Missionary linguistics in seventeenth century Ireland and a North American Analogy
VivianSalmon
Keble College, Oxford
Summary
Accounts of Christian missionary linguists in the 16th and 17th centuries are usually devoted to their achievements in the Americas and the Far East, and it is seldom remarked that, at the time when English Protestant missionaries were attempting to meet the challenge of unknown languages on the Eastern seaboard of North America, their fellow missionary-linguists were confronted with similar problems much nearer home – in Ireland, where the native language was quite as difficult as the Amerindian speech with which John Eliot and Roger Williams were engaged. Outside Ireland, few historians of linguistics have noted the extraordinarily interesting socio-linguistic situation in this period, when English Protestants and native-born Jesuits and Franciscans, revisiting their homeland covertly from abroad, did battle for the hearts and minds of the Irish-speaking population – nominally Catholic, but often so remote from contacts with their Mother Church that they seemed, to contemporary missionaries, to be hardly more Christian than the Amerindians. The linguistic problems of 16th-and 17th-century Ireland have often been discussed by historians dealing with attempts by Henry VIII and his successors to incorporate Ireland into a Protestant English state in respect of language, religion and forms of government, and during the 16th century various official initiatives were taken to convert the Irish to the beliefs of an English-speaking church. But it was in the 17th century that consistent and determined efforts were made by individual Englishmen, holding high ecclesiastical office in Ireland, to convert their nominal parishioners, not by forcing them to seek salvation via the English language, but to bring it to them by means of Irish-speaking ministers preaching the Gospel and reciting the Liturgy in their own vernacular. This paper describes the many parallels between the problems confronting Protestant missionaries in North America and these 17th-century Englishmen in Ireland, and – since the work of the American missions is relatively well-known – discusses in greater detail the achievements of missionary linguists in Ireland.
* Items dated 1983 and 1984 in the following list of references were received after this paper was completed (for a meeting of the Oxford Linguistic Circle). They have not necessitated a revision of the paper, but have been included in order to indicate the growing interest in the subject of missionary linguistics: and also, it is hoped, as an aid to future researchers.
Abbott, Thomas Kingsmill
1913 “On the History of the Irish Bible”. Hermathena 17.29–50.
Bathe, William
1611Ianua Linguarum. Salamanca: P. de Cea Iesa.
Baxter, James P.
ed.1890Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine. 3 vols. Boston: Prince Society.
Beck, Cave
1657The Universal Character. Ipswich: William Weekley.
Bede
1969Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. by B. Colgrave & R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Bedell, William
1631The A.B.C., Or, the Institution of a Christian. Privately published, probably in Dublin.
Bedell, William, junior
1872A True Relation of the Life and Death of the Right Reverend Father in God William Bedell Ed. by Thomas W. Jones. (= Camden Society monograph no. 109 = New Series No.4). London.
Bergin, Osbourn
1938 “The Native Irish Grammarians”. Proc. British Academy 24.205–35. London.
Bliss, Alan J.
1978 “The English Language in Early Modern Ireland”. Early Modern Ireland ed. by Theodore W. Moody [ et al.], 546–60. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Revised ed.)
Bliss, Alan J.
1979Spoken English in Ireland, 1600–1740. Dublin: Dolmen Press.
Bolton, Frederick R.
1958The Caroline Tradition of the Church in Ireland. London: SPCK [i.e., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge].
Borde, Andrew
1870The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledg made [A.D. 1542] by Andrew Borde. Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall. London: Early English Text Society.
Boyle, Robert
1744Works. Vol. V. London: A. Millar.
Boyle, Robert
1772Works Vol. I. London: J. & F. Rivington.
Breatnach, Deasún
1971The Best of the English: A short account of the life and work of the Bishop of Kilmore, William Bedell, and the Irish version of the Old Testament. Baile Atha Cliath: Clódhanna Teo.
Brinsley, John
1622A Consolation for our Grammar Schooles. London: Thomas Man.
Burnet, Gilbert
1685The Life of William Bedell. London: John Southby.
