The Adaptation of Western and Chinese Categories to the Description of Manchu

Bibliographic Data

ID3955144
AuthorsMariarosaria Gianninoto (0009-0000-6451-9483, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume49
Issue1
Pages102-132
Publication date2022-12-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoriographia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/hl.00105.gia
OpenAlexW4316814785
LanguageEN
References cited18

Frequent contacts between European countries and China during the Qing period kindled interest in the languages spoken in the Qing empire and led to the publication of numerous Western books on Chinese varieties but also on the Manchu language. To describe the features of these distant languages, most of these works adapted Western linguistic categories and terminologies. This was the case of the earliest Western grammar of Manchu, Verbiest'sElementa linguae tartaricae(1682). However, some Western works progressively integrated elements of the Chinese linguistic tradition. For instance, the grammars ofKaulen (1856)andHarlez (1884)refer to the Chinese categories "full words" (content words) and "empty words" (function words). Other Western works translated or drew on Chinese-Manchu bilingual primers, which in turn adapted the methodology and categories of Chinese philology to the description of Manchu, such as in the textbooks byShěn (1682)andWǔ-gé (1730). Their western translations (Domenge n.d.;Wylie 1855; Hoffman 1883) resulted in interesting examples of circulation of linguistic knowledge and amalgamation of descriptive categories

China · Grammar · Historical linguistics · Linguistics · Philology · Sociology · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistic research and analysis · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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