Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts: L'apprentissage et l'enseignement des langues en contextes missionnaire et colonial 9789048553020

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Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts

Languages and Culture in History The series Languages and Culture in History studies the role foreign languages have played in the creation of linguistic and cultural heritage, at the individual, communal, national and transnational level. At the heart of this series is the historical evolution of linguistic and cultural policies, internal as well as external, and their relationship with linguistic and cultural identities. The series takes an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of historical issues: the diffusion, the supply and the demand for foreign languages, the history of pedagogical practices, the historical relationship between languages in a given cultural context, the public and private use of foreign languages – in short, every way foreign languages intersect with local languages in the cultural realm. Series Editors Willem Frijhoff, Erasmus University Rotterdam Karène Sanchez-Summerer, Groningen University Editorial Board Members Federico Gobbo, University of Amsterdam Gerda Hassler, University of Potsdam Aurélie Joubert, University of Groningen Douglas A. Kibbee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Marie-Christine Kok Escalle, Utrecht University Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam Nicola McLelland, The University of Nottingham Despina Provata, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Valérie Spaëth, University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle Javier Suso López, University of Granada Pierre Swiggers, KU Leuven

Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts L’apprentissage et l’enseignement des langues en contextes missionnaire et colonial

Edited by Dan Savatovsky, Mariangela Albano, Thị Kiều Ly Phạm, and Valérie Spaëth

Amsterdam University Press

This volume has been supported by the HTL (Histoire des théories linguistiques) and DILTEC (Didactique des langues, des textes et des cultures) research groups (Paris), the University of Cagliari, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam.

Cover illustration: Namban ship on Namban Screen by Kanō Naizen (1570–1616) Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 9789463728249 e-isbn 9789048553020 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789463728249 nur 616 © All authors / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2023 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

In Memoriam Maria Lucia Aliffi



Table of Contents

List of Figures

11

List of Tables

12

Introduction: Language teaching and grammatization in the colonial empires

13

Dan Savatovsky

I  Iberian Mission Lands 1 Toward a historiography of foreign language documentation, teaching and learning of non-Western languages in a missionary context (16th–18th centuries) Otto Zwartjes

2 A contribution to the historyof missionary grammars and Romance languages grammars: The commensurability of metalanguage and categories in the sixteenth century Alejandro Díaz Villalba

91

143

II  The Sinic World 3 Learning a language while making it up. Matteo Ricci’s ways of inculturation and the communicative strategy of the Company of Jesus

169

4 For an epistemological and cognitive approachto Matteo Ricci’s The Palace of Memory. Didactics and imaginative processes

187

Diego Poli

† Maria Lucia Aliffi and Mariangela Albano

5 The role of British missionary scholarsin setting the foundations for the academic study of Chinese in British universities 215 Tinghe Jin and Steven Cowan

8

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

III  West Africa 6 Language policy within the French colonial army: The First World War and beyond

245

7 The “civilization-language-culture” relationshipin reading books for teaching in French to allophone schoolchildren (1885–1930): A window opened to the past

269

Cécile Van Den Avenne

Valérie Spaëth

IV  East Africa 8 From teaching non-Arabs Arabic to Arabization in 1950s Sudan

291

9 Italian colonial educational policy in the Horn of Africa

311

Andrea Facchin

Raymond Siebetcheu

V  Middle East 10 How to create a language by describing it?Orientalists and pure colloquial Arabic

333

11 Politique d’enseignement au Liban au début du Mandat français : les manuels scolaires en français et la place de l’arabe au Collège de Beyrouth

347

Tarek Abouelgamal

Manar El Kak

VI  Southeast Asia 12 The Romanized writing of Vietnamese: A unique case in the Far East Thị Kiều Ly Phạm and Mariangela Albano

367

Table of Contents

13 On Indonesian and English as lingua francas: Colonial, national, global Joseph Errington

9

389

VII Europe 14 Un empire culturel et littéraire : quelques grammaires de l’italien langue étrangère (seizième–dix-septième siècle)

407

15 “A language that reigns in the city”: Italian in grammar books for foreigners (second half of the 18th century)

425

16 L’enseignement du grec moderne comme langue étrangère : des missionnaires catholiques aux grammairiens philhellènes

451

Giada Mattarucco

Norma Romanelli

Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou

List of abbreviations (Index) 479 Index of names

481

Index of languages and script names 493

Fig. 1a.

List of Figures

Annotated translation in Quintana’s Compendio de Vozes Mixes (1733)121 Fig. 1b. Quintana’s Compendio de Vozes Mixes (1733)121 Fig. 2a. Alphabetum Armenum (1784), frontispiece127 Fig. 2b. Alphabetvm Ibericvm siue Georgianvm vulgare (1629), frontispiece127 Figs. 3a & 3b. Hernández, Doctrina Christiana en lengva misteca (1568)128 Figs. 4a & 4b. Flores, Arte de la lengva metropolitana del reyno Cakchiquel (1753)129 Figs. 5a, 5b, & 5c. Flores, Arte de la lengva metropolitana… (1753)129 Fig. 6. Morrison, Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1815)223 Fig. 7. “Map of the races of French West Africa providing Senegalese tirailleurs” (legend), in La Dépêche coloniale illustrée, Feb. 1917: “French West Africa and black troops”247 Fig. 8. Cover of Ferrage, Petit manuel françaisbambara à l’usage des troupes noires (1918)250 Fig. 9. Ferrage, Petit manuel français-bambara à l’usage des troupes noires (1918)250 Fig. 10. Anonymous, Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais (1916)254 Fig. 11. La dépêche coloniale illustrée, Feb. 1917: “French West Africa and the black troops”259 Fig. 12. Bruno, Le tour de la France par deux enfants (last page)275 Figs. 13a & 13b. Machuel, Méthode de lecture (1885), “Vengeance d’un éléphant”277 Fig. 14. Sonolet and Pérès, Méthode de lecture, “Les métiers” (1915)279 Fig. 15. Davesne, Mamadou et Bineta, Ch. 1—“School” / Ch. 2—“The Human Body” (1931)281 Fig. 16. Fresco, Syllabaire: “Monsieur Paul écrit” (1891)284 Fig. 17. De Rhodes, Dictionarivm Annamiticvm (1651)372

Table 1.

List of Tables

Circonlocution and périphrase in French grammars before 1600155 Table 2. Circunloquio and rodeo in Portuguese and Spanish grammars before 1600155 Table 3. Suplir/suprir, circunloquio/circunlóquio and rodeo in the first missionary grammars160 Table 4. Chronology of compulsory schooling in Italy318 Table 5. Public colonial schools for Italians and natives in Eritrea and Somalia (1935)318 Table 6. António de Fontes, diacritical signs for Vietnamese tones371 Table 7. Examples of English/Malay lexical usage400 Tableau 8. L’enseignement/apprentissage du grec moderne (17e–19e siècle)470



Introduction: Language teaching and grammatization in the colonial empires1 Dan Savatovsky

“Siempre fue la lengua compañera del Imperio.” —Antonio de Nebrija, Prólogo a la Gramática sobre la lengua castellana, 1492

Abstract: The aim of this introduction is to define the main concepts used throughout the chapters of the book, notably those of colonial, decolonial, and postcolonial linguistics. It also measures the scope of the disciplinary field of missionary linguistics. It compares the various modes of grammatization of the world’s languages that have been implemented since the fifteenth century, emphasizing the forms and conditions of their teaching or learning in missionary and colonial contexts. Résumé : Dans cette introduction, on s’efforce de définir les principales notions mobilisées dans les différents chapitres de l’ouvrage, notamment celles de linguistique coloniale, décoloniale et postcoloniale. On mesure aussi la portée du champ disciplinaire de la linguistique missionnaire ; on compare les divers modes de grammatisation des langues du monde mises en œuvre depuis le quinzième siècle, en mettant l’accent sur les formes et les conditions de leur enseignement ou de leur apprentissage en contexte missionnaire et colonial. Keywords: Colonial linguistics. Missionary linguistics. Language teaching in colonial context. Grammatization of the worlds’ languages in colonial context. Mots-clés : Linguistique coloniale. Linguistique missionnaire. Enseignement des langues en contexte colonial. Grammatisation des langues en contexte colonial. 1 [Enseignement des langues et grammatisation dans les empires coloniaux]. This introduction and chapters 2, 6, 7, and 15 have been translated into English by Amanda Murphy, associate professor of English and translation studies at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris).

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL, and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_intro

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The scope of this book is both broad and limited. It is broad because it gathers research dedicated to the linguistic aspects of missionary, colonial, and even neo- or decolonial enterprises, considering all continents and applying an extended diachronic perspective. And it is also limited: we have asked the authors to focus on educational policies, language teaching and learning, and the didactics used—subjects that, in their time period and context, were either drawn into the heart of missionary and colonial blueprints or remained on the margins. The terminus a quo indicated in the call for papers for the volume,2 the end of the Roman Empire, was quite (probably too) ambitious. As Fernand Braudel notes, “beyond the borders [of the Rhine and the Danube], European civilization reverberated late after the fall of the Roman Empire. […] The medieval West colonized, in the f inest sense of the term, the world near to it, installing its churches and its missionaries.”3 We therefore would have accepted, if we had received them, proposals relating to the colonial dimension of the early Middle Ages (“in the f inest sense of the term” or not) specif ic to Europe, to the knowledge on languages associated with this form of colonization, to its dissemination, and to the teaching of this knowledge beyond the limits of the Greek space and the Roman Empire. We might have received proposals relating to, for example, the educational model of Irish monks (seventh and eighth centuries) or to the missionary and educational work of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples in the Slavic world (ninth century)—a world in which some of the vernacular languages were provided with an alphabet (Glagolitic) and early religious texts (psalters, gospels, epistles). But we did not. The terms missionary linguistics and colonial linguistics (to be distinguished from linguistic colonization; see below) designate all of the significant, in terms of size or interest, empirical findings obtained since the Age of Exploration at the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the modern era. These findings were gained thanks to the description of many non-European languages (almost all non-Indo-European from a typological point of view) and to standardization or codification that involved providing writing systems for languages that did not have them. This “linguistics” is contemporary to the colonial era, strictly speaking. It is thus primarily the work of the missionaries of Catholic orders and Protestant societies. 2 The original project was initiated by Mariangela Albano and Thị Kiều Ly Phạm. 3 Braudel, Grammaire des civilisations, 393–94. This and all other translations not referenced are our own.

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It can also belong to our historiographical retrospective horizon,4 after decolonization. In the former, we mostly find transcription, translation, and grammatization5 practices (typically, the production of dictionaries and grammar books). In the latter, we also look at descriptions of language use, situations of diglossia, contact between languages, language policies, etc.; these often replaced the former. In short, we are examining a cluster of knowledge relating to linguistic auxiliary sciences, as they would have been called at the end of the nineteenth century: sociolinguistics (or sociology of language), ethnolinguistics (or linguistic anthropology), language planning, and discursive analysis.6 Our retrospective approach also focuses on the pedagogical side of missionary and colonial linguistics, for—as Otto Zwartjes reminds us in his contribution—“the impressive pre-modern corpus of linguistic and pedagogical texts [can now be] studied in light of the historiography of foreign language documentation, teaching, and learning, a relatively new discipline.”

The grammatization of languages and linguistic colonization As research fields directly tied to the creation of transcontinental empires, both missionary and colonial linguistics and the language didactics associated with them cannot be isolated within the organization of disciplines: 4 On the notion of retrospective horizon, see Auroux, “Histoire des sciences et entropie des systèmes scientifiques.” 5 The term gramaticalização used in this way can be found in some dated works written in Portuguese (Brazil), such as those by Da Silveira Bueno (A Formação histórica da língua portuguêsa, ch. 14). In French the neologism grammatisation was introduced at the expense of grammaticalisation (“grammaticalization” or “grammaticization”) in order to avoid potential confusion with the process of transformation of an expression or word into a grammatical marker. The earliest use of grammatisation in French can be found in Renée Balibar (L’institution du français, 178)—for whom people are grammatized, in other words, they are taught grammar within a school setting—then by Sylvain Auroux, for whom languages are grammatized (La révolution technologique de la grammatisation). Auroux’s work is therefore what brought the expression, as we are using it here, into popular use. According to this meaning, which has become standard, grammatiser une langue (grammatizing a language) consists in equipping it with a writing system (the invention of the oldest ones constitutes the first “technological revolution” with language as its object) and then with dictionaries and grammar books (grammatization, strictly speaking). 6 This shift in the paradigms of colonial and decolonial linguistics (from formal or descriptive knowledge about languages to sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology) constitutes the main theme of the collective work coordinated by Deumert, Storch, and Shepherd: Colonial and Decolonial Linguistics.

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both are (or should be considered)7 part of a larger ensemble known as colonial sciences, a label under which we find disciplines such as history, human geography, ethnography, and political economics as well as the demography of colonized countries.8 On an even larger scale, missionary and colonial linguistics and didactics can be assigned to the field of imperial cultures,9 if—alongside and sometimes even contrary to scientific knowledge per se—we intend to use this term to designate the representations (including folk linguistics or Laienlinguistik), ideologies, or myths in which colonialism found expression. On the conceptual level, two distinct yet interwoven processes come into play. They should be defined relative to each other: 1) the grammatization of languages, for the purpose of knowledge and communication or with the goal of evangelizing, or often both simultaneously; 2) linguistic colonization, conceived of by the authors who introduced (or who have used) the concept as a process of subordination/domination, transfer, and/or substitution of languages. During this process, the languages of the colonizer and of the colonized are not always in isolation, facing one another. Indeed, among the different languages in contact, we find local vehicular ones (Swahili in Central and East Africa, for example, along with Kikongo, Lingala, and Luba in Belgian Congo), lingua francas created or chosen for the purpose of koineization (such as Indonesian), or pidgins (such as petit nègre, formalized as français tirailleur, a language entirely invented in French West Africa); these are languages that Joseph Errington in this volume proposes to call “imperial” rather than “colonial,” insofar as they are not those of the homeland. This was the case for Bamanankan (Bambara) as well, a vehicular language designated in the manuals for colonial troops operating in French West Africa as a language that could also be used, in simplified and basic form, among the tirailleurs sénégalais (Senegalese riflemen), regardless of the ethnic or linguistic group to which they belonged (see Cécile Van Den Avenne in this volume). 7 Actually, the place occupied by knowledge or doxa on languages within colonial cultures is not so frequently treated in the works dedicated to the field. For instance, the editors and the contributors of Tensions of Empire, which is now a classic, “examine the colonial contexts in which the disciplines of geography, anthropology, history, and literature developed” (Cooper and Stoler, “Between Metropole and Colony,” Preface, 4). No reference to linguistics here: language is only considered from a literary point of view. 8 See Zwartjes in this volume. Also consult Singaravélou, L’École française d’Extrême-Orient and Professer l’Empire. 9 Sibeud, Une science impériale pour l’Afrique; Sibeud, “Cultures coloniales et impériales”; Hall, Cultures of Empire; Salvatore, Culturas imperiales.

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This is also the case for Standard Arabic in South Sudan, a situation of transfer examined by Andrea Facchin in his contribution. In this example, a high culture language, used in a recently decolonized country—the Sudan being formerly “Anglo-Egyptian”—as a high variety, distinct from the socalled “dialectal” variants of Arabic used in the Nile valley, then became an instrument for a second homegrown colonization. This process was a deleterious renewal of the first one: the colonization of the country’s non-Arabic-speaking populations, the speakers of one of the 133 vernacular languages of the southern part of the country10 (without accounting for creole languages). This was a hybrid experience stemming from a linguistic and educational policy of “Arabization” (taʿrīb) developed starting in the 1950s by the centralized power of a newly independent Sudan, a language policy that was part of a national unification project11 that ran counter to the aims of the former British colonizer (divide and conquer). The experience was hybrid, or perhaps atypical: unlike other teaching practices of Arabic as a foreign language, which (during that same period, when the field was establishing itself as an autonomous discipline) responded almost entirely to the ad hoc needs of students in an academic setting, the massive Sudanese experiment was also intended to “cure” the Arabic language of the interferences (tadāḫul luġawī) of local Sudanese languages, such as Bari, Beja, Fur, or Shilluk. Of all these situations, those involving languages “invented” by the colonizer deserve particular attention. We are familiar with the Jesuit projects of reduction,12 discussed by Diego Poli, according to which different linguistic communities were brought together within a single territory, an autonomous territory rather than a colony per se belonging to the Spanish or Portuguese Crown. These were projects that in Brazil would result in the elaboration of a koine distinct from the language of the prince (lίngua do Principe), a constructed language based on Tupi, known as lίngua geral.13 The chapters written here by Diego Poli and Tarek Abouelgamal both deal with situations in which, within the missionary or colonial context, “a language is learned while making it up” (Poli) or “a language is created by describing it” (Abouelgamal), phenomena that are ultimately the same. The case of 10 Which belong, for the most part, to the Nilo-Saharan family. 11 Which we know ultimately failed, with the independence of South Sudan in 2011 after a long civil war. 12 Redução in Brazil, reducción in Paraguay. 13 Lingua brasilica in Latin, ie’engatu (the correct language) in Tupi. Its equivalent in IberoAmerica under Spanish tutelage is lengua general (i.e., mainly Nahuatl in New Spain—for which a chair was created at the Real y Pontifica Universidad de México in 1570—and Quechua in Peru, taught at the Universidad San Marcos in Lima from 1579 to 1770).

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Indonesia, analyzed by Errington, also comes to mind. His contribution presents a case that does not involve this imaginary linguistics,14 out of which artificial languages that have failed to establish themselves often emerge. This project was in fact successful once the Indonesian nationalists, having faced the complex plurilingualism of the archipelago they had liberated from Dutch tutelage, accepted, began to promote, and continued teaching as a national language the system created by the former colonizer. The Indonesian language, inherited from the colonial period, is indeed neither Dutch nor the language with the most native speakers (Javanese), nor any of the other numerous local languages. Rather, it is a “neutral” lingua franca whose closest antecedent was a variety of Malay taught in schools in the Dutch East Indies that became the language of anticolonial resistance in the wake of the Second World War. Errington can therefore compare the didactics of Indonesian, that “forged” language, with that of English (that is, the globalized lingua franca). But the production of artif icial languages does not only result from linguistic and educational policies put forth in the context of imperial colonization. It can also result from what we sometimes call “interior colonization” (a phenomenon we will revisit shortly). As such, καθαρεύουσα (Katharevousa) was advocated and then promoted and taught in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The language was imagined to be part of the Atticist tradition,15 a Greek language supposedly purified of its foreign borrowings and whose grammar is archaic and nothing but a linguistic artifact modeled after the Attic dialect of antiquity. Katharevousa was particularly emphasized under the dictatorship “of the colonels” (1967–74), before colloquial (Demotic) Greek was definitively instituted as standard koine in 1975. And what is true of languages is also true of writing systems. The aforementioned policy of Arabization put forth in South Sudan also included a scriptural aspect: in the context of teaching Arabic as a foreign language, the instructors were committed to transcribing the different languages with which they were in contact or, rather, to employ an expression that Facchin borrows from Daniele Baglioni and Olga Tribulato, to subjecting them to transcritturazione.16 As Thị Kiều Ly Phạm and Mariangela Albano show, the Romanized writing system of Vietnamese, which is today called 14 See Auroux, Chevalier, Jacques-Chaquin, and Marchello-Nizia, La linguistique fantastique. 15 See the chapter written by L. Pantéloglou in this volume. 16 A term that he prefers to use over transcription or transliteration—he considers them to be polysemic—to designate the transfer to a language of a writing system originally conceived for another language. See Baglioni and Tribulato, Contatti di lingue, 19. Facchin suggests translating transcritturazione as “script shift.”

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(chữ) quốc ngữ (national language [writing]), was created for internal use (for their own learning) by Jesuit missionaries—mostly Portuguese and Italians—at the beginning of the seventeenth century and used just as esoterically by the French priests of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (Paris Foreign Missions Society) from the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century. The system was introduced into teaching starting in 1861, as soon as French colonization began in Cochinchina and then in Tonkin, and ultimately was widely disseminated throughout Vietnamese society. It was then promoted as a writing system to be used in the Court of Huế and replaced sinograms among educated people and in administrative and judicial acts, following the abolition of competitive recruitment of mandarins in 1919. But it is significant that the Vietnamese patriots claimed this writing system inherited from the Jesuits and the colonists and used it for their own purposes to encourage literacy and educate the population, until 1945 when quốc ngữ was declared the official writing system of the nation. In addition to these two examples of Vietnam and the Sudan, several of the contributors to this volume consider the varying status of graphic tools and their uses in education; the role of these tools depends on whether they are used for languages with an ancient written tradition, languages for which different competing scriptural systems are available, or languages that have recently emerged from orality. If the grammatization of an endogenous language does not necessarily prevent its replacement by that of the colonizer or by the other languages he instrumentalizes for the purpose of domination, equipping it with a writing system (or with another writing system), grammar books, and/ or dictionaries or integrating it into a process of koineization (which does modify—sometimes radically—its existence, its status, and the conditions of its use) also protects it in most cases. Conversely, the effects of linguistic colonization, as we have sought to define it above, do not always contravene these effects of missionary/colonial linguistics. The main goal of missionary linguistics was to allow the grammarians and lexicographers who had undertaken it—most of whom were autodidacts, at least at first—to learn the languages they were describing to complete their evangelizing mission, while the primary objective of linguistic colonization was to allow the representatives of imperial powers or their colonizing organs (which still included Christian missions most of the time) to disseminate their own language (or another language of their choice) among colonized peoples, mainly through schooling. But, as we can see in the examples of Indonesia and Vietnam, intellectuals who stood up to colonialism in their country

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sometimes did end up adopting the language and/or the writing introduced or imposed by the colonizer in order to turn them against him and transform them into instruments of emancipation.17 In many other cases, while missionary/colonial linguistics contributed to the protection of languages by stabilizing and standardizing them, linguistic colonization, as an integral part of imperial projects, also conversely led to the precarity of these languages’ status or even to their disappearance. This was caused by the enslavement or extermination of the peoples who spoke them, weakening or erasing the cultures they depended on, eliminating the “prominent and educated natives who were regarded as potential inciters of rebellion against [colonial] rule,”18 and encouraging what Achille Mbembe, quoted here by Siebetcheu, calls the “autophagia” of peoples consenting to the dispossession of their language. With respect to the study of colonial linguistics, we are faced with a domain that was established fairly long ago and whose contours appear to be clearly defined at first sight, but whose meaning and scope have in fact considerably evolved since the expression was used almost fifty years ago in works first published in French.19 According to Louis-Jean Calvet, one of the pioneers of this research, it was a matter of showing how, ultimately, the study of languages has always proposed a certain vision of linguistic communities and their effects, and how this vision has been utilized to justify the colonial enterprise […]. Linguistics has been for a long time a way of denying the languages of other peoples, 17 The francophone Algerian writer Kateb Yacine regarded the French language as “war booty” (interview on the French radio program Un certain regard, Paris, 1971). In 1962 the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor—then president of Senegal—considered French a “wonderful tool found in the rubble of the colonial regime” (Senghor, “Le français langue de culture,” 844). Salman Rushdie justifies the choice of English as a literary language by the fact that colonization has de facto globalized the languages of colonial powers (“An Indian Writer in England,” passim). 18 As Raymond Siebetcheu writes in his contribution regarding Italian colonialism. 19 The expression only really began to be used around 2000 or 2010 in works written in English, in particular with the publication of the volume by Errington, Colonial Linguistics, but the 1970s is when one began, generally speaking, to critically assess colonial language policies, also in the English-speaking world. See, for example, Spencer, “Colonial Language Policies and their Legacies” and “West Africa and the English Language,” or Seboek, Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 7, Linguistics in Sub-Saharian Africa. Among the earliest occurrences of the expression in the German language was in 2011 with the Berlin publisher De Gruyter’s creation of a collection combining “colonial” and “postcolonial” linguistics in the title: Koloniale und Postkoloniale Linguistik (KPL). The works published in this series, mostly of a historiographical type, relate above all to formerly colonized countries and not to formerly colonizing countries. They therefore have little to do with the so-called “postcolonial studies,” which we will discuss below.

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this negation, alongside other forms of negation, constituting the ideological basis of our “superiority,” of the superiority of the Christian West over the “exotic” peoples that we would happily subjugate.20

The object of study for this field was not historically defined by Calvet, as we can see, since it was to be examined both ex post (colonial linguistics being “utilized to justify…”) and ex ante (“the peoples … that we would subjugate”), and the field can be situated in a perspective of political retrospection specific to France, since, for Calvet, it was also a matter of studying “the final stage of French imperialism: Francophonie.”21 In this sense, it has more to do with what we have referred to above as linguistic colonization and linguistic colonialism than with colonial linguistics. In considering Van Den Avenne’s publications, twenty years later, we can see that the field’s accusatory nature has lost some of its political or polemical strength, to the benefit of its epistemic aspects: [Colonial linguistics brings together] textual linguistic descriptions of extra-European languages produced in colonial situations by European describers (for the most part, though in some cases, we find “natives” participating in the colonial enterprise). They have in common the fact that they offer relatively unified written representations of “exotic” languages, placing them within frameworks of analysis that make them more familiar to Europeans, as well as the fact that they turn these languages into knowledge-producing objects.22

This perspective is less directly focused on French colonization or neocolonialism than Calvet’s work; as in Errington’s work,23 it focuses on a more strictly defined archive: textual descriptions share in common that they are written representations of extra-European languages, be they grammar books and dictionaries (as we know, already significant for missionary linguistics) or other types of texts that demonstrate—often in quite romanticized ways24—and thus format the languages of colonized cultures (newspapers and travel journals, literary works, correspondence, lists of words, glossaries, etc.). 20 Calvet, Linguistique et colonialisme, back cover blurb. 21 Ibidem. 22 Van Den Avenne, Linguistiques et colonialismes, “Présentation,” 2. 23 Errington, Colonial Linguistics, in particular. 24 See Chrétien, “Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire.”

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[Colonial linguistics, understood in this way, produced] lasting social effects up to the postcolonial period, sketching out the languages and the peoples perceived, and then perceiving themselves, as different, in promoting a neutral vehicular language, that was then reappropriated (as in the case of Swahili in the Belgian Congo, thoroughly described in the works of Johannes Fabian), and introducing hierarchies between languages that generated lasting diglossic situations.25

The binary division indicated above (missionary vs. colonial) thus remains on the whole a general framework of analysis into which many cases do not fit and which is inadequate regarding the descriptions of many indigenous languages, such as the type of description that began at the end of the nineteenth century within linguistic anthropology—a field launched by ethnologists and linguists such as John Wesley Powell, Franz Boas (whose Handbook of American Indian Languages dates back to 1911), Leonard Bloomfield, Edward Sapir, Bronisław Malinowski, or Émile Benveniste.26 Nuance is therefore needed here, just as it is when considering the concurrent opposition, often too pronounced, between first and second colonization (in the sense of Eric Hobsbawm; see below).

Missionary teaching vs. (or and) colonial teaching Regarding the pedagogical component of missionary linguistics, the education programs that we look at in this volume must be understood according to the symmetry or reciprocity that characterizes them. On the one hand, missionaries learned indigenous languages to catechize the populations they intended to convert and to provide religious instruction in these same languages in the context of growing maritime empires. Yet the principal means devised for learning them, during the Renaissance era and the classical age, entailed first describing them according to the model that has been called extended Latin grammar,27 which Alejandro Díaz Villalba summarizes here. This meant that the Artes (treatises on grammar) published at the time and conceived of in keeping with this model are based on adaptation strategies that are commensurable among 25 Van Den Avenne, Linguistiques et colonialismes, 4. See in particular Fabian, Language on the Road. 26 We will come back to this later in the section dedicated to linguistic fieldwork. 27 Auroux, Histoire des idées linguistiques, vol. 1, 19.

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one another: strategies so salient that the grammarian struggles to find the parts of speech or the morphosyntactic properties in the language that are familiar to him or, conversely, in an equally contrastive approach, points at “missing letters” and “unknown sounds” in the language studied. These strategies were maintained long after the initial period of missionary linguistics, that of the extended Latin grammar. As Errington notes in his contribution, however diverse the languages described and the language facts identified, the texts of colonial linguistics are strikingly similar. As a practical matter, linguists worked in zones of colonial contact on the premise that the languages they were describing could be compared with and presented in the image of others more familiar to them. We can then wonder what the “degree of commensurability” (to borrow Díaz Villalba’s expression) might be, the conditions of comparability between texts dealing with radically different languages that are typologically unrelated and that are produced in disparate historical contexts. In 1547 the Franciscan Olmos indicated that the Latin model does not account for some forms of Nahuatl: “We shall present the conjugation, not according to the grammar, but as the language requires, because some expressions that exist in our language or in Latin are not used [in Nahuatl].”28 It even happened that some of the Artes were not expected to rely on such a model, as Zwartjes explains, as in the case of Rincón’s Arte mexicano (1595); but Rincón does, in fact, partly rely on it. Or, in other cases, they do not directly refer to it but require the translation of Latin categories into the vernacular language of the grammarian (designed as romance in the Artes written in Spanish or lingoagem for those in Portuguese),29 which serves as a bridge allowing for the passage toward the autochthon language(s) being described. Furthermore, some of the languages described, particularly those that were already equipped with a writing system, sometimes possessed a certain dignity in the eyes of missionaries, equivalent to that of their native language, especially if it was the language of an empire and a thriving civilization (China) or of a regional power (Japan, Tonkin, or Cochinchina), a fortiori if they had produced ancient and refined literature, as in the case of classical Chinese literature. In situations like this, missionary exogrammatization frequently came with an accomodatio made for the beliefs and cultural or 28 “Se pondrá la conjugacíon, no como en la gramática, sino como la lengua lo pide y demanda, porque algunas maneras de decir que nosotros tenemos en nuestra lengua o en la latina, esta no la tiene” (Olmos, Arte de la lengua mexicana, 150). The text was transcribed in modernized spelling by Heréndira Téllez Nieto in her critical edition (2022). 29 Díaz Villalba, in this volume.

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religious practices of the mission land, made easier since it was a matter of converting Asian countries from the top down, first addressing the intellectual, social, and political elites.30 As such, Poli shows how Matteo Ricci examined Confucianism and noted the absence of concern for transcendence—which he proposed to respond to by developing a worship of the Heaven31—and explores the ways in which he established conceptual equivalences between Confucianism and Epicureanism, and later Stoicism, or between Buddhism and Pythagoreanism, assumed to share the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. In this way, Ricci sought to render moral, philosophical, and religious references from the Chinese world “commensurable” with his own, just as extended Latin grammar assumed the commensuration of the languages at hand. Reciprocally, he believed that mobilizing the arts of memory, the rhetorical techniques inherited from Greco-Latin antiquity, could be used by educated Chinese learners in their own study and understanding of sinograms, as Maria Lucia Aliffi and Mariangela Albano reveal. At the same time, the onset of school enrollment within missions, intended above all to train local clergy before approaching greater numbers, had allowed for some speakers of autochthonous languages to learn the vernacular idioms of Europe. These were idioms that, at the beginning of the period studied in this volume, had not yet completely attained the status of full-blown language (a status accorded at the time only to Latin) in the minds of the clerics, who wrote (and thought?) primarily in Latin, or in the minds of the speakers of these very idioms. The study of these idioms had only just begun its “technological transfer” from Latin, and the movements of exogrammatization and endogrammatization (the publication of the first Romance language grammar books) took place at approximately the same time (Díaz Villalba). A great deal later than the beginning of the exogrammatization process, missionary linguistics associated the acculturation of colonized peoples to reading/writing (namely literacy) with one of the main initial modes of grammatization—that is, the act of equipping a language with an alphabetic writing system, whether or not it previously 30 “The spiritual aid which is given to important and public persons ought to be regarded as more important, since it is a more universal good. This is true whether these persons are laymen such as princes, lords, magistrates, or administrators of justice, or whether they are clerics such as prelates. This holds true also of spiritual aid given to persons who are distinguished for learning and authority […].” (The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, part VII, ch. 3 [Missions…], § 622, 292). 31 This goal was all the more strategic because, in the traditional Chinese religion, the Emperor, Son of Heaven (天子, tiānzĭ), was deemed to hold his power from a mandate conferred by Heaven.

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possessed another type of script or even two other types (like sinograms and the “demotic” system chữ nôm, two systems that scholars and educated Vietnamese continued to use until the beginning of the twentieth century). In some situations, this equipping is known as Romanization when it concerns a so-called Latin alphabet made up of signs borrowed from the national writing of its Western European inventors; one example would be the alphabets of Portuguese and Italian, which Jesuit missionaries used to transcribe Vietnamese at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Other signs are then added to the alphabet to represent the phonological specificities of the languages whose writing has been Romanized, as in the case of the diacritical marks that encode the tones of Vietnamese or Chinese. As for literacy, it cannot be dissociated from the inculcation of cultural patterns transmitted through reading books. The significance of these patterns, in particular those studied by Spaëth and Siebetcheu in their contributions dedicated to French West Africa and Italian colonies in East Africa, respectively, serves to remind us that colonial propaganda, before even integrating a discourse aimed at the residents of mainland France and Italy,32 was disseminated among the pupils of colonized countries and their communities. This propaganda thereby served the pedagogical ideals of teachers by promoting a glorified vision of assimilation or cultural integration and, at the same time, spread a devalued image of traditional cultures. The teaching of colonial languages (beginning with Spanish and Portuguese) to Christianized populations, which was initially a mere side effect or collateral of what had been called the “spiritual conquest” or “conquest of the souls,” ended up becoming one of the explicit goals of the conquest, but a goal that would remain subordinate to pastoral tasks for a long time.33 The “missionary” and educational enterprises of other religions, such as Buddhism or Islam, gave way to linguistic reflection; it is not, however, taken into account here, since it was not part of a colonization policy like the kind designed and implemented by Europe. This linguistic reflection incidentally took on a completely different shape. As Nicholas Ostler points out: We are still looking for an explanation of why the Christian missionaries of the 16th century suddenly took to language analysis, a practice they 32 For a comparison with the colonial propaganda disseminated by British schoolbooks, see Bernard Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists. 33 Whose results have remained very limited: it is estimated that, in 1950, barely about ten percent of the population in colonized Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa was converted. See Guedj and De Suremain, “Un Prométhée colonial?” 286.

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kept up ever after. For all other missions, after all, it had been enough to acquire functional bilingualism in the natural way, and then (perhaps) to provide written translations. […] The importance for us is that all the Christian missionaries were not only literate: they also all had had the experience of learning a foreign language (Latin) from a book.34

In European colonial linguistics, unlike the first sort of missionary linguistics, teaching/learning is hence usually marked by significant asymmetry; it operated almost exclusively in one direction, the objective being the dissemination or imposition of the colonizer’s language via writing, the sole language to which the capacity to “civilize” is attributed, a topic to which we will return. The teachers, be they Catholic or secular, working within this framework did not learn the local languages (or at least not systematically) and, when they learned and were able to speak them, did not always or usually deem it necessary to describe their forms or usages.35 The task of writing textbooks and creating dictionaries was thus left increasingly to self-taught grammarians (e.g., colonial administrators, military officers) or professional linguists. The case of Protestant teachers is different, as we will see, but even in their case the long-term effectiveness of the local language skills is limited. Their results are disparate depending on the period or the colonial sphere. As such, in the British colonies of Africa in the late 1950s, only a little more than half of them could master one, and only in a very basic way in most cases.36 The devolution of language description to professional linguists took place progressively. Again taking the example of Vietnam, we can highlight three distinct moments in time: 1) the period of missionary linguistics strictly speaking: the Italo-Portuguese Jesuit period (ca. 1615–60) followed by the French period with the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (ca. 1660–1860); 2) when the French military and colonial administrators produced a great number of manuals and grammar books as more or less knowledgeable amateurs during the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century; 3) the period of linguists who initially worked within the colonial system but acted as professionals with respect to the description of endogenous languages. The publication of 34 Ostler, “The Social Roots of Missionary Linguistics,” 42 and 43. 35 See the case of Tunisia under French protectorate studied by Nishivama in “Les civilisés ont-ils besoin d’apprendre la langue des indigènes?” 36 According to a 1957 survey quoted by Welmers in “Christian Missions and Language Policy.”

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two studies dedicated to the “Pronunciation of Cochinchinese” (1910–11) and the “Annamite language” (1912) by Maurice Grammont, a phonetician and a comparatist, and Lê Quang Trinh, can be considered the starting point of this third period.

Colonization(s) and globalization The expression “Eurocentric model” found in the call for papers for this volume might have been misleading in that it gave the impression of the existence of a unique or uniform apparatus; it would undoubtedly have been better to speak of several models that sometimes succeed one another and sometimes overlap. It is true that the Europeans taking part in the conquest of other continents starting in the fifteenth century (or even earlier during the Crusades, toward the Orient or even toward the southern margins of Europe)37 had the same objective, which was initially strategic and mercantile, to impose themselves throughout the world. But the “Westernization of the world,”38 meaning all the main and secondary effects of such a goal, be they of a religious or a more general transcultural nature, took on different forms depending on the given time period and the geographical areas. However this variety of forms does not necessarily prohibit a comprehensive perspective in research that considers what all periods and imperial constructions have in common. In some studies, the notions of proto-globalization or globalization are superimposed onto colonization, allowing, through a retrospective method, for a full understanding of the continuous process of homogenization on the planetary scale, a process deployed over at least five centuries both on an immaterial level and on a material and political level. Accordingly, in identifying the first great generalized colonial expansion from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century as the first stage of globalization, Serge Gruzinski39 situates it—beyond Westernization per se—within a longer timeframe that corresponds to the universal history of the mixing of cultures. This is a “connected” history of 37 The date 1492, marking the “discovery” of America and taken as a starting point for a form of modernity associated with the premises for colonization, must also be understood as a point marking the end of a much older enterprise, especially on the Iberian Peninsula: “the imperial idea […] is nourished by the ancient origins of the Spanish crusade” (Braudel, Grammaire des civilisations, 455). 38 See Latouche, L’Occidentalisation du monde. 39 Les quatre parties du monde.

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the transfer of beliefs and practices that is still in effect today40 and that, as such, denaturalizes the perspective that we usually take on it. Even though Hobsbawm distinguishes this first moment in time from a “second colonization,” specific to the second half of the nineteenth century and to the twentieth century,41 the elements of continuity between these two moments predominate. The rivalry primarily between the powers of Britain, France, and Germany can be appreciated by considering their common imperialist goals and ideologies, held together by long-term strong political and economic motivations. According to an accepted story (now challenged),42 the Berlin Conference led in 1884 and 1885 to the partial cutting up of the African continent between competing European nations as well as between concessionary companies and individuals, like Leopold II, the Belgian king who was given the Congo as personal property. Less than the drawing of borders (articles 34 and 35 of the General Act of the Conference), which remained virtual and mostly imprecise (except for the coastal regions) with the cartography of Africa being still quite incomplete at the time, the Berlin Conference planned for the divvying up of zones of economic influence in a context of competition between free trade and monopolistic practices. But it also provided for certain common rules that were to preside over the organization of the colonies on judicial, administrative, and religious levels.43 Economics and politics were thus scaled up and sped up accordingly. To take this second colonization into account, history therefore had to go beyond national borders and instead embrace a global geo-historical approach here as well: Two major regions of the world were, for practical purposes, entirely divided up: Africa and the Pacific. No independent states were left at all in the Pacific, now totally distributed among the British, French, Germans, Dutch, USA, and—still on a modest scale—Japan. By 1914, except for Ethiopia, the insignificant West African republic of Liberia, and that 40 For the sociolinguistic and discursive aspects of the current globalization process, see Coupland, The Handbook of Language and Globalization. Also consult Blommaert, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. 41 The Age of Empire, 1875–1914. 42 The scope and consequences of the Berlin Conference have been revisited in several recent works. While the conference is no longer considered a foundational event of the second colonization in some of this scholarship, the story told by the likes of Hobsbawm and other historians, which depicts the 1875–1914 period as the time when the world was divided between great European powers, is not discredited. 43 The General Act (art. 6) obliged the colonial powers to support the work of the missions.

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part of Morocco which still resisted complete conquest, Africa belonged entirely to the British, French, German, Portuguese, and, marginally, Spanish empires […]. Between 1876 and 1915 about one quarter of the globe’s land surface was distributed or redistributed as colonies among a half-dozen states. Britain increased its territories by some 4 million square miles, France by some 3.5 million, Germany acquired more than 1 million, Belgium and Italy just under 1 million each. The USA acquired some 100,000, mainly from Spain, Japan something like the same amount from China, Russia, and Korea.44

In this context, all forms of nationalism were exacerbated in proportion to the progress of the globalization of the earth, through which territories and populations were divided, subordinated, and administered. While colonial systems did indeed differ, they all stemmed from the same racialized and racist ideological mold that legitimized and organized them, all the while pitting them against one another: Even where ideology insisted on at least potential equality, it was dissolved into domination. France believed in transforming its subjects into Frenchmen, notional descendants […] of ‘nos ancêtres les Gaulois’ (our ancestors the Gauls), unlike the British, convinced of the essential and permanent non-Englishness of Bengalis and Yoruba. Yet the very existence of these strata of native évolués underlined the lack of ‘evolution’ of the great majority.45

Colonization à la française and colonization à l’anglaise are often contrasted.46 We have, on the one hand, direct, “top-down” administration, which was costly in terms of the political apparatus needed and the manpower required and was set up progressively: it was necessary to train and introduce public servants with local personnel to assist, in the best scenario. On the 44 Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 57–58 and 59. 45 Ibidem, 71. 46 For an overview of the British imperial “project,” see Darwin, The Empire Project. Since the end of the nineteenth century and before (or regardless of) the significant growth of the postcolonial studies starting in the 1990s, British historiography has produced several summary works about the genesis and development of the Empire, in particular Sir John Seeley’s famous book, The Expansion of England (among the oldest ones) or, more recently, Bernard Porter’s The Lion’s Share (followed by The Absent-Minded Imperialists on the ideological, cultural, and educational aspects of imperialism), Bayly’s Imperial Meridian, and Cain and Hokins’s British Imperialism, which focuses mainly on economic aspects. For the Portuguese imperial project and its representations, see Ramada Curto, Cultura imperial e projetos coloniais.

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other hand, indirect rule, tested and adopted in Nigeria at the beginning of the twentieth century,47 which relied on tribal leaders and local hierarchies, allowed for significant economic means and granted some degree of freedom to local populations.48 While direct administration is in principle based on the rapid acculturation of local populations, indirect administration, also in principle, guards against any kind of assimilation. In reality, all this varies in complexity and order of the process in the area in question. The traces left by these two systems can sometimes be attributed to “the ruses of history.” Indirect rule, where it has been successful over time, indeed tended to dissolve traditional systems (languages, social structures, education, etc.), while the direct system tended to preserve and transform them in some cases.

Geography and the periodization of missionary/colonial linguistics or education The geographical, cultural, and/or linguistic areas studied in this volume are diverse and varied, as are the types of colonial or paracolonial systems (“informal empires”) established in these areas:49 Sub-Saharan Africa (mainly South Sudan, the Horn of Africa, West Africa), the Middle East (Egypt and Lebanon), Latin America, East Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, China, in particular), as well as some European countries—we’ll see why—such as Spain, Italy, and Greece. In addition to Latin (which remained a “grammatizing” metalanguage during the Renaissance and part of the European classical era) and the national languages of most colonial metropoles (Castilian, Portuguese, French, British or American English, Dutch, German, and Italian) or of other European countries (Greek, Hungarian, etc.), the languages and dialects of the cultures studied or mentioned in this volume are also quite numerous (more than one hundred) and varied, whether considered in their situation of contact with other languages and whether in a context of full colonization, partial colonization, or mere attempts to colonize. They include most native American languages (those of the Algic, Kariri, Macro-jê, Mayan, Mixe, Oto-Manguean, Quechuan, Tupi-Guarani, 47 See Perham, Native Administration in Nigeria. See also Stumpf, La politique linguistique au Cameroun, de 1884 à 1960. 48 The case of postcolonial India studied by Arjun Appadurai (Modernity at Large) constitutes a significant example of this trend. 49 Excluding most of the colonies of settlement, such as Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, regarding British Empire, for instance.

