Early Western Analyses of the Languages of Central Asia and India: Tradition and Renewal in Missionary Linguistics

From the 16th century onwards, European missionaries documented and described numerous non−European languages (many of which are now extinct or on the verge of extinction). Concentrating on the analysis of Central−Asian and Indian languages by 17th− and 18th−century missionaries, the present project seeks to chart the missionaries' attitudes towards unfamiliar, non−European languages and their views on theoretical issues such as linguistic origin, change, diversity, and similarity. In a first stage, the project will investigate to what extent missionaries were indebted to ancient models and how 'Eurocentric' criteria lie at the basis of the assessments of newly discovered Asian languages. In a subsequent stage, the program will also study how these descriptions of the Asian languages were received and implemented by Enlightenment European scholars. The project will thus contribute to the systematization of the discipline of missionary linguistics as well as to its institutionalization within the field of intellectual history.