https://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/main/en?/sign/no
Missionary linguistics in seventeenth-century Taiwan
Date: 2024-12-09 10:00~12:00
Speaker(s): Dr. Christoper Joby
Venue: 中央研究院人文社会科学馆（南栋五楼519会议室）
Abstract
Missionary linguistics in seventeenth-century Taiwan
In the Age of European Expansion, Dutch Reformed and Spanish Catholic
missionaries attempted to win the souls of Indigenous Formosans in Taiwan. One
way they did this was by writing texts in Formosan languages with the
assistance of Formosan informants. The texts included translations of the
books of the Bible, catechisms, sermons, prayers, and songs. Texts in two
Formosan languages, Siraya and Favorlang (an earlier form of Babuza) by Dutch
Reformed missionary linguists survive. These te~ts manifest dialectal
variation. Furthermore, we have information about written texts in Basay by
Spanish Catholic missionary linguists. In this lecture, Professor Christopher
Joby draws on examples in his new book, "Christian mission in seventeenth-
century Taiwan" and other examples by Austronesian linguists such as Sander
Adelaar and Paul J. Li to illustrate how the missionary linguists tried to
overcome the gap between their own languages and cultures and those of the
Formosans to communicate their mode of Christianity to the Formosans.
This lecture will introduce Professor Joby's new book "Christian mission in
seventeenth-centuryTaiwan: A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and
Practices" (Brill, 2025). Professor Christopher Joby PhD, hab., FRHistS is a
Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS, University of London and
Honorary Research Fellow and Associate Tutor, School of History, University of
East Anglia.'