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or Uto-Aztecan families), African languages (of the Afro-Asiatic, Bantu, Hamito-Semitic, Mande, Niger-Congo, or Nilo-Saharan families), Arabic, Chinese languages, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malay, languages of the Indian sub-continent (Hindi, Konkani, Tamil, etc.), several artificial languages, different vehicular ones (Swahili, Wolof, Bamanankan, Galla [= Oromo], Nahuatl, Quechua, etc.), some pidgins or creoles, and languages promoted in the context of decolonization, such as bahasa Indonesia, the lingua franca used in Indonesia, as mentioned previously. It is then worth pointing out the vast span of the period considered: it extends from the end of the fifteenth/beginning of the sixteenth century, with Abouelgamal’s contribution dedicated in part to Spain in this period, to the end of the twentieth century. The periodization appears to be straightforward; it covers both periods of colonization observed by Hobsbawm, with emphasis on the second one during the greatest reach of colonization (e.g., the f irst half of the twentieth century), a period touched upon in Siebetcheu’s contribution on Somalia and Eritrea (Italian possessions); in Van Den Avenne’s and Spaëth’s contributions, which both cover French West Africa; and in Manar El Kak’s chapter on Lebanon. With respect to the terminus ad quem (the moment immediately following decolonization), the situations studied are usually those of lands that belonged to the oldest colonial empires just after they became independent states. In addition to Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Sudan, we find Egypt, discussed by Abouelgamal. Egypt is a country that was not colonized, in the strict sense of the term, in the modern era (except an aborted attempt during the short period of the French Expedition between 1798 and 1801), but it was nonetheless subject to the regime of the British “protectorate” from 1882 to 1922. The volume therefore lacks chapters dedicated to the Ottoman Empire (up until its dissolution after the First World War) or to some of the other modern colonial empires, such as those of Germany between 1884 and 1918, the United States after 1896 (Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico), and Japan between 1895 and 1945 (primarily Manchuria, Korea, and Taiwan50), which, despite having developed later than the British, Dutch, and French Empires, nonetheless generated specific linguistic and educational policies. A study of the Russian Empire is also lacking, though its progressive extension—beginning as early as the sixteenth century and increasingly starting in the eighteenth century—into Siberia, to the banks of the Black Sea, into the Caucasus, and into Central Asia assumed an atypical form compared to those of other modern imperial constructions, to the point that some 50 See in particular Hui-yu, Taiwan in Japan’s Empire Building.

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historians, like Jane Burbank et al.,51 hesitate to categorize it as colonialism: flexible governance over the regions conquered, the maintenance of local authorities (during the Tsarist period at least), lack of a real strategy of forced conversion with regard to Muslim populations (despite some exceptions in the eighteenth century), no generalized or systematic Russification in an exceptionally multilingual space. While the techniques for assembling data and description regarding languages hardly differ in Russia, all things being equal (or with the slight differences that define the time periods) from the techniques put in place by the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the French, the British, the Dutch, the Germans, or the Italians in their respective colonies, the specificities of Russian language policy, particularly during the Soviet period, are notable. Consider, for example, the particularities of the theoretical framework (or successive frameworks) highly influenced by Marxist analysis during the hegemony of Nikolaj Marr’s Novoe učenie o jazyke (New theory of language) in the 1930s and 1940s: specific forms of linguistic planning, dealing both with the status and the corpus of the languages of the “allogenous” (inorodtsy) populations of the Soviet Union.52 This language policy, whose overall unity should of course be considered with caution (and often with much caution), concerned not only Caucasian and Asian languages. When Eastern Moldavia (the part that became independent after 1991, currently about 70 percent Romanian-speaking)53 was annexed by the USSR in 1940 (following the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact) and then again in 1945, it was crucial to the Soviets to institute Moldavian as an autonomous language and differentiate it as much as possible from Romanian, from which it does not in fact differ.54 This forced, fantasized distinction depended particularly on the obligation to write (or 51 Burbank, Hagen, and Remnev, Russian Empire. Space, People, Power, 1700–1930. 52 When speaking of corpus development projects, we are referring to one of the best-known aspects of “Marrist linguistics”: the idea according to which unrelated languages are destined to merge into a single language, on the scale of the entire Union, by way of contact and borrowed words or forms made possible by “classless society,” on the basis of his Japhaetic theory. See Marr, K bakinskoj diskussii o jafetidologii i marksizme [About the Baku discussion on Japhaetidology and Marxism]. Marr also created an unusable alphabet of seventy-eight letters for Abkhazian (a Caucasian language); the alphabet was based on both the Latin alphabet and a pasigraphic-type code. 53 As in most of the former Soviet republics that became independent after the end of the USSR, many individuals—especially the older generations who learned Russian at school—are bilingual. 54 A well-known anecdote illustrates this type of linguistic “imperialism”: when the f irst secretary of the Romanian Communist Party was visiting his Moldavian counterpart in the 1950s, he was obliged to go to Chişinău with an interpreter who “translated” the content of the exchanges from Romanian to “Moldavian” (in other words, into Romanian) and vice versa.

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rather, to write again) the “Moldavian language” in Cyrillic characters.55 Admittedly, during perestrojka, the Soviet of the Socialist Republic of Moldavia declared that “Moldavian and Romanian [were] two identical languages” (decree of August 31, 1989). But the consecutive upheavals that took place upon the dissolution of the USSR made the “question of language” in Moldavia very sensitive, in particular with respect to what it should be called. The imperial heritage is both Russian and Soviet: the significant Russian-speaking minority of Moldavia (Transnistria included) refers to it as moldavskij yazyk—limba moldovenească in Romanian—while the Romanian-speaking majority refers to it as limba română.

From missionary linguistics to colonial linguistics: Disruptions and continuities Even though there has rarely been any interruption in these two types of endeavors in the course of European history, or between the didactics that were linked to them, and though missionaries have continued to function in the twentieth century,56 the two types exhibit clear specificities. There is more than a difference in time period (the colonial era—in the sense of the “second colonization” defined by Hobsbawm—having succeeded the missionary era in many cases); there is also a difference in purpose. The expression missionary linguistics seems to have been first introduced by Victor Hanzeli57 and then established by Otto Zwartjes, Even Hovdhaugen, et al. in the Oslo Project on Missionary Linguistics (OsProMil, 2002). The project, which initially aimed to generate research on the early descriptions of non-Indo-European languages (mainly grammatical ones, i.e., missionary 55 Modern day Romanian is written in Latin characters. The alphabet of Old Slavonic was used by the Romanian Orthodox Church in a form adapted to the Romanian language since at least the sixteenth century (the oldest known document dates back to 1521). The first attempts at codifying Romanian writing into characters borrowed from the alphabets of Neo-Latin languages (Italian, mainly) date back to the end of the eighteenth century. The alphabet known as “Latin” was definitively adopted (initially in the civil sphere) in 1860, at the time of the foundation of the modern Romanian state. Some more recent examples: Khazakstan abandoned the Cyrillic alphabet for the Latin alphabet in 2017; Cherkess (= Adyghe), Chechen, or Ingush (languages mostly spoken in the present-day Federation of Russia), written in Arabic script during the Tsarist period and whose writing was Romanized in the 1920s following the work of the Soviet linguist Polivanov, have been written in the Cyrillic alphabet since 1938. 56 See Zimmermann, “Missionarslinguistik in kolonialen Kontexten: ein historischer Überblick”; Zimmermann and Kellermeier-Rehbein, Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics. 57 Missionary Linguistics in New France.

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grammars) completed by priests from several religious orders in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, was then extended to other geographical areas and to other fields of linguistic analysis (phonetics, lexicography, practices and theories of translation, etc.). The studies associated with this field of research58 are in fact much older (we can mention, in particular, the work of the Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau, which dates back to the 1960s).59 But it was not until the beginning of the twenty-first century that they developed into a discipline going by the (now widespread) name of missionary linguistics,60 which grew through a series of annual and then bi- and tri-annual conferences published by John Benjamins,61 course titles, journal issues, etc. The teaching practices accompanying missionary linguistics can be divided into two main categories: 1) practices specific to the training of Protestant or Catholic (Jesuit or, among the mendicant orders, Franciscan, Augustinian, or Dominican) missionaries looking to learn the local languages themselves;62 2) practices directed toward the populations to evangelize, aiming primarily to teach the vernacular language of the missionary or 58 For a definition of the field or the methodological and epistemological questions that it involves, see Hovdhaugen, “Missionary Grammars: An Attempt at Defining a Field of Research”; Zimmermann, “La construcción del objeto de la historiografía de la LM”; Zwartjes, “The Historiography of Missionary Linguistics”; Zwartjes, “Nuevos enfoques y desafíos metodológicos para el estudio de la lingüística misionera latinoamericana.” On the construction of a database in the field, see Hal, Peetermans, and Van Loon, “Presentation of the RELiCTA Database.” RELiCTA stands for Repertory of Early-Modern Linguistic and Catechetical Tools of America, Asia, and Africa. 59 “The Language of Canada in the Voyages of Jacques Cartier,” for example. Barbeau has listed and archived, almost exhaustively, the documents coming from (or related to) the oral traditions of his country (Native American and French-Canadian). 60 In the writings in Spanish, we occasionally find LM for Lingüística misionera. The use of the acronym, the stabilization that it implies or that it causes, in a way indicates the institutional recognition of the field. 61 See below, in the bibliography, the full series of proceedings from the International Conference on Missionary Linguistics since 2002, edited by Zwartjes et al. 62 The first grammar of Nahuatl modeled after Nebrija’s, which long remained handwritten (it would be printed for the first time in 1875 in Paris under the title Grammaire de la langue nahuatl ou mexicaine), was written in Castilian by Olmos in 1547. In the sphere of Portuguese influence, there are the first Portuguese grammar books—Oliveira’s (A gramática da linguagem portuguesa, 1536) and Barros’s (Grammatica da língua portuguesa, 1540)—that would serve as models for the first description of Tupi by Anchieta, a work printed in 1595 but which circulated in manuscript form as early as 1556 at the Jesuit college in Salvador de Bahia (see Pottier, “Les premiers grammairiens des langues amérindiennes au XVIe siècle,” 228). For the description of Japanese based on Portuguese grammars, see Toru Maruyama, “Linguistic Studies by Portuguese in Japan.” On this archive generally, see Zwartjes’s and Díaz Villalba’s contributions to this volume.

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of the country he worked for, and to spread literacy—with some exceptions, as in the Dutch colonies.63 Both were thus sometimes the object of “protodidactics.”64 Preparation for the practices belonging to the first category included elementary grammar classes held prior to each mission or even independently of the missionary vocation; those of the Jesuit colleges in Europe (in Spain and Portugal initially) were undoubtedly the most organized with respect to curricula (the Ratio Studiorum),65 for which the grammar books of Álvares, published in 1572 and 1573, were an essential foundation. After Nebrija’s Introductiones latinae (1481), Álvares’s De institutione grammatica66 a century later was the very model for Latin extensible grammar by default, being effectively extended to all vernaculars.67 Both were implemented 63 Among many other examples of literacy campaigns carried out by missionaries, see RaisonJourde, “L’échange inégal de la langue” (about Madagascar in the nineteenth century). 64 Despite some exceptions—highlighted by Zwartjes in his contribution—such as João Rodrigues’s work on Japanese, Bertonio’s on Aymara, González Holguín’s on Quechua, or Ruiz de Montoya’s on Guarani, the Artes themselves contain few pedagogical indications related to the linguistic training of missionaries. Regarding instruction provided to indigenous learners, among the numerous documents of the same kind, the annual reports that the Jesuit missionaries sent to their provincial supervisor or to the general of the Society (in Rome) often contain specifics on the methods that they applied in the field. These reports are housed in Rome (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu) as well as in other European libraries, for example in Lisbon (Biblioteca da Ajuda) or Madrid (Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia). 65 “When a plan is being worked out in a college or university to prepare persons to go among the Moors or Turks, Arabic or Chaldaic would be expedient; and Indian would be proper for those about to go among the Indians; and the same holds true for similar reasons in regard to other languages which could have greater utility in other regions” (The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, part IV, ch. 12, § 449, 181). See Ó Mathúna, “L’apprendimento della seconda lingua nei primi collegi gesuiti.” 66 Álvares’s Ars Minor, the De institutione grammatical libri tres of 1573—drawn from his Ars maior (1572)—had by the end of the sixteenth century become the main manual of reference that inspired the Jesuits in their description of “exotic” languages. See Kemmler, “The Role of the Vernacular in the First Two Editions of Manuel Álvares’ Ars minor.” 67 As the exogrammatization expands, the gap between the Nebrijian model and the American or Asian empirical data to be described or the didactic strategies to be favored becomes larger. As Zwartjes shows in this volume, whether it is the presentation of the parts of speech, the level of linguistic analysis to be emphasized, or the diff iculty of transferring a method of teaching children Latin to teaching missionaries an Amerindian language, the explicit or implicit reference to the type of Latin grammar, of which Nebrija was the paragon in Hispanic mission lands, gradually became obsolete during the sixteenth century and the classical age. It was, so to speak, abandoned by the eighteenth century. Some examples demonstrating this include: Quintana’s focus on phonetics of the Mixe language at the expense of grammar; Varo and Sánchez de La Baquera on the “parts of speech” in Chinese and Otomi, respectively; Flores on K’iche’, Cakchiquel, and Tz’utujil; and an anonymous Jesuit about teaching Cahita.

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successively in the field, such as at the Franciscan college of Tlatelolco in Mexico (from 1536); at the Jesuit colleges of Goa in India (from 1542) or of Macau in China (from 1594),68 the chief place of the vice-province “of Japan,” placed under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese padroado;69 and then in the mission lands, strictly speaking in the small colleges where native catechists were acculturated, individuals who in many cases also had to act as interpreters and, among the populations with writing systems, as translators. The dissemination of these educational practices, associated with an awareness of the rhetorical and pragmatic dimension of languages and the acquisition of the “translinguistic” techniques of reading and translating the texts in use in the Jesuit colleges (techniques coming from the learning of Greek and Latin [praelectio]),70 must not, however, be considered as oriented in one direction from the European center toward the local missions. The Jesuit Constitutions71 were completed and improved with each papal consent, and the training of future missionaries was modified according to the specificities of the field, thanks to the reports of missionaries already working on site and to the complementary reports of the superiors in the “provinces” in question.72 Among the practices in the second category—the education practices intended for the populations to be preached to and converted—it is essential to consider the training of future autochthonous priests. The secular priests of the Missions Étrangères de Paris were the first, as early as the end of the seventeenth century and with the support of the Holy See, to set the 68 By 1576 Macau had become the seat of the first Catholic Diocese of the Far East and saw its influence grow following the successive waves of expulsion of Christians from Japan (especially after the 1612 wave). On the history of the São Paulo college of Macau, see Witek, Religion and Culture. The creation of the first Anglican Archdiocese in Calcutta, the capital of British India, would not occur until 1813. 69 The “patronage” system, which stipulated the exclusivity of missionaries’ tasks and under which, in accordance with an extension of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) and the Treaty of Zaragoza (1529), the whole of Asia (except for the Philippines) was to fall under the Portuguese sphere of influence. In this division of the newly discovered world, or world to be discovered by the two main Iberian maritime powers, the Americas (except for Brazil) fell within the jurisdiction of the Spaniards under the equivalent system of patronado. 70 Such as interlinear or juxtalinear translation, texts in the target language keyed by numbers to help the learner find the syntactic correspondences in Spanish or Portuguese, etc. 71 The Constitutions of the Society concerning missions, adopted during the f ifth general congregation of the Company (1593–94), indicated that the “literary knowledge of different languages” was to be part of the curriculum of Jesuit students. By “literary,” one must also understand “written” in a more general way. 72 See Phạm, La grammatisation du vietnamien (1615–1919), 22, 24 and 39.

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goal of promoting local clergy in the mission lands and, for this reason, to make Latin mandatory in the training offered at local seminaries.73 But before such a goal was articulated explicitly and generalized, the Jesuits had undertaken to disseminate Latin at the same time as Portuguese in Asia among some natives who had been Christianized and who were able to help in writing and translating devotional texts. These natives were chosen from among the “lettered people,”74 in other words, those who could already use characters to write their language (in Japan or China, then in Tonkin and Cochinchina, for example). As such, beginning the Dictionarium Annnamiticum [sic], Lusitanum, et Latinum (1651) with the “Annamite” part meets a pedagogical objective that Alexandre de Rhodes mentions in his Ad lectorem. As shown by Phạm, The dictionary is a tool for Vietnamese catechists learning Latin and Portuguese whose training was initiated in Tonkin in 1630 and developed by the next generations of Jesuits […]. The teaching of the Christian doctrine plays an essential role in the training program and certain Vietnamese catechists also learn Romanized writing in this way. The dictionary therefore serves also as a manual for learning Latin […] for (it) is necessary for the understanding of liturgical rituals.75

We might add that the bilingual or plurilingual dictionary (mono- or bidirectional) that served as a model for Catholic missionaries throughout the world, originally based on Calepino’s, appeared to them to be a learning tool particularly well adapted to isolating languages endowed with a logographic form of writing, such as Chinese. In this volume Poli shows that vocabulary and its written forms are considered the heart of language, with ideograms conferring meaning to each segment of reality. Breaking down the educational practices related to missionary knowledge into two categories (training teachers and instructing populations) is also 73 With regard to Tonkin and Cochinchina, see ibidem, 129. 74 Consult Marillier, Nos pères dans la foi, 24. 75 Phạm, La grammatisation du vietnamien (1615–1919), 262. The Holy See then went back on the authorization that it had given to the Jesuits in 1615 to use local languages for liturgy on the Malabar Coast and in China (authorization reiterated by the brief Romanae sedis antistes of 1623) as well as in certain lands belonging to the vice-province of Japan. But this brief was not carried out, as the Propaganda Fide (the future Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples), created in 1622, chose to ignore it. The idea to adapt Jesuit missionary politics to local cultural and religious realities (accommodatio) led to the famous quarrel over Chinese rites that continued into the eighteenth century. Long before the Jesuits, as early as the thirteenth century, the Franciscans sent to the Mongol Empire were allowed to preach in “Tartar” and to adopt accommodation strategies.

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valid, to a large extent, for later colonial knowledge. Pierre Singaravélou studied the ways in which some of this knowledge was transformed into disciplines beginning at the end of the nineteenth century76 in French higher education (e.g., law, history, geography, economics),77 how it was disseminated and vulgarized, in particular through business schools, and the ways in which it spread through teaching institutions newly established inside some of the colonies (e.g., at the universities of Hanoi and Algiers).78 But the role of grammar or linguistics as an established discipline in these processes of dissemination-vulgarization-migration largely still needs to be studied through an extended comparison with other colonial regions: What course content was based on it? What manuals were published as a result of it? What prosopographic data do we have to better understand the personnel in these schools and the students who attended them?79 A great deal of work remains to be done, whether regarding France or other

76 Professer l’Empire. 77 From the creation in France of a colonial section at the École libre des sciences politiques in 1886 and—for the training of administrators—of the École coloniale in 1889 (which would become the École nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer in 1934) to the creation of the Académie des sciences coloniales in 1923 (which would become the Académie des sciences d’Outre-Mer in 1957). In Britain several chairs were dedicated to the social and political sciences of the colonies at Oxford and Cambridge (in the 1920s) and at the London School of Economics (in 1932). In Belgium the Institut colonial international and the Université coloniale de Belgique were created in 1894 and 1920, respectively and the Institut colonial belge (which would become the Académie royale des sciences coloniales, then the Académie royale des sciences d’Outre-Mer de Belgique) in 1928. For a history of the French École coloniale, see Cohen, Rulers of Empire. 78 For the training of indigenous cadres in Sub-Saharan French colonies, see Sabatier, Educating of Colonial Elite. For the universities established in colonial India (the first ones were created in Bombay [= Mumbai], Calcutta [= Kolkata], and Madras [= Chennai] in 1857), see the works produced in the framework of the New Cambridge History of India (Cambridge University Press), in particular: Arnold, Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India. George Basalla, one of the first, studied the different ways in which knowledge and techniques were disseminated in the European colonies. In “The Spread of Western Sciences” (611 sq), he identifies three types of relations between a metropole and its colonies: 1) exploratory phase: “the nonscientific society or nation provides a source for European science”; 2) colonial phase, strictly speaking; 3) completion “of the process of transplantation (of science) with a struggle to achieve an independent scientific tradition (or culture).” Consult Petitjean et al., Science and Empires, for a critical approach to Basalla’s three-stage model. 79 Such as for France: Hommes et destins. Dictionnaire biographique d’Outre-Mer, the Dictionnaire biographique des anciens élèves de l’Ecole Nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer, or—exclusively about scholars—Singaravélou, “Prosoprographie des membres de l’EFEO,” in L’École française d’Extrême-Orient (1898–1956), 304–51. For Belgium: Dictionnaire biographique des Belges d’OutreMer. See also Strickrodt and Oppen, Biographies between Spheres of Empire (dedicated to British colonial Africa).

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colonial metropoles, like Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and England,80 that sought to create academic institutions to support colonial knowledge.81 The creation of Chinese studies in nineteenth-century English universities, recounted in this volume by Tinghe Jin and Steven Cowan, opens a window onto this field of research. This opening is even more valuable because it deals with a context that is not purely colonial but rather “paracolonial”: the Qīng Empire, when, following the Opium War (1840) and the unequal treaties that resulted (the Treaty of Nankin, 1842), China was obliged to open up to Western influence in all domains. It is valuable to us also because this organization of Chinese studies into a modern discipline (to be taught and supervised by chairs, initially in newly created universities such as University College and King’s College in London),82 the publication of teaching programs, the production of manuals and dictionaries, etc. were the result of the non-conformist missionary movement in Britain, two and a half centuries after the first attempts by Jesuit missionaries to set up long-term in China. The common goal of evangelizing most likely remained unchanged, but the means used to attain this objective differed significantly, as we will see.

Catholic missions, Protestant missions, secular missions: Science and the task of education First colonization vs. second colonization, proto-globalization vs. globalization, direct system vs. indirect system, Catholic vs. Protestant vs. secular 80 In Italy a diploma of Scienze coloniali was created within the Istituto Superiore Orientale of Naples (“L’Orientale,” the oldest Orientalist and Sinologist school in Europe). For the beginnings of “Colonial Sciences” in the Netherlands, see Boomgaard, Empire and Science in the Making: Dutch Colonial Scholarship in Comparative Global Perspective. 81 At least when attention is given to linguistic knowledge—which is not always the case. It is quite surprising to notice that in France, linguists are hardly present among the 175 members of the Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer (permanent members, associate members, and “free members” alike), the first section of which is nonetheless entitled “Historical, geographical, ethnological, and linguistic sciences” (author’s emphasis). The only linguists currently in the role—in reality, they are only “correspondents” of the Academy—are the Indianists François Grimal, specialist of Sanskrit (a dead language); Françoise Mallison, specialist of the languages of North India; and the Africanist Jean Tabi-Manga, specialist of Ewondo (, accessed January 28, 2023). 82 In 1837 and 1847, respectively. It was not until the last third of the century that chairs of “Chinese Language and Literature” were created in the oldest universities, Oxford (in 1876) and Cambridge (in 1888). The chair of “Chinese and Manchu-Tartar Language and Literature” at the Collège de France, however, had been created in 1814 for Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat.

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missions: missionary/colonial didactics does not escape these oppositions. As such, the friars of the Catholic missions (the first ones to be established, as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, in the parts of the world recently approached, i.e., Meso-America and South America, or reapproached, i.e., the Far East and the Levant)83 followed by the Protestant missionaries (not before the eighteenth century and especially in the nineteenth century)84 or, in the case of France, the teachers of an institution like the Mission laïque française (French secular mission; at the start of the twentieth century) did not share the same pedagogical conceptions or educational goals when it came to teaching languages, either theirs or that of a colonial power they were employed to serve. They also did not share a common representation of the diversity of languages or of their properties when it came to teaching, describing, or equipping them with a writing system. The educational and/or linguistic work of Catholic missionaries is studied extensively in this volume by Zwartjes and Díaz Villalba, who both focus on Latin America during the Renaissance and the European classical era (until 1800), with an emphasis on sources written in Spanish and Latin in the case of the former85 and the sixteenth century in the latter; by Aliffi and Albano and by Poli, who focus on China at the time of Matteo Ricci between 1583 and 1610; by Phạm and Albano on Cochinchina starting in 1615, then on Tonkin from 1626 onwards; by Abouelgamal on Spain at the end of the Reconquista and on twentieth-century Egypt; and by Pantéloglou on Greece from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. The educational and linguistic work of British Protestant missionaries in nineteenth-century China is considered by Jin and Cowan. And the work of the Mission laïque française in Lebanon during the French mandate (1920–43) is considered by El Kak. 83 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Franciscans founded colleges in Syria and Palestine, especially for their missionaries to learn of Arabic (above all colloquial Arabic). But, as Zwartjes explains in his contribution, “the history of language instruction in Arabic in Franciscan and Dominican institutions is in fact much older. In the Middle Ages, the Dominicans created a Studium arabicum in Tunisia, Valencia, Barcelona, and Játiva, and similar institutions were created by the Franciscan Ramón Llull […] in Mallorca.” 84 Regarding the continuation of the linguistic work of Protestant missions in the twentieth century, it is worth mentioning the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Société Internationale de Linguistique, when it refers to the branch of the Institute operating in francophone Africa), mainly based on lexical investigation and methods of participant-observation. The SIL is an evangelical organization founded in the United States in 1934. The list of the languages summarily documented by the SIL can be found in the database Ethnologue, Languages of the World (www.ethnologue.com). On the nature and trajectories of SIL members, see Jammes, “Nation, Damned Nation and Statistics.” 85 Zwartjes also deals more tangentially with the missionary linguistics and didactics of Arabic or Hindustani.

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Many political, military, or economic factors—such as later access to maritime routes and the monopoly Protestant countries then gave to charter companies, like the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, in preparation for colonial exploitation—can explain the chronological delay between the deployment of Catholic missions and that of Protestant ones.86 But it is also necessary to keep in mind the purely religious explanations: for most early reformed theologians, preaching in faraway lands was not part of the evangelical tasks to pursue. The true beginning of Protestant missions—in the Danish colonies before anywhere else87—would not be witnessed until the development of Pietism at the beginning of the eighteenth century and the creation of religious societies descending from it.88 In the context of the Danish Lutheran mission to Tharangambadi,89 the German Batholomeus Ziegenbalg, one of the pioneers of Tamil studies, wrote the noteworthy Grammatica Damulica, published in 1716; this was barely fifteen years after the mission began and only nine years after he himself was sent on it. The possibility of publishing was not exclusively reserved there for Protestant missionaries. The Jesuit Costanzo Beschi (also known by his Tamil name, Vīramāmunivar) later entrusted the printing of his contrastive grammar of Tamil, Grammatica latino-tamulica, to the printing house of Tharangambadi, created in 1712.90 The gap in time is coupled with a difference in approach. Protestantism is particular in that, as is widely known, the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages was an integral part of its program, beginning with the first complete translation of this kind—at least the first that was not taken from the Vulgate— into German by Luther, Melanchton, and their friends (1522 for 86 Travelers, merchants, and/or administrators at the service of the Dutch East India Company participated in the grammatization of non-European languages starting in the seventeenth century, such as Johann Joshua Ketelaar, author of the first Hindustani grammar (1698). Dutch clergymen, such as Joannes Ruëll, predikant in Ceylon and grammarian of Singhala, translated religious texts into some of these languages early on, but it was not within a missionary framework strictly speaking. 87 Mainly in the West Indies, West Africa (Gold Coast), and Southeast India. Consult Roux, “Les Missions protestantes,” and Feldbæk et al., Kolonierne i Asien og Afrika. The Danish trading posts in India were ceded to England during the middle of the nineteenth century. 88 It is important to mention in particular the Euro-African missionary Christian Jacob Protten, known as Africanus Protten, who settled in 1737 on the Danish Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) and published a Ga and Fante grammar. On the role of Protestant missionaries in the British Empire, see Andrew Porter, Religion versus Empire? and Jensz, Missionaries and Modernity (which focuses on the educational work of Protestant missions). On the place of missionaries and evangelism in representations of imperial enterprise in the United Kingdom within “metropolitan culture,” consult Thorne, “Religion and Empire at Home.” 89 Tranquebar, located in the current day State of Tamil Nadu. See Gregersen, Trankebar. 90 Chevillard, “Beschi, grammairien du tamoul.”

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the New Testament and 1534 for the Old Testament). In situ language learning that is both thorough and quick was therefore imperative, which is one of the reasons why the first languages with which the Protestant missionaries came into contact, particularly in Asia, were grammatized rather quickly, unlike the Native American languages spoken in the Spanish and Portuguese empires, for which there were, for the most part, no published descriptions by Catholic missionaries until almost forty years later.91 Olmos’s Nahuatl grammar book is an exception in comparison, given its relative precociousness (1547). But the mere fact that a work of this type remained in the form of a manuscript leads us to believe that the first exogrammatizing Artes were written by missionaries for personal use or were intended to circulate within a very restricted circle. In Brazil it would be the same for the Tupi grammar of Anchieta printed forty years after its writing, as we have seen. And, to speak only of the two Amerindian languages promoted as lenguas generales in the Spanish Empire, let us note that their first printed grammars date back to 1560 (Quechua, by the Dominican Santo Tomás) and 1571 (Nahuatl, by the Franciscan Molina). In the case of certain missions (particularly Presbyterian and Methodist ones, both in colonized territories and everywhere outside of Europe and North America), Protestant societies advanced by reorienting the missionary linguistics inaugurated two centuries earlier by Catholic orders and used and reused certain linguistic materials collected at the time,92 but they also innovated, especially with respect to their methods. This was the case in Korea: the Presbyterian John Ross published the first Korean grammar book written in English,93 and the Nevius Method was put to use at almost the same time.94 This method promotes the autonomy of Christian communities with respect to religious hubs in the metropole (located in the United States, in the example we are considering) as well as the autonomy of resources and a home-grown propagation of faith (self-propagation). Such a policy of course reinforced the practice of ministry in local languages and ensured the promotion of these languages with respect to those of the Western missionaries.95 But it did not always contribute to the scientific 91 See the publication date of the primary sources indicated by Zwartjes and Díaz Villalba in the bibliographies of their contributions. 92 What Ziegenbalg owes to his predecessors, the Portuguese missionaries, is significant. See Chevillard, “Ziegenbalg, Bartholomaeus (1683–1719).” 93 Ross, Corean Primer, Being Lessons in Corean. 94 Taken from the name of the American Presbyterian missionary John Livingston Nevius (1829–1893). 95 See Grayson, Early Buddhism and Christianity in Korea, and Lee, Historic Factors Influencing Korean Higher Education.

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strength of the linguistic description projects it generated. Departing from the premise that God gave them the gift of addressing the peoples to convert in their language, some American evangelicals in this way contributed to the development of an imaginary linguistics96 resembling Pentecostalism, and that generated glossolalia or “speaking in tongues.”97 Unlike religious missions, the Mission laïque française was limited to teaching, in most cases without participating as an institution in the tasks relating to the grammatography that characterizes missionary linguistics in the strictest sense. Its creation followed that of the Alliance israélite universelle (1860)98 in the same regions—the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant—and, twenty years later, that of the Alliance française pour la propagation de la langue française dans les colonies et à l’étranger (1883),99 designed within the framework of the Cercle Saint-Simon, whose purpose was to “maintain and extend the influence of France through the propagation of its language.”100 This resulted from recognizing the weakening position of French as a language of global exchange, faced with the increasing hegemony of English. “Over the past centuries, the expansion of French […] never needed any institutional support, and the fact that the need was felt to propagate French indeed reveals the awareness of a crisis of sorts: a language in expansion does not need to be defended.”101 The foundation of the Alliance française slightly predates that of the Sociétà Dante Alighieri (1889); the case of Italy thus ceases to be unique.102 As Giada Mattarucco and Norma Romanelli remind us in this volume,103 Italian—lingua senza impero—had indeed exercised linguistic power over Europe, coupled with cultural attraction, in the absence of political and military domination and even in the absence of a unified state. Its power was indeed double, for it served for a long time as a lingua franca in the Levant, though a look at the grammar books for foreigners dedicated to it during the European classical era reveals its hybrid status: both “a 96 Consult Auroux, Chevalier, Jacques-Chaquin, and Marchello-Nizia, La linguistique fantastique. 97 See Courtine, “La question de la glossolalie.” The learning of languages is part of the Christian missionary tasks, whatever the religion. As Poli reminds about the Jesuits, “learning languages was essential due to the example of Pentecost (donum linguarum) and was a duty for the evangelizer.” 98 Consult Spaëth, “Mondialisation du français dans la seconde partie du XIXe siècle” and “Une histoire de la notion de français langue étrangère (FLE),” in which V. Spaëth introduces and compares these three institutions. 99 Alliance française for the propagation of the French language in the colonies and abroad. 100 Société historique et Cercle Saint-Simon, Bulletin [de la Société…], 2, 150. 101 Calvet, La guerre des langues et les politiques linguistiques, 251. 102 Consult Bruni, L’italiano fuori d’Italia, and Banfi, Lingue d’Italia fuori d’Italia. 103 Also see Bruni, “Italiano all’estero e italiano sommerso.”

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dead language, contained within its authors”104 and a “living language that reigns in the city,” as Lancelot (one of the Messieurs de Port-Royal), cited by Romanelli, wrote. After Italy managed to unite (1859–61) and then undertake the constitution of a colonial empire,105 the national language could in turn become the subject of a linguistic and educational policy of expansion and propagation, deliberately open to the outside—a policy based on an ideology that Siebetcheu illustrates for us with the example of the colonization of the Horn of Africa, especially in the fascist era. The same can be said for the Wilhelminian period in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles (1871), which brought together colonization in Africa106 and Oceania,107 the creation of the Allgemeine Deutsche Sprachverein (1885),108 and a policy of disseminating German in the neighboring countries of the Reich.109 “The acquisition of colonies obliges the colonizing state to rethink the presence and the status of its national language.”110

Language and soft power: The “civilizing mission” of the Western countries during and after colonization As Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn points out, France and Italy played a pioneering role in the creation of institutions specifically dedicated to propaganda actions that promoted their respective national languages.111 It was not until 1927 that we would witness the creation of the Hungarian Balassi 104 That image of a dead language comes from a codification which, as early as Pietro Bembo’s Prose nelle quali si ragiona della volgar lingua (1525), was based on literary model: the great fourteenth-century Tuscan writers. 105 With Eritrea (1882), Somalia (1889), then Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (1911), and the Dodecanese (1912). For an overview of Italian colonial language policy, cf. Ricci, La lingua dell’impero. For the colonial educational policy in Eritrea, especially in the Fascist period: Volterra, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea.” Also see Negash, “The Ideology of Colonialism,” and Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, Italian Colonialism. 106 In present-day Namibia, in Kamerun and Togoland, in the region of the Great Lakes (Rwanda, Urundi), and in East Africa. 107 In the Western Samoan Islands and Melanesia. 108 The General German Language Association, whose aim was in particular to “protect” German against borrowings from foreign vocabulary. See Schwinn, “Sprachpurismus und Sprachkritik in Deutschland,” and Polenz, “Fremdwort und Lehnwort sprachwissenschaftlich betrachtet.” 109 See McLelland, “German Global Soft Power, 1700–1920.” Also see Perraudin and Zimmerer, German Colonialism and National Identity; Pugach, Africa in Translation. A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond; and Sokolowsky, Sprachenpolitik des deutschen Kolonialismus. 110 Rabault-Feuerhahn, “Introduction,” 4. 111 Ibidem, 7.

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Institute,112 and not until 1934 for the British Council. The Pro Helvetia (1939), the Danske Kulturinstitut (1940), the Svenska Institut (1945), and the Goethe Institut (1951) would come even later. But the specificity of French “foreign policy” in terms of education, culture, and language teaching did not only stem from the precocity of its institutionalization nor from the fact that this policy coincided in many respects with France’s internal policies. Indeed, the intense “francization” of the patois-speaking popular masses was implemented at the same time and by the same token under the Third Republic through mandatory primary school, along with the establishment of authorities allowing for the greater export of French abroad and in the colonies and for the construction of its image as an eminently desirable cultural good. Its specificity stemmed from its “secular” dimension, or rather from the anti-clerical secularism with which it adorned itself. Mission laïque? The name could almost be considered an oxymoron had it not, with the word mission, suggested the clear intention of replacing education dispensed by the religious congregations, entrusting the organization with the task of enrolling colonized populations or groups subject to (or, if you prefer, benefiting from) French cultural influence in education coordinated (first indirectly and then directly) by the republican state. The word mission itself designates the institution and simultaneously reminds us of its purpose: the famous “civilizing mission” of France,113 a profane version of the conversion of souls, of the spiritual conquest. The religious missionary model is, in this case, explicitly imposed from the start of the creation of the Mission laïque: it was a matter of “asking the ‘secular’ [‘laïque’]114 society of France to make an effort similar to that which Protestants and Catholics alike had already made for the undertaking of Evangelical Missions.”115 As a parastatal organism almost exclusively dedicated to the dissemination of French abroad, the Mission laïque française 112 No empire in this case, of course, and no imperial goal (as in the case of Fascist Italy during the same period), but the purpose was to promote a language forming the cement holding together Hungarian-speaking minorities dispersed in several countries—Romania, (Czecho) slovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria—after the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Treaty of Trianon (1920): a linguistic policy compatible with the irredentism professed by the fascistic regime of Admiral Horthy. 113 On the ideological dimension of France’s “civilizing mission,” consult Conklin, A Mission to Civilize. 114 The use of quotation marks is an indication that the word “laïque” was not yet entirely customary in 1902 within the semantic field of politics, at least in the sense most frequently used today in France. 115 Deschamps, quoted in Gourdon, “Éléments pour une histoire de la Mission laïque française, 1902–1982,” 82. Pierre Deschamps (1873–1958), who initiated the creation of the institution, had

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is, as El Kak recalls, an association created in the context of the law on associations (1902), which instituted an exceptional system for congregations: their authorization was henceforth subject to the law. This context also included closing unauthorized congregational schools (1902) and debates and battles that would lead to the law on the separation of church and state (1905). The Mission laïque, which created the École normale Jules-Ferry, a teacher training institution (for the missionnaires laïques), was recognized as being “of public utility” in 1907.116 Its first school was the French high school of Thessaloniki, inaugurated in 1906, followed by those of Beirut (1909),117 Cairo (1909), Alexandria (1910), etc.: establishments set up outside the colonial empire but in a region like the Levant, where it was a matter of reinforcing French influence in the context of the “French language crisis”118 and “language wars”119 between French and other international languages (including the artificial languages created shortly before, such as Esperanto) or even other national languages within Europe. At the time of the establishment of the Mission laïque, a Congress for the Extension and Culture of the French Language, the first of its kind, was organized by the Belgian Romanist Maurice Wilmotte on three occasions (in Liège in 1905, Arlon in 1907, and Ghent in 1913) under the patronage of the governments, academies, or universities of French-speaking countries and with the participation of many scholars and writers. The congress had the goal of maintaining and reinforcing the ranking of French on a global scale as well as on a local scale, for example, in opposition to the alleged “encroaching” of Flemish in Belgium, particularly in the field of teaching. It significantly prefigures some of the instances of Francophonie, including the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), which “has as a mission the promotion of the French language and of cultural and linguistic diversity”120 (emphasis added). These are examples whose sphere of action at the time of decolonization,121 and in been a professor of Letters in the École normale d’instituteurs in Tunisia and Réunion and then a primary school inspector. 116 See Thévenin, La Mission laïque française à travers son histoire. The first president of the Mission laïque was Pierre Foncin (1831–1916), Professor of Geography at the Faculty of Letters of Bordeaux, then Rector, Director of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Public Instruction (in 1881), and Inspector General of Secondary Education. Foncin was also Secretary General, then President of the Alliance française (1883–1914). 117 On the Collège de Beyrouth, see El Kak in this volume. 118 See Savatovsky, La crise-du-français. 119 Calvet, La guerre des langues et les politiques linguistiques. 120 According to the website of the Organisation: . 121 The first of them was created in 1961, thanks to the Canadian journalist Jean-Marc Léger (l’Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française, which has since

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some cases later, was (and remains) de facto the former French colonies: the oldest ones, the colonies of the Ancient Regime (Nouvelle-France [Canada], Isle-de-France [Mauritius], Saint-Domingue [Haïti], etc.), and the more recent ones belonging to the modern colonial empire. However, this sphere effectively extended well beyond those territories.122 The idea behind the notion of alliance and its religious connotation (‫[ בױח‬beriyth] in Hebrew, the διαθήκη of the Septuagint), inscribed in the very name of the Alliance française, was translated into a conception resembling the biblical idea of alliance, forming an ideal and spiritual community: a community whose members are, in this case, linked predominantly by a language, a sacralized language of sorts. It was a community of people (more than of states) deemed to commune in the worship of French as much as to use it.123 We still lack a complete comparative study of these instruments of soft power that are the institutions of disseminating and expanding national languages (the x-phonies, to borrow Calvet’s expression)124 and the policies implemented in different linguistic spaces (mainly English-speaking, French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, or, more recently, Russian-speaking),125 created primarily after decolonization.126

Postcolonial, decolonial and neocolonial linguistics The expressions missionary linguistics and colonial linguistics are fairly well-defined, although their use to characterize an autonomous disciplinary field is sometimes challenged.127 However, the denominations that derive from them are not always self-evident. become the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie) followed by the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (created in 1970), which became the OIF in 2006. 122 See Savatovsky and Jorge, “Une archive pour l’histoire du français langue seconde.” 123 On the history of French as a prestigious language in Europe, consult Rjéoutski, Argent, and Offord, European Francophonie. 124 Calvet, “Les effets linguistiques de la mondialisation.” 125 The Rosinter Center, Center for Cultural and Scientific Cooperation, coordinates the actions of the Russian cultural centers established abroad (about forty centers before the beginning of the war in Ukraine, in February 2022). Among the first propaganda/propagation actions in favor of Russian organized by the Russian State, 2007 was proclaimed the “Year of the Russian Language.” A United Nations Spanish Language Day has been observed annually since 2010, first on October 12 (Día de la Hispanidad, celebrating the “discovery” of America, in Spain and some other Latin American countries) and then on April 23. 126 On this point, see Massard-Pierrat, “Espaces linguistiques comparés.” 127 See in particular Oesterreicher and Schmidt-Riese, for whom, in an intensional approach, it is anachronistic to place work done before the beginning of the nineteenth century (the period

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In particular, it is necessary to clarify the expression postcolonial linguistics,128 which is more recent and less stable than those we previously considered,129 since it is not simply a way to refer to the research undertaken on the languages of formerly colonized countries or on the linguistic and educational policies implemented in these countries since around 1960.130 These policies or research might assure the continuation of what was conducted or implemented by the former colonizers or under their control (in which case we can refer to them as neocolonial), or, conversely, they diverge from those of the former colonizers (in which case we can refer to them as decolonial, in that they are posterior to decolonization and enacted in the spirit of anticolonialism). Openly possessing a critical, although not necessarily historiographical, approach, postcolonial studies (of which postcolonial linguistics is, or rather should be, a part) has been a field of research in its own right since the 1980s and 90s. This field was first instituted at universities in the United States in the context of the identity claims of certain minorities, mainly the AfricanAmerican minority, before spreading to other contexts, wrestling above all with the British colonial heritage in India, Africa, and the Middle East.131 From an anthropological perspective, Capucine Boidin thus distinguishes decolonial studies—as they have developed in Latin America, focusing mostly on the specificities of Spanish and Portuguese colonization and the decolonization that ensued—from postcolonial studies emerging from the North American and European spheres: “the postcolonial critique of Eurocentrism remains Eurocentric in that it limits its field of reflection to the territories bequeathed by the Northern European empires of the nineteenth century.”132 Some postcolonial thinkers, like Arjun Appadurai, before which, according to them, “reflection on language could be inscribed within intellectual frameworks governed by philosophical interests, rhetorical aims and didactic considerations”) under the category of “linguistics” (“Amerikanische Sprachenvielfalt und europäische Grammatiktradition,” 62). They also challenge the use of the word missionary in the singular, denying that there may be any continuum drawn between the forms and objectives of the Christian missions of early modern times and those of the missions at the end of the nineteenth century. 128 Postcolonial? “A contentious term” (Hall, Cultures of Empire, Introduction, 3). 129 See Garabato-Alén and Boyer, “Regards sur le post-colonialisme linguistique,” and for the meaning of postcolonial literature, Baneth-Nouailhetas, “Le postcolonial: histoire de langues.” 130 In Africa. Earlier in Korea and Taiwan (1945), in India and Pakistan (1947), in Indonesia (1949), or in Vietnam (1945–54). 131 The topic has been widely documented in English-speaking countries. For an overview of the often virulent debates over the research falling under the banner of postcolonial studies in France in the 2000s, see Boidin, “Études décoloniales et postcoloniales dans les débats français.” For a concise vision of the phenomenon and its genesis, see Bancel, Le postcolonialisme. 132 Boidin, “Études décoloniales et postcoloniales dans les débats français,” § 3.

