[KS] pre-1895 Korean grammar

[Frank Hoffmann]

An Update:

Apart from Professor Grayson's article mentioned 
in the posting of Professor Sang Oak (and another 
version from 1984), both of which I have not at 
hand, there are a couple of dissertations on John 
Ross (thanks to Dr. Shulman for pointing this 
out). Also, the 1989 two volume Korean Protestant 
Church history (in Korean language)

Below is an excerpt from a PhD thesis by Choi 
Sung Il, "John Ross (1842-1915) and the Korean 
Protestant Church: The First Korean Bible and Its 
Relation to the Protestant Origins in Korea," PhD 
dissertation, U of Edinburgh, 1992. Apart from 
the title that might sound like a theological 
thesis, this is in my opinion *highly* 
interesting for linguists and historians, if not 
sociologists. Why so? Because the author gives a 
very detailed description and analysis of the 
whole process of that Bible translation as a 
process, including an evaluation with plenty of 
explanations of the translation/s. He 
demonstrates that, other than what one would have 
imagined (at least I had), such a project, the 
Bible translation, was actually done by people 
who may have had a knowledge of Korean language 
comparable to maybe a 2nd or 3rd semester student 
of today (my comparison). That project serves 
really as a beautiful example for leadership 
structures, group structures, and the delegation 
of work issues, and how a seemingly big and 
overwhelming task such as the translation of the 
Bible can be achieved in a short time by a small 
group of people where every single member would 
otherwise be completely incapable (!) to achieve 
such a task (at all, not just in a short time). 
THAT is pretty fascinating!

Ross King might have been correct with his note 
about the Ridel reference ... above PhD thesis 
author does not even mention the John Ross 
grammar from 1880 and/or 1882 as a *published* 
title. Still, it would be interesting to also 
find out more about that grammar and its prints, 
if there are more than one. Yet, it seems indeed 
clear that the Ridel's _Dictionnaire Coreen 
Français_ (Yokohama, 1880) was being used ... and 
to some degree their _Grammaire Coréene_ as well. 
That, however, as this dissertation shows, was 
just one step in the process -- as highly 
fascinating process, that also involved several 
Korean native speakers. All described in much 
detail. ... It seems, by the way, that apart from 
John Ross another missionary, John MacIntyre, had 
from the Western site just as much if not more 
work done on the translation project.

QUOTE from page 134:
---------
MacIntyre also explains his feeling of that time; 
"My only other hope is in Japan, where the study 
is being prosecuted with zeal, and whither the 
Roman Catholic Bishop of Corea is now gone to 
print a French-Corean Dictionary".[91] Shortly 
after that, MacIntyre seems to have obtained 
assistance from this very dictionary.[92] Besides 
this dictionary, they prepared a Korean grammar 
and analysis of sentences, based on the Chinese 
Classics in the Korean translation which was 
published by the Royal Authority in Korea. 
Through every possible means, they came to have a 
final draft of the translations.
---------

How then did their own .... or John Ross' own 
1880 or 1882 textbook with grammar fit in there? 
Obviously this is not even being mentioned by 
many scholars -- not even in that just quoted 
otherwise really quite well written dissertation 
from 1992.

Best,
Frank


-- 
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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