19世纪初期的“方言热”:来华新教士的语言工程

The “Dialect Fever” in the Early 19th Century:The Language Project of the Protestant Missionaries in China

由于受清政府对外政策的限制,19世纪初来华的新教传教士只能在东南沿海地区活动,为能够与当地人进行深入地接触,他们曾在一段时期内,对其所居地的方言投入了高度的热情,并为此编撰了多种教材、词典等,其中大多是用英文撰写的。总观19世纪初至60年代所编撰的这些方言书籍,显然在比重上要超过新教士们对"一般语言"或"官话"研习的著述;与之同时,不仅方言的种类是有区别的,而且对之的兴趣也会随殖民步履的迈进而有递变,这些均决定了有必要以整体化与细分化相结合的方式对之加以观照。当然,自19世纪60年代始,这一"方言热"已有明显地削减,取而代之的是一向官话研习转移的趋势。

Restricted by the foreign policy of the strict regulation, the Protestant missionaries who came to China in the early 19th century were allowed only to stay in the southeast coastal areas. In order to have an indepth communication with the local people , they invested a great deal of enthusiasm in the regional dialects, and compiled a lot of textbooks, dictionaries, etc. , most of which were written in English. In general, from the early 19th century to 1860s, Protestant missionaries compiled more books about these dialects than those about ＂general languages＂ or ＂Mandarin＂（官话）. Meantime, as the missionaries found there were different types of research ＂dialect instead. dialects, and their interest in these dialects also changed with the progression of colonization, their on these dialects required a combination of integration and segmentation. However, after 1860s, the fever＂ fell down significantly and the missionaries turned their attention to the learning of Mandarin