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therefore seek to disconnect the discipline from such a Eurocentric vision in articulating the process of globalization, linked in turn both to mass migration and to the standardization/destandardization (hybridization) of cultural practices (Appadurai’s scapes). The 1978 publication of Edward Said’s now classic work Orientalism is often considered one of the foundational moments of postcolonial studies as a field that has become an integral part of research and teaching at the university level, sometimes linked to race studies. As such, it is important to mention the history of Orientalist studies conducted in the West more generally,133 in that the discipline partially encompasses colonial and missionary linguistics. Without a doubt, in Said’s book, the European representations of the East—what we could call the invention of the East by the West—are mainly described through the literary and artistic productions of Classical and Romantic Europe. The question of “Oriental” languages and their images (whether they emerge from scholarly contexts,134 popular imagination, or a linguistic ideology) is rarely raised,135 and the question of how they are transmitted or taught, even less so. Said presents three possible meanings of the eponymous term Orientalism—three distinct but correlated definitions. The term designates, all at once: 1) an academic field of research; 2) “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the Orient and (most of the time) the Occident”136; 3) a political instrument of domination. The definitions are correlated, because this kind of domination (meaning no. 3), whether or not it took on the form of colonization (e.g., the heart of the Ottoman Empire and Persia were not colonized by Europe and were not, strictly speaking, missionary 133 On scholarly Orientalism and its connections to anthropology and linguistics, see RabaultFeuerhahn, L’archive des origines. For a more general perspective, see Rabaut-Feuerhahn and Trautman-Waller, “Itinéraires orientalistes.” On the different national schools of erudite European Orientalism, see Otterspeer, Leiden Oriental Connections. 134 On the difficulty of projecting Said’s analysis onto scholarly Orientalism, see Irwin, For Lust of Knowing. 135 If one consults the index of Said’s book, out of several hundred occurrences of proper nouns, terms, or expressions indexed, the only languages—be they living or dead—that appear there are Arabic (thirty-one occurrences), Avestan (two), Sanskrit (thirteen), Indo-European languages in general (fourteen), and two references to language classif ication systems or comparative linguistics. The only grammarians, philologists, or linguists cited or mentioned are Varro and Scaliger (once each); Schlegel (eleven); W. von Humboldt (three); the Arabist A.-I. Sylvestre de Sacy, the Sinologist J.-P. Abel-Rémusat, and the lexicographer A.-P. Caussin de Perceval (one each); E. Renan (eleven); the translator A.-H. Anquetil-Duperron (one); the Indianists É. Sénart and S. Lévi (one and five occurrences, respectively); and N. Chomsky as well (four, but only for his political positions). It is not much. 136 Said, Orientalism, 2.

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territories), allows for studies to be conducted in the academic realm (no. 1); these studies may be scientifically founded or pure mythology, belonging to the magical thinking (no. 2); or both at the same time, which is the most common situation. The homogenizing and unifying effect produced by a disciplinary apparatus like postcolonial studies (whether or not it is part of Said’s filiation),137 inspired by the former or past forms of Orientalism as an institutional, scholarly framework and its strong ideological and political weight, presents the risk of reducing extremely different historical, geographical, and cultural situations to a single category and therefore of creating a binary, essentialist, and holistic opposition between “the white man” and the “racialized.” Furthermore, in the case of Europe, we run the risk of explaining the formation of a “racial society […], a society in which the racial takes the place of the social, […] in which the conflicts that run through society are not apprehended in terms of class but through the perspective of ethnicity.”138 This is explained on the very territory of the former colonial homelands, where economic migrations have long followed the enterprises of slavery and colonial domination. To speak of postcolonial linguistics in this way does not therefore imply that we are referring to linguistic or ethnological “fields” previously colonized (this is how Errington uses the expression in Chapter 13); rather, we are referring more often than not to the continuation of colonization by other means and in other lands, those of the former colonizers. Furthermore, with respect to our concerns in this volume, we must recognize that questions about languages (or language practices) and language education have been almost entirely absent from postcolonial studies until now and that postcolonial linguistics has in fact not yet found its object of study, despite the creation of periodicals such as the Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics —but it is recent.139 This does not mean that the 137 In many ways, postcolonial studies are more indebted to Said’s other great work, Culture and Imperialism, where he presents the historical experience of imperialism and resistance to imperialism as the matrix of cultural modernity in most societies, including colonizing societies. 138 Amselle, Les nouveaux rouges-bruns: le racisme qui vient. 139 Created in 2019, this journal—the organ of the International Association for Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics (IACPL)—is entirely dedicated to the f ield, even though “colonial” no longer appears in a meaningful way in the title. According to its website, it “features interdisciplinary research on language in postcolonial contexts and on linguistics from a postcolonial perspective” (iacpl.net/). The papers that the journal seeks to publish focuses on representations (“How do we represent words, constructions, and conversations in linguistics?”), “voices” (“Who gets to speak? How are (post)colonial dynamics of power structured and enacted in public discourses of education, politics, and in society in general?”), “biases” in linguistics (“Through what lenses do we study the world and its speakers? How can we escape biases such

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question of language is expressly excluded—it is often considered from a literary point of view, oriented toward so-called “colonial literature”—nor that the relationship of “postcolonized” populations to language and their use of language is not treated in some studies.140 But empirical data coming out of this field are rare, and studies dealing with language education are even rarer. Moreover, when dealing with the past, postcolonial studies almost always rely on presentist assumptions, reinterpreting the history of colonialism (and judging it) through the lens of contemporary debates. For these different reasons, we did not turn to work involving this type of analysis during the conception of our book; they hardly fit into the historiographical, linguistic, and didactic perspective that we share. This is not the case with neocolonial linguistics, which remains relevant to our approach to the subject. While the research in didactics that accompanies neocolonial linguistics builds on many aspects of colonial linguistics (we might therefore need to call it paleocolonial), the two differ on two points. The first is the result of the mutations to which their objects of study and methods have been subjected: it is necessary to keep in mind, in particular, the evolution of educational practices following 1960 (and more recently), as well as the shifts in linguistic and education policy put in place by newly independent states. [As such, in Africa], educational sociology has considerably evolved since the 1990s. The arrival in force of rural populations, less exposed than urban populations to official languages […] raises the question of the use of languages other than those of the former colonial powers in education.141

The second point has to do with a change in perspective (already mentioned above) that concerns the discourse on colonialism and neo-colonialism: as Eurocentrism, Anglocentrism, chronocentrism…?”), and the “ethics of linguistics.” Behind a critical epistemology, we can see that the focus is less on languages than on the relationship to language, in a perspective that belongs less to linguistics or even sociolinguistics than to the sociology of language. 140 See in particular Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak? In this text, which is now a classic, Spivak considers the exclusion of “subalterns” colonized from the sphere of representation and of speech through an example: the meaning given in the discourse of imperial Britain to the practice of sathi (the ritual suicide of widows in colonial India). But it is difficult to relate subaltern studies, of which Spivak is one of the best-known representatives, to mainstream postcolonial studies. In this volume Siebetcheu evokes the “reception” by the Somalis of the language education given by the Italian colonizers. 141 Maurer, “La langue des apprenants dans les systèmes éducatifs post-coloniaux. Présentation.” Also consult Puren and Maurer, La crise de l’apprentissage en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne.

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“in the 1970s, we talked about a war of languages; today, it is preferable to accentuate their potential collaboration necessary for development.”142 In this respect, we must insist on the displacements, the decentering taking place that affected the “governance” of international language policies and the organization of research fields over the last twenty years. These displacements are symptomatic of the attempts to go beyond neocolonialism (unless it is a matter of substantiating more presentable versions of it). It is not only in the former mainlands that the speakers of the former colonial languages work to regulate their evolution. And in terms of governance, the institutions of the x-phonies, those of Francophonie in particular, are no longer entirely dominated by the former colonial power.143 A relatively recent semantic shift is significant in this respect: Francophonie,144 which is supposed to bring together the French and the other speakers of French in the world, is a notion that has ended up designating the latter most of the time. In terms of research and publications, in the discourse of academics and the publishing world, “francophone literature” is the name currently given to literature written in French, aside from—oddly enough— French literature itself. We therefore speak of “French and francophone literature,”145 the and not acting as a hendiadys, without the former being considered part of the latter. The works of non-metropolitan French writers from the Caribbean, Guiana, or Reunion (where written French appears most often in a diglossic relationship with spoken Creole) are, however, considered as belonging to francophone literature. Out of this context emerged the set of questions raised in 2003, at a time when the expression “French and Francophone” began to propagate and stabilize, thanks to the coordinators of an issue of Yale French Studies dedicated to the “field of French” and Francophonie, defined as an attempt to create a kind of Commonwealth à la française: 142 Van Den Avenne, Linguistiques et colonialismes. 143 Abdou Diouf, Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, from 2003 to 2015, by addressing a French audience: “French no longer belongs to you. We share it” (interview in the newspaper Le Monde in 2006); and further on: “French belongs to everyone who speaks it” (ibidem). 144 It is also found in the plural, les Francophonies in French, without one always knowing very well if this plural refers to the diversity of the relationships that francophone speakers and writers maintain with French or if it perhaps refers to the diversity of the varieties of French that they use. Undoubtedly, it refers to both. 145 A category that has been disciplinarized. It is the name given to research programs within university research groups in Canada and in France (like that of the Thalim team at the Sorbonne Nouvelle) as well as to handbooks and dictionaries (like the Dictionnaire Bordas de littérature française et francophone), etc.

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Is French no longer a cohesive field? Or is a new, global French and Francophone field emerging, with a new coherence of its own? These questions of course run parallel to social issues in France itself and in France’s relations to its former colonies and current Departements d’Outre-Mer and Territoires d’Outre-Mer: immigration, integration, nationalism, the attempt to form a sort of Commonwealth under the aegis of francophonie, the rise of the European Union, and of course globalization. The core question in our inquiry here is thus: what has been, what is, and what should be the relation between metropolitan French literary studies and Francophone literatures from around the world.146

The analogy of the Commonwealth was surely inevitable to allow Englishspeaking readers (even the informed readers of Yale French Studies) to grasp the issue at hand. But it is misleading in many respects: the Commonwealth is a community of nations in existence due to the former British Empire (the Commonwealth of Nations is its full name), whereas the “jurisdiction” of the different instances of Francophonie is supposed to extend beyond the territories of the former French Empire, all other things being equal; there are francophone countries147 that were not subject to French colonization, and the groups these examples represent are often groups of people or clusters of institutions,148 not only states (see above). Furthermore, even if what unites the countries of the Commonwealth is de facto the use of the same language, the name of this language does not appear in the name of the community, doubtless because it has no legal status (no status as “official language” or “national language”) in any of the states of the community.149 It was not until 1997 that the heads of state of the Commonwealth nations, assembled in Edinburgh, would specify the criteria for admission to the community it constitutes, including the recognition of English—the British

146 Laroussi and Miller, “French and Francophone,” 2. 147 I.e., countries that have been admitted to membership in the OIF, even if the actual number of their French speakers (French as a second or a third language) is very low—which is the most frequent case. 148 Such as francophone universities belonging to the AUF (Agence universitaire de la francophonie). 149 It does not have this status in the United Kingdom, at least. The situation is paradoxical insofar as, until recently, the United Kingdom was part of another community of states, the European Union, which had attributed to English—the main working language of its institutions, ahead of French and German—the judicial status of official language alongside twenty-four others, a status that it has conserved, even after Brexit, insofar as it is one of the official languages of Ireland and Malta.

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version (English spelling)—as its language of communication. But it is a matter of recognizing a factual situation. Other similar associations have since emerged, such as the Nederlandse Taalunie,150 created in 1980 and emanating from a kind of linguistic union limited to the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium and joined by Suriname in 2005, or the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, created in 1996.

The question of diglossia Another significant change in approaches is worth mentioning: language pedagogy in neo- or decolonial contexts, which had focused mainly on the languages taught, increasingly takes into consideration the media of instruction,151 those in which the educational material is taught (the working languages of school) as well as the way languages come together. This therefore converges with the concerns taken up in research, starting in the 1990s, on “languages of schooling” in national (European in particular) and international contexts.152 In fact, the question of the choice of the medium of teaching—an issue raised by Facchin about Sudan in Chapter 8—arose on many occasions during the colonial period itself, in particular regarding the language policy of the Second German Reich in the late 1880s, as we shall see below. It also gave rise to official studies and reports, particularly in the English-speaking world after the First World War. A report funded by the American Phelp-Stokes Fund in the early 1920s,153 and again a British memorandum in 1943,154 advocated the widespread use of vernaculars as 150 Its role is technical: it is mainly a body regulating the language with respect to spelling, and its sphere of activity is above all schools and publishing houses. 151 Consult Maurer, Les langues de scolarisation en Afrique francophone. 152 Among studies published in French dedicated to it: Vigner, “Le français langue de scolarisation.” Among studies published in English: Schleppegrell, The Language of Schooling, and in reference to English-speaking Africa, Bámgbóṣé, Mother Tongue Education. In some of his work, Ayộ Bámgbóṣé traces the history of the place of endogenous languages in education. See “Education in Indigenous Languages,” in which he contrasts French and Portuguese educational policy, on the one hand, which aimed for assimilation and was hostile to the introduction of local languages as media of instruction, and British and Belgian policy, on the other hand, which aimed for separate development and advocated for the introduction of local languages as such media. 153 See also African Education Commission, 1920–21, Education in Africa; African Education Commission, 1923–24, Education in East Africa. 154 Memorandum on Language in African School Education. See the analysis of the document in Dakin, Tiffen, and Widdowson, Language in Education. The changes advocated by the

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working languages of schools in all African countries. However, it was not until their independence that their use actually became widespread in the former British colonies, then in countries belonging to the former French (early 1960s) and Portuguese (mid-1970s) Africa. This led to the development of research in this field. But in addition to these changes, there are also some constants, particularly with respect to the type of language taught, which is traditionally reputed to favor linguistic purism, in the case of French as a foreign language, for instance (based on the model of French as a native language—an overstandardization, one might say), and generate linguistic insecurity. The French that was imposed in Africa was done so with the congenital illness that comes with the language more than with any other: [linguistic] insecurity spares no one; the French are the primary examples of it when they proclaim the degradation of their language […], the effects of which they observe in themselves. In this sense, the adoption of French with this chronic itch, following decolonization, resembles alienation.155

This purist, conservative, over-standardized relationship to the language is not, in fact, exclusively Franco-French.156 It is often represented (maybe even better than in France) in some plurilingual countries where French often enters into direct competition with other national languages, as in Belgium157 or to a much lesser extent in Switzerland, and where the expression of linguistic insecurity, which leads certain speakers and remarqueurs Memorandum did not always result, however, in promoting native languages as languages of instruction, even where they were already in use in some schools. For instance, as shown by Facchin in his contribution, “Standard Arabic, taught in Arabic script, began to be introduced in South Sudanese schools in 1946, with the aim of replacing both local languages and English as media of instruction in the future.” For a comparison in this regard between the French colonial education system and the Belgian, British, and German systems, see Wakely, “Des yeux étrangers vous regardent.” 155 Prignitz, “Si tu connais pas gros français là, tu gagnes pas travaillé,” 72. 156 In Europe the situation varies from country to country—particularly depending on whether or not they are former colonial powers—even when their cultural habitus are comparable. Coupland and Kristiansen note a tension between two trends in the linguistic representations of speakers: the reinforcement of the standard norm in a country like Denmark (which had colonial possessions in the West Indies, Greenland, even Europe (Norway), and, as shown above, India and West Africa) and destandardization or “demoticization,” by contrast, in a country like Norway. See Coupland and Kristiansen, “SLICE: Critical Perspectives on Language (De) standardization.” 157 See Pöll, “Le français en Belgique et en Suisse romande.” Also see Swiggers, “L’insécurité linguistique.”

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to exaggerate in terms of correct use (or bon usage158), is a sign of cultural insecurity, sometimes described as the effect of “mental colonialism” or of an internalized subjection. But in numerous other cases, French evolves more quickly when it is spoken outside of France, especially in Frenchspeaking Africa where the use of a standardized language (which is called gros français, in familiar interactions) can be mocked. Given this situation, linguistics has taken on the task of describing the changes that have affected formerly colonial languages—on the lexical level,159 but not exclusively—in the different places they are spoken. This type of description stems from a field neighboring another more longstanding field of study, creolistics and the study of pidgins,160 which brings us to the questions of diglossia and digraphia. A diglossic situation may bring together the colonial language (at the time maintaining the status of a high variety) and one or several autochthonous languages, among which there might be a vehicular one with the possibility of occupying a relatively high position with respect to the other dominated languages, such as Nahuatl, the “classic” language of the former Aztec Empire (Huehuetlahtolli) that became a lingua franca in New Spain161 (see Zwartjes in this volume). Or it may bring together two (or more) local languages in such a way that the colonizer’s previous decision to grammatize one of them leads, in many cases, to a diglossic and/or a digraphic disequilibrium. In terms of description and teaching, the question of which language model to favor in a diglossic situation is raised in several of the contributions found in this volume, which look at different historical and geographical contexts. Abouelgamal reveals why Pedro de Alcalá, in his grammar books from the beginning of the sixteenth century, chose to prioritize the form of Arabic known as “dialectal” in his linguistic description, the form attributed to the populares of Granada. He prioritizes this over the Arabic of 158 Le Bon usage by the Belgian grammarian Grevisse, which covers the requirements of the language, is the title of one of the bestselling grammar books ever on the market in the French-speaking sphere. 159 About French, see Queffélec, “La lexicologie différentielle en terrain africain et malgache.” Regarding English and its different standardization schemes around the world: Hickey, Standards of English. 160 Consult Migge and Léglise, “Language and Colonialism.” 161 Provided that a second diglossic denivelation is introduced within Nahuatl use itself, as in Molina, who explains in his Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana (1571) that he has chosen to describe the “court and noble” speech to the detriment of the “imperfect” speech of the peasants (2nd part, 34b, 35).

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the sabios-al-faquies (Islamic jurists), though he did not entirely neglect the standard language:162 it was a matter of providing the Catholic clergy with an instrument allowing it to penetrate the colloquial language of the masses of Al Ándalus, rather than the language of the intellectual and political elites, for the conversion of these masses was primary. With respect to Egyptian Arabic, a similar choice was made by French Orientalists at the beginning of the twentieth century and by authors of textbooks like Jomier and Khouzam, who in 1965 wrote an Arabic grammar book163 intended for foreign speakers (speakers of French). Even before Ferguson introduced the term “diglossia” to the field of sociolinguistics, Arabic was one of the first languages to have been approached binarily through the mental prism of a diglossic pattern.164 Pantéloglou, on the other hand, examines the type of language retained by the authors of teaching manuals of Modern Greek as a foreign language, from those written by missionaries (and most often for missionaries) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the textbooks published by Hellenist scholars at the end of the nineteenth century, including the most prolific production of this type, which can be attributed to philhellenes (amateurs and scholars alike) in the 1820s at the time of the Greek War of Independence. Even before the scholarly studies on the training program of the Κοινή Ελληνική (the Greek koine) had emerged,165 before the γλωσσικό ζήτημα (question of language) and the issue of the status of “official” Modern Greek (used in teaching, in the administration, etc.) got caught up in tensions between a demotic model and a “purist” one during the twentieth century, textbook authors, as Pantéloglou explores, sometimes chose to teach a version of Greek tending toward tradition, while others tended toward the colloquial (“vulgar”) Greek of their time (often containing dialectal elements), and still others turned to a mixed model.

162 He does discuss, for example, the system of declension no longer used in the spoken Arabic of his time. 163 A “pure dialectal Arabic,” to quote the kind of oxymoron used by Abouelgamal. 164 In particular by William Marçais, a specialist in Maghrebi Arabic. For a more recent work on diglossia in Arabic-speaking countries, see Larcher, “Diglossie arabisante et fusha vs ammiyya arabes,” in which the author examines the transition from a monolithic conception of Arabic to linguistic plurality. As for teaching, see Palmer’s different approach, “Arabic Diglossia.” 165 It was not until the late nineteenth century and the work of the German Hellenist Thumb, whether it be his philological work (Grammatik der neugriechischen Volkssprache) or his manual of Modern Greek intended for beginning students (Handbuch der neugriechischen Volkssprache).

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Ideology and imperial knowledge The difference in approaches between the various forms of missionary or colonial linguistics and the effects of disruption or continuity between colonial linguistics and neocolonial linguistics are also due to the scholarly apparatuses (sometimes very much so) and the specific episteme that generated them. Some of the oldest include the post-Priscianian grammatography of the Renaissance followed by the General Grammar of the European classical era and the pedagogies associated with them;166 comparatism and its typology of languages were central in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and sociolinguistics or dialectology are the more recent ones. These different paradigms are each examined in this volume. But they are also examined with consideration for the ideologies they have generated, including the racialist conceptions based on comparative typology,167 raised by Siebetcheu in his contribution. It was according to these conceptions that Indo-European languages, with their wealth of systems of inflection, were placed at the summit of the linguistic hierarchy—with languages belonging to other families considered to be inferior, even when they possessed writing systems and were spoken within ancient and prestigious civilizations. This was the case for isolating languages, like Chinese, thought to be “without grammar” and which for this reason seemed to be poor and imperfect, unlike what Ricci and his fellow Jesuits thought. As Jin and Cowan point out, quoting Casas-Tost and Rovira, the monosyllabic nature of Chinese is one of the myths and misconceptions about the Chinese, which has led to the construction of “an essentialist, immutable, and orientalist image of the Chinese language,” especially from the beginning of the nineteenth century.168 In Africa, colonial administrators shaped “dialects,” categorized as such in order to better relegate them to the bottom of a phantasmatic hierarchy of idioms.169 Abouelgamal also reminds us of the doxa according to which Arabic should be considered a “primitive” language, since it lacks verb tenses—an idea revived by the Arabist linguist Marcel Cohen and originally based on the opinion of the ethnographer Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, for whom “the primitives 166 For instance, Díaz Villalba studies the conceptual framework and terminological apparatus transferred through exogrammatization by Renaissance grammarians. He looks, in particular, at the vocabulary that makes it possible to capture the linguistic contrast as it appears in grammar books dealing with the passive verb forms. 167 See “L’ère aryenne. La tyrannie des linguistes” in Poliakov, Le mythe aryen, ch. 5. 168 Casas-Tost and Rovira, “Orientalism and Occidentalism,” 116. 169 See Canut, Provincialiser la langue.

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do not see a kind of final stretch that resembles itself extending indefinitely before their imagination on which events are to be placed” (quoted in Chapter 10). We can also identify that ideas like those of Lévy-Bruhl on the “pre-logical mentality,” as it would have been reified in “primitive” languages, greatly influenced Nikolaj Marr in his semantics, typological linguistics, and linguistic anthropology. For this reason, they have contributed to orienting language policy and the “nationalities policy” put forth in the Soviet Union under Stalin until 1950, when Stalin himself intervened in the discussion (and ended it),170 declaring that language was a neutral instrument with no relation to the class struggle and did not belong to any “ideological superstructure,” as Marr had professed.171 While it is necessary to consider the unifying effects of the ideological weight specific to certain scholarly discourses within a given episteme, the specif ic features of the educational and language policies of each Protestant society or Catholic order (especially in the context of the first colonization) and later of each nation-state (especially in the context of the second colonization) must nonetheless be taken into account when it comes to defining a fortiori the various Eurocentric models affecting language teaching and learning, no matter their nature. Van Den Avenne thus demonstrates in this volume how, through linguistic and educational policies successively put forth by the French colonial authorities in SubSaharan Africa, two distinct and competing anthropological approaches stand out: a cultural approach, on the one hand, which facilitated the use of native languages, practices of translation, and the creation of the pidgin known as petit nègre; and a universalist approach, on the other hand, which recommended the use of mainland French and that material be taught in mainland French. That being said, allow us to reiterate that beyond these differences, the Eurocentric models at hand share a certain number of characteristics in common, be they from the same thought system (or knowledge system) or from different ones. The most significant of these characteristics is the belief in the ability of religious or secular European cultures to “civilize” and therefore a belief in the need to teach the languages imagined to be vectors of these cultures and of their virtue. Beliefs of this kind endured for centuries due to the rather effective masking, even to the eyes of most progressive educated Europeans, of the true purpose of colonial schools (especially at the end of the nineteenth century); the aim of the schools was 170 Stalin, Marksizm i voprosy jazykoznanija [Marxism and problems of linguistics]. 171 See Bertrand, “Marr et le marrisme pour l’ethnographie soviétique,” 29.

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to train workers, albeit perfunctorily,172 who might then be employed by the colonial exploitation system (in the army, in the mines, on plantations, for the construction of roads and railroads, etc.). These beliefs persist even in the discourses of the postcolonial era, in particular those of official bodies like the international organizations of the Francophonie, as well as in those of certain writers from formerly colonized countries, particularly when it comes to the literary uses of the language.173 In the case of French, the plan to disseminate the language through its teaching has anchored this belief in specific modalities not necessarily found in other plans for linguistic expansion; we do not find plans taking this shape in the process of disseminating English, or more precisely global English, which seems to spread “naturally” without any apparent ideological bricklaying.174 Nonetheless, these two types of plans have one thing in common, something that is also common to most other plans to propagate international languages of culture. This relates to the primary definition of language expansion, often translated with the idea of universality in the context of France: One of the aspects of the supposed universality of French, or of its goal of universality [is to consider it to be] a language whose use expands (and should expand) to everyone, or at least to the greatest number of speakers possible—in a deterritorialized manner—to linguistic and cultural areas everywhere in the world.175

But the expansion/universality of French has another meaning that we hardly f ind anywhere but in the French linguistic imagination, which began to take shape more than two centuries ago and has been conveyed since, ne varietur. 172 And in very small numbers relative to the total pool of colonized populations. 173 It is expressed, in different forms, in the discourses and texts of some African writers (Senghor, who became a member of the Académie française) and of French-speaking North African (in particular Algerian) writers. It is often accompanied by a reflection on the choices that have led them to this decision, especially in the case of writers belonging to a generation that witnessed the end of colonization and, in the case of Algeria, the war for independence (1954–62). Writing in French is not always an obvious choice and is often justified or subject to a back-and-forth. Consider the example of Rachid Boudjedra, who published initially in French, switched to Arabic from 1981 to 1992, and then came back to French. 174 English is a universal language—isn’t it obvious? According to a liberal model, AngloAmerican language spreads throughout the world just as wealth is said to “trickle down” from the rich to the poor. 175 Savatovsky and Jorge, “Une archive pour l’histoire du français langue seconde,” 80.

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[According to this second meaning, the expansion of French] stems from a doxa that Rivarol […] had set the tone for […]: if this language can expand to reach everyone, it is because it can expand to reach everything. Such an idea brings us to the stubbornly repeated subject of the supposed intrinsic qualities of French (its “génie”176): the simple order of its syntax, its clarity, its resistance to metaphors, etc.177 These qualities set it aside as a language isomorphic with rational thought, therefore as a language of arts and sciences (in the Encyclopédie’s sense of the term), and therein, as the universal language […]. If French is to be loved and lovers of French are to be made, it is because French is in itself loveable.178

According to Gilles Siouffi, the idea of génie de la langue, first in France and then throughout Europe, “has worked as a metonymic laboratory before the emergence of nationalism in the nineteenth century.”179 The different silhouettes that language policies connected to missionary and colonial linguistics and didactics have taken on are directly determined by this type of linguistic doxa, by this linguistic imaginary that generates nationalistic feelings.180 But they are also linked to the material conditions and the national contexts in which teaching tools were produced. The pedagogical products of missionary and colonial linguistics (grammar schoolbooks, language textbooks, reading books) have in common that they were usually produced under the aegis of the colonial homeland, where they were written, where pedagogical norms (usually made formal through national school curricula, starting in the nineteenth century) presided over their conception, and where publishing houses and printers manufactured them. Among the cases studied in this volume, the grammar books of Arabic “as a foreign language” analyzed by Abouelgamal most significantly highlight a common characteristic that can be attributed to the fact that the materials were written by Spanish speakers (like the Hieronymite De Alcalá) or French speakers (like the Dominican Jomier): the exaggerated accentuation of the gap between the so-called “dialectal” variety and the standard variety resulting from the transformation of a difference of degree into a difference of nature. In sum, this refers to the artificial interpretation of the linguistic 176 See Meschonnic, De la langue française. 177 See Siouffi, “Du sentiment de la langue aux arts du langage.” 178 Savatovsky and Jorge, “Une archive pour l’histoire du français langue seconde,” 80. 179 Siouffi, “The Political Implications of the Idea of génie de la langue in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Also see Moreno, El nationalismo lingüístico and, with regard to Spanish, Valle, “La lengua, patria común.” 180 See Anderson, Imagined Communities.

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situation of Al Ándalus in the sixteenth century (De Alcalá) or of Egypt in the twentieth century (Jomier) as a situation of binary diglossia. But, as Abouelgamal points out, it is more productive to think of this in terms of a linguistic continuum. This analysis leads him to challenge the very notion of diglossia insofar as it results in artificially dichotomizing a continuous set of language practices. Romanelli similarly recalls that [t]he strict dichotomy established between the written literary language and the spoken dialects constitutes a historiographical subject that recent studies have nuanced by dating Italian, both written and spoken and as a shared language, to the pre-unitary period. The traces of a language of communication that could be defined as “utilitarian” and that developed alongside local dialects can be found in the stories of foreign travelers to Italy who had learned Italian in their countries.

But very early on, some of the teaching tools were born out of a different context, the country or cultural zone in which the foreign language taught had obtained a kind of prestige superior or equal to that of the teaching language. One of the very first grammar books of French, after John Barton’s Donait français (ca. 1409), was produced in London in 1530 by an English speaker, John Palsgrave, at a time when English had overtaken French as the language of the court, the administration, and the elites only a little over a century before. In her contribution, Mattarucco considers grammar books of Italian as a foreign language published in the sixteenth century in France, England, and Spain by a native French speaker (De Mesme, in 1549), a native English speaker (Thomas, in 1550), and a native Spanish speaker (Trenado, in 1596), respectively, who all used their own vernacular language as a metalanguage, although it was still culturally dominated by the object language. With this, she contributes to research among foreign language education specialists committed to the study of modern and contemporary forms of the contextualization of Italian (or French, English, etc.) grammar in grammar books produced outside of Italy (or France, etc.) and to the understanding of their degree of adaptation to the needs of the targeted users.181 The establishment of printing houses outside of Europe,182 in particular 181 See in particular Beacco, Kalmbach, and Suso López, “Les contextualisations de la description du français dans les grammaires étrangères. Présentation.” 182 At the same time that European printers were creating fonts allowing for the printing of “exotic” writing. In 1626 a typographical design known as polyglot was established in Rome at the headquarters of the Propaganda Fide for the publication of works in the languages of the lands where missions were taking place.

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in the New World or later in Asia (see Jin and Cowan’s contribution), has played a major role in these process. Zwartjes reminds us in Chapter 1 of the technical constraints to which missionary publications (including the creation of ad hoc typographical characters) were subject, as well as of the splendor of some of these publications,183 such as the Alphabetvm Ibericvm siue Georgianvm vulgare of 1629 or the Alphabetum armenum of 1784, whose cover pages he reproduces.

“Interior” colonization Looking beyond instances of actual colonization in the strictest sense of the term, the volume also presents situations that can be described as relatively successful attempts by European countries to obtain political and economic control over other European countries, as was the case in Italy from the Middle Ages to the time of the unification of the country at the end of the nineteenth century (a case studied here by Mattarucco), or in Greece at the time of the War of Independence that took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century (explored here by Pantéloglou). In this respect, the Italian situation is distinctive because the political imperialism exerted by the French, Spanish, and Austrian monarchies over the states of the peninsula was not accompanied by linguistic domination during the Renaissance or in the seventeenth century: it was, on the contrary, the use of Italian (il fiorentino illustre)—to which we have just alluded—and Italianate styles that would spread across Europe to occupy a preeminent position in the linguistic practices of educated European elites. The pattern of the language of a politically and militarily dominated people becoming the dominant cultural language was familiar to the humanists of the Renaissance; this was indeed the status of Greek in Ancient Rome, where power was Roman and the culture Hellenic. A consideration of some of these European contexts (Greece, Spain, Italy) in the present volume implies insight into the linguistic preeminence processes that accompany what has been called “interior colonization,”184 which produces (or is often linked to) situations of diglossia and/or conflict between a national language (or any culturally and political hegemonic 183 Insofar as in many works, the study of languages was mixed in with the geography, flora, and/or fauna of the lands explored, which led to an iconography that was quite rich. 184 The expression denotes the unequal relationships and exchanges within a nation-state between a dominating center and a dominated periphery. See Lafont, Décoloniser la France.

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language) and other languages, dialects and spoken forms used within a single linguistic area or in contiguous areas (as in the case of Italian; see Mattarucco).185 These processes have resulted in the progressive disappearance of many dominated spoken languages, or, rather, they have ushered in their disappearance. But the factors that might lead to languages’ endangerment or even extinction are quite wide-ranging and cannot be reduced to the effects of a single political initiative, even one that may have been implemented long-term, as in France. The case of Tuscan, which became hegemonic in the cultural sphere and in the activities of the educated in the fourteenth century, when Italy was still but a “geographical expression”186 (and would remain so for a long time), is worth pointing out in this regard. As Mattarucco reveals, this is the case of a language “without an empire, but benefiting from great prestige” in the rest of Europe during the Renaissance, “the forceful aspect of every European culture,” in the words of Braudel.187 It is therefore not always necessary for an established nation-state to promote a language, within or outside its borders, for that language to become paramount in certain cultural and literary spheres or even for it to become an international language, to the extent that it may even be deemed a vector of the colonization188 of spoken languages and ultimately rejected. Whether the expression “interior colonization” (even with respect to French)189 is pertinent to designate the different forms of coercion exerted upon the speakers of certain dominated regional languages, including creoles, is still a matter of discussion. But the parallel drawn between linguistic and educational policy implemented in a colonial empire and that which prevailed in the homeland territory of the empire allows us to highlight many similarities 185 Also see Albano, “Les expressions figées,” for an approach to teaching delineated elements of a language—fixed phrases—in a plurilingual and pluricultural context. 186 To borrow Metternich’s famous word. 187 Grammaire des civilisations, 15–16. 188 At the risk of being anachronistic, this expression can refer to the reaction of sixteenthcentury writers going to war against the use of Italianisms in French: Barthélémy Anneau, Etienne Tabourot, François Béroalde de Verville, or, the most well-known, Henri Estienne (Deux dialogues du nouveau françois italianizé). 189 In the case of France, for example, historiographical research has been conducted since the late 1980s and sometimes even before (Armengaud, “Enseignement et langues régionales au xixe siècle”), to revise somewhat the unqualif ied appreciation—in vogue ten or twenty years earlier—of the reputedly “linguicidal” policy conducted by the state, from the National Convention (1792–95) through the Third Republic. See Agulhon, Histoire vagabonde, vol. 2: Idéologies et politique dans la France du XIXe siècle, and Chanet, L’École républicaine et les petites patries, in particular.

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between the two types of contexts in terms of education and didactics and in terms of the circulation of ideas and teaching methods from one context to another, in both directions. In this respect, the homeland and the colony have often served as an educational laboratory for each other.190 As such, in France the “natural method” for teaching languages, developed by the primary school inspector Irénée Carré with the idea of teaching French in the patois-speaking areas,191 was exported, so to speak, ne varietur to the colonies at the very end of the nineteenth century192 via the Alliance française in particular (even though the latter remained disconnected from the institution of national education).193 Shortly thereafter, it was adopted back in metropolitan France, with a few adaptations, under the name “Direct Method,”194 which was recognized and recommended for teaching foreign languages in high schools (Instruction of May 31, 1902). Though the chronology and the shape taken are different, we find the same kind of adoption/adaptation between 1885 and 1918 in Germany, one of the last European countries, along with Italy, to sit down to the colonial feast.195 In the German colonies of South-West Africa, educational policy, initially delegated to Christian missions in the context of the Kulturkampf (1881–87), produced different results depending on whether it was managed by Protestant missions (the first ones to settle there) or Catholic missions. 190 The circulation of cultural patterns, more generally speaking. Nicholas Dirks argues that culture has been the major stake of colonialism and that colonization has served in return as a lab for the current political uses of culture, in Dirks, Colonialism and Culture, Introduction. The books in the series founded by John M. McKenzie, Studies in Imperialism (Manchester University Press, since 1984; over a hundred titles now published) are based on the idea that British culture has been as profoundly altered by colonization as the culture of colonized societies. 191 Notably: Carré, Méthode pratique de langage, de lecture, d’écriture; Carré, Le Vocabulaire français; Carré and Liquier, Traité de pédagogie scolaire. See Boutan, La langue des Messieurs, and Puren, L’école française face à l’enfant alloglotte. 192 See Spaëth, Généalogie de la didactique du français langue étrangère, 47. Also see Spaëth, “La didactique du français pour étrangers dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle,” and Spaëth, “Didactique du français langue étrangère et seconde, Présentation.” For the use of the Direct Method at the Collège de Beyrouth, see El Kak in this volume. 193 See Cortier, Institution de l’Alliance française. 194 It consists in teaching a foreign language through “immersion” (as we would say today), without turning to the mother tongue or to translation exercises. As a method based not on written text but on a good oral proficiency, what is called “Direct Méthod” of learning foreign languages was obviously in use since the outset, advocated by educators such as Comenius (1592–1650) and used in the context of missionary didactics as well (see Zwartjes in this volume). But it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that the Direct Method was theorized under this name as a formalized methodology clearly included in curricula. 195 See Stolz et al., Kolonialzeitliche Sprachforschung; Stolz et al., Sprache und Kolonialismus. Also see Conrad, Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte.

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The latter were the only ones to establish the teaching of German in German from elementary classes onward (thus by following the Direct Method), whereas in the Protestant missions, the language of education, the working language of the school, was the local language. It was not until the years leading up to the First World War that the invention of a new pedagogy of French especially intended for the colonies (“colonial pedagogy”) would emerge, under the impetus of Georges Hardy, a “Promethean” figure,196 named Inspector of Primary Instruction in French West Africa in 1912.197 This pedagogy, based on “taming” the student body and which conceives of the village school as the “natural extension of the family,”198 would break with other previous or simultaneously implemented practices, such as those put in place by religious missionaries and the military, as well as with uniform adaptation of the Direct Method imported from the homeland.199 The participation of tirailleurs sénégalais200 in the 1914–18 combat would once again bring about the debate within the French High Command over which language(s) should be disseminated among soldiers from French Soudan—belonging to some sixty different linguistic groups—and which language(s) to use with them: one of the local vehicular languages, like Bamanankan (Bambara) or Wolof, or français tirailleur, the pidgin created by the colonial authority in response to the needs of the cause, which has been discussed above. The debate involved decisions that were both political and pedagogical. The teaching of français tirailleur relied on the Direct Method, and its use did not require intermediaries between the French officers and the African soldiers or non-commissioned officers. The use of vehicular languages, on the other hand, implied the creation or the development of a body of interpreters. Yet the only people who could speak the local languages even a little bit, and therefore the only people who could play the role of interpreters, were the White Fathers. As Van Den Avenne demonstrates in her contribution, the debate over language policy is then coupled with a quarrel between church and state, in a way reminiscent of the debate unfolding in the metropole a few years earlier: in addition to the 196 See Fredj and de Suremain, “Un Prométhée colonial?” 257 and 282–83. Hardy would be appointed director of the École coloniale in 1926. 197 Spaëth, Généalogie de la didactique du français langue étrangère, 107. 198 Ibidem, 109. 199 Hardy, Une conquête morale: l’enseignement en A.O.F. For a comparative approach to French educational policies in the various colonies, with a focus on Algeria, see Léon, Colonisation, enseignement et éducation. 200 Also see Michel, “Soldats africains de l’armée française: mémoires et débats.”

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different arguments put forth (the plurality of languages, the difficulty of finding competent translators), the growing fear of the prestige afforded to missionaries (perceived as “bothersome foreign agents” by the military authority) worked against the use of native languages.

Teachers and field linguists training As in the case of missionary linguistics, the training of language teachers, on the one hand, and of “field” linguists, on the other, was subject to marked changes during the passage from the colonial to the decolonial period. The field still lacks a synthetic volume written on an international scale and from a comparative perspective examining the history of the places where teachers of foreign or second languages were trained, though we do already have several monographic studies about national cases.201 As such, the role of the French Mission laïque, which owes its existence to a group of former students from the École normale supérieure in Saint-Cloud, was to train teacher trainers (which is what distinguished it from the École normale supérieure on rue d’Ulm), especially the professors of the teacher training colleges (Écoles normales d’instituteurs) and, shortly thereafter, those who aimed to train the teaching staff in the colonies.202 As for the history of field linguistics,203 a distant cousin of missionary linguistics (but sometimes not so distant, in fact), we now have at our disposal a fair number of studies offering a definition of the field,204 manuals of a 201 As far as the French case is concerned, see Savatovsky and Berré, “De l’École de Préparation des Professeurs de Français à l’Étranger à l’UFR DFLE,” and Spaëth, “Un laboratoire de la didactique du français langue étrangère.” Also see Hitzel, “L’École des Jeunes de langue d’Istanbul,” on a school of interpreters founded in the seventeenth century, or Sanchez-Summerer, “Pour Dieu et la Patrie,” for the beginnings of a French as second language training among Catholic congregations between 1880 and 1940. 202 This role was renewed at the time of decolonization thanks to the creation of the Center for Research and Study for the Dissemination of French (Centre de recherche et d’étude pour la diffusion du français—the CREDIF) in 1959, an organization administratively linked to the Écoles normales supérieures of Saint-Cloud (for young men) and of Fontenay-aux-Roses (for young women) and the main incubator and laboratory for the teaching of French as a foreign language. The CREDIF was dissolved in 1996. 203 According to the well-known definition by William J. Samarin, field linguistics is “primarily a way of obtaining linguistic data and studying linguistic phenomena […] by personal contact. The speaker of the language, the informant, is the source of information and the evaluator of utterances put to him by the investigator” (Field Linguistics, 1). 204 Auroux, “Les enjeux de la linguistique de terrain.”