Corcoran, Timothy
1916State Policy in Irish Education, A.D. 1536 to 1816. Dublin: Fallon Bros.
Cotton, Henry
1845Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae, Vol.I. Dublin: Hodges & Smith.
Cowan, William
1984 “John Eliot’s Indian Grammar”. Matériaux pour une Histoire des Théories Linguistiques ed. by Sylvain Auroux [ et al.], 293–300. Lille: P.U.L.
Dalgarno, George
1967 [1657]News to the Whole World, of the Discovery of an Universal Character. British Library, MS Sloane 4377 (143), reproduced as Plate XI of Robin C. Alston, “Logic, Philosophy, Epistemology, Universal Language” (= Volume 7 of A Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800). Bradford: privately published.
Daniell, Godfrey
transl.1652The Christian Doctrine, or the Foundation of Christian Religion, by William Perkins; and Brief and Plain Rules for the Reading of the Irish Tongue. Dublin: W. Bladen.
Daniell, William
transl.1608Leabhar Naightheadh. Dublin: John Frankton (Shéon Francke).
Durkacz, Victor E.
1983The Decline of the Celtic Languages. Edinburgh: Donaldson.
Falkiner, Caesar L.
1904Illustrations of Irish History and Topography. London: Longman’s Green.
Gallagher, Louis J.
transl.1953China in the Sixteenth Century: The journals of Matthew Ricci 1583–1610. New York: Random House.
Grosart, Alexander B.
1887Lismore Papers. Series II, vol.2. London: privately published.
Hakluyt, Richard
1935The Original Writings and Correspondence. Ed. by E. G. R. Taylor. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society.
Hanzeli, Victor E.
1969Missionary Linguistics in New France. The Hague: Mouton.
Hart, John
1569An OrthographicLondon: W. Serres.
Hoijer, Harry
1973 “History of Amerindian Linguistics”. Current Trends in Linguistics ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, 10.657–76. The Hague: Mouton.
1953A History of the Church of Ireland. Dublin: SPCK. [See Bolton 1958.]
Knowlson, James
1975Universal Language Schemes in England and France. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.
Leith, Dick
1983A Social History of English. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lhuyd, Edward
1707 “A Brief Introduction to the Irish or Ancient Scotish Language”. (= part IX of Archaeologia Brittannica). Oxford: privately published.
Lynam, Edward William O’Flaherty
1924 “The Irish Character in Print 1571–1923”. The Library, 4th ser., 4.286–325. London.
McKenna, Lambert
1944Bardic Syntactical Tracts. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Maddison, Robert
1958 “Robert Boyle and the Irish Bible”. Bull. John Rylands Library 41.81–101. Manchester.
Mahaffy, John P.
1903An Epoch in Irish History. Trinity College, Dublin. Its Foundation and Early Fortunes, 1591–1660. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
Mahaffy, John P.
1904The Particular Book of Trinity College, Dublin. Ibid.
Maxwell, Constantia E.
1946A History of Trinity College, Dublin, 1591–1892. Dublin: Dublin Univ. Press.
Millett, Benignus
1978 “Irish Literature in Latin 1550–1700”. Early Modern Ireland ed. by T. W. Moody [ et al.], 562–86. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Miner, Kenneth L.
1974 “John Eliot of Massachusetts and the Beginnings of American Linguistics”. HL 1.169–83.
Moody, Theodore W., F. X. Martin & F. J. Byrne
eds.1978Early Modern Ireland 1534–1691: A New History of Ireland. Vol.3. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Revised edition.).
Nida, Eugene A.
1963 “Linguistics and Christian Missions”. Linguistic Anthropology 5. 104–144.
Nugent, Christoper
1882 “Queen Elizabeth’s Primer of the Irish Language”. Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland. Ed. by John T. Gilbert, part 4.1, no.22. London: HMSO.
Ó Cuív, Brian
ed.1961Seven Centuries of Irish Learning 1000–1700. Dublin: RTE.
