Missionary language problems in old India

By Derek Armstrong

The map entitled A Map of India Exhibiting the extent to which its Various Languages are Spoken according to the best information Compiled for the seventh Memoir of Translations conducted by the Serampore Missionaries displays the various languages of India and the regions wherein they are spoken. Drawn and engraved by J. Walker and published in 1822, this map depicts the 47 languages known to be spoken in India at the time.

This map shows the degree of difficulty that Carey and his colleagues faced when it came to translating the Bible, or portions thereof, into native tongues. Carey undoubtedly had a passion, and ability, for languages and many of the languages listed on the map would eventually have, at the least, portions of the Bible translated into them.

The efforts of Carey and his colleagues were well documents, though sometimes too well and included exaggerations of the work actually accomplished. Several articles from the Boston Recorder and various Baptist magazines chronicle, with detail, the work being done by the Serampore missionaries. By mid-summer of 1816 Carey believes most of the languages of India to have portions of the Bible available to them.[1]

Unfortunately the missionaries did not find themselves without difficulty and were as hindered by political forces within their own supporters from time to time.[2] This did not, however, impede the missionaries from completing their work and putting the Bible, or portions thereof, into as many Indian languages as possible and thereby the hands of as many native Indians as possible.

The map contains the depiction of the whole of India and a viewer is able to then realize the enormous task of the missionaries, not just in terms of the volume of languages, but also in terms of plain geographical area. The translation of the Bible into various languages was only one part of the goal of conversion, another part would require providing the native peoples with the translated Bible and to do such would require someone to travel across India. India is no small country and the time it would take for someone to reach Serampore from a remote locale could be great. This, perhaps, evidences the greatness of the desire to put the Gospel into the hands of native Indians.

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[1] Bible Translations. http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/bibles/translation.htm. Accessed on January 7, 2009.

[2] Ibid.

Impact of William Ward on William Carey

By Derek Armstrong

William Ward’s A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos: Including a Minute Description of Their Manners and Customs, and Translations from Their Principle Works is his crowning achievement in describing the Hindu culture in the early 19^th century. Initially Ward published, in Serampore, the second volume of this work in 1815 and followed with the first volume in 1818.

Certainly a reason Ward would have for writing such a lengthy work would be to help with understanding of the Hindu religion, which the Serampore missionaries fought against on a daily basis. Much of the traditional practices opposed by the missionaries are covered, from suttee and infanticide to the festival of Juggernaut. Ward even goes to the lengths of telling an estimation of how many lives are lost annually to these acts.¹

Part of what the missionaries aimed to achieve was an end to the needless killing, and often murder, of innocent Hindus. Ward’s work could help those back in England or America, if not those working in India, to understand the great need for the work the missionaries were doing, as well as support for it.

Ward went on a fundraising tour of the United States and parts of Europe shortly after the second edition was fully published in 1819 in order to help support the newly founded Serampore College. This work would undoubtedly have been helpful in such a venture. While on the tour Ward was able to raise $26,000 and returned to India in 1821. Unfortunately Ward’s health had not been good for some time, and though he improved while away, he died in 1823.²

Certainly Ward’s impact on Carey was tremendous. Without the Master Printer Ward, Carey would have had much difficulty in printing his Bengali Bible, let alone any of the other works he completed. Ward’s work would have reflected the people that Carey was working with, teaching and preaching to and would have garnered understanding among those who read it to a deeper appreciation of the work being done at Serampore.

Ward’s work was published in later editions and in more volumes, a set of his four volume work is also housed at the Center for the Study of the Life and Work of William Carey, D.D., which could show the success Ward had with the work.

¹ http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/ward2/religion.htm. Accessed on January 8, 2009.

² Ibid.

The Life and Work of William Carey Personal Artifact Dictionary

by Derek Armstrong

William Carey’s childhood spelling dictionary was written during a time that could be considered a dictionary boom which started in 1596 with Edmund Coote’s The English Schoolmaster. Nathaniel Bailey’s Dictionarium Britannicum was written in 1730, Samuel Johnson’s Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language was written in 1747 and his A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755.[1] These works show that the interest in proper and correct writing and spelling was still on the rise, even as Carey was born and growing up. The actual title of the dictionary Carey used as a child is, The New Spelling Dictionary, Teaching To Write and Pronounce the English Tongue with Ease and Propriety; In which Each Word is accented according to its just and natural Pronunciation; the Part of Speech is properly distinguished, and The Various Senses are Ranged in one Line; with A List of Proper Names of Men and Women.

The spelling dictionary that Carey used was given to him by his father, and his father’s name is written on the inside of the first page. This item is arguably one of the most important within the Carey collection as it could be argued that without this dictionary, none of the rest of the collection would be there It was this dictionary that helped Carey learn the English language with the mastery that he did. Without his skills in his native tongue, he certainly would not have been able to translate any of the other works he did into any of the languages into which he translated them.

Carey’s The New Spelling Dictionary was donated to the Center for the Study of the Life and Work of William Carey, D.D. (1761-1834) by Calvin and Tillie Remmert, of Houston, Texas, in November of 2004.[2]

The impact of a spelling dictionary like The New Spelling Dictionary was undoubtedly related to the response of the public from which a drive to create it was found. With the interest ever increasing in correct spelling and correct pronunciation, a dictionary such as this one would have had widespread ramifications. The search to make the English language uniform, along with the interest to make the world uniformly British, could very well have fit hand-in-hand.

So the significance of this work, outside of the specific significance it holds for William Carey and the Carey Center, would be more likened to a drop in the larger pool of the advancement of the English language. Certainly it played its part in helping to standardize the language in a way similar to that of the other dictionaries and pronunciation books of the time.

Again, the importance of this particular book to Carey, and perhaps to the wider world at large, is inestimable. Along the path of Carey’s education and career, his copy of The New Spelling Dictionary was a very important stepping stone. Very directly the manner in which Carey learned to spell and how to spell, along with the particular definitions and ways he came to interpret words would affect him later on in life when translating the Bible, along with other works, into the various languages of India and beyond.

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[1] No Lawful Standard…: The Evolution of English Dictionaries. http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/hel/helmod/dicty.html. Accessed on January 6, 2009.

[2] http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/new/newnov2004.htm. Accessed on January 6, 2009.

Author Derek Armstrong can be contacted at derekmarmstrong@gmail.com