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methodological sort for data collection,205 or, on another level, studies in prosopography or dealing with schools, laboratories, or scholarly societies, which all sought to impose relevant periods or thresholds of change upon the history of these entities. The period following the First World War in this regard represented a quite relevant threshold of change, even if it is possible to consider (in keeping with Benveniste) that the linguistic turn is in fact older, dating back to the nineteenth century with the beginning of the linguistic study of Native North American languages.206 Two examples can be cited here: the creation of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in 1925 and the renewal of the approaches of the Société de Linguistique de Paris (SLP), a scholarly society whose foundation dates back to the 1860s but whose methods were reoriented in many cases (in the 1920s, around linguistic geography and fieldwork). With respect to the LSA, we are familiar with the work of Bloomfield, who documented Austronesian and Algic languages, in particular those that had never been the object of any kind of description, and standardized the techniques of data collection and analysis.207 The cross between linguistics and ethnography in the United States has been illustrated by Boas and in a way further symbolized by the collaboration of Benjamin Whorf and Sapir, whose names come together in the famous culturalist “hypothesis” on linguistic relativity. As for SLP, there is no doubt that the project dedicated to the Languages of the World—inaugurated by Antoine Meillet just before the First World War and reopened after 1918, declaring itself in an important collective 205 Among the f irst of the kind: Samarin, Field Linguistics. Or more recently: Munro, Field Linguistics. The recourse to the techniques of field linguistics has been common in language pedagogy, in particular in second language pedagogy, since the 1970s and 80s. On immigrant workers learning German, see: Clahsen, Meisel, and Pienemann, Deutsch als Zweitsprache. This intermixing between the disciplines of ethnography, linguistics, and language pedagogy was, moreover, part of the program of methodologies of field linguistics from the outset: “since every language learning situation is in some sense a field situation, parts of Field Linguistics can be viewed as a contribution to the literature on learning a foreign language” (Samarin, Field Linguistics, vii). 206 It was then that “we realized that certain kinds of linguistic descriptions, of Native American languages in particular, posed problems that traditional methods could not resolve. From this emerged a renewal of description processes, which, in turn, were extended to languages believed to be definitively described, but that in fact came to be understood differently” (Benveniste, “Tendances récentes en linguistique générale,” 6). 207 Along with the Outline of Linguistic Analysis by Bloch and Trager, his Outline Guide for the Practical Study of Foreign Language (two works published in 1942) has long remained the only true reference in the field.

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publication208—constitutes a significant step in the birth of new approaches. The project allowed for the scientific repertoire and the goals of the SLP to gain depth. The SLP, the headquarters of the École de Paris, of Saussurean allegiance,209 henceforth welcomed ethnologists to be trained on the methods of linguistic analysis and later collaborated with the Institut d’Ethnologie de Paris, created in 1925.210 At the same time, it also considerably opened up to families of languages other than the Indo-European family, to which the institution and the fourth section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) associated with it had initially been dedicated.211 In the 1910s the SLP had already welcomed ethnologists as members, notably Arnold van Gennep and Lévy-Bruhl (who was even elected president of the society on two occasions, in 1915 and 1924). Paul Rivet, the other renowned ethnologist within the SLP who also became president (in 1928), points to the conditions for the satisfactory training of “linguistic investigators within the full framework provided by the Institut d’Ethnologie de Paris.”212 It is surely “materially impossible” in most cases, Meillet states, “to establish a connection between linguistic events and the main questions studied by anthropologists”213: the convergence of linguistics and ethnology remains a long-term goal, but is nonetheless a priority of linguistics. One of the most promising theories in this respect appeared to be the idea of civilizational areas, exposed by Schmidt in his Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde (1926). Marcel Cohen indeed highlights that “ethnographic linguistics conducted in the context of civilizational areas, if it were to succeed at its goal, would result in the rendering useless of general linguistics in its own right, since the history of civilizations tends, in essence, to supplant sociology.”214 208 Meillet and Cohen, Les langues du monde. 209 This refers here more to the “Parisian” Saussure, the one who trained Meillet, Duvau, Gauthiot, Grammont, etc. on the method for the historical-comparative analysis of Indo-European languages during his conferences at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (1881–91), than to the “Genevan” Saussure of the Cours de linguistique générale. See Savatovsky, “Saussure à Paris II. Comment faire école?” 210 In a broader international (initially mostly French, German, and British), interdisciplinary, and interprofessional perspective, the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, founded in London in 1926, brings together anthropologists, linguists, missionaries, and colonial administrators. 211 The study of ancient Semitic languages and of certain Eastern languages “of culture” had its place from the start within the fourth section of the EPHE. But the number of conferences (and professorships) dedicated to them remained relatively few at this time, compared to the share dedicated to Indo-European languages. 212 Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris 1925, ix. 213 Meillet, Linguistique générale et linguistique historique I, 89. 214 Cohen, “W[ilhelm] Schmidt, Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde [Review],” 15.

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As in the case of the more distant periods of missionary linguistics, it is necessary to distinguish armchair linguists from linguists with dirty hands, even if some of them belong to both categories, obtaining their information both from written sources and from their contact with native speakers (see Zwartjes in Chapter 1). As for native speakers, it is obvious that their role has been systematically diminished or concealed in the discourses of missionaries and field linguists and consequently in the historiography of missionary and field linguistics. During surveys conducted, they have been reduced, at best, to the status of informants or of famuli (auxiliaries, or rather, ancillaries). In the chapter he wrote for this volume, Zwartjes reminds us of the extent to which the contributions of so many of them have been decisive.

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Nishiyama, Noriyuki, “Les civilisés ont-ils besoin d’apprendre la langue des indigènes? La politique linguistique éducative de l’arabe chez Louis Machuel dans la Tunisie sous le Protectorat français à la fin du 19e siècle,” Revue japonaise de didactique du français 2.2 (2007), 23–42. Oesterreicher, Wulf, and Roland Schmidt-Riese, “Amerikanische Sprachenvielfalt und europäische Grammatiktradition. Missionarslinguistik im Epochenumbruch der Frühen Neuzeit,” Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 29 (Stuttgart: Springer, 1990), 62–100. Ó Mathúna, Seán P., “L’apprendimento della seconda lingua nei primi collegi gesuiti, 1548–1599,” in Lingua, tradizione, Rivelazione. Le chiese e la comunicazione sociale, ed. Lia Formigari and Donatella Di Cesare (Casale Monferrato: Marietti, 1989), 35–45. Ostler, Nicholas, “The Social Roots of Missionary Linguistics,” in Missionary Linguistics/Lingüίstica misionera. Selected Papers from the First International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Oslo, 13–16 March 2003, ed. Otto Zwartjes and Even Hovdhaugen (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2004), 33–46. Otterspeer, Willem (ed.), Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850–1940 (Leiden/New York/ Copenhagen/Cologne: Brill & Universitaire Pers Leiden, 1989). Palmer, Jeremy, “Arabic Diglossia: Teaching Only the Standard Variety is a Disservice to Students,” Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching 14 (2007), 111–22. Petitjean, Patrick, Catherine Jami, and Anne-Marie Moulin (eds.), Science and Empires. Historical Studies about Scientific Development and European Expansion (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992). Perham, Margery, Native Administration in Nigeria (London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1937). Perraudin, Michael, and Juergen Zimmerer (eds.), German Colonialism and National Identity (London: Routledge, 2011). Phạm, Thị Kiều Ly, “La grammatisation du vietnamien (1615–1919): histoire des grammaires et de l’écriture romanisée du vietnamien” (doctoral thesis, Université Sorbonne nouvelle, 2018). Polenz, Peter von, “Fremdwort und Lehnwort sprachwissenschaftlich betrachtet,” in Fremdwort-Diskussion, ed. Peter Braun (Munich: Fink, 1979), 9–31. Poliakov, Léon, Le mythe aryen. Essai sur les sources du racisme et des nationalismes (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1971). Pöll, Bernhard, “Le français en Belgique et en Suisse romande: du purisme francofrançais à quelques fonctionnements pluricentriques,” in Le français et les langues d’Europe, ed. Françoise Argod-Dutard (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011), 73–83.

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Porter, Andrew, Religion versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700–1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004). Porter, Bernard, The Lion’s Share. A Short History of British Imperialism. 1850 to the Present, 6th ed. (London: Routledge, 2021 [2004]). Porter, Bernard, The Absent-Minded Imperialists. Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Pottier, Bernard, “Les premiers grammairiens des langues amérindiennes, au XVIe siècle,” Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 128.1 (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1984), 222–39. Prignitz, Gisèle, “Si tu connais pas gros français là, tu gagnes pas travaillé. Les mots de l’insécurité linguistique dans la communauté francophone au Burkina Faso,” L’insécurité linguistique dans les communautés francophones périphériques, Actes du colloque de Louvain-la-Neuve, 10–12 novembre 1993, Cahiers de l’Institut de linguistique de Louvain 20.1–2 (1994), 71–83. Pugach, Sara, Africa in Translation. A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond, 1814–1945 (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2012). Puren, Laurent, “L’école française face à l’enfant alloglotte: contribution à une étude des politiques linguistiques éducatives mises en œuvre à l’égard des minorités linguistiques scolarisées dans le système éducatif français du XIXe siècle à nos jours” (doctoral thesis, Université Sorbonne nouvelle, 2004). Puren, Laurent, and Bruno Maurer (eds.), La crise de l’apprentissage en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne. Regards croisés sur la didactique des langues et les pratiques enseignantes (Bern: Peter Lang, 2018). Queffélec, Ambroise, “La lexicologie différentielle en terrain africain et malgache,” in Le français des dictionnaires, l’autre versant de la lexicographie française, ed. Claudine Bavoux (Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck & Duculot, 2008), 175–90. Rabault-Feuerhahn, Pascale, L’archive des origines. Sanskrit, philologie, anthropologie dans l’Allemagne du XIXe siècle (Paris: Cerf, 2008). Rabault-Feuerhahn, Pascale, “Introduction,” in Linguistic and Cultural Foreign Policies of European States: 18th–20th Centuries, ed. Karène Sanchez-Summerer and Willem Frijhoff (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016). Rabaut-Feuerhahn, Pascale, and Céline Trautman-Waller (eds.), “Itinéraires orientalistes entre France et Allemagne/Entwicklung der Orientalistik zwischen Frankreich und Deutschland/The Development of Scientif ic Orientalism between France and Germany,” Revue germanique internationale 7 (2008). Raison-Jourde, Françoise, “L’échange inégal de la langue: la pénétration des techniques linguistiques dans une civilisation de l’oral (Imerina, début du XIXe siècle),” Annales 32.4 (1977), 639–69.

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Schwinn, Horst, “Sprachpurismus und Sprachkritik im Deutschen,” in Handbuch Europäische Sprachkritik Online, vol. 3, ed. Europäischen Zentrum für Sprachwissenschaften (Heidelberg: Universität Heidelberg – Leibniz Institut für deutsche Sprache, 2018). Seboek, Thomas A. (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistic, vol. 7, Linguistics in SubSaharian Africa (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1971). Seeley, John R., The Expansion of England. Two Courses of Lectures (London: Macmillan, 1883). Sériot, Patrick, and Ekaterina Velmezova (eds.), “La linguistique marriste: un paradigme perdu,” Cahiers de l’ILSL 20 (2005). Sibeud, Emmanuelle, Une science impériale pour l’Afrique? La construction des savoirs africanistes en France (1878–1930) (Paris: Éditions de l’EHESS, 2002). Sibeud, Emmanuelle, “Cultures coloniales et impériales,” in Les empires coloniaux, XIXe-XXe siècle, ed. Pierre Singaravélou (Paris: Le Seuil, 2013), 335–76. Singaravélou, Pierre, L’École française d’Extrême-Orient ou l’institution des marges (1898–1956). Essai d’histoire sociale et politique de la science coloniale (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999). Singaravélou, Pierre, Professer l’Empire. Les ‘sciences coloniales’ en France sous la IIIe République (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2011). Singaravélou, Pierre (ed.), Les empires coloniaux. XIXe-XXe siècle (Paris: Le Seuil, 2013). Siouffi, Gilles, “Du sentiment de la langue aux arts du langage,” Ela. Études de linguistique appliquée 147 (2007), 265–76. Siouffi, Gilles, “The Political Implications of the Idea of génie de la langue in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in Linguistics and Cultural Foreign Policies of European States 18th–20th centuries, ed. Karène Sanchez-Summerer and Willem Frijhoff (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 179–87. Sokolowsky, Celia, Sprachenpolitik des deutschen Kolonialismus: Deutschunterricht als Mittel imperialer Herrschaftssicherung in Togo, 1884–1914 (Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2004). Spaëth, Valérie, Généalogie de la didactique du français langue étrangère. L’enjeu africain (Paris: CIRELFA, Agence de la francophonie, 1998). Spaëth, Valérie, “La didactique du français pour étrangers dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle: une comparaison des méthodes destinées aux Européens, aux patoisants, aux colonisés,” L’enseignement de la langue et de la littérature françaises dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle (Actes du Colloque organisé à Sintra, Portugal, du 1er au 3 octobre 1998). Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 23 (1999), 125–40. Spaëth, Valérie, “Mondialisation du français dans la seconde partie du XIXe siècle: l’Alliance israélite universelle et l’Alliance française,” Langue française 167 (2010), 49–72.

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Van Hal, Toon, Andy Peetermans, and Zanna Van Loon, “Presentation of the RELiCTA Database: Repertory of Early Modern Linguistic and Catechetical Tools of America, Asia, and Africa,” Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 28.2 (2018), 293–306. Vigner, Gérard, “Le français langue de scolarisation,” Études de linguistique appliquée 88 (1992). Vigner, Gérard (ed.), “La diffusion et l’enseignement du français dans l’empire colonial français (1815–1962),” Actes de la journée d’études organisée par la SIHFLES à Saint-Cloud, le 11 déc. 1998. Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 25 (2000). Volterra, Alessandro, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea (1931–1941),” Mondo Contemporaneo 3.1 (2007), 5–42. Wakely, Richard, “Des yeux étrangers vous regardent: l’enseignement du français vu de l’extérieur,” Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 25 (2000), 11–33. Wesseling, Henri, Le partage de l’Afrique (1880–1914) (Paris: Denoël, 1996). Welmers, Wim E., “Christian Missions and Language Policy,” in Current Trends in Linguistics, ed. Thomas A. Sebeok, vol. 7, Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1971), 559–69. Witek, John W. (ed.), Religion and Culture: An International Symposium Commemorating the IVth Centenary of the University College of St Paul, Macau, Nov. 28–Dec. 1, 1994 (Macau: Instituto cultural de Macau & Ricci Institute, 1999). Zimmermann, Klaus, “La construcción del objeto de la historiografía de la LM,” in Missionary Linguistics—LM: Selected Papers from the First International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, ed. Otto Zwartjes and Even Hovdhaugen (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003), 7–32. Zimmermann, Klaus, and Birte Kellermeier-Rehbein (eds.), Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015). Zimmermann, Klaus, “Missionarslinguistik in kolonialen Kontexten: ein historischer Überblick,” in Koloniallinguistik: Sprache in kolonialen Kontexten (Koloniale und Postkoloniale Linguistik), ed. Daniel Schmidt-Brücken, Thomas Stolz, and Ingo H. Warnke (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), 169–91. Zwartjes, Otto, “The Historiography of Missionary Linguistics: Present State and Further Research Opportunities,” Historiographia Linguistica 39.2–3 (Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 2012), 185–242. Zwartjes, Otto (ed.), Nuevos enfoques y desafíos metodológicos para el estudio de la lingüística misionera latinoamericana (siglos XVI-XVIII)/Latin American Missionary Linguistics (16th–18th Centuries): New Approaches and Challenges in Methodology. Selected Papers from the Tenth International Conference on Missionary Linguistic, Rome, 21–24 March 2018 (Frankfurt am Main/Madrid: Vervuert & Iberoamericana, 2020).

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Zwartjes, Otto, and Even Hovdhaugen (eds.), Missionary Linguistics/Lingüίstica misionera. Selected Papers from the First International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Oslo, 13–16 March 2003 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2004). Zwartjes, Otto, and Cristina Altman (eds.), Missionary Linguistics II/Lingüίstica misionera II. Orthography and Phonology. Selected Papers from the Second International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, São Paulo, 10–13 March 2004 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005). Zwartjes, Otto, James Gregory, and Emilio Ridruejo (eds.), Missionary Linguistics III/Lingüίstica misionera III. Morphology and Syntax. Selected Papers from the Third and Forth International Conferences on Missionary Linguistics, Hong Kong/ Macau, 12–15 March 2005, Valladolid, 8–11 March 2006 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007). Zwartjes, Otto, Ramon Arzápalo Marίn, and Thomas C. Smith Starck (eds.), Missionary Linguistics IV. Selected Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Merida, Yucatán, 14–17 March 2007 (Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2009). Zwartjes, Otto, Klaus Zimmermann, and Marina Schrader-Kniffki (eds.), Missionary Linguistics V/Lingüίstica misionera V. Translation Theories and Practices. Selected Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Bremen, 28 February–2 March 2012 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2014). Zwartjes, Otto, Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, and Álvaro Ezcurra (eds.), Lingüística Misionera. Aspectos lingüίsticos, discursivos, filológicos y pedagógicos. Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Lima, March 2014 (Lima: Universidad de Lima & Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2019). Zwartjes, Otto, and Paolo De Troia (eds.), Missionary Linguistics VI. Missionary Linguistics in Asia. Selected papers from the Tenth International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Rome, 21–24 March 2018 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2021).

About the author Dan Savatovsky is an emeritus professor at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and member of the Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques (Paris). His research concerns the history and epistemology of linguistics or philosophy of language, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (e.g., Graßmann, Peano, Saussure, Meillet, Bally, Guillaume, Damourette and Pichon, Benveniste); his work also engages with the history of language teaching. Personal website: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/m-savatovsky-dan-29879.kjsp

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À propos de l’auteur Dan Savatovsky est professeur émérite à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle et membre du Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques (Paris). Ses recherches portent, d’une part, sur l’histoire et l’épistémologie de la linguistique ou de la philosophie du langage, au dix-neuvième et au vingtième siècle en particulier (Graßmann, Peano, Saussure, Meillet, Bally, Guillaume, Damourette et Pichon, Benveniste…); d’autre part, sur l’histoire de la didactique des langues. Site web personnel: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/m-savatovsky-dan-29879.kjsp

I Iberian Mission Lands

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Toward a historiography of foreign language documentation, teaching and learning of non-Western languages in a missionary context (16th–18th centuries)1 Otto Zwartjes

Abstract: In some recent studies on the history of foreign language teaching, the main objects of study were European languages. It is difficult to understand why a comparable enterprise has not been undertaken yet on the history of language learning and teaching of non-Western languages within the subfield of missionary linguistics. This chapter attempts to f ill this gap. In addition, missionary texts will be discussed, focusing on their pedagogical aims and strategies, and the role of the printing press will be described. The mise en page of the learning tools certainly contributed to the creation of original pedagogical and attractive tools for their learners. What we know of fieldwork methods in this period is fragmentary and often disappointingly scarce. The same applies to the teaching methods. What we have are the texts, the grammars, and the dictionaries used in teaching, but it is still unclear how these grammars were used in practice.

1 [Vers une historiographie de la documentation des langues étrangères, de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage des langues non occidentales dans un contexte missionnaire (seizième–dix-huitième siècle)]. A part of this chapter was previously presented in March 2014 at the 8th International Conference on Missionary Linguistics (Lima, Peru) with the title “Towards a History of Applied Linguistics in the Spanish Colonies: Missionaries as Learners, Researchers and Teachers,” concentrating on the Spanish colonies. This chapter has a wider scope, including Asia, with emphasis on sources written in Spanish and Latin. I wish to express my gratitude to the editors of this volume for their corrections and suggestions and Liam Brockey for his detailed and helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. Regular disclaimers apply.

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL, and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch1

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Résumé : Dans les travaux récents sur l’histoire de l’enseignement des langues étrangères, les langues européennes constituent le principal objet d’étude. Il est difficile de comprendre pourquoi l’histoire de l’apprentissage et de l’enseignement des langues non-occidentales, en tant que sous-domaine de la linguistique missionnaire, n’a guère suscité de travaux du même type. Nous analysons ici les textes missionnaires en mettant l’accent sur leurs objectifs et leurs stratégies pédagogiques, et nous décrivons le rôle de l’imprimerie. La mise en page a certainement contribué à la création d’outils pédagogiques originaux et attractifs pour les apprenants. Ce que nous savons des méthodes de travail sur le terrain à cette époque est fragmentaire et souvent d’une rareté décevante. Il en va de même pour les méthodes d’enseignement. Ce dont nous disposons, ce sont des textes, des grammaires et des dictionnaires utilisés dans l’enseignement, mais nous ignorons presque entièrement comment ils l’étaient. Keywords: Missionary linguistics. Missionary didactics. History of the teaching and learning of non-Western languages. Printing press in missionary context. Mots-clés : Linguistique missionnaire. Didactique missionnaire. Histoire de l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues non-occidentales. Imprimerie en contexte missionnaire.

Introduction During the age of European expansion, colonization, and the so-called “spiritual conquest,” Europeans had different reasons to document, describe, and study the great variety of “exotic” languages in all the continents of the world. There is an enormously heterogeneous corpus of pre-modern linguistic documentation of non-European languages, many of which deserve more attention. Over the last few decades, these early texts have been studied from different perspectives and disciplines, such as historical linguistics, descriptive linguistics, and the history of linguistics.2 In this chapter, this impressive pre-modern corpus of linguistic and pedagogical texts will be studied in light of the historiography of foreign language documentation, 2 Since these pre-modern texts, mainly the dictionaries, contain crucial information on other subfields, these texts are also studied by scholars interested in mathematics, cultural anthropology, botany, geography, cartography, history, etc.

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teaching, and learning, a relatively new discipline. In some recent studies on the history of foreign language teaching,3 the main objects of study were European languages. It is difficult to understand why a comparable enterprise has not been undertaken yet on the history of language learning and teaching of non-Western languages within the subfield of missionary linguistics. This chapter discusses missionary texts, focusing on their pedagogical aims and strategies, and then describes the role of the printing press. The mise en page of the learning tools certainly contributed to the creation of original pedagogical and pleasant, user-friendly tools for their learners. Current knowledge of fieldwork methods in this period is fragmentary and often disappointingly unsystematic. The same applies to the teaching methods. In some cases, mainly in Asia, we know at least some details of the existence of a “teaching program,” but in most other contexts, mainly when no infrastructure was available yet, missionaries did their pioneering work and did not compose their work within the specific teaching program of an institution. What we have are the grammars, the dictionaries, and the texts that were used in teaching, but it is unclear how these learning tools were used. Did learners start at the first page, learning every section by heart until the end of the book, or did the teacher select a specific topic for a lecture? Did the students also practice outside the classroom? In what follows, not every question will be answered. This work will analyze some significant glimpses of information, gathered from prologues, often addressed to the readers (“Al lector”). Here one often finds useful guidelines, observations about how to use the grammar and the dictionary, in a period when no “pedagogical handbooks” were available yet. Linguistics did not yet exist as an independent discipline, which explains why one cannot expect a 3 Studies such as: Coffey, The History of Grammar in Foreign Language Teaching; McLelland, German through English Eyes; McLelland and Smith, The History of Language Learning and Teaching. For Spanish, see Sánchez Pérez, Historia de la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. The only monograph devoted to the history of teaching foreign languages outside Europe in the Hispanic tradition concentrates on the Philippines (Sueiro Justel, La enseñanza de idiomas en Filipinas). Non-Western languages were also taught in Spain, such as Arabic. Teaching practices at the Franciscan Colegio trilingüe de Sevilla and the Colegio de árabe de Damasco (seventeenth through nineteenth centuries) are described in detail in Lourido Díaz’s El estudio del árabe entre los Franciscanos Españoles en Tierra Santa. For the study and teaching of Arabic in Rome (Propaganda Fide and San Pietro in Montorio), see Fück, Die arabische Studien in Europa; Girard, “L’enseignement de l’arabe à Rome au XVIIIe siècle”; and Girard, “Teaching and Learning Arabic.” Some books contain interesting information related to foreign language teaching in Mexico during the colonial period, such as the Franciscan Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco (Hernández and Máynez, El Colegio de Tlatelolco).

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systematic approach to the sub-discipline of applied linguistics. Today applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field, and the same applies to missionary linguistics. Missionary learning tools often include information on pragmatics, translation, sociolinguistics, religion, history, anthropology, ethnology, geography, botany, etc. The following sections are not limited geographically, but this study ends around 1800, a few years after the Jesuits were expelled from the French, Spanish, and Portuguese territories and a few years before most of the main Spanish and Portuguese colonies became independent (except the Philippines and some other territories). The first section opens with a broad perspective, “pre-modern linguistic documentation and learning,” followed by the main part devoted to missionaries and their linguistic work. Finally, the role of the printing press will be discussed.

Older (pre-modern) linguistic documentation In the new circumstances of European expansion, there was a need for a production of linguistic tools, such as grammars, dictionaries, and accompanying texts, antedating the so-called Boasian trilogy. These works were composed for different purposes. In principle, language pedagogy is based on one of the following three methods (or a combination of these three): • Structural (with emphasis on grammar, the translation-based methods, methods which are primarily developed for acquiring reading skills). Texts or translations often accompany such methods,4 4 In some situations, missionaries did not only use religious texts, but they also translated secular texts, such as Aesop’s fables. This was also a common practice in academic circles in Europe. Thomas Erpenius (1584–1624) published fables in Arabic, accompanied by a translation into Latin with interpretations and notes (Erpenius, Locmani sapientis Fabvlae). The fables of Luqmān the Wise (Locman) were to Arabic what Aesop was to Greek: a reader for beginners, a popular learning tool, also successful in later times, as in nineteenth-century France (there is a French edition of Cherbonneau, printed in Paris in 1846). Aesop’s fables were also translated into Nahuatl in the first half of the sixteenth century. It is not clear for whom and by whom these fables were translated into Nahuatl, nor whether it was used by missionaries at the Franciscan College Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco or elsewhere, or if it was written for the indigenous themselves. Nicolas Trigault translated Aesop’s fables into Chinese (published in 1625), and in Japan Aesop’s fables were translated by Jesuits into Japanese (Anonymous, Esopono fabvlas Latinuo vaxite Nippon no cuchito nasu mono nari), bound together with other non-religious texts, such as the Japanese medieval epic Feiqe monogatari (Tale of Heike) and Qincvxv (Kinkūshū), maxims drawn from Chinese classics that were all used in Jesuit education in Japan.

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Functional (with emphasis on phrase books, methods that are primarily based on speech), Direct Method (not based on written text; the learner first acquires a good oral proficiency).

It is evident that we have a more complete idea of what has been written in pre-modern times compared to what might have happened outside the classroom, but it is also true that many texts have been lost. It will be more difficult to have an idea of how missionaries acquired conversation skills, since a considerable part of language acquisition falls outside the training programs of their colleges and universities. And since the latter is not based on texts, it will hardly be possible to reconstruct how they did their fieldwork and how they started learning to speak.5 The following are some types of linguistic tools: *Communicative (not for specific purposes). An example is one of the few works written in New Spain by someone who was not a missionary, Pedro de Arenas (fl. 1611). His Vocabulario manual (1611, with a great number of reprints; the work was in fact a bestseller for at least three centuries)6 includes bi-directional word and phrase lists for Spanish-Nahuatl and Nahuatl-Spanish, with useful expressions to greet, welcome, present, or acknowledge someone; on orientation in space and time; on the social contact and interaction with workers; on rural life; for conversation for reasons of trade; and on animals. The work is not particularly designed for missionaries as learners of Nahuatl, but it includes some basic religious vocabulary. As the subtitle indicates, the book includes the most frequently used “ordinary” words, questions and answers that are usually present in intercourse and communication between Spaniards and Indians (“En que se contienen las palabras, preguntas, y respuestas mas co[m]munes, y ordinarias que se suelen ofrecer en el trato y communicacion entre Españoles, é Indios”). Arenas’s work was the source of inspiration for comparable works 5 Since our information on foreign language acquisition is mainly based on the extant grammars, it is evident that these texts were not sufficient for learning a language. In particular, the pronunciation had to be learned from a teacher or a native speaker. See, for instance, the Franciscan Sebastián de Totanés (1688–1748), who wrote a grammar of Tagalog. He criticizes five other grammars of this language. The shortest, a compendium written by Gaspar de San Agustín, was not so useful according to his view, since it cannot be used without the help of a teacher, and a teacher is not always available in this context (“[el compendio de Gaspar de San Agustín]… es tan abreviado resumen, que sin la voz de maestro (que no siempre se tiene a mano que supla la explicación, que le falta, no es suficiente para aprender por él”). 6 For more information, see Hernández de León-Portilla, “Estudio introductorio,” xxvii–xxxv.

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for Mazahua (Oto-Manguean), Huastec (Mayan),7 and perhaps also other works that have been lost. **Communicative (for specific purposes) · Military. The Orientalist George Hadley (d. 1798) worked for the East India Company and initially composed a grammar of Hindustani for his own use, but he later rewrote his grammar for British military forces who had to communicate with the “Moors.” The main purpose was to get them to work for the British, without the mediation of a munshi (a native language teacher, often also translator and/or secretary in the Mughal Empire and British India). Another officer of the British, captain John Fergusson (eighteenth century), composed a dictionary of Hindustani, and, as Pytlowany observes, “after the foundation of Fort William College in Calcutta (1800), many other British grammars, designed especially for teaching, followed.”8 · Interrelation between patrons and slaves. In some settings, tools were developed for communication in the context of slavery. One example is the work written by the layman Antonio da Costa Peixoto (fl. eighteenth century), who described Mina, an African language spoken in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the purpose of teaching the language to the slaveowners.9 · Commercial. When analyzing the linguistic tools written by missionaries in the Middle East, we see that some of them have a multiple purpose. The linguistic tools of Turkish contain sections with practical wordlists and dialogues that are not only useful for educating missionaries but also traders. Of note here is the Turkish grammar written by Jean-Baptiste Holdermann (1694–1730), where the author explicitly states that his work has a predominantly communicative purpose.10 In other circumstances, 7 Nágera (Nájera) Yanguas (1570–1635) partially adapted Arenas’s work for a more specific religious readership. Nágera studied Theology in Mexico at the Real y Pontificia Universidad, where he became “licenciado.” In 1592 he became a secular clergyman (“cura párroco beneficiado”) in Jocotitlán and later “examinador sinodal y comisario del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición.” His Doctrina y enseñança en la lengva maçahva contains grammatical notes, thematically arranged word lists with basic vocabulary for daily use (“vida cotidiana”) and religious texts for “sacred life” (“Vida sacra”), such as the Creed, Ave Maria, and a confessionary. The Anonymous Conversación en lengua Huasteca is another adaptation of Arenas’s Vocabulario manual and possibly also Nágera’s work. It is not documented that Arenas’s or the Anonymous Huastec “conversation books” were also used within the context of missionary foreign language acquisition (Anonymous, Conversación en lengua Huasteca). 8 Pytlowany, Ketelaar Rediscovered, 150–51. 9 See for more details Fernandes, “A língua geral de Mina,” 31. 10 “Quoy que l’interêt du commerce, que l’on a avec l’Empire Ottoman & les frequentes relations, que font naître les traités d’alliance, que tant de princes Chrêtiens, & sur tout le Roy de France ont faits avec la porte, dussent être des motifs puissants pour engager quelque sçavant versé

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learning tools for language acquisition were developed for trading. This type of linguistic material is sometimes called colonial linguistics, in the Dutch context “VOC-linguistics” (the Dutch East India Company) or “Mercantile Linguistics,” as proposed by Pytlowany, whose object of study was Joan Joshua Ketelaar, the author of a grammar of Hindustani and Persian written in Dutch.11 Travelers and explorers. Although there are some exceptions, missionaries did not aim primarily at producing linguistic tools for communication. As will be demonstrated below, the three pillars are traditionally the grammar (Arte), a bilingual or trilingual dictionary (mono- or bidirectional), and accompanying religious texts that could be used as examples for preaching, sermons, catechesis, confession, baptism, sacraments, etc. Notwithstanding, missionaries sometimes also wrote linguistic tools for those who needed to communicate in “secular” society, not restricted to a conversation between the indigenous population and missionaries in the context of the church, confessions, or any other clerical ceremony. The French Recollect Gabriel Sagard Théodat (fl. 1614–36), who was an explorer and missionary to the Huron people in French Canada, composed the work Le grand voyage dv pays des Hvrons (1632), an ethnographical, geographical account of this region, a work that was accompanied by a dictionary of the Huron language “pour la commodité de ceux qui ont à voyager dans le pays, & n’ont l’intelligence d’icelle langue.”12

*** Non-communicative (or not predominantly communicative), (pre-modern) academic, scholarly, scientific, epistemological, etc. Most authors to be dans les langues orientales a composer une grammaire pour nous faciliter la connoissance de la Turque…” (Holdermann, Grammaire Turque ou methode courte, préface). See also Zwartjes, “Una comparación entre la Gramática turca (1799) de Juan Romero y la Grammaire turque (1730) del jesuita Jean-Baptiste Holdermann,” 459–64. 11 Pytlowany, Ketelaar Rediscovered, 18 and 27–61. This does not mean that the Dutch did not write missionary grammars and dictionaries of and/or translated religious texts into the indigenous languages. Such missionary linguistics exist, for instance in the Dutch Indies and Ceylon (such as Joannes Ruëll’s [1659/64?–1701] grammar of Singhala). And it has been documented that the Dutch also compiled linguistic tools for missionary purposes in Formosa (Taiwan). For the Dutch linguistic policy in Formosa, see Heylen, “Dutch Language Policy and Early Formosan Literacy (1624–1662).” The Dutch had produced linguistic works in the East Indies (Indonesia) since 1605, such as Dutch-Malay lexicons, bilingual dialogues, grammars, catechisms and sermons. Not only missionaries translated parts of the Bible into Malay but also VOC-employees. These Bibles were primarily written for use by VOC employees and wealthy local people in the East Indies. For more details, see Joby, “Missionary Linguistics in the East Indies in the Seventeenth Century.” 12 The French text is quoted from the front page.

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discussed in the following section are missionaries who wrote linguistic tools for language instruction or learning, but there are also other works written by Jesuits, which were not written primarily for a readership of foreign language learners. The Jesuit polygraph Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) wrote the first Coptic grammar in the West. His main purpose was not to compile a learning tool for foreign language acquisition, but in his Prodrumus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus, Kircher stresses the importance to learn Coptic for interpreting hieroglyphs. The book does not deal with Coptic alone; it includes type fonts in Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian, Amharic, and others, which in fact makes this book a typical specimen of the Propaganda Fide Press. The corpus of missionary grammars, dictionaries, and religious texts is heterogeneous. Some are presented as learning tools for communication; others mainly stress the importance of learning the “rules” that have to be learned by missionaries in order to distinguish themselves from the natives, who did not learn their language through an Arte.13 It is apparent that the examples given in the Artes are not always so useful for daily communication, but they are usually designed to explain the grammatical rule, or exception to the rule, under study. In general, Artes and Vocabularios of the Spanish tradition are based on the works of Antonio de Nebrija (1441/44?–1522), and it is important to note that Nebrija did not design his work on Latin primarily for communication. In missionary 13 The following citation from Manuel Pérez’s (?–1725) Cathecismo in Náhuatl clearly demonstrates such a view, distinguishing between “natives” (the indigenous people who learned and know the language, Nahuatl, and speak it with ease and frequency) and the “reglistas” (who speak the language with more “perfection,” since they are more aware of what they are saying); the latter know the rules, although they are less proficient and their linguistic knowledge is less “copious” than that of the natives: “Ay Mexicanos nativos; y ay Mexicanos reglistas; estos son los que la saben por arte, los nativos, es cierto que hablan con mas facilidad, y copia; pero los reglistas con mas perfeccion; porque la saben (como dicen los Logicos) con conocimiento reflexo de lo que dicen, y porquè lo dicen; solo les falta aquella copia de los nativos, …” (Pérez, Cathecismo Romano, “Prólogo,” n.p.). In one of the paratexts of Gabriel San Buenaventura’s (?–?) grammar of Yucatec Maya, one finds the following: “…y assi conociendo à la clara el dezvelo de su Autor (que lo es con extremo en sus significaciones) y que serà de mucho provecho, assi para los que vienen de otras Regiones à esta, pues con facilidad la podràn aprender à hablar, como para los Oriundos, y Naturales della, pues con este Arte corregiràn los barbarismos, que no se pueden escusar à quien sin Arte la habla” (San Buenaventura, 1684: “Aprobación del Br. Juan Gomez Brizeño… examinador en lengua Yucatheca,” in Arte de la lengua maya). The native speakers are generally not able to give “rules,” as occurs with native speakers of Spanish, as Magdalena states in his grammar of Tagalog: “que sin estas reglas tengo por moralmente impossible alcancen en muchos años, que si bien los naturales la hablan con elegancia y propriedad, no pueden dar reglas de ella, como nosotros no podemos dar reglas generales de la Española” (Magdalena, Arte de la lengua tagala, prólogo). For more details, see my paper “Norma y uso en las gramáticas misioneras hispánicas en la época colonial.”

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linguistic works of the pre-modern period, in particular those from the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, examples are often given of useful phrases for current use in the context of the church, the confession, and instruction on the Christian doctrine, but Antonio de Nebrija did not write his works for missionaries, and his Latin grammar is not written with the purpose of communicating in Latin.14 **** Mixed. When missionaries compiled their dictionaries, they produced a heterogenous corpus. Some contain practical word lists, such as body parts, counting, or kinship terms, which are basic vocabulary for communicative purposes. But, at the other end of the spectrum, one finds dictionaries containing a wealth of information, which is not compiled by the authors for communicative purposes. Some dictionaries include a great deal of information related to culture, history, philosophy, geography, botany, and other disciplines; such works are more like encyclopedias than learning tools developed for communication. Other missionaries aimed not only to teach a language but also to describe the typologies of these non-Western languages, a topic that likely fell outside the expectations of foreign language learners. The linguistic works composed by the Franciscan Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Inés (1688–1747) are one clear example. He published two books in Mexico City, a grammar of Japanese and one book containing a grammar of Tagalog, with a Chinese grammar interspersed in it. His work contains a great number of typological comparisons between different Asian languages (the typology of Japanese, Tagalog, and Chinese) and between Asian and European languages. Apparently, such authors did not aim primarily at publishing a linguistic tool for foreign language learning, and the majority 14 Although we must bear in mind that Nebrija had different target groups as learners. His Castilian grammar has a final section, written especially for foreigners. Nebrija’s model was often followed with much flexibility. At the end of his “Nebrija-based” grammar, Francisco Varo’s grammar of Mandarin (Arte de la lengua mandarina, 1703), for instance, includes special sections devoted to different registers of the Mandarin language, both written and spoken, even including pragmatics (ch. 16, “courteous words inter loquendum ‘in conversation’”). Varo describes courtesies connected to the etiquette of invitations, indispensable for acquiring the appropriate communication skills in the context of formal visits, seen from two perspectives: that of the guest and that of the host. Examples are given in detail, such as how to address mandarins and how to name oneself in speaking with them and how to use courteous expressions in written Chinese. Not only recommendations and monitions are given of how to use the appropriate expressions in each specific context, but also extra-linguistic communication is described in detail, like “lowering one’s head,” “not eating too fast,” “not raising the voice,” and “not speaking too fast,” etc. Other Nebrija-based grammars do not offer the learner much more than the parts of speech system, some paradigms of “inflections,” some basic information on pronunciation, and, eventually, some remarks regarding syntax or word order. In conclusion, it is a simplification to consider Nebrija-based grammars “non-communicative.”

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of learners of one of these languages were probably not interested in such prolific exercises on “comparative linguistics” avant la lettre.15 Following the grammatical tradition, with its roots in antiquity and continued in the Renaissance, many authors included chapters in their grammars devoted to prosody16 and rhetoric, which are both disciplines that are not primarily applicable in daily communication. Some missionary works had more than one specific purpose. In diglossic situations, quite a few missionaries aimed not only at describing a variety of the language that was commonly spoken but also that which was studied, documented, described, and learned, or “classical” or high-prestige varieties. Mainly in diglossic societies, Westerners had to develop specific strategies in their approaches. Some texts are primarily based on texts as auctoritas, and, on the other hand, others took the approach of studying utterances based on consuetudo (usage), following the tradition of antiquity, particularly Quintilian’s practice (ca. 35–ca. 100).17 In Amerindian diglos15 The Franciscan priest Sebastián de Totanés (1687–1748) also criticized Oyanguren’s work; his work is “dazzling,” and comparisons with other languages that are not from the Philippines make it annoying for the learner. In fact, almost no one reads it: “y el otro [the work on Tagalog of Oyanguren] que está lato, se halla ofuscado con términos, especies, y reglas de otras idiomas, no de estas islas, que le hacen enfadoso, y por eso, apenas le lee alguno” (Totanés, Arte de la lengua tagala, v). 16 One exemple is Philippus Guadagnoli’s (1596–1656) grammar of Arabic, which contains a detailed chapter on prosody. The average missionary grammar, which is in fact a doubtful category since it is non-existent, follows the traditional Greco-Latin structure, starting from the smallest entity, the letter (littera), followed by the syllable (syllaba), the word (dictio), and the phrase (oratio). Sometimes phonology and orthography come at the end, and the section on the syllable does not appear in the second place. In antiquity the study of the syllable was particularly relevant for the study of prosody in Latin and Greek, distinguishing long and short vowels and syllables. When missionaries found this topic relevant enough to include in their grammar, it usually appears at the end (Guadagnoli’s final section is a treatise on the Khalīlian system of versification, called carūḍ). The final sections of the grammars are generally devoted to syntax, often appended with syntaxis figurata, the figures of speech (Oyanguren de Santa Inés), and sometimes versification and rhetorical figures are combined in the same chapter with examples from poetry or songs, “coplas que cantan en sus danzas” (songs they sing when they dance; Guadalajara, Compendio del arte de la lengua de los Tarahumares y Guazapares, 36r). 17 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, I.6.1–3. In Spain several opinions circulated regarding language acquisition through “arte” or through “uso.” The Jesuit Bernardo de Aldrete (1560–1641), in his Del origen y principio de la lengua castellano ò romance que oi se usa en España, argued that neither an “Arte” nor schools or teachers are needed to learn a language, since children learn language through usage: “Bien cierto es que para saber la lengua vulgar no es menester arte, ni escuela para aprenderla en la tierra donde se usa, porque las primeras palabras, que los niños forman, i las que començando a hablar dizen, son los principios della. En Castilla oi para hablar Romance no es menester acudir a maestros, que lo enseñen, que con el hablar mismo se sabe” (Aldrete, Del origen y principio, I, 47).

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sic societies, such as the Aztec Empire, the lingua franca was Nahuatl. During the colonial period, missionary linguists tried to focus on two different registers: the prestigious variety from pre-Hispanic times, known as Huehuetlahtolli (meaning “speaking manners of the old people”), used in poetry and administration, and, on the other hand, colloquial varieties of Nahuatl, such as the one spoken in Guadalajara.18 Such works have a hybrid function: teaching how to communicate and teaching how to read classical texts. The Franciscan Pedro Antonio Fuentes (fl. 1775–76) composed two grammars of Greek, one for teaching Classical Greek, a language that served as the “universal key of sciences” (“llave universal de las ciencias”),19 and another of colloquial Cypriot Greek, which was necessary for communicating with the people, preaching, and confessing, whether they were literate or uneducated. In the grammatical works describing Arabic by the Spanish Franciscans, the authors highlight the importance of learning the vernacular varieties of Arabic for communication, but they also emphasize the literary register. The Arabic language is as “elegant” as Latin or Greek, since it has the same qualities of Antiquitas, Amplitudo, Facilitas, and Utilitas. Knowledge of Arabic could be essential in understanding Hebrew; the interpretation of some roots in Hebrew, needed in Bible translation, was acquired via Arabic, and the authors also claim that the knowledge of classical Arabic is essential for understanding or translating medical, philosophical, geographical, mathematical, poetical, chemical, botanical, and historical treatises. The grammar of the Franciscans Lucas Caballero (d. 1719) and Juan de la Encarnación (fl. 1710) contains two parts; the most extensive part describes spoken Arabic from Damascus, and the other is an introduction to classical Arabic. The dictionary by Bernardino González (ca. 1665–ca. 1735) contains a section with philosophical terminology entitled “Interpres arabo-latinus… terminos philosophicos y theologicos que he podido acquirir no sin trabajo.” In other Asian diglossic societies with a long written tradition, missionaries had the possibility to choose to describe, analyze, study, and teach the spoken variety or the more prestigious literary register, or even both. On the Indian subcontinent, two mainstream literary, grammatical, and lexicographical traditions can be distinguished: 18 Juan Guerra’s (d. ca. 1692) Arte de la lengua mexicana que fue usual entre los indios del Obispado de Guadalajara and Jerónimo Tomás de Aquino Cortés y Zedeño’s (1724–?) Arte, vocabulario y confessionario en el idioma mexicano, como se usa en el Obispado de Guadalaxara. Manuel Pérez included sections and observations of the variety of “Tierra Caliente,” as opposed to the standard variety as it was spoken in the Central Valley (Pérez, Arte de el idioma mexicano). 19 Gramática griego-literal, vi.