Ó Cuív, Brian
1978 “The Irish Language in the Early Modern Period”. Early Modern Ireland Ed. by T. W. Moody [ et al.], 509–545. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ó Huallacháin, Colmán
1980 “Towards a Bibliography of Irish-Gaelic Language Teaching Materials from the Seventeenth Century until Today”. Linguistic Studies in Honour of Paul Christophersen. Ed. by Robin E. W. Thelwall, 153–77. [Coleraine]: New University of Ulster.
O’Kearney, John
1571Aibidhel Gaoidheilge & Caiticiosma. Dublin: J. Usher. (MS trans. of the Preface inserted in British Library Copy, pressmark c.33. a.1.)
O’Mahony, Kathrina
1980 “Another Precious Irish Manuscript Lost to the Nation?”. Irish Independent2December 1980, p. 5.
O’Mahony, Seán
1980An tAthair William Bathe, C.Í. 1564–1614. Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig an tSoláthair. [English translation in preparation.]
O’Mahony, Seán
1981 “The Preface to William Bathe’s Ianua Linguarum 1611”. HL 8. 131–64.
O’Molloy, Francis
1677Grammatica Latino-Hibernica. Rome: S. Cong. de Propag. Fide.
Parr, Richard
1686The Life of the Most Reverend Father in God, James Ussher. London: S. Ranew.
Petty, William
1970 [1691]The Political Economy of Ireland. Ed. by J. O’Donovan. Shannon: Irish Univ. Press.
Phillips, Walter Α.
ed1934History of the Church of Ireland. vol. 2 London: Oxford Univ. Press.
Porter, Harry C.
1979The Inconstant Savage. England and the North American Indian, 1500–1660. London: Duckworth.
Richardson, John
1713 [1712]The History of the Attempts to Convert the Popish Natives of Ireland. London: J. Downing.
Robins, Robert H.
1979A Short History of Linguistics. 2nd ed. London: Longman.
Rowe, John Howland
1974 “Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Grammars”. Studies in the History of Linguistics ed. by Dell H. Hymes, 361–79. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
Rowse, Alfred L.
1959The Elizabethans and America. London: Macmillan.
Salmon, Vivian
1983 “William Bedell and the Universal Language Movement in Seventeenth-Century Ireland”. Essays and Studies 36.27–39.
Shepard, Thomas
1648The Clear Sun-shine of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians in New England. London: John Bellamy.
ed.1902Two Biographies of William Bedell. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Silke, John J.
1973 “Irish Scholarship and the Renaissance, 1580–1673”. Studies in the Renaissance 20.169–206.
Smith, John
1612A Map of Virginia. With a Description of the Country, the Commodities, People, Government and Religion. Oxford: Joseph Barnes.
Stanford, William Bedell
1970 “Towards a History of Classical Influences in Ireland”. Proc. Royal Irish Academy 70, sect. C, 13–91.
Stanford, William Bedell
1976Ireland and the Classical Tradition. Dublin: Figgis.
Stanyhurst, Richard
1577 “A Treatise contayning a playne and perfect description of Ireland”. Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland ed. by Richard Holinshed I, part 1. London: John Harrison.
Stapleton, Theobald
1945 [1639]Catechismus, seu Doctrina Christiana Latino-Hibernica. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission.
Stevens, Cj [sic]
1956 “Soul Savers, Grammarians and the Red Mam”. American Speech 31.40–51.
Stubbs, John W.
1889The History of the University of Dublin. Dublin: Dublin Univ. Press.
Swiggers, Pierre
1982 “Linguistique Amérindienne et Anthroposémantique’. Cahiers de l’Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 8.75–82.
Taylor, Jeremy
1664A Dissuasive from Popery to the People of Ireland. Dublin: John Crook.
Wall, Thomas
1943 “Doctrinal Instruction in Irish: The Work of Theobald Stapleton”. Irish Ecclesiastical Record 62.101–12.
Williams, Roger
1643A Key into the Language of America. London: Gregory Dexter.
Wilkins, John
1668An Essay towards a Real Character, And a Philosophical Language. London: Samuel Gellibrand & John Martin.
Wolfart, H[ans] C[hristoph]
1967 “Notes on the Early History of American Indian Linguistics”. Folia Linguistica 1.153–71.