[KS] pre-1895 Korean grammar
Frank Hoffmann
hoffmann at koreaweb.ws
Mon Apr 11 10:01:11 EDT 2011
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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