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Tamil and Sanskrit. On the one hand, one finds missionary grammarians describing the learned registers or languages, such as Sanskrit (Heinrich Roth), whereas others focused on colloquial varieties such as Hindi. In Japan, Jesuits composed grammars and dictionaries, distinguishing clearly between three registers: “pure yomi” as used in poetry, “pure coye” used by the “Bonzos” when they pray, and a mixture of these two. China was, and still is, a multilingual and diglossic society, and missionaries were aware of this and had to decide which variety, or language, they wanted to learn, describe, and teach.

Missionaries and their works The linguistic works in the broader context of missionaries’ writings Many of the missionaries did not limit themselves to compiling linguistic works. For some of them, writing grammars or compiling dictionaries was never the focus of their scholarly activities, and they mainly wrote works related to religion or on completely different topics. Some illustrative examples of authors of missionary grammars and/or dictionaries who also published on other subjects follow (while noting that there were surely many whose intersection with linguistics was purely instrumental and who did not publish anything else): · Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who wrote on Christianity and the Confucian classics and, with Ruggieri, a Portuguese–Chinese dictionary;20 · Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), who translated Ricci’s De Christiana expeditione, which became very popular in Europe,21 as well as the fables of Aesop into Chinese (his Romanization system is discussed further below). He is the author of a Chinese dictionary (Xiru Ermu zi, “Aid to the eyes and ears of Western literati,” 1626); · Martino Martini (1610–1661), who wrote works on history22 and contributed to cartography, participating in Joan Blaeu’s (1596–1673) atlas23 as well as authoring theological works in Chinese. He wrote a grammar of Chinese;24 20 Ricci, True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven; Ruggieri and Ricci, Dicionário Português-Chinês. 21 Trigault, De Christiana expeditione. See also Mungello, Curious Land, 46–48. 22 Martini, De Bello Tartarico historia and Sinicae historiae decas prima. 23 Martini, Novus atlas sinensis. 24 Martini, Grammatica sinica.

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Pedro Chirino (1557–1635), who published a history of the Philippines25 and compiled a Chinese dictionary; Alexandre de Rhodes (1593–1660), who wrote several books on the history of Tonkin and of Cochinchina and compiled a trilingual Vietnamese–Portuguese–Latin dictionary and a grammar of Vietnamese in Latin, both published in the same volume;26 João Rodrigues (ca. 1561–ca. 1634), who wrote a history of the Japanese church as well as works on Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism. He was the author of two grammars of Japanese, written in Portuguese;27 Thomas Stephens (Tomás Estevão [ca. 1549–1619]), who wrote his Krista Purana in Marathi and Konkani about the life of Christ, the verses of which were so popular that they were sung until the 1930s. Stephens authored a grammar of Konkani;28 Constanzo Beschi (1680–1742), whose translations diffused Tamil literary works in Europe. He was a grammarian of Tamil;29 Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (1585–1652), who wrote his influential Conquista spiritual about the Jesuit missions in Paraguay,30 Uruguay, and the territories today in Argentina and Brazil; in New France, Louis Nicolas (1634–ca. 1682) compiled impressive works on wildlife, the First Nation’s people, and cartography, enriched with impressive depictions. He was also the author of a grammar of Algonquin;31 in New Spain, the Augustinian Diego Basalenque (1577–1651) wrote both historical and linguistic works.32

25 Chirino, Relacion de las islas filipinas and Dictionarium Sino-Hispanicum. 26 Rhodes, Histoire dv Royavme de Tvnqvin and Dictionarium Annnamiticum [sic], Lusitanum, et Latinum. 27 Rodrigues, Historia da igreja do Japao. Although the original has been lost, a copy made in Macau during the 1740s has been discovered and partly translated into English by Michael Cooper in 2001. See Cooper, João Rodrigues’s Account of Sixteenth-Century Japan. His grammars are entitled Arte da lingoa de Iapam and Arte breve da lingoa Iapoa. 28 Stephens [= Estavão], Discurso sobre a vida do Jesu-Christo Nosso. His grammar is entitled Arte da lingua canarim. 29 Baumgartner, Geschichte der Weltliteratur 2, 345–54. His grammar: Grammatica Latino-Tamulica. 30 Montoya, Conqvista espiritval. 31 Nicolas, Codex canadensis and Grammaire algonquine ou des Sauvages de l’Amerique septentrionalle. 32 Basalenque, Historia de la Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de Michoacán, and several works on Matlatzinca and Purépecha.

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Missionaries’ methods of language documentation, their fieldwork, and their informants Missionaries were generally first students themselves learning the language in a classroom setting or as autodidacts, and when they could not rely on previous studies written by predecessors, they had to start from zero. As Gerónimo de Mendieta reported, missionaries “always brought with them paper and ink, and listening to each word of the Indian, they wrote them down.”33 These missionaries often worked in the field, working closely with the native speakers, but this was not always the case. Just as is done today, one can distinguish between “armchair linguists” and fieldworkers with “dirty feet.” Some missionaries belonged to both categories and based their information both on informants34 and written sources, whereas others had never been in contact with native speakers. When using the word “fieldwork,” this does not always mean that missionaries had systematic questionnaires for elicitation. They often had one confidant, a native convert, in Latin a famulus, who was in fact the most important informant.35 These famuli accompanied the missionaries during their extremely complex and dangerous journeys, and they were the most important people who communicated with the locals to assist them during their journeys. The 33 “Y traían siempre papel y tinta en las manos y, en oyendo el vocablo al indio, escribíanlo.” Cited in Sánchez Pérez, Historia de la Enseñanza, 294. 34 As Thomas observes, “[t]he term ‘informant,’ used as a default since at least Boas’s day, began to be heard as pejorative.” Some linguists have substituted the term of “informant” with other expressions, like “language helper,” “translation helper,” “consultant,” or “assistant,” which are, according to Thomas, “terms which try to re-align the two parties as complementary participants in shared study of language, if not as peers” (Thomas, “The Monolingual Approach in American Linguistic Fieldwork,” 280). In this paper I do not intend to use the term “informant” as a pejorative. 35 Quite a few missionaries were native speakers themselves and did not need any support from other informants. The Franciscan Alonso de Molina, the author of grammars, dictionaries, and Christian doctrinal texts, came to Mexico when he was a child. He learned Nahuatl from his playmates and nurses, and it has been documented that, in 1524, he was already interpreter for the Franciscans. João Rodrigues was born in 1562, in Sernancelhe (Beira, Portugal). At the age of fifteen, he reached Japan. Soon he was recognized as a fluent speaker of Japanese. This fluency explains why he was called Rodrigues Tçuzu (Tcuzzu or Tsuji), which means the “interpreter.” It came at a price: since Rodrigues left Portugal when he was still very young, his abilities in writing Portuguese were limited, as he admitted himself: “As you know, I came from Europe as a child and was brought up in these parts among wilds and forests of these nations, so I possess neither style in our Portuguese language nor method of writing briefly what is necessary … Although I have not an elegant style … I am doing History, and later someone who has style will arrange it.” (Rodrigues’s letter to Nuno Mascarenhas of November 1627 [IN.2.40], quoted in Moran, A Commentary on the Arte, 20).

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grammar and Chinese–Spanish dictionary by the Spanish Dominican Francisco Díaz (1606–1646) were composed with the assistance of Joaquín Ko, born in Fogán (Fú ān), baptized by a Jesuit in Focheu (Fú zhōu). In 1631 he taught Mandarin and the Chinese beliefs, customs, and culture to the missionary Ángel Cocchi (1597–1633; in the French reports called Ange Coqui). His language skills and knowledge were impressive.36 Cocci accompanied Francisco Díaz and Juan Baptista de Morales (1597–1664) from Formosa (Taiwan) to the mission in China, and in 1638 he accompanied them when they were expelled from the Chinese territories to Macau and further to Manila. In Batáan, Joaquín Ko assisted Díaz with the compilation of his Mandarin grammar and his famous dictionary. He was persecuted several times in China and lost his title of “literatus,” one of the most severe punishments in China. When Fogán was captured by the Manchus, he was condemned to death.37 The Chinese grammar of the Jesuit Martino Martini (1614–1661) was also written with the assistance of his famulus Dominicus; it reached Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and soon also the academic circles of Europe. Apparently, these famuli were an indispensable link in linguistic documentation and teaching. In these pre-modern times, one cannot expect these pioneering missionaries to have developed general principles of “schedule-controlled elicitation” or any kind of systematic questionaries for their interrogations with the consultants. Missionary educational “programs,” didactics, and language instruction and the institutionalization of foreign language teaching in a missionary context Communicative methods in Europe Missionaries worked all over the world, came from many different European countries (each with their own grammatical tradition and methods of teaching a language, mainly Latin), and belonged to different religious orders (Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians, etc.) with their own specific practices of language teaching and learning in their colleges. 36 He was “consejero y catequista de varios misioneros, instruidísimo en cuestiones religiosas, conocía todas las sectas de China y sus errores. Por lo cual siempre fue muy apto para defender la Ley de Dios de los ataques de los gentiles. Como era muy elocuente, oíanle con mucho gusto fieles e infieles” (González, Historia de las misiones dominicanas de China, 229). 37 See for more details in Saint Vincent [= Aroux], La Vie de l’illustre Seigneur, 48 and 480–90; González, Historia de las misiones dominicanas de China, 229–30.

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One therefore cannot expect missionaries to have developed any systematic method for language teaching. It is also remarkable that, outside Europe, almost no recollection of several teaching methods developed in Europe can be found. Worth mentioning is the Irish Jesuit William Bathe (1564–1614),38 whose method was used in the Real Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses in Salamanca, where the Portuguese Amaro de Roboredo (ca. 1584–after 1653) worked. Roboredo probably studied there between 1610 and 1615, when he also made his version of the Janua linguarum (1611),39 which he claimed was a “universal method” of language teaching. It is remarkable that no trace of any influence of the Janua can be found in the sources written by Catholic priests in the Americas or Maritime Asia. It is not easy to explain why the Janua was not used as a model for foreign language teaching in the New World. Different from Nebrija and Álvares’s grammars, the work was primarily aimed at vocabulary enrichment, and it follows an inductive method, not starting with the acquisition of grammatical rules from grammars but instead teaching the language using sample sentences. The Janua was very popular, widely used and translated, and adapted in Europe: William Welde (London, 1615), Jean Barbier (London, 1617), Amaro de Roboredo (Lisbon, 1623), Isaac Habrecht (Strasbourg, 1629), Jan Comenius (Lissa, 1631), and Gaspar Scopius (Padua, 1637). As the title of Comenius’s (1592–1671) Janua indicates (English edition, 1656), the work was labeled as a “new method,” based on the principle that the linguistic data were exhibited in a natural order (exhibens ordine native, ad leges Methodi Linguarum novissimae). It is at the least “remarkable” that some authors outside Europe also labeled their grammar as the “new” or even “newest method,” since this does not mean that they follow any edition of the Janua.40 According to Comenius, languages should be taught like the mother tongue 38 Bathe, Ianua linguarum. See also Ó Mathúna, William Bathe, S.J. 39 Roboredo, Methodo grammatical para todas as lingvas and Porta de linguas. See Fernandes, “A Ianua linguarum dos Jesuítas Irlandeses.” 40 Tapia Zenteno, Arte novissima de lengua mexicana. There is another reason why Tapia labeled his grammar as “newest.” It was not only based on Antonio de Nebrija but also on sources that are usually not mentioned by anyone in New Spain, Manuel Álvarez (p. 8), Gerardus Johannes Vossius (p. 9 sq.), Calepino (p. 3), Charisius (p. 21), and Maturino Gilberto [sic] (= Gilberti): Arte novissima, 31. In the Arte de la lengua szinca, Maldonado de Matos observes that all the “modern” grammarians are those who followed the innovations from the grammars of Sánchez de las Brozas [= Sanctius], or the Arte Regia of Luis de la Cerda, leaving aside the earlier editions of Nebrija’s Introducciones Latinae (see Zwartjes, Genera verborum quot sunt?). Diego González Holguín does not specify why he labels his grammar as “new” (Gramatica y Arte nveva de la lengva general de todo el Perú, llamada Quichua).

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through conversation on ordinary topics; pictures and object lessons should be used, and teaching should go hand in hand with a happy life. Before his work was published, other authors in Europe stressed that the acquisition of a language must be “delightful and pleasant,” as the title of John Minsheu’s (1560–1627) work indicates: “Pleasant and delightfull Dialogues in Spanish and English, Profitable to the Learner, and Not Unpleasant to Any Other Reader/Diálogos familiares muy útiles y provechosos para los que quieren aprender la lengua castellana.” No work in the world written during the colonial period has a comparable title.41 Language instruction in New Spain and in the Philippines The specifics of how languages were taught at the universities are unknown. Notwithstanding, some indications of how it was organized are available. In this case, there is evidence from the university of Guatemala in 1699. I cite here the fragment in question, based on Salazar: “classes are held every day save holidays. The original statutes require the professor “to read one whole hour” by the clock or hourglass at each meeting. Half of this time he spends dictating to the students, who write down what he says. The rest of the time is spent in elaboration and discussion.”42 Tate Lanning gives more details about pedagogical assistance after the classes: “Anyway, professors linger a short time at the doors of their classrooms to clarify all doubts and misunderstandings. The proprietary professors supposedly deposit these manuscript lectures in the archives every year on a certain date… The constant need for writing down what the professor read annoyed students more than attending classes.”43 The Augustinian friar Manuel Pérez (?–1725) taught Nahuatl as professor (catedrático) at the Real Universidad de México for twenty-two years. He wrote religious texts in Nahuatl and a grammar of this language, published in 1713. He also wrote a prologue of another grammar of Nahuatl, written by Francisco de Ávila, where he argues that, in 1716, he had been teaching Nahuatl for sixteen years at the Royal University, “dictating the rules,” which suggests that this was the main pedagogical activity of the lecturers

41 It is difficult to explain why there are so few bilingual or multilingual dialogues as learning tools in the context of missionary linguistics in the Spanish and Portuguese territories outside Europe, compared to what has been produced in Europe. For instance, Gallagher’s monograph (2019) draws on a corpus of over 300 conversation manuals composed for learning languages in early modern England. 42 Salazar, Historia del desenvolvimiento intelectual de Guatemala, 41. 43 Lanning, La universidad en el Reino de Guatemala, 196–97.

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during their courses.44 On the other hand, this characterization of professors’ teaching methods is an oversimplification of the facts. There are also some indications that professors criticized such a didactic method based on dictating. Luis de Neve y Molina (fl. 1767) taught Otomi at the Real y Pontificio Colegio Seminario de la Compañía de Jesús. In his grammar, published in 1767, he explains to his readers that for teaching Otomi, rules (“reglas”) are indispensable. During the one-hour classes each day, students could hardly practice the “reglas.” Neve y Molina argues that the professor must talk as much as he can during such a lecture (“lo primero, que el Cathedratico hablàsse, quanto es possible hablar”), since the professor is the only person with whom they can communicate (“pues no teniendo con quien practicar mas de con el Cathedratico”). Apparently, according to Neve y Molina, the language skills must be acquired not only throuh grammar but also through exercises and conversation,45 and he seems to assume that learners usually did not communicate with the indigenous population to practice their language skills. Notwithstanding, one can still infer from some titles of grammars that they were aimed at the acquisition of reading, writing, and speaking, as the title of Sánchez de la Baquera’s method indicates (Modo breve de aprender â ler, escrevir, pronunciar, y ablar el Idioma Othomi; see below).46 Missionaries often learned the language as autodidacts, mainly when no teachers (or native instructors) were available.47 Manuel Pérez started to learn Nahuatl with Vetancurt’s grammar in his cell without the intervention of teachers. When he decided to really learn the language, he moved to “Tierra Caliente” (Chiautla de la Sal [= Chiautla de Tapia]), where native 44 Pérez, “Sentir,” dated 1716, in Ávila, Arte de la lengua mexicana, n.p. The method of dictating grammatical rules is also documented at other universities, as in Bogotá, where a chair was established for teaching Muysca (chibcha). The “lecturer” (lector), as the word indicates, dictates the grammar he possessed, and the learners made their own copies. In Bogotá there was no local printing press available, and this was an easy way to diffuse these textbooks (González de Pérez, Diccionario y gramática chibcha, 10–11). 45 Neve y Molina, Reglas de orthographia, diccionario, y arte del idioma othomi, 100. 46 We must be aware that language instruction in Latin was far from uniform either. Lessons could be just “dictating the rules,” whereas in other contexts it was much broader (teaching how to read, write, to speak/pronounce). For more details, see Castañeda García, La educación en Guadalajara, 275. 47 In some colleges, the participation of a native teacher (indio maestro) was mandatory, as was the practice in the Franciscan convent in Guadalajara. A native teacher should teach how to read, write, and count. (“En cada convento los franciscanos tenían un indio maestro que enseñaba a leer, escribir y contar a todos los muchachos que se quieren enseñar”; Castañeda García, La educación en Guadalajara, 80). It is remarkable that in this citation, no mention is made of teaching how to speak and pronounce.

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speakers helped him. In China the Dominican Francisco Varo (1627–1687), the author of a grammar of Chinese, observed that Chinese will not be appropriately acquired when missionaries learn the language in their cells; they will never be able to speak correctly.48 In the New World’s universities, chairs in the “general languages” (lenguas generales) were created. The Jesuits established their own colleges where the teaching and learning of indigenous languages was institutionalized. In New Spain, the Franciscans founded the College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, inspired by existing colleges in Spain. Universities were officially public institutions, financed by the king, which means that both secular and regular priests could study at the universities, although courses often took place in clerical institutions, churches, the cathedral, colleges of the different religious orders, or monasteries.49 Professors were assigned the chair of indigenous languages after assessment in public competitions (“concurso de oposición”). In the case of the double chair of Nahuatl and Otomi at the Pontificia y Real Universidad de México, the candidate was asked to select a topic from the “Sermonario” written by Juan Bautista (1555–ca. 1613), and after this lecture, he was asked to preach a sermon of thirty minutes in Nahuatl and, later the same day, another sermon in Otomi, two unrelated languages. In the earliest days of the chair’s existence, the students voted for the best candidate, but since this often caused a series of conflicts, it was decided later that members of a university panel should vote. Those who were not proficient in these languages could ask the language experts who were members of the board.50 Professors (catedráticos) earned meager wages. After working for five years as professor of law, many were looking for a better job, for example as judges of the audiencia, and it is documented that professors of law earned much more than other professors. Professors teaching humanities (arts, philosophy, and indigenous languages) earned the lowest salaries of all.51 48 “… la lengua se ba expediendo con el exerçiçio: si el ministro quiere solo en su çelda sin comunicaçion ir aprendiendo terminos, se olvidan mucho, y dado q[u]e por tener feliz memoria no se le oluiden, no teniendo la fraz y colocaçion que es el todo de la lengua no hablara derechamente” (Varo, Arte de la lengua mandarina, 6). 49 Pérez Puente, “Las cátedras públicas de lenguas indígenas,” 49–50. 50 Ibidem, 63. 51 Professors of law at the university of Mexico earned 500 pesos a year, professors of medicine 400 pesos, theology 300 pesos, and professors of indigenous languages 200 pesos (Salazar, Historia del desenvolvimiento intelectual de Guatemala, 40–41). When the “double chair” of Otomí and Náhuatl was split up in two separate chairs for each language in 1670, the two professors earned 100 pesos each (Plaza y Jaén, Crónica de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de México, vol. 2, 136).

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As Joaquín Sueiro Justel and María Dolores Riveiro Lema observe, most grammars of the Philippines are not designed for language instruction in a classroom setting or in a situation in which a learner interacts with the teacher.52 According to these authors, this explains why a relatively high number of examples in the grammars of the Philippines53 can be found (Nebrija’s grammar does not include complete phrases as examples, and his examples are mainly word-based). Language instruction of Arabic The history of language instruction in Arabic in Franciscan and Dominican institutions is in fact much older. In the Middle Ages, the Dominicans created a Studium arabicum in Tunisia, Valencia, Barcelona, and Játiva, and similar institutions were created by the Franciscan Ramón Llull (1232/33–1315/16) in the College of the Santa Trinidad de Miramar in Mallorca. In 1311 the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldean at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, Salamanca, and Rome. The Franciscans created colleges where Arabic was studied and taught in Rome (Studium linguarum in San Pietro in Montorio) and Seville (“Colegio trilingüe,” where Hebrew, colloquial Cypriot Greek, and colloquial Damascene Arabic were taught), and in the Middle East, the Franciscans founded such colleges in Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and other places. I have the impression that the first priority was reading aloud sermons to acquire the necessary skills for preaching. For the more advanced learners, hearing confessions was the next level in proficiency, whereas the acquisition of communication skills was generally the lowest priority. This is why I label most missionary grammars “noncommunicative.” There is no missionary who claims that communication was less urgent—they often stressed that the interaction with natives was in fact important, but they did not design their grammars with this specific purpose in mind. University chairs teaching “general languages” were created, along with colleges and seminars where foreign languages had a great historical importance, but these institutions, their infrastructure, and their teaching methods must be 52 See also above what Totanés said about Gaspar de San Agustín. 53 “As other grammars written before the nineteenth century, the Arte de la Lengua de Pangasinán [Grammar of the Pangasinan language] was not designed for the interaction between teacher and learner (in the Philippines in those days, regulated education was still non-existent); the grammar was rather primarily written as a handbook for autodidacts; in this context, the use of examples becomes the element of greatest pedagogical value” (Sueiro Justel and Riveiro Lema, Andrés López: Arte de la Lengua de Pangasinán, 61).

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seen from the correct perspective, free from our modern and anachronistic views. Missionaries were trained in relatively small classes. The Colegio trilingüe of Seville had three students in 1697, and in the San Pietro in Montorio College in Rome, a maximum was established of six students in the Arabic classes. The famous chairs in Latin America are often described as sophisticated institutions for language instruction, but many chairs were in fact empty over many years, and if professors were available, there were often few or no students, and quite a few chairs ceased to exist after a short span (like the chair in Guatemala). The Colegio trilingüe in Sevilla was not successful;54 there were few students, and even in 1707 the college was closed. The Franciscans decided to continue the teaching of Arabic in one of the Franciscan colleges in the Middle East and Greek in Nicosia, not in Spain, where no fluent speakers were available. In the missionary hierarchy of Arabic studies, three levels were distinguished: proficiency in Arabic for lecturers, for preachers, and for confessors (lectores, predicadores, and confesores).55 The elementary Arabic course at the College of Damascus was not given each year but rather once in three or four years, and there were usually four or five students in the classroom.56 After three weeks of study in the class, students started to read texts from the New Testament in Arabic each day. But before these lessons started, they had to prepare themselves well, and such reading classes were given for a period of seven months.57 There is almost no information about exactly how Arabic was taught (grammar, rules, theoretical approaches, definitions, assessment), but the grammars themselves are available, and it is clear that the professor seemed to dictate these texts as student took notes. Since the manuscript or printed grammars were often not available for every single student, they often wrote their own copies derived from these lectures. Often, the students later became teachers themselves, but it was required that all those who wanted to become a teacher had to work for a couple of years at least as priests in a parish. In fact, the highest proficiency was achieved by practice—i.e., outside the college and after the period of language instruction in the institution—via direct interaction with the native population. This explains why the learning tools were not primarily written with the purpose of communication, since such skills 54 Lourido Díaz, El estudio del árabe entre los franciscanos españoles en Tierra Santa, 103. 55 Ibidem, 124. 56 Ibidem, 128. 57 “desde hace tres semanas leemos el Evangelio en Arabe todos los días en la Missa, pero estudiándolo antes mucho… no entendemos del Arabo más que alguna palabra, no muchas, y lo estudiamos podemos hacer cuenta 7 meses [sic]” (ibidem, 137).

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would be acquired later, after the courses. A lecturer or a preacher could in principle read aloud a written text, even if he did not understand a word of what he was reading, and the same applies in fact to hearing confessions; a confessor could read aloud the “prefabricated questions” from the practical tool entitled “confessionario,” and, in theory, the essence of the answers in the confessions could have escaped the confessor, as long as he could give the right “prefabricated answer,” referring to the Sacrament of Penance in which the faithful is absolved from his/her sins and he/she is reconciled with the Christian community. Language instruction in China It is likely that the teaching practices in the Franciscan tradition in the Middle East are not an isolated case. Although information is scarce about teaching and acquisition of foreign languages generally, the situation in Latin America and elsewhere was probably similar. It is important to avoid overemphasizing the importance of these “foreign language institutions” and their “language instruction programs” avant la lettre using our modern anachronistic standards. There is an impressive number of grammars, dictionaries, and translated texts at our disposal, but these written tools are only a part of the teaching practices. The same applies to the alleged language skills of many priests. On the one hand, many missionaries achieved an impressive level. Some of them were natives, and many who were not became near-natives and published their texts after many years of study and fieldwork, continuously checking their findings with the native population. On the other hand, one also frequently reads that priests were mocked by the natives. Missionaries are usually praised by biographers of the same religious order, but they often characterize the linguistic proficiency of members of other religious orders in a negative way. According to many texts, the Jesuits are renowned scholars worldwide; their linguistic skills are often praised, but there are also different stories. Dominicans had a very good reputation as fluent speakers of the local languages where they worked, unlike the Franciscans. As Cervera Jiménez observes, Franciscans did not learn the language; they always dressed in typical Franciscan attire and never as the Chinese locals, which marks a notable difference from the Jesuits. In the earlier missions of the thirteenth century, Franciscans had a different strategy, allowing themselves privileges that were not allowed in the Franciscan order. They were permitted to carry money with them, could dress differently, and were allowed to grow beards to integrate themselves into the life of the Mongols and learn the Tartar

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language. They were even able to preach in that language58, as the Jesuits did in China (the so-called “accommodation” strategy). The Franciscans’ reputation regarding their language proficiency in seventeenth-century China was less positive. Franciscans generally did not attempt to learn the language and did not attempt to adapt to the Chinese culture, which became a crucial issue in the Chinese Rites Controversy. Clearly, there was competition between the religious orders. The Dominican Francisco Díaz criticized the Jesuits, arguing that there were only five or six among the Jesuits who were able to speak Chinese fluently and elegantly, while he observes that Dominicans were much more fluent than the Jesuits generally.59 It has often been postulated that the Jesuits’ strategies differed from those of the Dominicans in China. We have an impression of how Jesuits taught and studied Chinese in mainland China, since they used the same tools that were designed for Chinese children, focusing on reading the Chinese Confucian canon and lessons in spoken Mandarin. Around 1620 a formal four-year program was established. In the “teaching programs,” there was also attention to instructing informal conversations, but the focus in Jesuit education was to acquire prof iciency in Classical Chinese with the goal of reading, understanding, interpretating, and translating Confucian works. Such a “teaching program” has been described by Brockey,60 who summarizes that the novices acquired a familiarity of spoken guān huá during the initial six months while they started to begin learning to read and write characters, using Nicolas Trigault’s Xiru ermu zi for building their vocabularies. They had to avoid acquiring any form of “inelegant style.” The second stage of the program was learning to speak guān huá fluently, and, as Brockey argues, the learners were introduced into the “courtesies used, when dealing with and speaking to the Chinese, as well as the accepted forms of table manners, the proper way to drink tea, the way to arrange one’s hair, and other culturally specific practices.”61 Furthermore, Brockey’s study indicates that “students were also introduced to etiquette during their lessons by using speech books of the type employed by the missionaries since the 1590s.” Brockey cites one such text written by the Jesuit José Monteiro, a dialogue between a priest and a Chinese Christian, entitled Vera et unica 58 Jiménez, “Los intentos de los franciscanos,” 429. 59 “Aunque dicen [los cristianos] que hablamos mejor [los domínicos] que tal y tal Padre de la Compañía” (González, Historia de las misiones, 90). 60 Brockey, Journey to the East, 261. 61 Ibidem, 262.

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praxis breviter ediscendi, ac expeditissime loquendi sinicum idioma suapte natura adeo difficile… In usum Tyronum Missionarium (The true and only brief method for quickly learning to speak the Chinese language, which by its nature is very difficult… For use in training missionaries),62 mainly a confession manual but also including “small talk” about travel, food, or the weather. The Dominican Domingo Fernández Navarrete (1618–1686)63 refers to a similar notebook and observes that such Jesuit tools were very popular among the Dominicans, who made ample use of them. The third part of the basic educational program was learning to write Chinese characters, and, once this knowledge was achieved, the pupils started to study the Confucian canon (the four books), history, and law; for the understanding of these texts in Classical Chinese, the teaching was focused on acquiring the differences between spoken guān huá and Classical Chinese. In the Franciscan tradition in the Middle East, the teaching of colloquial Arabic was the first priority, whereas the acquisition of literary Arabic was less important. The title of Caballero and Encarnación’s grammar of Arabic reveals this choice. The main part of the grammar is a grammar in which colloquial Arabic is treated in a satisfactory way, but it also contains “some rules” of the literary register.64 Language instruction in South America The most detailed sources about language teaching are related to Jesuit education in Macau. In the Americas, apart from some recommendations on language acquisition and communication with the natives, only a small number of texts include an explicit didactic “guideline” for learners. Most grammarians and lexicographers of languages of the Americas and the Philippines did not supply much detail about their learning strategies. However, there are some important exceptions: João Rodrigues’s (1561–1634) grammars of Japanese, Ludovico Bertonio’s (1557–1625) work on Aymara, Diego González Holguín’s (1552–1618) work on Quechua, and Antonio Ruiz de Montoya’s (1585–1652) work on Guarani.65 Antonio de Nebrija wrote separate books on orthography, grammar, and published dictionaries, but it is an important innovation that authors like Bertonio and Ruiz de Montoya wrote several books, dictionaries, and grammars, which have to be used 62 A copy is housed in the Biblioteca da Academia das Ciências, Lisbon (Ms. Azul 421 [= Monteiro Praxis]). I have not been able to see this copy yet. 63 Navarrete, Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religosos de la Monarchia de China, 70. 64 Compendio de los rudimentos y gramatica araba en que se da suficiente notizia de la lengua vernacula o vulgar y algunas reglas de la literal Iustamente. 65 For more details see Zwartjes, “Jesuit Missionary Linguistics.”

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simultaneously. The authors frequently refer to the other volumes, and the information given is complementary. In more advanced educational institutions of the big cities, teaching a foreign language was probably more structured than could be realized in the more remote regions, where pioneering missionaries were still struggling to find the best way to describe a certain feature. In such circumstances, not only do the authors show more flexibility in the selection and presentation of linguistic material, but learners may also have used their teacher’s grammars with more freedom. Missionary grammarians arranged their grammar in agreement with the Greco-Latin tradition, usually starting with the letters (orthography and phonology), followed by a study of words (morphology) and parts of speech. Following tradition, eight parts of speech are described in the following order: four are inflected (noun, pronoun, verb, participle), and four parts are uninflected (preposition, adverb, interjection, and conjunction). Some authors expand this system of eight parts of speech with articles, particles, ligaduras, and interposiciones. The final section is devoted to syntax (agreement, government, and/or word order) and some extra material, which they consider difficult to classify in other sections of the grammar: speech manners, translation, figures of speech, barbarisms, solecisms, idiotisms, copiousness, elegance, etc. If grammars were read aloud by the teacher, it is likely that the courses were also structured like their grammars, but there is no indication or evidence corroborating this view. How to use a grammar? A grammar was probably not always designed to be learned from the beginning to the end, as observed by Ignacio Chomé (1696–1768) in his grammar of Chiquitano. Chomé observes that every language has its difficulties and particular features, and a grammar must not be studied as a novel or a comedy (“no se estudia como se lee una novela, o una comedia”). Learners or teachers appear to have been given the freedom to read it as they wished. In this period, grammars did not contain “lessons”66 or “exercises” in the modern sense, and it will consequently be impossible to get a complete picture of the teaching and learning practices in these remote regions. A grammarian might also tell his reader why he decided to follow a different order. Learners had their expectations, and they had to be informed when the work did not follow the canonical order. Sánchez de la Baquera (fl. 66 Fray Francisco [Blancas] de San José’s grammar of Tagalog is divided in two sections, “Arte” and “Reglas.” The “Arte” has “Lecciones” as headings of the sections, but this is an exception.

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1747), the author of a grammar of Otomi, decides not to start with nominal declension but with the verb and its conjugations (“me parece bien poner primero el modo de conjugar”).67 On the other side of the globe, in China, one finds similar treatment of the parts of speech. Francisco Varo observes that he follows the order of the parts of speech of Nebrija’s grammar, but, like Sánchez de la Baquera, he decides to change the order. Any possible influence from Mexico to mainland China is very unlikely, but it is astonishing that Varo inverted the order of the parts of speech and included negation, interrogation, and the conditional for pedagogical reasons. These examples seem to indicate that grammars had to be learned (or were dictated in a classroom setting) from the beginning to the end.68 Most printed works could easily be disseminated among learners and educational institutions. It is also clear that a great number of manuscripts produced by Jesuits were not always intended to be used as learning tools on a large scale. As Bishop and Brousseau observe, “some of the Nêhirawêwin dictionaries appear to have been primarily for personal use, while others adopt an explicitly pedagogical tone.”69 Finally, it is clear that most of the authors composed their work without intending to offer the reader a systematic overview or without providing the reader guidelines on how to use the grammars and the dictionaries. Their observations are given unsystematically, and some are more explicit

67 Sánchez de la Baquera, Modo breve, fol. 46. 68 “Aunque tratando de los [sic] partes de la oraçion segun el orden, que las trae el arte de Nebrixa, no em [sic] este el propio lugar de la interjeçion, y conjunçion; puese son estas las dos ultimas en orden; mas por pareçerme ser de menos embarazo, y mas facilidad a los principiantes, poner primero estas dos partes que las demas quatro, mude el orden y reduxe en este capitulo la Negaçion, Interrogaçion y Condiçional.” (Even though we are dealing with the parts of speech according to the order which I have drawn from the grammar of Nebrixa, this is not the proper place for the interjection and conjunction, since these two are the last ones in [that] order. However, it seems to me that to put these two parts first, instead of the other four [i.e., verbs, participles, prepositions, and adverbs], will be less troublesome and will make things easier for the beginner. So I have inverted the order and have included negation, interrogation, and the conditional in this chapter.) (Varo, Arte de la lengua mandarina, fol. 42, in Francisco Varo’s Grammar of the Mandarin Language (1703), 42, translated by South Coblin and Levi). Varo inserts these categories, since he has detected a great number of negations: “negaçion absoluta,” “absolutissima,” “prohibitiva,” “interrogativa af irmativa,” “negaçion duplicada” (fols. 45–46); the same applies to the “interrogaçion” (dubitativa, inquisitiva, de causa, de tiempo), which are expressed by “particles” and not, according to Varo’s view, by pronouns. In that case, he would have described them accordingly in that section. 69 Bishop and Brousseau, “End of the Jesuit Lexicographic,” 297.

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in explaining their didactic strategies while others are not. Below are some interesting examples: The Jesuit grammarian Antonio del Rincón (1556–1601) analyzes and describes Nahuatl not according to the Latin model but rather on its own terms (“it is not possible to follow a single method or grammar to teach all languages, since they are all so different […] many things here require different rules […] where this language was different than Latin, since these aspects were new, it was necessary to create new rules, and a requisite new style”).70 In another source from the northwest of Mexico, an anonymous Jesuit author on the Cahita language observes that Nebrija is for children. According to the author, his work on Cahita is written for missionaries who must be able to be proficient in any discipline, teaching them to use the language to translate the Catechism and Christian doctrine in grammatically correct language; this is different from Antonio de Nebrija’s method, which was developed to teach Latin to children.71 His pedagogical method not only concentrates on the acquisition of words but also on how to “play” ( jugar) with these words, composing phrases and producing elegant speech and “energy in its collocation.”72 In another grammar, also written by a Jesuit grammarian, describing Tarahumara, some didactic recommendations and guidelines are given. In the prologue, the Jesuit Tomás de Guadalajara (1648–1720) argues that words must be learned, always together with the right accent and pronunciation (“téngase cuidado en aprender no solo las palabras sino el acento, y buena pronunciación”). The text is not only written for beginners; some parts are for more advanced learners. Guadalajara gives beginners the advice to start with the vocabulary first.73 70 Translation by McDonough, “Indigenous Intellectuals,” 157–58. The original text is as follows: “No es possible guardarse en todo vn mismo methodo y arte, y enseñar todas las lenguas, siendo ellas (como lo son) tan distantes y diferentes entre si, antes la vniformidad en esto seria gran disformidad, y por consiguiente confusion y estoruo para quien las deprendiesse” (Rincón, Arte mexicana prólogo, n.p.). 71 “Por la misma causa no va compuesto este pequeño libro con la prolixidad, que el Arte Nebrisensis, porque aquellos rudimentos son para niños, que empiezan, y esta obra para Sujetos, que pueden ser Maestros en todas facultades, En la traducción del Catecismo, y Doctrinas Cristianas….” 72 “composición de las oraciones, elegancia en el decir, energía en la colocación” (“Al Lector,” n.p.). 73 “Lo dicho en este capítulo, no es para todos, sino para muy altos ingenios, que con poco adelantan mucho, y más adelantarán, considerando bien los Vocabularios, que van con este compendio, que porque en el no faltase cosa, se ha puesto aunque de paso, y los principiantes no se aflijan, pues les basta el Vocabulario” (Guadalajara, Compendio, 24v).

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Sánchez de la Baquera discusses the importance of acquiring the right pronunciation. According to his prologue, many authors have written about Otomi, but their main purpose was to use the language for sermons and to spread the Christian doctrine (“oraciones y Doctrina”). But such works are not written for those who want to learn how to read and write the language, which is, according to the author, the most important (“para saberla leer, y escrivir, siendo esto lo mas importante.”74 For the legitimate pronunciation (“legítima pronunciación”), a grammar must sufficiently cover the rules of pronunciation, since this language is difficult (“es muy difícil leer este idioma”). Another purpose for writing this manual is the fact that so many authors used different spellings (“unos escriben de un modo, y otros de otro”). A shortcoming of predecessors’ works is the fact that they are not as readable as Castilian (“no sea legible como lo castellano”), since the same spellings, or homographs, are not distinguished, even when they have a different meaning. According to some people, the language is confusing and difficult, but it is in fact the opposite. In the Otomi language, every single word has its “foundation, clarity, and distinction” (“tiene fundamento, claridad y distinción”). According to the author, it is better to know only four words with good pronunciation than a thousand only by memory without knowing the right pronunciation (“porque vale más saber cuatro términos bien pronunciados, que mil de memoria”).75 No attention is paid to syntax or word order, as occurs in other works, such as Juan de Córdova’s (1501/1503–1595) grammar of Zapotec. Here one reads that the learner not only has to be taught how to pronounce the words but simultaneously how to use them and put them in the right place (“saberlos bien pronunciar, aplicar y poner cada vno en su asiento y lugar”). In the prologue Luis de Neve y Molina informs his readers that his method was written for beginners (“para instruccion de los principiantes”). A pre­requisite is that the learner know Latin and be familiar with the Arte of Antonio de Nebriga [sic],76 which for Neve y Molina means that it is not necessary to give Nebrija’s rules again in this grammar. Different from Sánchez de la Baquera, who continuously informs his readers that the acquisition of the right pronunciation was the main purpose of his method, Neve y Molina argues that the main objective of his grammatical compendium was to teach how to construe sentences and acquire the most important “rudiments” of the language (“para que los principiantes puedan 74 Sánchez de la Baquera, Modo breve, fol. 3. 75 Ibidem, fol. 5. 76 Neve y Molina, Reglas de orthographia, diccionario, y arte del idioma othomi, 11.

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con facilidad formar oraciones, ê instruirse en los mayores rudimentos de este Idioma”). He labels his work as an easy method (“facil method”). In the prologue Neve y Molina attempts to fill the gap after so many years. Probably referring to Horacio Carochi (1579–1662) or perhaps others from the seventeenth century, who were excellent grammarians, he complains that no works survived. Many considered the language more barbarian than any other language of this hemisphere, and teachers left their students erring and blind without a guide. Neve y Molina observes that this language is as important as Nahuatl (“el Mexicano”), a language that has been studied and described in so many grammars and dictionaries. Notwithstanding, no text has ever been printed for teaching Otomi. If some authors have composed some papers (“papeles sueltos”), they are usually obscure and contain many difficulties and contradictions for the learners. They make this language even more complicated than it already is. According to Neve y Molina, his predecessors developed alphabets with so many characters and figures, and they did not give any unanimous rules of how to write this language, which caused even more difficulties. He develops an alphabet that can be printed easily (it has been recorded in the Luces that the grammar of Carochi caused too many difficulties for the printing house). Neve y Molina also wanted to standardize the language. Only one variety must be taught for teaching its pronunciation and for writing the language, and varieties must be ignored (“de que todo el Idioma sea uno, assi en el modo de pronunciar, como en el modo de escribir”). The language already has so many corrupt forms (“voces totalmente adulteradas, y mudadas”), which can be expected from a language without any books or guidance. In Castilian every equivoque term can be detected, and any error can be corrected. According to Neve y Molina, good pronunciation in Latin depends on good orthography, but in Otomi good orthography depends on good pronunciation. If written correctly, future learners will pronounce the language correctly. Neve y Molina concludes his prologue with the remark that the book may contain errors, but there is an excuse: his work is the first to appear in print (“por ser el primer Arte de este Idioma, que se dá à la Imprenta”). A considerable number of eighteenth-century missionary grammarians decided not to strictly follow the canonical order letter/sound > [syllable], often omitted > word (parts of speech, morphology) > phrases (syntax) and started to give their works other titles than the traditional Arte de la lengua X and Vocabulario de la lengua X. One such author is Agustín de Quintana (ca. 1660–1734), who wrote works on Mixe in the actual state of Oaxaca. Quintana decided not to include too many remarks (“advertencias”) in

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this work, because that would make the work too extensive (“otras muchas advertencias podian ponerse, para intelegencia de este Quaderno; pero por no acrecentar la obra, no se ponen”).77 It is remarkable that Quintana informs his readers explicitly why he wrote his Confessonario. As one might expect, these religious texts were made primarily to help the missionaries preach or listen to the confessions of the indigenous people. Quintana stresses that the main objective of writing his Confessonario was not “to teach morality” but rather “to teach the Mixe language.”78 Apparently, the examples of confessions could be increased, and they therefore must be seen as ancillary tools in the acquisition of Mixe. Quintana thus observes that he did not put “everything in it” (for that, one must ask the “Naturales” if one wants to know “everything” about Mixe);79 rather, he included the Mixe phrases that can be used, mutatis mutandis, for asking everything one desires. His Instrvcción Christiana comes after the prologue, and the book opens with a section entitled “Modo de hablar la lengua mixe” followed by another entitled “Arte de la lengva mixe,” which is relatively brief (thirty-one pages). Concluding the volume, the “Compendio de vozes mixes util para comenzar a estudiar la lengua mixe” contains several Mixe vocabulary lists with Spanish equivalents: 140 words arranged according to seven phonetic groupings. Together with a separate publication, the Confessionario, the author gives texts with annotated translations. Apparently, the role of the grammar (“Arte”) is reduced to a small part, and the books offer the reader many exercises. The section entitled “Compendio de vozes Mixes” is presented as a useful tool to start learning Mixe (“Util para comenzar a estudiar la lengua Mixe”), beginning with pronouncing sounds (“vozes”) followed by words. Figures 1a–b show two examples of this type, which are clearly free from any Nebrija-like work. The didactics of non-Western languages Since this chapter concentrates on pedagogical methods, I shall describe how some often hitherto unknown features of “exotic” languages were described and explained to learners. Of course, grammars are not strictly theoretical or pedagogical; theory and didactics often go hand in hand. Even today, there is a clear-cut difference between sophisticated descriptive reference grammars designed for an academic readership and learning tools for foreign language acquisition, but a relation between the two extremes is sometimes 77 Quintana, Confessonario en lengua mixe, 126. 78 Ibidem, 15. 79 Ibidem.

