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics - Lingüística Misionera . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, pp. 12-13.
  17. ^ Thomas Stolz, Ingo H. Warnke: From missionary linguistics to colonial linguistics . In: Klaus Zimmermann, Birte Kellermeier-Rehbein (Eds.): Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Munich / Boston 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-036048-6 , pp. 12-19 .
  18. ↑ Reinhard Wendt: Introduction. Paths through Babylon or: Ranger in the jungle of idioms . In: Reinhard Wendt (ed.): Paths through Babylon: Missionaries, language studies and intercultural communication . Günter Narr, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5414-0 , p. 16 .
  19. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: La construcción del objeto de la historiografía de la lingüística misionera . In: Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): Missionary Linguistics - Lingüística Misionera . John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2004, pp. 12-13.
  20. ↑ Even Hovdhaugen: Missionary Grammars - An Attempt at Defining a Field of Research . In: Even Hovdhaugen (Ed.): ... and the Word was God. Missionary Linguistics and Missionary Grammar . Nodus publications, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-89323-125-0 , p. 18-19 .
  21. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial . Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main / Iberoamericana, Madrid 1997.