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Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 49:2/3 (2022) ► pp.235–266

From Mandarin to Cantonese Lexicography

A genealogical study of Robert Morrison’s Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect (1828)

 | Guangdong University of Finance & Economics | Aarhus University
The Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect, compiled by Robert Morrison (1782–1834) and published in 1828 in Macao, was the first bilingual dictionary of Cantonese in a Western language. This article traces the genealogy of the Vocabulary by examining Morrison’s sources. It is shown how Morrison availed himself of the resources of Mandarin dictionaries and of the lexicographical work on Cantonese undertaken in the 1820s.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Morrison’s Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect: A study in Lexicographic Archaeology
    • 2.1Morrison’s Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect
    • 2.2Lexicographic Archaeology
  • 3. A genealogical study of the Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect
    • 3.1 Disputes over the Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect
    • 3.2The first Cantonese romanization system derived from Mandarin romanization
    • 3.3Identifying the source of Part I of the Vocabulary
    • 3.4Compiling part II by reversing Part I of the Vocabulary
    • 3.5Compiling part III: Miscellaneous phrases from miscellaneous sources
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.00118.li
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