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Fig. 1a. Annotated translation in Quintana’s Compendio de Vozes Mixes (1733), fol. 97

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Fig. 1b. Quintana’s Compendio de Vozes Mixes (1733), fol. 126

present. The same applies to missionary grammars, whose authors are sometimes more inclined to theorization, whereas others limit themselves to representing paradigms, with little space for linguistic analysis. Regarding the grammatical discourse, almost no missionary grammar follows the so-called canonical erotemata of questions and answers, which is widely used in Europe.80 One exception is Diego González Holguín’s grammar of Quechua, with one difference. In Europe the teacher typically asks questions, and the student answers, but in the Quechua grammar, it is the student (“discípulo”) who asks the questions to his master (“Maestro”). In quite a few missionary grammars, definitions of the parts of speech are given, but such information related to metalinguistic theory and terminology is often suppressed. As demonstrated previously, phonology and orthography were usually not the most important section of the grammar. In general, a few pages are reserved to this topic, a section that usually closes by advising the learner to listen carefully to native speakers. Much was still unknown about articulatory phonetics, and most grammars start with the alphabet, pointing at the missing letters, and then they reserve some space for hitherto unknown sounds.81 80 As in Pierre Restaut’s (1696–1764) Principes généraux et raisonnés de la grammaire françoise par demandes & par réponses. 81 Smith-Stark, “Phonological Description in New Spain.”

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Notwithstanding, the contribution of some missionaries to the history of linguistics is impressive, and they wrote generally accurate and detailed description of previously unknown sounds.82 Some interesting case studies are published in Zwartjes and Altman,83 mainly highlighting missionaries’ descriptive techniques. Missionaries had to describe any phonetic repertory found in the languages of the world. In that volume, less attention was paid to how to teach pronunciation in practice. How were these sounds taught, with or without the help of a native speaker? The following strategies are applied: · Comparisons with other languages, such as Latin or Spanish. In grammars of Asian languages like Chinese, there are comparisons for missionaries from more countries, and in that case, sounds in Chinese are also compared with French, Italian, and Portuguese; · Comparisons with sounds from animals, such as sheep, birds, insects, onomatopoeic expressions, emotions, or “castanets.” Sánchez de la Baquera explains to his readers that there are two classes of vowels: clear vowels (“se han de leer claro”), which are written without diacritics, and nasal vowels (“vocal de narigal”). In § 3 the diacritic ^ is introduced, used for nasal vowels. The learner is encouraged to listen carefully to a native speaker for the right pronunciation, and if the teacher is a Spaniard, he must be a “buen otomite,” at least regarding pronunciation (“a lo menos en la pronunciación”). The so-called “confusing letter” (“letra confusa”) is described as a “buzzing sound,” like the noise made by a hornet or a fly (“xicote,” from Nahuatl xicotl “nig wasp,” or “moscón”). Sánchez de la Baquera stresses the fact that the language must be written with precision (§ 46). Learners are asked to be patient. Even when the language seems to be difficult, the learner must take his time, training his ears and his pronunciation, and he must pay attention to the specific movements and position of the tongue to correctly pronounce the right sounds (§ 47). The author highlights the importance of acquiring correct pronunciation, and if not acquired correctly from the beginning, one will pronounce the words erroneously until his death (§ 48). When a learner has acquired many words with the wrong pronunciation, this will cause laughter 82 I want to refer to three excellent dissertations on languages that were considered difficult on the level of phonology (segmental and suprasegmental): Raini’s dissertation on Mandarin Chinese, Guerrero Galván’s on Otomi, and Phạm’s on Vietnamese. It is fascinating how some sophisticated missionary descriptions developed in this early modern period. 83 Zwartjes and Altman, Missionary Linguistics II, 2005.

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and mockery among the native speakers (“se pone a mofa y risa”). He then gives the example of people who have a speech disorder (“gangosos”: those speakers who pronounce with unwanted escape of air or sound through the nose during speech, “balbucientes” and “tartamudos,” stutterers and stammerers). One cannot blame such speakers for bad pronunciation, since this is their “nature,” and one can understand what they mean and will not laugh at them nor mock them. A learner without speech disorders and who has the capacity to acquire correct pronunciation will be laughed at and mocked if his pronunciation is still wrong (§ 49). Sánchez de la Baquera emphasizes that he does not want to demotivate his learners. On the contrary, he gives them hope, arguing that there are so many bad language instructors. Some have good pronunciation, but often their explanations are erroneous. Others do not have patience and get angry, or they only teach grammar without teaching how to pronounce the language. In the Dominican grammatical tradition of Chinese, there are comparable examples of explaining sounds (vowel quality and tone differences). In the anonymous grammar attributed to Francisco Díaz, there are quite funny comparisons with the sounds humans produce when they address beasts (“bestias”), probably horses or donkeys (“xo”),84 and sounds we make when we smile (“sonriendo”). Another comparison is made with starting to cry (“hacer pucheros,” “children pouting”) or sounds we make when we whistle (“chiflando,” “silbillo,” “llave de cañuto”), which all seem less precise for a modern phonologist, but the author chose a very specific position of the lips and probably did not have anything better at hand. Of course, when a teacher illustrates how Chinese sounds are produced using living examples, the explanations would be clear and helpful enough as soon as students begin memorizing the pronunciation with their ears.85 As demonstrated, teaching “exotic” language using missionary grammars and dictionaries seems different from the English-Spanish dialogues in Minsheu’s method, but, in this case, teaching while imitating and comparing sounds as sketched above would have been great fun for the learners.

84 In Modern Spanish, the sound /ʃo/ is still used to stop a horse, different from Dutch /ho/. 85 In teaching practices today, comparable descriptions are in vogue. It is notable that so many similar explanations are used. When selecting an example from YouTube’s “Learn Chinese Tone Pairs: How to Practice and Master Mandarin Tones,” [accessed March 9, 2023], one finds the following sound descriptions: “high/low flat tone” (llano); “stay there for a second” (prolongar la voz, retirada la voz); rising tone: “yes?” (sí); downward tone: “no!!” (no); third tone: “bottom of the throat” (en la garganta), etc.

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There were no universal methods of language teaching and learning. There were grammarians who observed that the acquisition of the correct pronunciation was most important, whereas others had different opinions. According to John Eliot (ca. 1604–1690), “to learn this language [Massachusett], [students] must be attentive to pronounce right, especially to produce that Syllable that is first to be produced, then they must Spell by Art, and accustome their tongues to pronounce their Syllables and Words; then learn to reade such Books as are Printed in their Language. Legendo, Scribendo, Loquendo, are the three means to learn a Language.”86 In other parts of the world, one also finds similar observations regarding the importance of teaching correct pronunciation, as João Rodrigues postulates in his grammar of Japanese: “a little of the language with a good pronunciation goes further than a great deal with a bad one.”87 On the other hand, quite a few missionary grammarians tell the learners that pronunciation is indeed crucial, but they often did not want to devote too much space to it in their grammars when native speakers were available in language instruction, as the following citation from Thomas Stephens’s (ca. 1549–1619) grammar of Konkani illustrates: “for the pronunciation, it is not enough to know the orthography. It is necessary to hear the sounds they produce and to attempt to pronounce them as they are pronounced by those who know how to speak well.”88 There is not enough space here to highlight the countless linguistic topics addressed on morphology, the major section of the grammars. Missionaries described all types of languages of the world, and their didactical approaches are far from uniform.89 Regarding the acquisition of vocabulary, some authors like González Holguín reserved the f irst sections of his grammar for beginners (parts of speech and their “accidents”) and the rest for advanced students who want to reach a higher level, including “elegance” and “copiousness.” It is difficult to know how missionaries acquired their basic vocabulary. Many grammars contain para-lexicographical material, such as short wordlists for counting, body parts, and kinship terms, but it is still unclear how they attained the rest. Many dictionaries are designed as pocketbooks, cheap and light, but others are impressively abundant. It is 86 Eliot, The Indian Grammar Begun, 5. 87 “Pouca lingoa com boa pronunciacam monta mais, que muita com o pronunciar improprio,” Rodrigues, Arte breve, 5v. 88 Stephens, Arte da lingoa canarim, f. 4r. 89 For some case studies, see Zwartjes, James, and Ridruejo, Missionary Linguistics III/ Lingüística misionera III. Morphology and Syntax. For a recent study of some selected topics from morphosyntax in missionary sources, see Peetermans, The Art of Transforming Traditions.

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unlikely that these dictionaries served as learning tools. Most dictionaries, in particular those that translate from the indigenous language into Spanish or another European language, are innovative. These often include pedagogical information on how to use the dictionary together with the grammar and include a sophisticated system of markedness, which helps the user to know when and where a certain term must be used. The works are typically more practical when attention was paid to making their searchability accessible.

The printing houses As Van Loon observes: When studying missionary linguistics, some scholars still tend to see all decisions about structure and layout as entirely authorial. Although the intellectual achievements of missionary authors should not be dismissed altogether, one should bear in mind that the physical characteristics of printed missionary indigenous-language tools are not only the result of the missionaries’ practices in writing, but that the printing house also influenced the visual form and content of the printed book.90

In 2014 I published a paper devoted to the mise en page of missionary works, with a focus on translation. Publishing houses consider the role of the printing press, the layout, and the design of the texts important. The earliest printed religious works are precious jewels of art. There is no doubt that the design of the works contributed to the “pleasant and delightful” way of language learning. These works include interlinear translations, bilingual books with facing pages, phrase-by-phrase translations, texts in the indigenous languages keyed by numbers to help the user find the correspondences in Spanish, morph-by-morph analysis avant la lettre, annotated translations, and—no less important—illustrations. It is not always clear if the main decisions regarding the mise en page were the responsibility of the publisher or the typesetter, or if the grammarian or lexicographer decided how his work should look. There are only a few cases in which two versions are available, the manuscript before printing and the printed work, such as Natal Lombardo’s (1647–1704) grammar of Tegüima. In most cases, we do not know how the autograph looked. The role of the publisher and the typesetter was undoubtedly important 90 Van Loon, Languages of Evangelization, 209.

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in manufacturing the book. I base such an assumption on the fact that grammars written in different regions by different authors often look quite similar when they are produced by the same printing house. One example is the publisher Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio, who published grammars of the Filipino language Tagalog, Agustín de Magdalena’s (d. 1689) Arte de la lengua tagala, and another of Nahuatl, the Arte de lengua mexicana, written by Agustín de Vetancurt (1620–1700). On the other hand, quite a few missionaries composed several works on the same language, or grammars of different languages, published by different publishers. Generally, the design is remarkably different.91 But it is also true that many original features can be preserved when works appear in different editions from other publishing houses. Important research has been published recently regarding the printing houses in New Spain.92 Other studies have dealt with the Jesuit Press in Japan,93 whereas others have concentrated on the Philippines or India. During the French colonization, no printing press was available in New France, as there was no printing press available in the Portuguese territories in Brazil and in Africa. But in the Spanish and Portuguese territories in India and Japan, local printing houses produced grammars, dictionaries, and religious texts. The most important printing houses were established in New Spain (Mexico City, Puebla), the Andes (Lima, Juli), Japan (Amakusa, Nagasaki), the Philippines (Manila), and India (Goa, Quillon, Rachol), whereas quite a few grammars and dictionaries were printed in Europe. In China the Jesuits did not introduce printing houses with movable types, but Francisco Varo’s grammar of Mandarin was published using the Chinese xylographic method (the movable types were introduced in Macau in 1833). In the Philippines, traditional Chinese xylographic printing technique was introduced at the end of the sixteenth century, but the first movable type came in 1606. The Propaganda Fide printing house, where many Oriental languages and different scripts were developed, deserves special attention. The printed works followed grosso modo the styles of their parallels in Europe, but it is also clear that specific traditions were developed in remote regions of the world. The genre Alphabetum also deserves attention here. It is the first publication to use the newly cut type, and in some cases the type was the first or virtually the first ever cut for that kind of script. Types 91 See for more details Zwartjes, “Algunas observaciones… el mismo perro con distinto collar.” 92 Garone Gravier, Historia de la Tipografía colonial and Van Loon, Language of Evangelization. 93 Satow, The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan.

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Fig. 2a Alphabetum Armenum (1784), frontispiece

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Fig. 2b Alphabetvm Ibericvm siue Georgianvm vulgare (1629), frontispiece

were developed for Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Samaritan, Georgian, Armenian, Ethiopic, Coptic, Devanagari, Burmese, and Etruscan.94 These Alphabeta usually include information on phonology and articulatory phonetics and offer Romanization systems of these alphabets as well. Shown in Figures 2a–b are two examples, the first from Armenian, the second Georgian. The printing houses produced real pieces of art beyond just texts, with ornaments, mnemonic illustrations, and tables, and the book was often embellished with high-quality ornamented leather; sometimes expensive rice paper was used. There are also a great number of printed texts that have a very simple design, without any attempt to make the work more attractive 94 Alphabetvm Ibericvm, siue Georgianvm (1629), Alphabetum Graecum (1771), Alphabetum Hebraicum addito Samaritano et Rabbinico (1771), Alphabetum veterum Etruscorum (1771), Alphabetum Grandonico-Malabaricum sive samscredonium (1772), Alphabetum Tangutanum sive Tibetanum (1773), Alphabetum Persicum (1783), Alphabetum Armenum (1784), Alphabetum Aethiopicum sive Geez et Amharicum (1789).

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Figs. 3a & 3b. Hernández, Doctrina Christiana en lengva misteca (1568), fols. LV and LXII

for their users. The design of grammars underwent specific changes. It is rare that works were printed in 40; most are in 80. The linguistic material—the paradigms of nouns and verbs with their declensions and conjugations—was given special attention for pedagogical reasons, as Rincón represents a great number of paradigms with braces, i.e. {. The examples in the indigenous languages are often rendered in italics and the Spanish equivalents in roman type. The earliest publishers in Mexico used countless illustrations, almost one on each page in their Christian doctrines, but there were also other tastes in other centuries. And some illustrations are designed for another purpose: illustrating the internal structure of a word and its derivational or inflectional patterns, aff ixation, etc. It is not generally applied, but Flores’s grammar is a jewel (seen from an aesthetic perspective). There is no doubt that the author and/or the typesetter of the publisher Sebastián de Arévalo (1727–1772) attempted to present the linguistic analyses of these forms with didactic purposes, completely free from any influence from Nebrija’s model or any other European source. In my view, it is one of the most impressive achievements in the history of the printing press in the Americas.

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Pronombres primitivos

Adverbios vetativos para imperativos de verbos neutros, absolutos, y passivos

Figs. 4a & 4b. Flores, Arte de la lengva metropolitana del reyno Cakchiquel (1753), fols. 36 and 286

Adverbios negativos

Voz activa, voz passiva, futuro imperfecto

Partículas para los verbos que comienzan con vocal, pretérito perfecto

Figs. 5a, 5b, & 5c. Flores, Arte de la lengva metropolitana del reyno Cakchiquel (1753), fols. 284, 127, and 108

Final remarks In some recent scholarship on the history of foreign language teaching, the main objects of study were European languages. It is difficult to understand why a comparable enterprise has not yet been undertaken on the history of language learning and teaching of non-Western languages within the subfield of missionary linguistics. As I have demonstrated in the preceding paragraphs, there is enormous variety among missionary grammars. These examples help to gain an impression of some aspects related to linguistic fieldwork, teaching practices, pedagogical principles, and theories of how language instruction was institutionalized in some cases. I have highlighted the interesting achievements of some individuals, demonstrating that these pioneering works often go beyond the traditional

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Greco-Latin model. This chapter has considered not only the content of the linguistic tools but also the mise en page of these texts, and I have examined some attempts by printing houses to make their works as attractive as possible. This selection of topics is far from comprehensive, and the criteria of selection may seem rather random, but it is impossible to cover all issues. Some monographs have been published over the last years, but nearly each text deserves even more attention. Although progress has been made, most of the corpus is still understudied. One of the most important achievements of the last decades is the fact that so many texts are now available in a digitized form. A comprehensive monograph on the history of foreign language acquisition in a missionary context outside Europe still needs to be written.

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Guerra Juan [= Joan Gverra], Arte de la lengua mexicana segun la acostumbran hablar los Indios en todo el Obispado de Guadalaxara, parte del de Guadiana, y del de Mechoacan (Mexico: Viuda de Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio, 1693). Hadley, George, Grammatical Remarks on the Practical and Vulgar Dialect of the Indostan Language Commonly Called Moors. With a Vocabulary, English and Moors (London: Cadell, 1772). Hernández, Benito, Doctrina Xpiana [= Christiana] en lengva Misteca [Achiutla version] (Mexico: Pedro Ocharte, 1568a). Hernández, Benito, Doctrina Xpiana [= Christiana] en lengva Misteca [Teposcolula version] (Mexico: Pedro Ocharte, 1568b). Holdermann, Jean-Baptiste, Grammaire Turque ou methode courte & facile pour apprendre la langue turque, avec un recueil des noms, des verbes & des manières de parler les plus nécessaires à sçavoir, avec plusieurs dialogues familiers (Constantinople: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1730). Kircher, Athanasius, Prodromvs coptvs sive Aegipticvs (Rome: Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1636). Ketelaar, Joan Josua, Instructie off Onderwijsinge der Hindoustanse en Persiaanse talen, nevens hare declinatie en Conjugatie, als mede vergeleijkinge, der hindoustanse med de hollandse maat en gewighten mitsgaders beduijdingh eenieger moorse namen, etc. (MSS: 1. Nationaal Archief Den Haag; 2. Fondation Custodia, Paris; 3. Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht, 1698). Lombardo, Natal, Arte de la lengua teguima llamada vulgarm[en]te opata (Autograph MS, Ayer MS 1641, Newberry Library, Chicago, ca. 1700). Lombardo, Natal, Arte de la lengua teguima vulgarmente llamada Ópata (Mexico: Miguel de Ribera, Impresor y Mercader de libros, 1702). Magdalena, Agustín de la, Arte de la lengua tagala (Mexico: Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio, 1679). Martini, Martino, Grammatica Sinica (ca. 1653), in Opera Omnia, ed. F. Demarchi, vol. 2: Opere Minori, ed. Giuliano Bertuccioli (Trento: Università degli Studi di Trento, 1988), 383–481. Martini, Martino, De Bello Tartarico historia (Antwerp: Ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1654). Martini, Martino, Novus atlas Sinensis (Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1655). Martini, Martino, Sinicae historiae decas prima (Amsterdam: Apud Joannem Blaev, 1659). Minsheu, John, Pleasant and Delightfvll Dialogves in Spanish and English, Profytable to the Learner, and Not Unpleasant to Any Other Reader (London: E. Bollifant, 1599). Nágera Yanguas, Diego de, Doctrina y enseñança en la lengva maçahva de cosas mvy vtiles, y prouechosas para los Ministros de Doctrina, y para los naturales que hablan la lengua Maçahua (Mexico: Juan Ruiz, 1637).

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Sánchez Pérez, Aquilino, Historia de la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (Madrid: Sociedad General Española de Librería, 1992). Satow, Ernest Mason, The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan 1591–1610. Facsimile edition (Tokyo: Tenry Central Library, 1976 [1888]). Smith-Stark, Thomas C., “Phonological Description in New Spain,” in Missionary Linguistics II. Orthography and Phonology, ed. Otto Zwartjes and Cristina Altman (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005), 3–64. Sueiro Justel, Joaquín, La enseñanza de idiomas en Filipinas (siglos XVI-XIX) (Noia, La Coruña: Toxosoutos, 2002). Sueiro Justel, Joaquín, and María Dolores Riveiro Lema (eds.), Andrés López. Arte de la Lengua de Pangasinán (1690) (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana & Vervuert, 2014). Thomas, Margaret, “The Monolingual Approach in American Linguistic Fieldwork,” Historiographia Linguistica 47.2/3 (2020), 266–302. Van Loon, Zanna, “Languages of Evangelization. The Early Modern Circulation of Missionary Knowledge on the Indigenous Languages of New Spain, Peru and New France” (PhD thesis, University of Leuven, 2020). Zwartjes, Otto, “Norma y uso en las gramáticas misioneras hispánicas en la época colonial,” in XIV Skandinaviska Romanistkongressen, Stockholm 10–15 August 1999, ed. Jane Nystedt (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000), 404–18. Zwartjes, Otto, “Artículo-reseña,” in Fr. Bernardino González, OFM (c.1665-c.1735). Intérprete arábico, epítome de la gramática arábiga [obras manuscritas]. Estudio preliminar de Ramón Lourido Díaz, ed. Ramón Lourido Díaz, 2 vols. (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia/Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación, 2006); El estudio del árabe entre los Franciscanos españoles en Tierra Santa (Siglos XVII- XIX), ed. Ramón Lourido Díaz (Madrid: Editorial Cisneros, 2006); Aljamía (Anuario de Información Bibliográfica) 19 (2007), 451–71. Zwartjes, Otto, “Una comparación entre la Gramática turca (1799) de Juan Antonio Romero y la Grammaire turque (1730) del jesuita Jean-Baptiste Holdermann,” in Lenguas, estructuras y hablantes. Estudios en Homenaje a Thomas C. Smith-Stark, ed. Rebeca Barriga Villanueva and Esther Herrera Zendejas (Mexico City: El Colegio de México/Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, 2014), ch. 17, 451–82. Zwartjes, Otto, “The Missionaries’ Contribution to Translation Studies in the Spanish Colonial Period: The mise en page of Translated Texts and Its Functions in Foreign Language Teaching,” in Missionary Linguistics V/Lingüística V: Translation Theories and Practices. Selected Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, Bremen, 28 February–2 March 2012, ed. Otto Zwartjes, Klaus Zimmermann, and Martina Schrader-Kniffki (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2014), 1–50.

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Zwartjes, Otto, “Algunas observaciones sobre el modelo greco-latino y las gramáticas misioneras de lenguas amerindias: ¿el mismo perro con distinto collar?” Revista Internacional Lingüística Iberoamericana 36.2 (2020), 53–88. Zwartjes, Otto, “Jesuit Missionary Linguistics,” in Jesuit Historiography Online, ed. Robert Aleksander Maryk (Leiden: Brill, 2021). Zwartjes, Otto, “Genera verborum quot sunt? Algunas reflexiones teóricas de Manuel Maldonado de Matos en su Arte de la lengua szinca (1770) sobre la ‘abominable existencia de los verbos neutros y absolutos’ en las obras gramaticales de su época,” in Nuevas aportaciones a la historia de la lingüística misionera española, ed. Miguel Ángel Esparza Torres and Ana Segovia Gordillo (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2022), 277–314. Zwartjes, Otto, and Cristina Altman (eds.), Missionary Linguistics II/Lingüística misionera II: Orthography and Phonology. Selected Papers from the Second International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, São Paulo, 10–13 March, 2004 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005). Zwartjes, Otto, Gregory James, and Emilio Ridruejo (eds.), Missionary Linguistics III/Lingüística Misionera III. Morphology and Syntax. Selected Papers from the Third and Fourth International Conferences on Missionary Linguistics, Hong Kong/ Macau, 12–15 March 2005, Valladolid, 8–11 March 2006 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007).

About the author Otto Zwartjes has published on medieval Hispano-Arabic poetry, the kharjas. He was full professor of Spanish language and linguistics at the University of Oslo, where he was the leader of the Oslo Project on Missionary Linguistics (OsProMil). He founded the research group Revitalising Older Linguistic Documentation (ROLD) at the University of Amsterdam. He is currently full professor of general linguistics at the Université Paris-Cité (historical linguistics of the Romance languages, history of linguistics, and linguistic typology) and affiliated with the Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques. He has published extensively on Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin missionary linguistics and has been coordinating the International Conferences on Missionary Linguistics (with six volumes published by John Benjamins) since 2003. Personal website: http://htl.linguist.univ-paris-diderot.fr/laboratoire/ membres/zwartjes

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À propos de l’auteur Otto Zwartjes a publié sur la poésie médiévale hispano-arabe (les kharjas). Il a été professeur titulaire de langue et de linguistique espagnoles à l’Université d’Oslo, où il a dirigé le Oslo Project on Missionary Linguistics (OsProMil). Il a fondé le groupe de recherche Revitalising Older Linguistic Documentation (ROLD) à l’Université d’Amsterdam. Il est actuellement professeur de linguistique générale à l’Université Paris-Cité (Linguistique historique des langues romanes, Histoire de la linguistique et Typologie linguistique) et membre du Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques. Il a publié de nombreux ouvrages sur la linguistique missionnaire espagnole, portugaise et latine et coordonne depuis 2003 les Conférences internationales sur la linguistique missionnaire (avec six volumes publiés par John Benjamins). Site web personnel : http://htl.linguist.univ-paris-diderot.fr/laboratoire/ membres

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A contribution to the history of missionary grammars and Romance languages grammars: The commensurability of metalanguage and categories in the sixteenth century 1 Alejandro Díaz Villalba

Abstract: This chapter is based on a comparison of two kinds of grammars written in the sixteenth century: Romance language grammars and grammars written within the framework of missionary linguistics. Despite their different contexts of production and their different objectives and scope, all these grammars books share some historical characteristics. They were written in the early period of grammatization of the described languages, and they are the result of the technical and theoretical transfer of the Latin model toward the description of new languages, so they inherited the same categories, description proceedings, and terminology. The focus is on the terminology that grammarians used to refer to the difference between the target language and Latin grammar, mainly when they observed the absence of Latin categories or specific forms in the language described. Résumé : Cette étude procède de la comparaison de grammaires écrites au ­seizième siècle : des grammaires de langues romanes et des grammaires écrites dans le cadre de ce qu’on appelle habituellement la linguistique missionnaire. Malgré leurs différents contextes de production et leurs différents objectifs, toutes ces grammaires partagent certaines caractéristiques historiques. Elles ont été élaborées au début de la grammatisation des langues décrites ; elles sont le résultat du transfert technique et théorique du modèle latin vers la description de nouvelles langues, de sorte qu’elles héritent des mêmes catégories, des mêmes procédures de description et de la même terminologie. 1 [Une contribution à l’histoire des grammaires missionnaires et des grammaires des langues romanes: la commensurabilité du métalangage et des catégories au seizième siècle].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch2

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L’accent est mis ici sur la terminologie que les grammairiens utilisent pour faire référence à la différence entre la langue cible et la grammaire latine, principalement lorsqu’ils observent, dans la langue qu’ils décrivent, l’absence de catégories latines ou de formes spécifiques pour un contenu fonctionnel. Keywords: Missionary grammars. Romance languages grammars. Extended Latin grammar. Linguistic categories. Grammatical terminology. Circumlocution. Mots-clés: Grammaires missionnaires. Grammaires des langues romanes. Grammaire latine étendue. Catégories linguistiques. Terminologie grammaticale. Circonlocution.

Introduction In the sixteenth century, descriptions of languages in geographical areas colonized by Europeans or where they had established commercial ties began to emerge. The evangelization effort would constitute a vector for the description of languages in these regions, particularly in the Americas. With an eminently practical aim, missionaries strove to guarantee both communication and the propagation of the Christian faith. Inscribed within a specific historical context, their grammars of a new kind were documented in the field. These works are commonly referred to with the label missionary linguistics.2 During this period, Latin grammar played a major role in the process. The grammarians of the New World, educated in the knowledge of Latin—as native languages were not yet the object of organized academic study—made use of categories and terminology stemming from Latin to describe the languages that they learned from the populations in which they settled. Such works led to a technical transfer (descriptive and analytical procedures) as well as to a theoretical one (classes, categories, concepts) from Latin grammar toward the treatment of typologically different languages. The model turns out to be adaptable, and the missionaries themselves attest to its flexibility.3 This event coincides chronologically with the publication of the first European language (including Romance language) grammar books. Likewise, in Europe, there was a technological transfer of the tools created for the languages of antiquity toward modern languages. 2 A state of the art can be found in Zimmermann, “Lingüística Misionera (colonial),” 71–106. See also Zwartjes, “The Historiography of Missionary Linguistics,” 185–242. 3 Zwartjes, Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550–1800, 4 and 7.

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Thus, the massive transfer of the conceptual framework and terminological apparatus from Latin grammar to all grammatical texts—this phenomenon is known as extended Latin grammar and the works are called extended grammars4—invites us to look at the effects of this common basis on different textual series. This scholarly project, to which this study aims to contribute, is rooted in the pursuit of examining contemporary traditions of European, American, or Asian language grammar books in light of these shared inherited categories and pedagogical practices. The epistemological challenge of this approach resides in the degree of commensurability of texts dealing with different languages and that have been produced in non-intersecting environments of writing. It is particularly a matter of considering the relevant elements that can be compared and, in fine, the limits of a comparative history. With this in mind, this chapter can be considered a preliminary exploration.

Object of study and corpus: The terminology of difference The focus in this chapter is on texts from the Renaissance, and the purpose is to understand the first phase of grammatization as a form of transfer in the making. The terminus ad quem is set at 1600. Only João Rodrigues’s grammar book published in 1604 breaks with this rule, but it allows for the expansion of the missionary textual series. The texts studied are the following:5 Spanish grammars: *Antonio de Nebrija (1492), *Anonymous (1555), *Cristóbal de Villalón (1559), *Anonymous (1559), *Giovanni M. Alessandri (1560), *Giovanni Miranda (1566), *Antonio del Corro (1590), *Antoine Charpentier (1596), *César Oudin (1597). French grammars: *Johan Barton (ca. 1409), *John Palsgrave (1530), *Sylvius (1531), *Louis Meigret (1550), *Jean Pillot (1550), *Robert Estienne (1557), *Jean Garnier (1558), *Petrus Ramus (1562, 1572), *Antoine Cauchie (1586), *Jean Bosquet (1586), Serreius (1598). 4 Auroux, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation, 84–85. 5 The asterisk indicates the presence of a bibliographical notice in the Corpus de textes linguistiques fondamentaux . Only the works excluded from this corpus and those that have been cited in this text are mentioned in the bibliography.

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Italian grammars: *Leon Battista Alberti (ca. 1441), *Giovanni F. Fortunio (1516), *Pietro Bembo (1525), *Giovan G. Trissino (1529), Giacomo Gabriele (1545), *Rinaldo Corso (1549), *Lodovico Dolce (1550), *Francesco Giambullari (1552), *Lodovico Castelvetro (1563), *Leonardo Salviati (1576), *Girolamo Ruscelli (1581). Portuguese grammars: *Fernão de Oliveira (1536), *João de Barros (1540). Missionary grammars: Japanese: João Rodrigues (1604); Mixtec: *Antonio de los Reyes (1593); Nahuatl: *Andrés de Olmos (1547); Otomi: *Pedro de Cáceres (ca. 1580), *Alonso de Urbano (ca. 1560); Tarascan: *Maturino Gilberti (1558); Tupi: *Joseph de Anchieta (1595); Zapotec: *Juan de Córdova (1578).

The study focuses on the theme of difference between the language described, be it American or European, and Latin grammar. The departing hypothesis is that the adaptation strategies elaborated in all the texts of the extended Latin grammar are commensurable among one another. The linguistic gap becomes highly salient when, in the language to be described, the grammarian does not find the linguistic units to which one was accustomed from Latin grammar: morphosyntactic classes, grammatical properties, lexical units, and syntactic structures, among others. On some occasions, means of expression that serve as substitutions in the language described have been detected. In other words, the descriptors manage, somewhat successfully, to “cobble together” ad hoc solutions. In this study I have chosen to look at an essential question for establishing a basis for authentic comparison: grammatical terminology. Here it is crucial to highlight the vocabulary for speaking about linguistic difference, illustrated in these texts dealing with the passive: (1) La syntaxe de la défaillance des verbes. Le français a défaut6 de plusieurs verbes, comme du passif, et de plusieurs temps parfaits, où il y a toutefois grande abondance d’oraison par périphrase et circonlocution. La syntaxe du verbe passif est composée de

6 avoir défaut de qqch. “Manquer de qqc.” (to lack something), Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500), s.v. “défaut,” .

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son participe passif et du verbe substantif 7, en gardant la convenance du nombre, genre et personne, comme je suis aimé, dira l’homme, je suis aimée, dira la femme.8 (Modernized spelling of the whole text and underlining provided by the author) (2) En esta lengua no ay propriamente passivos que se formen o saquen9 de sus actiuos, ni ay modo para decir: Pedro es amado de Juan, sino es por circumloquios […] y para hazer de verbos actiuos passivos se podria formar desta manera. Para dezir: Juan es amado de Pedro, tomaremos el verbo passivo yocuvui, y antepornase el verbo actiuo, y al cabo se pondra la persona que haze con la particula si, poniendola que padece al principio desta manera…10 (Underlining by the author)

The answer to a single problem, in these examples the expression of passive diathesis in French (1) and in Mixtec (2), has given rise to texts with undeniable similarities, especially through the use of the words circonlocution and circumloquios. In principle, in this kind of discourse, categories taken from Latin grammar constitute a benchmark for the description of languages. These categories are expressed in the target languages through a variety of means. The metalinguistic way of working in (1) and (2) takes on a remarkable complexity that raises at least two questions of an epistemological nature: the status that the grammarian attributes to the equivalence between linguistic facts (is it functional, categorizing, or something else?) and the role of the model—that is, of pre-established classes (is it a simple aid for understanding observed data or a genuine theoretical stranglehold?). These questions can be answered only by cross-analyzing different traditions. My approach will be a positive one: the extension of the Latin model has actually served to codify the grammar of a variety of languages. I have therefore selected as an object of study a series of grammatical terms in several languages that convey the ideas of paraphrasing words (for example, circonlocution and circunloquio) and of substitution (suppléer and suplir), without, however, constituting a terminological system organized or defined during the time period. 7 “Verbe substantif” designates être (to be). 8 Ramus, Gramerę, 101. 9 sequen in the original. 10 Reyes, Arte en lengua mixteca, 26.

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Preludes to grammatical codification: From Latin to Romance languages and vice versa The massive grammatical codification of European languages, thriving in the sixteenth century, depended on a set of events leading up to it. Two distinct types of textual production can be considered, which are advantageous to compare to the extent that they both imply the vernacular language: early descriptions of Romance languages and scholarly exercises for learning Latin. The grammatization of Romance languages began before 1500, though quite irregularly. In decreasing chronological order, I must first mention Antonio de Nebrija’s Castilian grammar (1492), designed as a text to prepare the speaker of Castilian for learning Latin.11 Some years earlier (ca. 1441) in Italy, Leon B. Alberti composed a succinct treatise known as Grammatichetta vaticana, which looks at the Tuscan language in order to show, in particular, that it can be described with categories used in Latin. The first grammar of French, known as the Donait françois (first quarter of the fifteenth century), ordered by Johan Barton in England, was designed as learning material for foreign students. However, the Occitan language in fact had the earliest complete descriptions: the thirteenth century yielded Raimon Vidal’s Razos de trobar and Uc Faidit’s Donatz proensals, and in the following century, Guilhem Molinier compiled the Leys d’Amors for the first time. This set of texts borrows its structure from Latin grammar, especially its classes of words and their grammatical properties. Below is the adaptation in question, demonstrating the presentation of the adjectival degrees in Donait françois and Leys (original Occitan text in footnote 13): (3) Ci endroit il fault sçavoir que le comparatif en françois est le mesmes mot que est son positif, ovecque cest mot ‘plus’, si come plus ‘plus bon’, ‘plus mauveis’. Et le suppellatif est le mesmes mot que est son positif ovec cest mot ‘tres’, sicome ‘tres bon’, ‘tres mauveis’.12 (4) […] we do not have a proper comparative in Romance; for, in Romance, when I say, mays savis [lit.: more wise] or plus bels [more beautiful], that mays is one word, and saige another word. The same is true of plus bels. 11 Calvo Fernández and Torres, “Una interpretación de la Gramática Castellana de Nebrija,” 149–80. 12 Barton, Donait françois, 318va, 235–51.

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But in Latin, for these two words there is only one: albior, mays blancz; felicior, plus astrucz.13

The property of “comparison,” described as an accident of the noun, for example by the Latin grammarian Donatus,14 is a fundamental morphological category in Latin; for example, the adjective fortis (strong) yields the comparative fortior and the superlative fortissimus.15 The gradation of French adjectives, on the contrary, is done through syntax (particle + adjective noun), as example (3) attests, even though such a process was nonetheless considered a specific case within the Latin model, where exceptions of the type magis pius (more pious) existed.16 Furthermore, the specificity of Occitan comparatives and superlatives with respect to Latin ones is problematized in (4), which concerns the number of words needed to express the category of “tres grazes de comparatio”17 (three degrees of comparison). This consideration is at the heart of the problem concerning the existence of a simple lexical form. In the original text, the writers state that the vernacular language has a comparative class only impropriamens (improperly).18 The presentation of the issue takes the form of a reflection on the absence, in the case of most adjectives, of “original” (that is, monolexical) expressions in the category studied. In the same work, there is a discussion on the unity and the duality of some words, including sophisticated arguments surrounding the subject of the entities that make up compound tenses of the type yeu hay fayt (I have done) in contrast to Latin feci (same meaning).19 As such, the extension of the Latin model is clearly presented as an adaptation process built on contrast. In addition to these significant texts for the historiography of the Romance language grammars, most of the medieval metalinguistic knowledge would be generated almost exclusively through the continuous study of Latin. The translation and adaptation of Latin grammar books in the context of schooling are most likely at the origin of these first technical descriptions 13 “[…] impropriamens havem nos comparatiu en romans. quar segon romans cant yeu dic mays savis. o plus bels. aquel mays. es una dictios. el savis es autra dictios. Aquo meteysh de plus bels. Quar en lo lati per aquestz dos motz es us motz solamen. coma albior. mays blancz. felicior. plus astrucz” (Las flors del gay saber, 54–55). 14 Donatus, Ars maior, 614. 15 Ibidem, 617. 16 Ibidem, 618. 17 Las Leys d’Amors, 54. 18 Ibidem. 19 Las Leys d’Amors, 382. See also 352 and the following pages.

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of vernacular languages.20 In this respect, the role of didactic practices that confronted Latin and vernacular languages cannot be overstated. Of particular interest, the study of examples in the languages of the students is well attested on the Iberian Peninsula in the grammars that follow the method known as proverbiandi,21 a method that testifies to the assiduous recourse to the vernacular language in exercises fully integrated into the academic program, at least in some regions. Excerpt (5) shows a typical contrastive exercise: starting with examples from Castilian, it explains how to form participles that do not exist in Latin. (5) But if the missing participle is a future, it is given either in the passive or in the active voice. If in the passive; it must be replaced by a verb of the same tense, and by quis or qui. So when we say: Pedro, servidero de Juan, corre, this corresponds to the following: Petrus, cuy serviet Iohannis currit. If it is given in the active voice, it must be replaced by quis or qui, as above. So, when we say: Pedro, amelecinado de la muger, estudia, this corresponds to the following: Petrus, cuy medens fuit mulier, studet. With other rules, you will be able to replace the missing participles in all the other words.22 (Underlining by the author)

In terms of epistemology, the point of view illustrated by the text requires us to consider that the category examined—here the future participle—is functional both in Latin and in the language of the learner, even though it is not expressed by a specific form in any of these languages. More precisely, the initial statements generated in Castilian are more or less artificial and correspond to stereotypical structures created for the purposes of teaching, and the resulting “Latin participle” is actually a relative clause.

20 See the chapter “Comment la traduction/adaptation du Donat (grammaire latine du IVe siècle) en vint-elle à constituer l’atelier (la fabrique) des premières grammaires des vernaculaires)?” in Colombat et al., Histoire des idées sur le langage et les langues, 119–24. 21 Calvo Fernández, Grammatica proverbiandi. On the same theme in Portugal, consult Fernandes, “Gramática especulativa medieval em Portugal: os Notabilia Alcobacenses,” 183–92. 22 “Sy autem participium quod deficit est futuri temporis, vel datur in pasiva vel in activa. Sy in pasiva, debet supleri per verbum eiusdem temporis et cum quis vel qui, ut cum dicimus: Pedro, servidero de Juan, corre, f it sic: Petrus, cuy serviet Iohannis currit. Sy datur in activa, debet supleri cum quis vel qui sycut habuisti superius, ut cum dicimus: Pedro, amelecinado de la muger, estudia, fit sic: Petrus, cuy medens fuit mulier, studet. Per alias regulas poteris suplere omnia participia def iciencia in omnibus aliis verbis.” Gramática de Prisciano y castellano, f. 14r–v, in Calvo Fernández, “Un ejemplo de empleo del romance,” 276.

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A remarkable element of this process lies in the notion of absence, expressed by the Latin verb deficit (there lacks), which is centered on the idea that one can supplere (replace) a class. Indeed, the suppletiones—in other words, the exercises in “substitution”—are conceived as the implementation of ready-made solutions to the expression of morphosyntactic classes (as well as structures) that pose a problem for translation. However, the complexity of the exercise is more than a mere translational difficulty, with the student being invited to operate with a high degree of metalinguistic abstraction. Placed at the end of the book, the sections on suppletiones follow, according to Calvo Fernández,23 a similar thematic organization: the comparative and superlative, verbal nouns, participles, finite verbs, impersonal verbs, gerunds, and supines. Specialized terminology can be found in these school manuals,24 for example the words proverbiare (translate from Latin to the vernacular) and romancium (sentence in the vernacular), which attest to a well-established technique.

Romance language grammars: Circumlocutions Due to their conditions of emergence, Romance languages grammars are intrinsically contrastive. In the Ramus excerpt (1) mentioned above, the idea that French does not have passive verbs is found, when the language in fact merely does not contain inflected verb forms like the Latin amor (I am loved), the passive being a combination of separate verb units ( je suis aimé). In reality, Latin is a highly inflected language, so when a modern language does not offer flexional endings to express any grammatical category, a distance between the languages in question can be perceived, or at least presented, as an absence of words belonging to the category in question. In this configuration, there are three identifiable significant elements that allow me to describe the discourse on linguistic difference: 1) First of all, it is necessary to retain the notion of absence, already mentioned. It is evident that the language described possesses neither a (sub-)class, a grammatical category, nor a translation for a word in Latin. In their treatment of Spanish auxiliary verbs (the term auxiliary does not yet figure in these works), texts (6) and (7) categorically state that no simple word exists for certain verb tenses, neither for active verbs nor for passive ones: 23 Calvo Fernández, “Un ejemplo de empleo del romance,” 269. 24 Calvo Fernández and Torres, “Una interpretación de la Gramática Castellana,” 169.

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(6) Los Hespañoles no pueden exprimir en vna palabra la fuerça del verbo que significa action, ni tampoco la del verbo que significa passion: portanto tienen necesidad de ayudar se, de otros verbos, para declarar la signification de los Latinos.25 (Underlining by the author) (7) Ma perche li Spagnuoli non possono così facilmente esprimere l’attione, ouer passione, con una parola, hanno tolto due uerbi per aiutarsi l’une che serue all’attiua, che è hauer, & il medesimo è in Italiano, & la passiua ser, che in Italiano è esser…26 (Underlining by the author)

To take another example, the bias created by the Latin morphological approach would lead Trissino27 to affirm conclusively that comparatives are not part of the Italian language, since the few words belonging to this class, such as maggiore (greater), come from Latin and are not authentic vernacular creations. Contrary to Medieval Latin, which turns to deficere (see text 5) to express the idea of a form lacking, vernacular languages do not appear to have generalized technical words for this meaning. However, in Italian mancare (lack) is found sporadically: “a e tempi testé perfetti et al futuro del subienctivo [sic] manchano sue proprie voci.”28 In the discussion of the Italian “lack” of passive forms and of active compound forms, one can observe the word voce (word, voice) designate the simple word: in voce (Alberti), voce (Bembo, Dolce), voci proprie, & particulari (Gabriele), voce simplice (Castelvetro, Salviati), and semplici parole (Salviati); nonetheless, the terms propria formazione (Trissino) or parole sole e proprie (Salviati) are also used. This chapter’s semasiological approach in this respect reveals the limits and difficulties of locating the subject matter in the texts, as one is confronted with expressions such as “Les Espagnols n’ont point de régulière formation des comparatifs. Mais ils les forment en préposant aucunes dictions qui signifient comparaison.”29 This assertion does not use any specific technical term to refer to word formation, but this is expressed in more 25 Anonymous, Vtil, y breve institution, 42. 26 Miranda, Osservationi della lingua castigliana, 122. 27 Trissino, La Grammatichetta, in Scritti Linguistici, 138. 28 Alberti, Grammatichetta. Grammaire de la langue toscane, 31. 29 Modernized spelling. Anonymous, Vtil, y breve institution, 118.

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common words. Thus, many authors merely state that the comparative, or even the passive verb, does not exist in the language described. 2) The notion of substitution is just as central: the flaws in the system are often alleviated by way of a periphrastic expression. In the medieval text (5), the verb deficere is coupled with supplere. Vernacular loan words (suppléer, suplir, suprir) are presented in this way in similar contexts within grammar books, as with the degree of comparison: (8) La comparaison est suppliée30 par circonlocution: comme saige, pour le positif, plus ou moins saige pour le comparatif, tressaige pour le superlatif.31

The term is used in the treatment of various points, as evident in the number of items for which it is used by one Spanish, one Italian, and one Portuguese author, respectively: 1492, Nebrija, seven occurrences of suplir: a) construction figures, b) prosody, c) verbal forms (impersonal verb, passive, active composed tenses). 1529, Trissino, two occurrences of supplire: verbal forms (verbal modes and passive verb). 1540, Barros, twenty occurrences of suprir and soprimento: a) comparative, b) verbal forms (thirteen occurrences, among which passive and, mostly, composed tenses), c) formation of adverbs in -mente, d) spelling issues.

3) And finally, I wish to highlight the idea of a periphrastic expression to fill in a gap. During the Middle Ages and then during the Renaissance, the alterity of the Latin language with respect to the vernacular language was solidified in a similar metalanguage in the Romance languages. The Leys d’Amors32 uses suplitio/supletio (substitution) and temps suplitz (substituted tenses—in other words, periphrastic verbal forms) for the description of impersonal verbs, the passive voice, or compound tenses. In Frenchlanguage grammar books, the use of the expression circonlocution (see texts 1 and 8) is confirmed in the fourteenth century in a translation of the Donatus’s work33 to evoke the passive voice. The term périphrase, which 30 In addition to the modern form suppléer, the Trésor de la langue française informatisé (www. atilf.fr), s.v. “suppléer,” lists the older forms souplier, souppleer, suploier, and soupplir. 31 Ramus, Grammaire, 68. 32 Las Leys d’Amors, 350. 33 Donatus, Quantes parties d’oraison sont?

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would appear later, is a synonym used in these same contexts. From an etymological standpoint, the Latin word circumlocutio, translated from the Greek periphrasis, whose origin can be found in the field of rhetoric, had been used to describe grammar since antiquity, particularly to describe participles and forms of the passive in Greek translated into Latin by way of a periphrastic operation.34 In the Spanish tradition, Nebrija uses the word circunloquio (circumlocution), as well as an innovative vernacularization of the verb circumloqui, the expression dezir por rodeo35 (literally “speaking by taking a detour”). Barros’s Portuguese grammar also displays closely related terms: circunlóquio, soprimento, and rodeo, or, like Nebrija, tempo por rodeo (tense by way of circumlocution) for compound tenses. Italian grammars display less stable and homogenous terminology. The use of terms such as resolutione (resolution, decomposition) by Fortunio or scioglimento (same meaning) by Ruscelli is also notable.36 To discuss compound verbal tenses, certain Italian authors evoke the idea of “composition” through the terms componere (Alberti, Gabriele), componimento and congiugnimento (Castelvetro), and composte voci (Bembo), as well as the idea of “mixed forms” or a “way of speaking” found in the expressions voci generale e mescolate (Bembo) and favellare (Salviati), respectively. How might we explain the presence of these terms in Renaissance grammar books? Fournier and Raby highlight, and rightly so, how the approach associates “la possibilité de la saisie, le caractère équivalent des données, et irréductiblement, leur difference” (the possibility of reporting [linguistic] data, the equivalence in the data, and their irreducible difference).37 In terms of this chapter’s analysis, these terms have metagrammatical functions. Indeed, they generally appear as a part of a grammatical description in which the explanatory mechanism is assumed to be the result of the adaptation of a Latin grammatical feature to the language studied.38 The recurrence

34 Priscian, in Grammatici Latini, vol. 1, 238; Sergius, in Grammatici Latini, vol. 4, 514; Macrobius, Grammatici Latini, vol. 5, 640. 35 See Tollis, “À propos des circunloquios du verbe castillan chez Nebrija: Le nombre participial infinito,” 91–121. For a list of occurrences of circumloquimur, circunloquio, and rodeo in Nebrija, consult Asencio, “Terminología gramatical española de los principios,” 25–74. 36 Similar uses of the words circonlocuzione and perifrasi are not found in other languages. See Poggiogalli, La sintassi nelle grammatiche del Cinquecento, 309 and what follows. 37 Fournier and Raby, “Retour sur la grammatisation,” 346. 38 Gómez Asencio gives this definition of rodeo: “No recubre este término una clase, entidad, una categoría, o una relación, sino un procedimiento, un mecanismo operativo de suplencia activado por la lengua castellana para colmar algunas de sus ‘carencias’ formales o léxicas en relación con el latín” (Asencio, “Terminología gramatical de los principios,” 66).

155

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of certain items labeled under circonlocution (or circunloquio), périphrase, and rodeo can be seen in Tables 1–2.39 Table 1.  circonlocution and périphrase in French grammars before 160040 Grammarian Year Metalanguage

[Barton] Palsgrave Sylvius Meigret Estienne Garnier Ramus Bosquet Cauchie Serreius 1409

1530

1531

1550

1557

1558

1572

1586

1586

1598

F

E

L

F

F

L

F

F

L

L

Comparatives & superlatives Composed tenses

c

c

c

c

c

c, p

p

Gerund & supine

c

c

c

Future participle

c

c

c

Infinitive

c

Passive

c

c

Inchoative verbs

c

c

Adverbs Others

c

P

c

c

c

c

c

p

P

c c

P

c

c, p

c

E: English, F: French, L: Latin c: circonlocution, circumlocutio, circumloquor; p: périphrase, periphrasis, periphrastic-um/-e

Table 2.  circunloquio and rodeo in Portuguese grammars (Barros) and Spanish grammars before 1600 Grammarian Year

Nebrija

Barros

1492

1540

1555

1558

1559

1566

1590

1596

1597

P

S

S

S

I

E

F

F

Metalanguage

S

Comparatives & superlatives

r

Verbal morphology (general)

c

c, r

Anonymous Villalón Anonymous Miranda Corro Charpentier Oudin

r

39 Make the table clearer, it lists only the authors of texts in which at least one term was found. 40 The research was completed in Colombat and Fournier, Corpus des grammaires françaises de la Renaissance.

156  Grammarian Year Composed tenses

Ale jandro Díaz Vill alba

Nebrija

Barros

1492

1540

r*

r

Anonymous Villalón Anonymous Miranda Corro Charpentier Oudin 1555

1558

1559

1566

1596

1597

c

Gerund & supine

c

Present participle

c

c

Future participle

c

c

Infinitive

r

Passive

r

Adverbs

r

Figures of speech, stanzas

1590

c, r

r

c

c, r

c c

c

r

E: English, S: Spanish, I: Italian, P: Portuguese, F: French * The Spanish forms amar-ía and amar-é are also considered tenses by rodeo

A close study of these occurrences in nineteen grammar books reveals the presence of thematic axes that support the use of the terminological network in question: a) It is clear that the treatment of verb morphology is at the heart of the fields covered by the concept. Two groups can be defined within this constellation of problems. On the one hand, there are the categories or sub-categories of non-finite verbs: gerund, supine, and certain participial categories. These are forms that have no equivalent in Romance languages. And on the other hand, great importance is given to the innovative nature of verb morphology in its diachronic tendency toward analyticity; active verb tenses and the passive voice, in particular, are assiduously studied. b) Adverb forms are translated, which highlights the frequency of adverbial locutions in modern languages. c) Adjectival degrees also emerge as a question shared by the traditions represented. The summary of terms reveals a kind of grid within which grammarians illustrate the distance between Latin and its “translations” into vernacular languages. It is worth noting that the elements dealt with in the proverbiandi method mentioned above are all found, with the exception of verbal nouns, in grammar books in vernacular languages. This similarity can hardly be explained, except as the result of transmission (while

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learning Latin) of discursive methods employed to better understand elements of the vernacular language. Indeed, few elements are perceived as circumlocutions, while other linguistic items would potentially be described this way.

Missionary grammars Missionary grammars feature texts produced in various places and within various “schools” associated with religious organizations; in Mesoamerica these include the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits.41 In addition to this diversity, the books were also written in a variety of languages (Spanish and Portuguese as early as the sixteenth century; English, French, and Dutch later), and on the other, regional traditions emerged (Mesoamerica, the Andes, Brazil, etc.). The missionary texts often display a discursive framework involving three languages. See the following quotation: (9) Gerundio in Di, não tem voz propria, mas seruẽ por elle os verbaes, in ába, que en outras significações significão causa tempo, ou lugar, de fazer, &c. vt jucaçába, tempo, causa, ou lugar de matar. 42

Here one can observe that the presentational strategy includes Latin, Portuguese, and a Native American language of Brazil. It states that a category, namely the genitive (ending in -di) of the gerund in Latin (the pattern language), has no formal correspondence in Tupi (the target language) but that an equivalent can nonetheless be found in certain verbal nouns. Furthermore, the examples are translated into Portuguese (the metalanguage). In this triad of languages, two (Latin and Portuguese) are expected to be understood by the reader of the grammar book, but their roles in the pedagogical structure differ significantly. Latin is the model language from which all available grammatical categories derive. It is crucial to remember that in the sixteenth century, missionaries could only have been in possession of two Portuguese grammar books (Oliveira’s and Barros’s). As for Spanish, they would have Nebrija’s Gramática sobre la lengua castellana available, whose influence on the creation of grammar books in the 41 Ascensión, “Tradiciones, paradigmas y escuelas,” 11–59. 42 Anchieta, Arte de grammatica da lingoa mais usada na costa do Brasil, 27v.

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New World is questionable. 43 Their linguistic tools were therefore mostly treatises on Latin, mainly Nebrija’s Introductiones Latinae, whose third edition (Recognitio), enriched with commentaries, would circulate widely. 44 As for European languages, they play a fundamental role in establishing commensurability. On the one hand, terminology is presented in the European language, and comparison with the grammar of this language is therefore privileged. On the other hand, linguistic material abounds: in excerpt (9) Portuguese appears in the translation of the example in Tupi and in the semantic metaphrase “causa, tempo ou lugar de fazer.” In this respect, it is notable that the Portuguese phrases used to express the value of Tupi words are in themselves conventional formulations used to translate Latin gerunds (preposition de + infinitive). One can easily venture to hypothesize that, for the Jesuit grammarian, the Portuguese gerunds exist only through substitute structures. Missionary linguists were trained to search for equivalents of Latin categories in their own languages,45 so they would not find it inconsistent to do so in other languages. With respect to descriptive strategies, Zwartjes46 emphasizes that missionary linguistics provided models other than strict faithfulness to the paradigms of Greco-Latin grammar. A frequent method, for example, consisted in first translating the Latin categories into the vernacular language, a kind of bridge then used to pass to the language to be described. In other instances, grammarians started with the indigenous language, sometimes adopting mixed methods. As succinct as it might seem, the quote by Anchieta in excerpt (9) contains enough elements to describe the type of discourse that is of interest in this chapter: the declaration of the absence of a specific form for a category x and the proposition of a functional equivalent y+z in the language at hand. With respect to terminology, the designation of a voz propia (proper voice) in this excerpt must be noted. The adjective proprio is frequently used in the series of missionary texts to describe the inexistence of forms belonging to a given grammatical category, for example in: “Este futuro perfecto no 43 Torres, “Nebrija y los modelos misioneros lingüistas del náhuatl,” 3–40. 44 Ibidem. 45 As Esparza Torres highlights (“Nebrija y los modelos misioneros lingüistas del náhuatl,” 34), the missionaries were used to being taught grammar through the Romance language. On the use of vernacular languages in the tradition of Spanish medieval education, consult Fernández, Grammatica Proverbiandi. Similarly, Zwartjes shows that to form the present participles in Nahuatl, Olmos sought equivalent participles in Spanish that were themselves periphrastic forms. See Zwartjes, “La lengua española,” 305–18. 46 Zwartjes, “Los ‘romances’ en las gramáticas andinas,” 818–19.

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le tienen propio pero suplenle, del pret perfecto.”47 As for voz (from Latin vox), it is a technical noun that refers to the formal aspect of the word.48 This designation can be easily compared to those employed by sixteenth-century Italian grammarians when discussing compound tenses, or to the Occitan text in example (4). Occasionally, terms belonging to the field of what we could call linguistic difference create unique density, as in the following explanation: (10) Los comparativos y superlativos en esta lengua no los tienen propios, sino usan de rodeos para lo que se ha de hablar por ellos. Y asi no hay más que notar de pon ellos por ejemplo. Y suplen se en tres maneras y son las siguientes. La primera: cualli, ‘bueno’; acachi inic cualli, ‘mejor’; tlapanauia inic cualli, ‘muy mejor’ […]. 49 (Underlining by the author)

In these lines, taken from the f irst grammar book written for a Native American language, Olmos uses the terms propios (proper, someone’s own), rodeos (circumlocutions), and suplen se (are replaced) to approach adjectival degrees in Nahuatl. The discourse, unsurprisingly, is consistent with the Spanish terminological tradition. And the conceptual transfer is just as clear. The grammarian introduces into Mexican grammar the categories of the superlative and the comparative. At the same time, he recreates—the act is quite remarkable—the issue of the absence of simple specific forms along with the terminology associated with their absence, therein inscribing this analysis of Nahuatl within a descriptive pattern existing in medieval and Renaissance grammars. This is certainly not an isolated case. The Spanish and Portuguese terms suplir / suprir (substitute), circunloquio / circunlóquio (circumlocution), and rodeo (circumlocution) are used abundantly (seventythree, eleven, and four occurrences, respectively). With respect to their f ields of application, certain elements regularly reappear. This is what Table 3 suggests:50 47 Cáceres, Arte de la lengua othomi, 70. 48 In the ancient and medieval Latin tradition, there are different terms to deal with the “word”: dictio, locutio, pars orationis, verbum, vocabulum, vox. This final term has been used since Varro (first century) to refer to the form of words; in certain contexts, it can also designate the inflected form of a word. Baratin and alii, “mot,” in Cassin, Vocabulaire européen des philosophies, 838–44. Also consult Colombat, La grammaire latine en France à la Renaissance et à l’Âge classique, 172–80. 49 Olmos, Arte de la lengua mexicana, 148. 50 Gilberti’s text is excluded from the table because, if I am not mistaken, it does not use these terms in a technical way.

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Table 3. Terms suplir/suprir, circunloquio/circunlóquio and rodeo in the first missionary grammars

Year Metalanguage target language noun declensions degrees of adjective verbal tenses/ modes gerund or supine Infinitive Participle verb ‘to be’ Prepositions Others

Olmos

Urbano

Córdova

Cáceres

Reyes

1547

ca. 1571

1578

ca. 1580

1593

1595

1604

S Nahuatl

S Otomi

S Zapotec

S Otomi

S Mixtec

P Tupi

P Japanese

c s

s

Anchieta Rodrigues

r s

s c

s

s, c

s

s

s

s, c

s

s

s s, r

s

s s s

s s

s s s*

c

s, c

s s**

S: Spanish, P: Portuguese s: suplir, suprir; c: circunloquio, circunlóquio; r: rodeo * nouns formation (3x), tenses. ** patronymics, diminutives, frequentative verbs

The comparison between Table 3 and Tables 1 (French grammars) and 2 (Spanish and Portuguese grammars) reveals striking analogies: in addition to comparatives and superlatives, verb forms are central in the most frequent uses, especially Latin non-finite verbs: the gerund, the supine, the infinitive, and the participle. Nonetheless, one also finds domains in which the textual series differ. On the one hand, French manuals display particular interest in the syntagmatic nature of vernacular adverbs, while on the other, missionary grammars raise the issue of potential translations of the verb “to be” in other languages. In these specificities, one might be tempted to read a response obtained with a typical method for data specific to the languages in question—that is, the wealth of adverbial locutions in French and the problem of the copula in languages that differ typologically. Alongside these terms, missionary grammar books developed two new technical words that reflect the otherness between the language of the book and the language that is the subject of the book: romance (in Spanish) and lingoagem (in Portuguese). In this context, the metalanguage (Spanish or Portuguese) acts as a kind of passer. Latin categories are thereby first

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translated into one of these languages before being expressed in the target language. Similarly, the linguistic units described require explanation as to their structure and meaning with the help of the metalanguage. These translations are a sort of intermediary step wherein the examples and the linguistic units receive their own terminological labels. In the texts written in Portuguese, on the one hand, the noun lingoagem (language) designates linguistic segments of variable size that may translate into different forms from one language to another. In Anchieta no less than fourteen occurrences of the term can be found, often associated with another grammatical term such as lingoagem de indicatiuo,51 propria lingoagem deste modo [optatiuo],52 lingoagẽs do conjunctiuo, and imperatiuo,53 and just as with voz, the word appears frequently in coalescence with propria.54 As for Rodrigues, he writes of lingoajem [sic] de Participio and represents both lingoagens of the imperative of a verb in Japanese.55 In the Spanish texts, on the other hand, the term romance would circulate widely throughout the missionary tradition.56 This word—literally “vernacular language” and in particular “Castilian”— in the field of grammar designates the vernacular equivalent of a word or a phrase in Latin. Through this process, the Spanish language functions as a kind of mediator between Latin categories and their equivalences in the language studied, insofar as it is the Spanish translations that guarantee the transfer. The most extensive use of the term in the corpus under consideration is found in Gilberti, with around thirty occurrences. To illustrate this, consider the way he establishes the conjugation of enseñar (teach) in the past perfect subjunctive by offering two possible romances (Spanish forms), yo hubiera enseñado and yo hubiese enseñado, for which he presents the complete tense conjugation forms with the goal of finding equivalences in Tarascan.57 Similarly, he points out that a single form in Tarascan can serve to translate several “optative and subjunctive romances.”58 Technical uses of this kind are not found in traditional Spanish language grammar books. However, they can be traced to the terminology attested in Medieval Latin grammars (romancium; as mentioned above) as well as in 51 Anchieta, Arte de gramática, 23v. 52 Ibidem, 24v. 53 Ibidem, 57v. 54 Ibidem, 23r, 23v, 24v. 55 Rodrigues, Arte da lingoa de Iapam, 84v and 14v. 56 For this term in the Andean tradition, consult Zwartjes, “Los ‘romances’ en las gramáticas andinas.” 57 Gilberti, Arte de la lengua tarasca ó de Michoacán, 37. 58 Ibidem, 57.

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sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Hispano-Latin grammars. These textual series are therefore also highly appropriate when it comes to studying the missionary grammar books.

Conclusions The discursive modality that follows the pattern “language L does not possess element E” is frequent in the sixteenth century, both in Romance language grammar books and in missionary ones. Because of the extension of the Latin model to vastly different languages, the idea of a gap between the categories conceived of for Greek and Latin and the new data can be found in some grammatical works. Furthermore, there are significant correspondences in the technical vocabulary used. It can even be confirmed that certain terms are in fact the same: the nouns circonlocution (and its cognates circunloquio and circunlóquio), périphrase, and rodeo, as well as the verb suppléer (suplir or suprir), appear in many texts. These terms designate the periphrastic or polylexical processes specific to the languages described in response to the lack of simple forms equivalent to Latin grammatical categories. This comparison offers yet another heuristic property, as this work has allowed me to establish a series of thematic correlations in the use of these terms in certain Romance language grammar books (French, Spanish, and Portuguese), as well as in missionary grammar books from the Americas (Nahuatl, Otomi, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Tupi) and from Asia (Japanese). The domains most abundantly covered by these terms are adjectival degrees, verbs, non-finites forms in particular (infinitives, gerunds, participles, and supines), and, to a lesser extent, invariable Latin words (adverbs and prepositions). The massive grammatization of languages at this time should be represented by first considering the dissemination of metalinguistic knowledge, the knowledge of Latin grammar, in a broader sense. Indeed, it is important to associate theoretical knowledge with medieval practices in the teaching of Latin, which involved translation from and to vernacular languages. In this field, tradition attests to the inheritance of specific terminology and, more specifically, of a way of treating linguistic data according to the principle of contrastivity with Latin. The results of the comparison between traditions point to another dimension of extended Latin grammar: the commensurability between European national traditions and missionary linguistics. In the future, new searchable digital corpora will hopefully become available, and they will contribute to refining the comparison of this fruitful grammaticographic production.

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References Primary sources Alberti, Leon Battista, Grammatichetta. Grammaire de la langue toscane, ed. Giuseppe Patota, trans. Laurent Vallace (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2003 [ca. 1441]). Anchieta, Joseph de, Arte de grammatica da lingoa mais vsada na costa do Brasil (Coimbra: Antonio de Mariz, 1595). Anonymous, Vtil, y breve institution, para aprender los principios y fundamentos de la lengua Hespañola (Leuven: ex officina Bartholomaei Grauis [= De Grave], 1555). Barros, João, Grammatica da lingua portuguesa (Lisbon: Rodrigues, 1540). Barton, Johan, Donait françois, in Pierre Swiggers, “Le Donait françois: la plus ancienne grammaire du français,” Revue des langues romanes 89 (1985 [ca. 1409]), 235–51. Cáceres [= Cárceres], Pedro de, Arte de la lengua othomi, ed. Nicolás León, Boletín del Instituto Bibliográfico Mexicano 7 (1907 [ca. 1580]), 39–155. Donatus, Ars maior, in Donat et la tradition de l’enseignement grammatical: étude sur l’Ars Donati et sa diffusion (IVe-IXe siècle) et édition critique, ed. Louis Hotlz (Paris: CNRS, 1981 [ca. 350]). Donatus, Quantes parties d’oraison sont?, MS 3794, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, in Maria Colombo Timelli, Traductions françaises de l’Ars minor de Donat au Moyen Âge, version M2 (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1996 [ca. 350]), 164–79. Garnier, Jean, Institutio gallicae linguae in usum iuuentutis Germanicae (Geneva: J. Crispinus [= Crespin], 1558). Gilberti, Maturino, Arte de la lengua tarasca ó de Michoacán, ed. Nicolás León (Mexico: Tipografía de la Of icina Impresora del Timbre, Palacio Nacional, 1898 [1558]). Grammatici Latini, ed. Heinrich Keil, 7 vol., (Hildesheim: Olms, 1961 [1855–1880]) Las flors del gay saber, estier dichas las Leys d’amors, trans. MM. Aguilar et d’Escouloubre, revised and completed by M. Gatien Arnoult, pt. 3 (Toulouse: J.-B. Paya, 1841–43 [14th cent.]). Miranda, Giovanni [= Juan de], [L’]Osservationi della lingua castigliana (Venice: G. de’ Ferrari, 1566). Nebrija, Antonio de, Gramática de la lengua castellana, ed. Antonio Quilis (Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1981 [1492]). Nebrija, Antonio de, Introductiones Latinae, 3rd ed. [known as Recognitio] (Salamanca: s. n., 1485 [1481]). Olmos, Andrés de, Arte de la lengua mexicana, estudio preliminar, edición y notas de Heréndira Téllez Nieto (Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuet, 2022 [MS 1547]).

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Ramus, Petrus, Gramerę (Paris: Wechel, 1562). Ramus, Petrus, Grammaire (Paris: Wechel, 1572). Reyes, Antonio de los, Arte en lengua mixteca, publiée par le comte de Charencey (Alençon: Renaut-de-Broise, 1889 [Mexico: Pedro Balli, 1593]). Rodrigues, João, Arte da lingoa de Iapam (Nagasaki: Collegio de Iapão da Companhia de Jesu, 1604). Serreius, Ioannes, Grammatica Gallica nova (Strasbourg: Impensis haeredum Lazari Zezneri, 1623 [1598]). Trissino, Giovan Giorgio, La Grammatichetta, in Scritti Linguistici, ed. Alberto Castelvecchi (Rome: Salerno Editrice, 1986 [1529]). Urbano, Alonso, Arte breve de la lengua otomi y vocabulario trilingüe españolnáhuatl-otomí, ed. René Acuña Sandoval (Mexico: UNAM, 1990 [ca. 1560]).

Secondary sources Auroux, Sylvain, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation (Liège: Mardaga, 1994). Cassin, Barbara (ed.), Vocabulaire européen des philosophies (Paris: Le Robert & Le Seuil, 2004). Calvo Fernández, Vicente, “Un ejemplo del romance en la didáctica del latín medieval: la traducción de participios en la Gramática de Prisciano y castellano,” Revista de Filología Románica 10 (1993), 267–83. Calvo Fernández, Vicente, Grammatica proverbiandi. Estudio de la gramática latina en la Baja Edad Media española (Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 2000). Calvo Fernández, Vicente, and Miguel Ángel Esparza Torres, “Una interpretación de la Gramática Castellana de Nebrija a la luz de la tradición gramatical escolar,” Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios Latinos 5 (1993), 149–80. Colombat, Bernard, La grammaire latine en France à la Renaissance et à l’Âge classique. Théories et pédagogies (Grenoble: ELLUG, 1999). Colombat, Bernard, and Jean-Marie Fournier (eds.), Corpus des grammaires françaises de la Renaissance (Paris: Classiques Garnier Numérique, 2011).

Colombat, Bernard, Jean-Marie Fournier, and Christian Puech, Histoire des idées sur le langage et les langues (Paris: Klincksieck, 2011). Esparza Torres, Miguel Ángel, “Nebrija y los modelos de los misioneros lingüistas del náhuatl,” in Missionary Linguistics III/Lingüística misionera III: Morphology and Syntax, ed. Otto Zwartjes et al. (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007), 3–40.

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Fernandes, Gonçalo, “Gramática especulativa medieval em Portugal: os Notabilia Alcobacenses,” in Métodos y resultados actuales en Historiografía de la Lingüística, ed. María Luisa Calero et al. (Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 2014), 183–92. Fournier, Jean-Marie, and Valérie Raby, “Retour sur la grammatisation: l’extension de la grammaire latine et la description des langues vulgaires,” in Penser l’histoire des savoirs linguistiques. Hommage à Sylvain Auroux, ed. Sylvie Archaimbault et al. (Paris: ENS Éditions, 2014), 337–50. Gómez Asencio, José J., “Terminología gramatical española de los principios/ Principios de la terminología gramatical española,” in La terminología gramatical del español y del francés: emergencias transposiciones, traducciones y contextualizaciones, ed. Cécile Bruley and Javier Suso López (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2015), 25–74. Hernández Triviño, Ascensión, “Tradiciones, paradigmas y escuelas: una visión general de las Gramáticas misioneras mesoamericanas,” Historiographia Linguistica 43.1 (2016), 11–59. Poggiogalli, Danilo, La sintassi nelle grammatiche del Cinquecento (Florence: Presso l’Accademia, 1999). Tollis, Francis, “À propos des circunloquios du verbe castillan chez Nebrija: le nombre participial infinito,” in Francis Tollis, La description du castillan au XVe siècle, Villena et Nebrija (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998), 91–121. Zimmermann, Klaus, “Lingüística Misionera (colonial): el estado actual de los estudios historiográficos al respecto,” in Études de linguistique ibéro-romane en hommage à Marie-France Delport, ed. José Vicente Lozano (Rouen: Publications électroniques de l’Eriac, 2018), 71–106. Zwartjes, Otto, “La lengua española y la teoría gramatical a través de las fuentes misioneras de la época colonial: la categoría del participio en las gramáticas del náhuatl,” in Actas del XXIII Congreso Internacional de Lingüística y Filología Románica, ed. Fernando Sánchez Miret, vol. 5 (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2003), 305–18. Zwartjes, Otto, “Los ‘romances’ en las gramáticas andinas de la tradición misionera Española,” in La Romania en interacción: entre historia, contacto y política. Ensayos en homenaje a Klaus Zimmermann, ed. Martina Schrader-Kniffk and Laura Morgenthaler García (Madrid/Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/ Vervuert, 2007), 817–35. Zwartjes, Otto, Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550–1800 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2011). Zwartjes, Otto, “The Historiography of Missionary Linguistics. Present State and Further Research Opportunities,” Historiographia Linguistica 32.2 (2012), 185–242.

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About the author Alejandro Díaz Villalba holds a doctorate in language sciences from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Universidad de Salamanca with a dissertation entitled Le participe dans les grammaires des langues romanes (XVe-XVIIIe siècles). Histoire comparée d’une classe grammaticale (The participle in the Romance languages’ grammars [15th–18th centuries]. A compared history of a grammatical category). He has taught French linguistics and Spanish linguistics at several French universities. He is currently assistant professor at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). Personal website: https://htl.cnrs.fr/equipe/alejandro-diaz-villalba/

À propos de l’auteur Alejandro Díaz Villalba est docteur en sciences du langage de l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle et de l’Université de Salamanque, avec une thèse intitulée Le participe dans les grammaires des langues romanes (XVe-XVIIIe siècles). Histoire comparée d’une catégorie grammaticale. Il a enseigné la linguistique française et la linguistique espagnole dans plusieurs universités françaises. Il est actuellement maître de conférences à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). Site web personnel : https://htl.cnrs.fr/equipe/alejandro-diaz-villalba/

II The Sinic World

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Learning a language while making it up. Matteo Ricci’s ways of inculturation and the communicative strategy of the Company of Jesus1 Diego Poli “Wise men don’t talk much, they rather prefer to keep silent.” —Matteo Ricci, The Paradoxes of a Strange Man

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the newly tested policy of inculturation launched by the Company of Jesus, aimed at persuading the Chinese literati about the feasibility of an intercultural exchange and the viability of linguistic experimentation. To be able to attempt this communication of mutual understanding of a common knowledge, the most crucial aspect of this innovative approach began with the language competence Matteo Ricci and the Fathers of his mission acquired in Mandarin Chinese and continued with a two-way encounter on the basis of human comprehension and religious persuasion. During this process, yielding to others represented the opposite side of attracting others. The communicative denominator that allowed dialogical relationship between the two farthest ends of the world was a unitary horizon in which differences were reconciled because they were perceived as expressions of the same common reality. Résumé : Cette étude porte sur la politique d’inculturation mise en œuvre par la Compagnie de Jésus en vue de persuader les lettrés chinois de la faisabilité d’un échange interculturel et de la viabilité d’une expérimentation linguistique. Dans la mesure où la communication de la compréhension 1 [Apprendre une langue en l’inventant. La voie vers l’inculturation de Matteo Ricci et la stratégie communicative de la Compagnie de Jésus].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch3

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mutuelle d’une connaissance commune était envisageable, la question cruciale de l’approche innovante devenait celle de la compétence linguistique acquise en mandarin par Matteo Ricci et les Pères de sa mission, puis celle de la rencontre à double visage sur le terrain de la compréhension humaine et de la persuasion religieuse. Au cours de ce processus, céder aux autres est l’envers de l’attraction qu’ils suscitent. Le dénominateur communicatif permettant la relation dialogique entre les deux extrémités de l’Univers est l’horizon unitaire dans lequel les différences sont réconciliées parce qu’elles sont perçues comme des expressions de la même réalité commune. Keywords: The Company of Jesus. Matteo Ricci. West and East. Chinese mission. Accommodation/inculturation. Language acquisition. Western classics in Chinese. Mots-clés : Compagnie de Jésus. Matteo Ricci. Est et Ouest. Missions en Chine. Accomodation/inculturation. Acquisition du langage. Classiques occidentaux en chinois.

Matteo Ricci’s writings in a multicultural context Beginning in the late sixteenth century, and until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, information Jesuits disseminated all over Europe inspired a fascinating utopic imagination of the Far East and China in particular. China’s complex state organization, its hierarchy and bureaucracy, the religious and ritual polymorphism, the ceremonial system, its writing culture, and its technological and scientific knowledge represented characteristics that astonished missionaries and also filled the West with amazement once again after Marco Polo’s tales about Mongolian Cathay. Polo was in jail in Genova in 1298, where he dictated his whole narrative to Rustichello da Pisa, who wrote Le Divisament dou monde (The partition of the world). Shortly thereafter, the text was translated into Florentine as Il Milione (The Million), from Emilione (The descendant of Emil). At his time, China belonged to the Mongolian Empire, and Polo was competent in Mongolian and Persian, and he may have been able to write in the following alphabets: Latin, Greek, Arabic-Persian, Uiguric, and P’ags-pa. At this time, Peking, “the northern city,” was therefore Canbalu/Coblau from Uiguric xānbalїq, as he aptly explains that “in our language, Canbalu means the city of the king.” This state of affairs offered the Europeans coming into contact with sixteenth-century China a completely different picture, since the information to

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which they were accustomed was based on Polo’s book and other documents from Italian thirteenth/fourteenth-century Franciscan friars: Giovanni da Pian del Carpine with his Ystoria Mongalorum, Giovanni da Montecorvino with three letters,2 Oderico da Pordenone with a journal of his trip,3 and Giovanni de’ Marignolli with his Chronicon. Western philosophy searched for a confirmation of its new theory on the acquisition of knowledge. Regarding the foundation of learning, Lord Bacon and the Royal Society after him recognized Chinese as the original language in which the unequivocal and firm relationship between the ordo rerum and ordo nominum was imprinted, i.e., between the validity of naming and the naming of reality. Lord Bacon considered ideograms a natural code consisting of “real characters” that do not match nouns, since they are “expressing neither letters or words but things and notions.” In this way, Eastern peoples, “although differing in language, agreed in using these characters […] communicated each other through writing so that a book drawn up with such characters could be read by anyone coming from those countries and translated into different languages.”4 Chinese became the historical demonstration of the real characters that Lord Bacon searched for.5 Its referential ability is based on ideograms through which the intermediary of the vocal component of language can be avoided in order to point directly to the concept, using words to portray things. Such a hypothesis was corroborated by pseudo-historical or antiquarian research that was going to enchant Europe; Chinese was connected to the language of Noah’s descendants who, after surviving the flood, emigrated eastward and preserved the isomorphism between nature and language that the flood had confused elsewhere. China could also host one of the lost tribes of Israel: Didn’t Matteo Ricci bear witness to a Jewish presence when he referred to “a man who comes from Judaea, a Jew graduated in Chinese literature, coming from Hénán and named Ngai”?6 When Ricci played the role of a writer, he had a dual objective. On the one hand, he aimed at sharing the description of the hitherto unknown reality he found in China with the worldwide audience of the Company of Jesus. To this end, he regularly used the medium of epistolography and planned to 2 Wadding, Annales Minorum, 69–73. 3 Pordenone, Odorichus de rebus incognitis. 4 De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum, vi, 5. 5 Schreyer, The European Discovery of Chinese (1550–1615); Poli, “La scrittura del cinese,” 103–48. 6 This man, also called Ai T’ian, was a member of the Jewish community of Kāi fēng: cf. letter from Peking, July 26, 1605, in Ricci, Lettere (1580–1609). He is mentioned also in Ricci’s The Entry III/IV for the years 1605–8.

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astonish the audience of Western intellectuals with a handwritten testament to his detailed apostolic work, which provided a wide range of insights into many cultural issues in China. On the other hand, there is Ricci’s activity as a scholar involved in the cognitive acquisition of “this other world” of China, made possible by an increasing competence in Mandarin Chinese (“the most universal language”). Following the will of the Visitor Fr. Alessandro Valignano, Jesuits in Japan and China understood that the cultural encounter could occur only on the basis of mutual comprehension. An initial attempt to devise a transliteration of the Chinese script was a pioneering work composed for missionaries in dialogue with the confreres of Japan—and later with those of Vietnam. In this work, the lexicon and its written form are treated as the core of the language, because the logographic approach gives a meaning to each segment of reality. Ricci tried to link to the Western humanistic and scientific culture through convoluted interactions. Instead of translating, he rather transported segments of one culture to the other, with all that this entails. That is clearly shown in his works written in Chinese with the support of Chinese literati,7 which were devised as preliminary works to the revised explanation of geography and astronomy, arguing the rational deduction of the discourse about God (cf. his Catechism). In the Company of Jesus, the finest theorists on communicative aspects of evangelization were Francisco Xavier and the Visitor Alessandro Valignano for the East and José de Acosta for South America.8 Missions toward the Far East began with Francisco Xavier, one of the first brethren of Ignatius of Loyola who, although he worked in India and Japan, felt the urge to extend evangelization to China because he realized the intellectual dependence the Far East had on this country. Valignano improved the strategies of Francisco Xavier’s method of inculturation or accommodation,9 succeeding in making dialogical originality the hallmark of all Jesuit missionary work in the Far East.10 Their works opened up the possibility of experiencing an encounter with the foreigner and provided the rhetorical base for intercultural communication aimed at conveying religious teaching in foreign languages as well as supporting the education of converted people from the perspective 7 Cf. Ricci’s Chinese books Treatise on Friendship and The Paradoxes of a Strange Man. 8 Sievernich, “Vision und Mission der Neuen Welt bei José de Acosta,” 293–313; Poli, “La pastorale comunicativa della Compagnia di Gesù,” 493–522. 9 Poli, “Quali linguaggi per quali lingue,” 57–79; Witek, “Everard Mercurian and the Entry of Jesuits into China,” 815–29. 10 Golvers, The Christian Mission of China in the Verbiest Era.

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of a re-enactment of the Pentecost. China became a consolidated subject, i.e., a topic that passed from the theological field to the philosophical and ideological ones. If Jesuits succeeded in empowering access to the “unknown land,” the common denominator that allowed dialogical relationship between the two farthest ends of the world was a unitary dimension in which differences were reconciled because they were perceived as expressions of the same common reality. In the frame of this policy of mutual understanding, the Far East has been approached with the communicative means of the Renaissance to appeal to Eastern literati and fascinate Western intellectuals. The time for this historical meeting proved to be highly favorable. During the late Mίng dynasty, when doubts about traditional values spread and certainty in the sciences faded, the impact must have had remarkable momentum. Constructive proposals for an intellectual complement, offered by the Jesuits to Chinese culture, replaced the early dismay with a new orientation based on the knowledge offered by Renaissance rationalism and experimentalism. The Jesuit basic text, the Ratio atque institutio studiorum,11 contains the didactic program and applied directives of a pedagogy suitable for the Society. The appropriation of rhetorical tools, the development of linguistic skills, and the use of Latin as an oral and written medium12 endowed students with a rigorous sensibility toward a type of communication that was becoming useful to the strategies of the missions.13 Reasoning on language structures and the analysis of texts allowed Jesuits to develop a set of interpretative strategies for speech-acts corresponding to the pragmatics of “place, time, and circumstances,”14 and the contexts were arranged so that they were appropriate for communication that would match the will of God. Its setting was also ready for speculative thinking related, both in historical and experimental observations, to the presuppositions of metaphysics to be adapted to original communicative procedures for a new cultural era. Learning languages was essential due to the example of Pentecost (donum linguarum) and was a duty for the evangelizer. Since the art of preaching, skill in eloquence and discussion, and the need to write on various topics require a full-fledged knowledge of the native tongue, it is easy to presume 11 It was already drafted in the fourth part of Ignatius’s Constitutiones and continually reelaborated until its final 1599 issue. 12 Lukács, Constitutiones collegii Messanensis (1548), 22–25. 13 Monumenta Ignatiana [= MI], Constitutiones, 131–32. 14 Ibidem, 465, and Exercitia spiritualia, 363.

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that wide-ranging instruction was envisaged to reach any (il)literate audience through the steps of the oratoria facultas, the eloquentia perfecta, and the pietas litterata.15 Great importance was given to the study of Latin and the other languages of the mission, of which the Jesuits were to have a good command—Latin through immersion in a selection of books, the local languages through interactive strategies.16 The Jesuits’ science of education of the world, so vast in scope, acknowledges the necessity of sometimes switching from Latin into the native tongue for the explanation of a lecture (“si vero vulgi sermone servet”) or using it to give an account of something (“aliquid patrio interdum sermone efferre”).17 The Society of Jesus opened the theological discourse to the anthropological dimension of describing the world, leading to the experience of inculturation. Planning apostolates and evangelization through local languages without the mediation of interpreters, Valignano, aligning himself with the attention for Japan already generated by Francisco Xavier,18 pointed out to the need to develop a Christian literature for every area of the mission. Interpretative strategies carried out by the Jesuits stemmed from the strong humanistic character of the Society’s program, which was arranged into a disciplinary establishment organized through joint cooperation. It is an established fact that some books on mathematics, geometry, and astronomy devised by Ricci have been translated with the help of some of them, who cooperated as consultants.19 Jesuits in China also faced the challenge of an “apostolate of printing,” and, once settled in Peking, they assembled a significant collection of Western books in the Southern Church (Nán Táng), which was later located in the library near the area of the Northern Church (Běi Táng). The improvement in the means of communication also led them to set up a publishing enterprise in a country where xylography had excelled for a long time.20 15 Ó Mathúna, “L’apprendimento della seconda lingua nei primi collegi gesuiti,” 35–45. 16 MI, Constitutiones, section IV; Poli, “Politica linguistica e strategie della communicazione gesuitiche in Matteo Ricci,” 469–73. 17 Ratio atqve instivtio stvdiorvm: “5. Regulae professoris humanitatis,” 132. 18 Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times; Üçerler, “The Jesuit Enterprise in Japan (1573–1580),” 831–75. Valignano established printing activity in Japan, where a short term but intense production of Christian literature (kirishitan-ban) flourished between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and encouraged the printing of Western books in China. 19 Standaert, “The Transmission of Renaissance Culture in Seventeenth-Century China,” 372–74. 20 Chow, Publishing Culture and Power in Early Modern China.

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Accommodation/inculturation: A procedure increasing the value of translation It can be reasoned that Jesuits followed the well-documented procedure implemented since the Buddhistic conversion of China, when the translation of the Indian canonical texts was the result of an interpretation shared by literati and lettered believers, and the result is evident in the harmonious gathering of people. Through the cooperative work in “fields of construing” (yì chǎng), the final step was achieving collective action under the guidance of a master. In 406 CE the Indian monk Jiū mó luó shí assembled two hundred listeners to translate his preaching, and in 418 Fo da bá tuó’s teachings were translated with the support of one hundred believers.21 In attempting a first interpretation, more details were added gradually by comparing between the parties until an accepted and sanctioned text was attained. The procedure stipulated a set of phases, starting with the initial interpreter (shì), down to the moderator and co-ordinator (zhù yī, “head of the translation”), ending with the writer (bǐ shòu), who is responsible for the final check.22 Jesuits came to the East as members of a culture and religion based on preservation and transmission through books. Ricci highlighted how the Company acquired a good reputation when the Chinese literati became acquainted with the elegantly bound and the finely printed volumes the Fathers brought from Europe. Their esteem grew when the Chinese noticed the interest the Jesuits showed for their civilization, which they studied with great fascination: The Fathers and the religion of Christianity have been given much credit, thanks to many books on our sciences and law. Some of them were of high quality, as the canonical texts, well gilded and bound. Though Chinese could not read well or understand what was written in them, they were fascinated by the outer elegance and delicacy of printing, and they were persuaded of their high importance, since we esteemed them in our country. We surpassed other countries in this field including China that was got used to think to be superior to any other country in the world. In addition, the Fathers usually hosted some Chinese literati in their houses, diligently learning and studying theirs characters night and day, and had bought many Chinese books that filled their reading rooms. They come 21 Cao, Zhong guo fo jiao yi jing shi lun ji, 11–13. 22 Poli, “The Italian Language of Matteo Ricci.”

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to know that we have always appreciated letters and sciences and that our Fathers are literati in our sciences as well as in theirs, upon which the excellence of China is founded.23

Ricci demonstrates a deep insight into the multifaceted aspects of communication, distinguishing the pragmatic use of language from the theoretical, absolute, and universal exchange of codes. When considering the response to the compelling need for communication (in order to perform the pastoral duties within the country and offer a literature suitable for the moral and religious education of literate people), the Collegio Romano should be deemed the main actor in Jesuit language policy. In this process, the manifold inquiries conducted by the humanists were assessed insofar as their progress could affect the Society itself. The complexity of pursuing a model moves along the line between experiments and tests allowed by the canons of Classicism and the precision of the technical-scientific method. In his writing, Ricci pioneers for himself the rhetorical construction of an “I,” employing a range of stylistic registers. Following Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War, he presents his “I” as a third person. The Chinese adventure is the fresh poetic topic to which Ricci applies all his devices of inventio, where the technique of re-use and re-writing is at the service of describing literary-historical situations that reveal a poetic persona. Ricci constantly hints at the books he left in Italy and keeps repeating that they would be of use to him in China. The experience in China recasts Ricci’s whole life from this perspective, reactivating a continued repetition of the literary examples and paving the way for the magnificent composition of scientific and religious texts in Chinese; The Entry was elaborated in order to surpass historical languages in the meta-history of God’s Word (the Logos/Verbum). Ricci’s commentaries from China, The Entry, were intended to be an epic saga of the same genre, as is alleged in the letter sent to General Claudio Acquaviva: it is an epic made up of “le industrie, i travagli e le fatiche […] martirii di crudelissime morti, sofferte con invincibile pazienza” (works, fatigues, and efforts […] martyrdoms through brutal deaths supported with 23 Ricci, Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesù, 136. Ricci’s diary, The Entry of the Company of Jesus and Christendom into China, was originally written in Italian in the last years of his life under the aforementioned title. The text would be be translated into Latin as De christiana expeditione apud Sinas, Augsburg 1615, by Nicolas Trigault, and it went on to have many translations in different European languages, among which a new version appeared in Italian as a translation from the Latin text (by Antonio Sozzini, Naples 1622).

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invincible endurance), telling of men who showed their true heroism in producing “molta carità e patientia” (a good deal of charity and patience).24 Shortly thereafter, the Counter-Reformation dictated the direction of a cultural policy according to which the epic text would contain civil and educational meanings, displaying a dramatic course of events prompting psychagogic reactions aimed at achieving the perfection of a Christian life. Even competence in the languages used for the conversion of the Gentiles was a “warlike instrument,” necessary for defeating the evil abiding in their consciences. The motif of heroism was therefore inherent to the Society of Jesus, which seized upon the image of the “soldier of Christ” (miles Christi), gleaming through the combatant for the faith equipped with “the helmet of Salvation, and sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (St. Paul, Epistle to the Eph. 2:17). The epic structure of The Entry is based on all the texts available on the topic of the newly found lands. They represent an enduring example of classical rhetorical construction adapted to original and contemporary events and a source of data drawn from direct experience with other people. The popular Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China (1585) by Juan González de Mendoza can also be added to this group of predecessors; this author owes much of his information to his Augustinian confrere Martín de Rada. This political trend inflamed the Society of Jesus, whose members became staunch supporters of its views. This can be seen in the work of Fr. Antonio Ruíz de Montoya, the founder of the reductions in South America and an expert on Guarani. He created the epic literature of Paraguay with his Conquista espiritual hecha por los religiosos de la Compañía de Jesús, en las provincias de Paraguay, Paraná, Uruguay y Tape (1639). The objective of the text is to demonstrate how the labor undertaken by the Fathers is a metaphorical clearance in which the equatorial forest is transformed into an Edenic garden. This is why Jesuits substantiated the principles expressed by the Dominican theologist and jurist Francisco de Vitoria (De Indis and De iure belli, 1538–39), summarized by the formula “totus mundus est quasi una res publica” (the whole world belongs to the same commonwealth). Following this statement, South American missions were founded on: – the socio-anthropological program of reduction (reducción/redução), where different tribes are joined together within the boundaries of the same coterminous territory with an autonomous status vis-à-vis the Hispanic and Portuguese colonies; 24 Letter from Zhàoqìng, October 20, 1585, in Ricci, Lettere.

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– the cultural-linguistic common language and common writing; in Brazil this reduction brought about a língua geral, “a general language,” based on the Tupi (also called lingua Brasilica in Latin, and in Tupi ie’engatu, “the good language”), distancing itself from the língua do Principe (the language of the Power). In the Far East, Mandarin was already there, and its writing was a well-established interethnic mode of communication; the Jesuits corroborated this situation by using Latin, the international language of the West, and by transliterating Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese into Roman characters.25 The assembly of the Fathers glorified the Word of God and sanctioned the defeat of the devil, who is “inimico, che non si vuole lasciar togliere dalla bocca sì gran preda” [the true foe, who does not quit his prey].26 The parallel between the Chinese expedition (“questa impresa della Cina”)27 and Satan’s defeat was already made by Francisco Xavier. The real main character suggested in the entire operation was the Redeemer, who revealed Himself within the action of the members of the mission, who were united in their project of inculturation. In the dialogical discussion with the literati, one key issue was the question they were raising in a whirl of conflicting interpretations of the canonical legacy conveyed by the Wǔjīng (Five classics) and the Sìshū (Four books). The aim of Ricci’s strategy was to show how identification of the basic natural principles of ethics and logic in Confucianism sustained the intuition of an “original theology” innate in the real Confucianism: this concerned the transcendence of the “God of Heaven” (Tiān zhǔ/Shàngdì), which had to be completed in light of Christian revelation. The Jesuits’ attitude showed that the Gospel could be accepted by the Chinese audience only if they succeeded to “flavor” it with intellectual notions. Therefore, the Western wisdom was produced following the rationale and scientific methods of the Renaissance. The works of the philosophers and scholars of the West were located before the Christian authors. Reasoning was preferred to dogma; dogma is rigidly restrained by logic and mathematics in a narrow demonstrative setting. In Ricci’s Tiān zhǔ shì yì (Catechism; Peking 1603), revelation is placed in the background of dialogues simulated with the classical texts of Confucianism. 25 Poli, “La Ars grammatica fra fonografia, accidentalia ed essentiala,” 53–82. 26 Ricci’s letter from Sháozhōu, November 12, 1592; cf. also the letter from Sháozhōu, October 12, 1594. 27 Letter from Peking, August 22, 1608.

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Assuming a scale of relations and a set of parallels between Chinese culture and the pre-Christian religious reality of the Roman world,28 the categories of rhetoric-interpretative and logical-mathematical speculations were used within this context to equate faith with reason. Confucianism was unraveled by the exegesis of the Western philosophy and released from the pantheistical and nihilistic aspects of Neo-Confucianism. In 1585 Ricci realized Confucianism had to be scrutinized to explain the gap produced by the lack of transcendental expectations. His response was to compensate it with the cult of the Heaven. At this intermediary stage, he proceeded with the identification of Confucianism with Epicureanism. The doctrine of transmigration and the discipline of nourishing abstentions compelled him to associate Buddhism with Pythagoreanism.29 In 1593 Ricci assessed Confucianism following its civil features and ethical and social values. Confucius “is another Seneca from an ethical point of view,”30 whose principles were committed to the Four Books that represented a “good value for moral behaviour.”31 In 1597 Ricci determined that the original Confucian doctrine had been misrepresented by the later commentaries and additions.32 The mature stage in Ricci’s thought therefore equated Confucianism with Stoicism.33 On the basis of this conviction, he wrote a set of works in which he conveyed Western humanism to the Chinese literati and laid the groundwork for the next step, the final preaching of the word of God. Ricci’s Jiāo yǒu lùn [Treatise on friendship], published in Nánchāng in 1595 (the printed edition in 1601 was edited by the scholar Féng Yīngjīng), translated mainly Greco-Roman and a few Christian aphorisms, moving toward the Chinese culture in which solidarity prevailed over love. In Chinese classical literature, poems dedicated to friendship overcome the ones on love. Ricci’s collection summarized in seventy-seven sayings the Western texts that celebrated this feeling, in support of the Confucian doctrines about the right behavior and “ritual conventions” (li). Jesuits understood the strategic worth attached to friendship and played the role of people coming from faraway lands in order to bring joy through the evangelical message.34 Valignano presented the mission to Japan as a sign 28 Lundbæk, “The Image of Neo-Confucianism in Confucius Sinarum Philosophus,” 19–30; Rule, K’ung-tzu or Confucius? 29 Ricci, Lettere (1580–1609), 100. 30 Ibidem, 185. 31 Ibidem, 184. 32 Ibidem, 349. 33 Spalatin, “Matteo Ricci’s Use of Epictetus,” 551–57. 34 Bertuccioli, “Il De Amicitia e altre opere cinesi,” 209–17.

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of the Christian emphasis on donation. Ricci was thrilled about the idea of writing a book of sayings on friendship for Chinese readers. The refinement of this issue allowed him to understand that this concept was considered part of virtue and a means for progressing in moral perfection, loyalty, and honesty. In his Dialogues, Confucius remembered to “fairly admonish a friend and gently advise him” and encouraged to “study how to have new friends, so that the path becomes ever brighter, […] the virtue comes closer.” Thus, friendship is understood as wisdom, intelligence, ability, and social relations—friendship as a model enlightened by Ricci. Chinese people understood the message, as Feng Yingjing makes clear in his introduction to Ricci’s Treatise on Friendship: After a long and hard journey, Xitai [Ricci] came to China in order to make friends. Many of the Chinese literati realized that Ricci had shown that West and East can work together and go the same way, on the ground of the same principles, as long as they are both committed to endeavor to achieve them.

We may conclude, with Feng Yingjing’s words, that “[r]ealizing that Xitai crossed mountains and sailed across the seas, with the purpose to make friends, I feel so petty! I have been pondering on his book, and I convinced myself that Eastern and Western doctrines are just alike.” In the span of time at Nanchang, and particularly during the years 1594–95,35 Jesuits began to understand the variety of the components contained in the syncretic Neo-Confucianism. Eschewing Buddhism, they often unified Confucianism with Taoism, and they convinced themselves of the urgency to raise to the rank of Guānfǔ (imperial officials)—literati, scholars, mandarins. Within this context, key aspects of science concerning geometrical and mathematical principles and spatial-temporal conception were reflected in a set of instruments, such as watches, globes, maps, prisms (in order to refract sunlight), astronomical machines, and musical instruments. In 1584, in Ricci’s residence in Zhàoqìng, a map of the world was put in the hall, shown to the admiration of the Chinese guests: The Fathers had set a globe of the entire world in their hall, with the place names written in our language. Since Chinese viewed it as a never seen or never thought thing, they wanted it to be prized by every important 35 D’Arelli, “Matteo Ricci S.I. e la traduzione latina dei Quattro Libri (Sishu),” 170–71.

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person, translated in Chinese characters, in order to give access to its meaning. The governor himself asked Fr. Matteo, who already had some knowledge of their characters, to translate that globe with all the notes contained in it, because he wanted to print it and send it everywhere in China. This is the reason why Chinese people should be grateful to him.36

Ricci remarked that scholars were at a loss when they realized that China was not the country in the “middle” of the world but just a “district” of this earth. The sense of astonishment among the literati increased when Ricci, who had been educated in Rome by the great mathematician Clavius, succeeded in determining the longitude of China. In 1602 he revised his map—referred to as Kūnyú wànguó quántú (Complete map of all nations on the earth; Peking 1602)37—complementing the data given by Mercator and Ortelius with the Far Eastern data. He was thus in a position to work out the most updated map. The need to satisfy continuous requests for astronomical and mathematical insights prompted Ricci to engage in this field for a long time, devoting himself to several scientific subjects to satisfy the Chinese audience. Clavius’s scholarship assisted him, certainly through his writings, although, since he did not have all of them at his disposal, he likely had to rely on memory to take advantage of the content of the courses he had attended in Rome. That ability tremendously impressed the audience, so Ricci dedicated Xīguo jìfă (Method of memory in the Western countries) to describing the mnemonic technique (the text, dated 1596, would be published after 1625, in the version edited by Alfonso Vagnone and Zhū Dĭnghàn).

Conclusion The newly tested policy of inculturation opened up the possibility of experiencing a cross-cultural encounter with the foreigner and provided the rhetorical base for intercultural communication aimed at conveying the crucial themes of religious teaching through the medium of scientific and philosophical matters. The policy of persuasion as a consequence of understanding was carried out through mutual understanding, mediated by the acquisition of the Chinese literati’s language as part of the pragmatic strategies of the Company of Jesus, in order to act within the context of “place, time, and circumstances.” 36 Ricci, Della entrata della Compagnia, 143. 37 Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China (635–1800), 752–70.

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References Primary Sources Bacon, Francis. De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum (Paris: Pierre Mettayer, 1624 [1605]). Constitutiones collegii Messanensis (1548), in Monumenta paedagogica S.J., vol. 1, ed. Ladislaus Lukács (Rome: Institutum Historicum S.I., 1965). Pordenone, Odorico da, Odorichus de Rebus Incognitis, ed. Lucio Monaco and Giulio Cesare Testa (Pordenone: Camera di Commercio, 1986 [Esauri: H. Soncino, 1513]). Ratio atqve institvtio stvdiorvm Socitatis Iesu (Tournon: Claude Michel, 1603) Ricci, Matteo, Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesù e Christianità nella Cina, ed. Maddalena Del Gatto (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2000 [1609]). Ricci, Matteo, Lettere (1580–1609), ed. Francesco D’Arelli (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2001). Wadding, Luke, Annales Minorum seu Trium Ordinum A. S. Francisco Institutorum, vol. 6 (Rome: Typis Rochi Bernabò, 1733).

Secondary Sources Bertuccioli, Giuliano, “Il De Amicitia e altre opere cinesi,” in Martino Martini: umanista e scienziato nella Cina del secolo XVII. Atti del simposio internazionale su Martino Martini e gli scambi culturali tra Cina e Occidente – Accademia cinese delle scienze sociali, Pechino 5-6-7 aprile 1994, ed. Franco Demarchi and Riccardo Scartezzini (Trento: Università degli Studi di Trento, 1995), 209–17. Cao, Shi Bang, Zhong guo fo jiao yi jing shi lun ji (Taipei: Dong chu zhi hui hai, 1990). Chow, Kai-Wing, Publishing Culture and Power in Early Modern China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004). D’Arelli, Francesco, “Matteo Ricci S.I. e la traduzione latina dei Quattro Libri (Sishu): dalla tradizione storiografica alle nuove ricerche,” in Le Marche e l’Oriente. Una tradizione ininterrotta da Matteo Ricci a Giuseppe Tucci. Atti del congresso internazionale, Macerata 23–26 ottobre 1996, ed. Francesco D’Arelli (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 1998), 163–75. Golvers, Noël (ed.), The Christian Mission of China in the Verbiest Era: Some Aspects of the Missionary Approach (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999). Lundbæk, Knud, “The Image of Neo-Confucianism in Confucius Sinarum Philosophus,” Journal of the History of Ideas 44.1 (1983), 19–30. Ó Mathúna, Seán P., “L’apprendimento della seconda lingua nei primi collegi gesuiti, 1548–1599,” in Lingua, tradizione, Rivelazione. Le chiese e la comunicazione sociale, ed. Lia Formigari and Donatella Di Cesare (Casale Monferrato: Marietti, 1989), 35–45.

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Poli, Diego, “Politica linguistica e strategie della comunicazione gesuitiche in Matteo Ricci,” Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia (Università di Macerata) 22–23 (1989–90), 461–83. Poli, Diego, “La scrittura del cinese come chiave interpretativa dell’universale nell’adattamento di Matteo Ricci e nella speculazione in Occidente,” in Humanitas. Attualità di Matteo Ricci. Testi, fortuna, interpretazione, ed. Filippo Mignini (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2011), 103–48. Poli, Diego, “La pastorale comunicativa della Compagnia di Gesù nella linea strategica di Alessandro Valignano, Matteo Ricci e José di Acosta,” in Lingue e testi delle riforme cattoliche in Europa e nelle Americhe (secc. XVI-XXI). Atti del congresso internazionale, Napoli 4–6 Novembre 2010, ed. Rita Librandi (Florence: Cesati, 2012), 493–522. Poli, Diego, “Quali linguaggi per quali lingue: la missiologia dei Gesuiti fra Cinquecento e Seicento,” in Linguaggi per un nuovo umanesimo, ed. Maria C. Benvenuto and Paolo Martino (Vatican City: Libreria Editoriale Vaticana, 2015), 57–79. Poli, Diego, “La Ars grammatica fra fonografia, accidentalia ed essentialia nella speculazione sulle lingue nella Compagnia di Gesù di tardo Cinquecento e Seicento,” in Le lingue extra-europee e l’italiano: aspetti didattico-acquisizionali e sociolinguistici. Atti del LI congresso internazionale di studi della Società di Linguistica Italiana, Napoli 28–30 settembre 2017, ed. Alberto Manco (Milan: Officina21, 2018), 53–82. Poli, Diego, “The Italian Language of Matteo Ricci Poised between Estrangement and Inculturation,” in New Perspectives in the Studies on Matteo Ricci, ed. Filippo Mignini (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2019), 153–82. Rule, Paul A., K’ung-tzu or Confucius? The Jesuit Interpretation of Confucianism (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986). Schreyer, Rudiger, The European Discovery of Chinese (1550–1615) or the Mystery of Chinese Unveiled (Amsterdam: Stichting Neerlandistiek VU, 1992). Schurhammer, Georg, Francis Xavier: His Life, his Times, vol. 4: Japan and China (1549–1552) (Rome: The Jesuit Historical Institute, 1982). Sievernich, Michael, “Vision und Mission der Neuen Welt bei José de Acosta,” in Ignatianisch: Eigenart und Methode der Gesellschaft Jesu, ed. Michael Sievernich and Günter Switek (Freiburg, Basel, and Vienna: Herder, 1990), 293–313. Spalatin, Christopher A., “Matteo Ricci’s Use of Epictetus’ Encheiridion,” Gregorianum 56 (1975), 551–57. Standaert, Nicolas (ed.), Handbook of Christianity in China (635–1800), vol. 1 of 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2000). Standaert, Nicolas, “The Transmission of Renaissance Culture in SeventeenthCentury China,” Renaissance Studies 17.3 (2003), 367–91.

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Üçerler, M. Antoni J., “The Jesuit Enterprise in Japan (1573–1580),” in The Mercurian Project. Forming Jesuit Culture 1573–1580, ed. Thomas M. McCoog (Rome/Saint Louis, MO: Institutum Historicum SI – The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2004), 831–75. Witek, John W., “Everard Mercurian and the Entry of Jesuits into China,” in The Mercurian Project. Forming Jesuit Culture 1573–1580, ed. Thomas M. McCog (Rome/Saint Louis, MO: Institutum Historicum SI – The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2004), 815–29.

About the author Diego Poli, now emeritus, was full professor of historical and general linguistics at the University of Macerata (Italy), where he was also dean of the Faculty of Humanities in 1990–96 and later head of the Department of Linguistics, Literary Studies and Philology. As a general editor, he now runs the series “Episteme” (published by il Calamo, Rome) and the journal Rivista italiana di linguistica e di dialettologia (published by F. Serra, Pisa and Rome). He was member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Society of Historical Linguistics, secretary thereof in 1994–98 and its president in 2001–2. He has organized nineteen congresses. His research is directed toward historical linguistics (especially classical, Celtic, and Germanic), etymology, rhetoric, Latin language and grammar, history of English, Old Norse, phonetics and phonology, history of linguistics, history of grammar in the Middle Ages, and anthropological linguistics. He also studies the linguistic speculation in Dante Alighieri and Giacomo Leopardi and works on the linguistic issues in the speculative thought of the Society of Jesus in sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Personal website: https://docenti.unimc.it/diego.poli

À propos de l’auteur Diego Poli, aujourd’hui émérite, a été professeur de linguistique historique et générale à l’université de Macerata (Italie), où il a aussi été doyen de la faculté des sciences humaines entre 1990 et 1996, puis chef du département de linguistique, d’études littéraires et de philologie. En tant qu’éditeur général, il dirige actuellement la série Episteme (éditeur il Calamo, Rome) et la revue Rivista italiana di linguistica e di dialettologia (éditeur F. Serra, Pise & Rome). Il a été membre du Comité exécutif de la Société italienne de

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linguistique historique, dont il a été secrétaire de 1994 à 1998 et président de 2001 à 2002. Il a organisé dix-neuf colloques. Ses recherches portent sur la linguistique historique (surtout classique, celtique et germanique), l’étymologie, la rhétorique, la langue et la grammaire latines, l’histoire de l’anglais, le vieux norrois, la phonétique et la phonologie, l’histoire de la linguistique, l’histoire de la grammaire au Moyen Âge, la linguistique anthropologique. Il étudie également la spéculation linguistique chez Dante Alighieri et Giacomo Leopardi et travaille sur les questions linguistiques dans la pensée spéculative de la Compagnie de Jésus, du seizième au dix-huitième siècle. Site web personnel : https://docenti.unimc.it/diego.poli

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For an epistemological and cognitive approachto Matteo Ricci’s The Palace of Memory. Didactics and imaginative processes1 † Maria Lucia Aliffi and Mariangela Albano Abstract: In this chapter, we examine The Palace of Memory by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit who in 1577 arrived in China not only with a solid cultural background but also a mnemonic technique that would allow him to carry his knowledge across China. He taught a method of memorization and proposed a new didactization of written Chinese. On the one hand, our epistemological analysis focuses on the origins and consequences of the metalanguage used by Ricci and its didactic consequences. On the other hand, we examine these concepts from a perspective specific to psychology and cognitive linguistics. Résumé : Dans ce chapitre, nous examinons Le Palais de mémoire de Matteo Ricci, un jésuite qui, en 1577, est arrivé en Chine non seulement avec un solide bagage culturel mais aussi avec des procédés mnémotechniques qui devaient lui permettre de transporter ses connaissances en Chine. Il a enseigné une méthode de mémorisation et proposé une nouvelle didactique du chinois écrit. D’une part, notre analyse épistémologique porte sur l’origine et les attendus du métalangage utilisé par Ricci et ses aspects didactiques. D’autre part, nous examinons ces concepts dans une perspective propre à la psychologie et à la linguistique cognitives.

1 [Pour une approche épistémologique et cognitive du Palais de la mémoire de Matteo Ricci. Didactique et processus imaginatifs]. I would like to pay my gratitude and my respect to the co-author and colleague, Professor Maria Lucia Aliffi. After helping me to plan and write this chapter, Professor Aliffi passed away in May 2022. She was not only an outstanding scholar in the Department of Humanities at the University of Palermo, but she was also an amazing professor and mentor who always motivated students to give their best. I am also grateful for the English language editing service and for the corrections provided by Professor Matthew Furfine (University of Palermo).

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch4

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Keywords: Epistemology. Matteo Ricci. The Palace of Memory. Didactics. Imageability and Categorization. Cognitive Semantics and Psychology. Mots-clés : Epistémologie. Matteo Ricci. Le Palais de mémoire. Didactique. Imageabilité et catégorisation. Sémantique psychologie cognitive.

An overview of Matteo Ricci’s work Adopting an epistemological perspective on the history of language learning and didactic tools helps us reconstruct the genesis of linguistic knowledge. In fact, these practices are part of the transmission of metalinguistic knowledge. How did missionaries reorganize linguistic knowledge? It is in this perspective that we will examine The Palace of Memory (Xīguo jìfă, 西國記法) by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit who, in the second half of the sixteenth century in China, proposed a method of teaching Chinese characters to Chinese students based on Western mnemonic techniques.2 Father Ricci proposed a method where memory is perceived as a palace in which each mental image can be stored in rooms, where each door and each staircase can enable the opening of memory sites and an individual can vary the dimension of this mental palace. From this perspective, mental objects are equipped with a fictitious spatiality allowing an individual subject to browse through a mental space, build knowledge, orient him/herself. The novelty introduced by Father Ricci is the application of these techniques, known since Simonides of Ceos, to the teaching of Chinese writing, through which students can develop a process of meta-cognitive reasoning. According to Piccinini, the technique used to create characters is divided into three different methods: 1) the creation of “images” in which the “shape of the character” is invented creatively and does not correspond to the meaning of the character’s components; 2) an ideogram in which the union of different ideographic 2 Father Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Macerata, lived for several years in China in the provinces of Zhào-qìng, Shào-zhōu, and Nán-chāng in the Chinese empire of the Mίng dynasty. His own difficulties in learning the Chinese language and the need to give a tool to the Chinese elite motivated him to refine methods to improve the ability to memorize Chinese characters. Thus, around the year 1595 during his stay in Nán-chāng, Ricci translated and adapted to the Chinese language a treatise on mnemonics that he had already written for Lelio Passionei in the years when he attended the Roman College (see Ricci, Opere storiche, vol. 2, 235; Ducornet, Matteo Ricci, Le lettré d’Occident, 68–71). Moreover, Ricci believed that “mnemonics seem[ed] particularly suitable precisely for Chinese letters […] as each letter represents a f igure that means something very specific” (Poli, “La scrittura del cinese,” 129).

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components forms a character; 3) the segmentation of two characters according to the phonetic model fǎnqiè (反切). Sometimes Ricci uses two of the aforementioned methods by explaining the same character in two different ways.3 However, “the whole complex system of images invented by Ricci to provide an application for the method turned out to be too cumbersome for the Chinese: they believed that a good memory was necessary just to remember the tools of memorization, so learning this technique represented a loss of time compared to the objective they set for themselves, namely to prepare for the state exams.”4 Furthermore, as Spence5 points out, in China the memorization process is not based on the abstraction of mental images as in Western society but on the continuous repetition of classic Confucian texts. In the drafting and readjustment of the treatise, Ricci seemed to be indebted to the ars memorativa in vogue in Europe for learning Greek and Latin rhetoric.6 First of all, the author was influenced by Aristotle’s De Anima, which affirms that memory plays “a fundamental role as an instrument of

3 Piccinini, in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 149. 4 Ibidem, 17. 5 Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 221–23. 6 According to Poli, “Ricci demonstrates, through the importance attributed to memory, his humanistic-Renaissance education, aiming to rediscover in this skill, following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine, full confirmation of the connections between words and things. Toward the middle of the sixteenth century, Giulio Camillo Delminio considered the activity of observation and concentration of the mind to be a kind of theatre, making it—to borrow the Augustinian term—a palace of memory, predisposed for mnemonic associations to images. Meaning can be represented through the alphabetical spelling to which the West has been educated by classical culture, in order to refute the idea that the Chinese character is a container with no content or that the Chinese language does not have an adequate relationship to reality […] in the f ield of communication; in its writing (somewhat unif ied by the system of Chinese writing, on which Ricci dwells in Entrata… I, 5) the Far East would refer immediately to the thing, while the Western speaker could not seize this opportunity because he or she can perceive the Chinese character only through the mediation of the signif ier. Chinese writing is considered to be the watermark of an allusive symbolic reading to which transliteration produces a body f ixed in the stability of sound, corresponding to a referential object restored by way of letters. Within the research that in the Renaissance would enliven the processes of allegory and realism, cabala and hermeticism, and etymological archeology and verbal alchemy, nostalgia for the origin of the lost word leads back to the gap between God who with the Word created the universe and man who creates a universe of words. This confusion is resolved by the universal character of the Gospel, regardless of the languages used and beyond the vain dream of recreating the language of Adam, which has been irretrievably lost” (Poli, “La scrittura del cinese,” 129–30).

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intellect.”7 Secondly, Ricci drew closer to Cicero’s De oratore, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria, for which mnemotechnics have a rhetorical function.8 Thirdly, Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas were also influential; for them, mnemonics are linked to recalling biblical images to work on oneself.9 Finally, Ricci seemed to prefer the Ignatian model, for which memory represents one of the three powers of the soul, alongside intellect and will, and plays a fundamental role during meditation as it guides intellect toward reasoning and stimulates will through reasoning.10 Another novelty of Ricci’s is the introduction of concepts similar to those present in current cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology. We can observe, for example, the concepts of categorization, meta-cognition, conceptual metonymy, and blending or semantic motivation. However, Ricci’s work was not very successful in China and did not have much following.11 In this regard, a recent test, administered by Piccinini to a sample of twenty-six second-year Chinese foreign language students at the University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, revealed that students prefer to analyze Chinese characters by way of an etymological method of decomposing characters and a personal method of doing so. Students said they did not use Ricci’s technique to memorize characters. Although this research is valid, it should be extended to a larger sample size using a psycholinguistic approach.12 Our chapter is divided in two parts: the first part represents an analysis of the concepts Ricci used from the perspective of cognitive psychology and linguistics; we review certain theories of current linguistics and attempt to show the didactic consequences of his discourse. In the second part, we examine the construction of images of characters, which is what Ricci did in practice, and consider whether he achieved this goal.

7 Piccinini, in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 19. 8 Ibidem. 9 Ibidem. 10 Loyola, Gli esercizi spirituali, 61. 11 Piccinini, in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 17. 12 Ibidem, 57–69. The writer had his personal experience with the spirits of Greek in mind: the difference between the spirit signs “sweet” and “sour” was learned, and the method is still used in the creation of the terms “caspro,” which places before “aspro” the phoneme whose graphemic representation in Italian is c-, a letter that has the same curve as the sign of the sour spirit: zxzx. As for the acute and grave accents of open and closed e-, it was sufficient to associate “acute” and “closed,” which have the same phoneme /k/.

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The construction of Ricci’s didactic discourse: Imaginative processes, spatiality, and memory Matteo Ricci: At the dawn of cognitive didactics? The most authentic telos of Ricci’s discourse concerns the problematic nature of learning and teaching Chinese characters. In particular, Matteo Ricci, with his Xīguo jìfă, was one of the first didacticists to raise questions about the needs of learners seeking to expand their written competence in a language with ideographic writing. More specifically, the modernity of Ricci’s didactic discourse lies in the fact that the author questions concepts now in vogue in cognitive linguistics and in current didactic approaches, such as memory, metacognition, analogy, semantic motivation, and iconicity.13 Of course, we should also remember that Ricci developed his discourse starting from a Christian metaphysics in which we can distinguish a single Absolute—that is, the Creator—and a doctrine of creation ex nihilo, whereby creation is an act of charity. Let us consider the following sentence from this point of view: The soul that the Creator has given to human beings knows how to perceive creation with greater awareness. In the impact with the most varied phenomena, it is fully able to register and recognize them; it also knows how to differentiate them in order, [then] to store them, in the manner of goods that are stored in a warehouse. Whenever one wants to use them, each category of objects will re-emerge on the basis of the occasion in orderly succession, without any confusion. Thus, human beings know that they can memorize and remember, they do not know from which place the distinct stored data originate; finally, no one can explain where the place of collection of these fruits is, nor the mystery of their functioning. This is a secret that only the Creator can reveal and how could human beings ever penetrate the essence of this process? I have had the opportunity to discuss this with Western scholars and now, in the following pages, I will attempt to put [the points discussed] in order to discuss them coherently.14 13 From this perspective, see Rosch and Lloyd, Cognition and Categorization; Holyoak and Thagard, Analogical Mapping by Constraint Satisfaction; Cacciari, Similarity in Language, Thought and Perception; Hofstadter and the Fluid Analogies Research Group, Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies; Monneret, L’iconicité comme problème analogique. 14 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 83–84.

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Although the author begins with a metaphysical perspective, he attempts to def ine his object of study through an aporetic perspective aimed at highlighting the empirical research of his time. To do so, Ricci makes use of several metaphors and similes that consider the mind and memory as spaces or places. See, for example, the following sentences: “Memory is a warehouse”;15 “Place of collection of memory”;16 “Memory chamber”;17 “Experience shows that the occipital bone is the hardest and thickest. It seems that the Creator has placed a heavy stone to protect the place where the memory resides, so that it remains secret and impenetrable; just like a warehouse lock has the function of hermetically closing [the door].”18

The notion of spatiality will be taken up again in the construction of mental images, as we will see in the next paragraph. This concrete conceptualization of human thought evokes, for example, the conceptual metaphors analyzed by Lakoff and Johnson,19 such as “memory is a storehouse,” “remembering is retrieval (or recall),” and “the structure of an idea is the structure of an object.” The authors, in fact, affirm that [a]nother way in which we get information is by examining objects and manipulating them. This forms the basis of another major metaphor for thinking […]. In this metaphor, ideas are objects that you can play with, toss around, or turn over in your mind. To understand an idea is to grasp it, to get it, to have it firmly in mind. Communication is exchanging ideas. Thus, you can give someone ideas and get ideas across to people. Teaching is putting ideas into the minds of students, cramming their heads full of ideas. To fail to understand is to fail to grasp, as when an idea goes over your head or right past you. Problems with understanding may arise when an idea is slippery, when someone throws too many things at you at once, or when someone throws you a curve. When a subject matter is too difficult for you to understand, it is seen as being beyond your grasp. Just as objects have a physical structure, so ideas have a conceptual structure. You can put ideas together to form complex ideas. Complex ideas can be 15 Ibidem, 83. 16 Ibidem. 17 Ibidem, 84. 18 Ibidem. 19 See Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By.

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crafted, fashioned, shaped, and reshaped. There can be many sides to an issue. Analyzing ideas is taking them apart so that you can see their component ideas.20

After examining the function of memory and differences in the ability to memorize as a function of age and quality of life, Ricci begins to introduce what he himself calls “the method for cultivating memory,”21 “mnemonics for images,”22 or the “method of animated images,”23 which he describes in the following terms: “learning mnemonics consists of attributing the image of a given thing or state of things to a precise place in an ordered succession.”24 His method appears to adopt an eidetic approach, but, as we will demonstrate later, the author does not want to resolve things a priori by merely applying a technique but always prefers to leave a space open for the problematization of the creation of mental images. In this regard, we note his statements: There are more than ten thousand Chinese characters. On the other hand, human beings’ capacity for knowledge is not as broad and profound. If you wanted to build an image for each character, even if you wrote long and tedious chapters, you wouldn’t be able to explain all the types. Furthermore, ideas do not always combine perfectly, sound and meaning are not always connected […]. We will represent here more than a hundred characters as a model. […] The student may take interest in them to broaden his knowledge or consider them as an aid to create mental schemes.25

In our view, Ricci does not consider the learning of Chinese characters to be the result of specifically linguistic skills but rather the result of higher cognitive abilities in a broad sense. This brings it closer to the positions of linguists and cognitive language teachers for whom language is a complex symbolic system, its acquisition involving a series of mechanisms for building and organizing knowledge that require different elements: recognition of patterns, memory, inference, decision-making, and planning. In fact, as Sagnier states, 20 See Lakoff and Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh, 117. 21 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 89. 22 Ibidem. 23 Ibidem, 103. 24 Ibidem, 90. 25 Ibidem, 131.

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[c]ognitivists […] therefore rely on theoretical work in the psychology of general learning, which includes research on the architecture and functioning of memory, by considering language as a complex cognitive activity, rooted in the cognitive, perceptual and sensorimotor experience of the subject and involving multiple processes, some of which are only just beginning to be identified.26

Similarly, Ricci builds on the idea of translating an ideogram into a mental scheme by creating analogies and referring to the experiential world and encyclopedic knowledge as well as by pushing students to reflect on the metacognitive function of their mind. We can therefore hypothesize that some concepts Ricci took into consideration are comparable to the learning strategies suggested by O’Malley and Chamot.27 In fact, Ricci mobilizes the concept of mental planning understood as a preliminary study of the concepts that organize the task of understanding a lemma in developing a mental plan. On several occasions, one also finds a stimulation of the learning process based on the development of a metalinguistic consciousness.28 At first Ricci states that there must be a complete activation of metalinguistic knowledge. The author, for example, proposes that the learner observe the functioning of the metaphonological dimension when he states that “the same pronunciation […] serves to memorize a real image.”29 Furthermore, the mental elaboration of some ideograms can arise from context, as, Ricci confirms, “it is necessary to refer to the context, which must be aligned and connected to an appropriate meaning, in order to reach the character through it.”30 Ricci extends this didactic path and proposes ten rules “to create the images and to help the student understand them better.”31 These indications reveal Ricci’s profound knowledge of the theories of the mind and of the function of human cognition. 26 Sagnier, Métacognition et interactions, 38. 27 O’Malley and Chamot, Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition; Gaonac’h, Acquisition et utilisation d’une langue étrangère; Chamot, “Implementing the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach.” 28 See Pinto and El Euch, La conscience métalinguistique. 29 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 104. In this regard, as Piccinini affirms (in ibidem, 58), “if the meaning of a word is fundamental to its learning, it is also important to mentally organize the lemma into a structure that links it to the other known words and places by association with words that remind us of the pronunciation. According to Paivio’s theory of double coding, the items processed both on an imaginative and on a verbal level remain more vividly in the memory.” 30 Ibidem, 114. 31 Ibidem, 122.

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For example, the first rule Ricci proposes highlights the fact that animated images can be memorized more easily. This is evident through his words: “animated and moving images have a lasting attraction. The images [of a man] sitting, crouching, sleeping soundly or standing like a tree, are inanimate images, which are easily forgotten.”32 His intuitions correspond in many ways to current research in psycholinguistics on the animacy effect,33 i.e., the fact that animate stimuli are remembered better than inanimate stimuli. This finding of Ricci’s is in line with the research of Pratt, Radulescu, Guo, and Abrams,34 who tested the hypothesis that animate motion captures visual attention, and with the research of Bonin, Gelin, and Bugaiska,35 who, through two experiments using pictures and words as stimuli, conf irm that animate entities are remembered better than inanimate entities. Ricci’s icastic method also makes use of other cognitive mechanisms, such as the evocation of emotions in the creation of a mental image. We find, for example, that: The particularities must be emphasized. The tall or short height, the sturdy or slender size […]. Oddities must inspire fear. For example, a man with three heads and six arms, vertical eyes and two horns […]. The attitude must be ridiculous. If the outward appearance of the image is too serious, the feelings of sadness or happiness of those who see it will be dispersed.36

Finally, we see how Ricci anticipates, many centuries ahead of time, certain theories concerning imageability, which is a mental process whereby “certain words elicit a sensory experience”37 and, as they are “more concrete,” give the speaker a greater ability to imagine the referent. This 32 Ibidem. We could also refer to the following statement by Ricci, which is similar to the one quoted in the text: “it is essential that the following concept be clear: for all the images that are prepared, one should first start from animated images of people and for the rest use inanimate images of things. In fact, for each individual character it is necessary to look for an animated and an inanimate image from time to time and prepare them both before one’s eyes, so that they can be used appropriately” (ibidem, 115). 33 See VanArsdall et al., “Adaptive Memory.” 34 See Pratt et al., “It’s Alive! Animate Motion Captures Visual Attention.” 35 See Bonin, Gelin, and Bugaiska, “Animates Are Better Remembered than Inanimates.” 36 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 127. 37 Paivio, Yuille, and Madigan, “Concreteness, Imagery, and Meaningfulness Values for 925 Nouns,” 4.

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term, first used by Paivio et al.38 and then employed by several theorists,39 evidences the degree of ease or difficulty in imagining an object starting from a word. Thus, “table is a highly imaginative word in that its meaning is associated with many sensory properties (size, shape, etc.) while hope is low in imageability.”40 In the words of Paivio et al., 41 it is possible that some abstract words may have a high degree of imageability and therefore evoke something concrete because they suggest an emotional and affective connotation. 42 Moreover, to clarify the difference between concrete and abstract words, Paivio suggests the hypothesis of dual coding. Concrete and abstract words are stored in memory in different ways: while concrete words present verbal and pictorial representation, abstract words give only a verbal representation. 43 However, according to Tyler et al., 44 although each system is functionally distinct, there are some connections between them in that activating a representation in one system can activate the corresponding representation in the other. As long as the two representational systems are interrelated and can be co-activated, concrete words have an advantage due to the mutual activation of their double representations. That being said, we can observe that concrete words are processed faster due to a high number of semantic properties. Supporting this hypothesis is the research of Jones 45 and De Groot, 46 who attempt to demonstrate that the use of concrete words involves a greater number of sentences and mental associations. It is evident that imageability “can influence the storage and processing of words in the mental lexicon, as well as other factors such as age of acquisition, frequency, word length and phonological properties.”47 Upon closer look, what Paivio theorized in the 1960s already seems to be a topic dear to our author, who on several occasions dwells on the difficulty

38 Ibidem. 39 See Paivio, Mental Representations; Tyler and Moss, Imageability and Category-Specific Effects; McDonough et al., An Image Is Worth a Thousand Words. 40 Tyler et al., “Activating Meaning in Time,” 476. 41 See Paivio, Yuille, and Madigan, “Concreteness, Imagery, and Meaningfulness Values for 925 Nouns.” 42 Ibidem, 7. 43 See Paivio, Imagery and Verbal Processes; Paivio, Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. 44 Tyler et al., “Activating Meaning in Time,” 476. 45 Jones, “Deep Dyslexia, Imageability and Ease of Prediction.” 46 De Groot, “Representational Aspects of Word Imageability.” 47 See Lind et al., “Name Relatedness and Imageability,” 1.

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of learning ideograms through the indication of abstract words. Consider, for example, the following passage: If there are two real things, they are memorized by building an image of both. If there are concepts, but not real things, the abstract is memorized deriving it from the concrete. The essence and its function are presupposed, the cause and the effect yearn for each other; for a function it is possible to use a person; or elements are put together in bulk to give them meaning; or metaphors are used to [express] something exceptional: in most cases the best thing is to use “animated images” than to use people a lot. 48

Ricci therefore shows how some Chinese ideograms can be memorized easily if the student is aware of the metacognitive mechanisms that involve the imagination. To illustrate this type of approach, we need only look at what he says about abstract words such as in “we memorize government by means of a monarch; education through a citizen […] filial piety through a son; respect through a younger brother”49 or with regard to “images difficult to create” such as the ideogram “catastrophe”50 for the character “catastrophe zāi 灾, a lid is placed on fire 火 Huŏ.”51 If the words turn out to be too complicated or abstract, Ricci suggests to the student that it is necessary to transform an ordinary static and complex concept into something mobile, as we see in the following: If you are unable to change what is ordinary, you will necessarily have to create new attitudes and gestures, otherwise the images will inevitably end up looking alike and it will be diff icult to manage them. For the rest, plants are altogether related to inanimate images and cannot be placed [as an image] on the same level as human beings. Obviously, even inanimate images must be transformed into animate ones by making them sensory experience, shaking them with the strength of the mind, looking at them and pointing at them, directing them or shaking them, breeding them or cultivating them, grabbing or shaking them. It is possible with the help of human images, depending on the circumstances, and by moving around, to extend the use [of mnemonics] all the way 48 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 105. 49 Ibidem, 107. 50 Ibidem, 113. 51 Ibidem.

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to wood and stone […], to the most varied tools and in general to all inanimate objects.52

Ricci’s argumentative syntax highlights a bundle of irreducible characters aimed at unhinging memorization through repetition because, in order to give the student the concrete possibility of learning Chinese characters, it is necessary to manipulate their construction through a metacognitive process. The phenomenology of Matteo Ricci’s didactic discourse: A spatialimaginative path As we saw in the previous paragraph, Ricci makes a strong contribution to practices concerning cognitive categorization through polymorphic and non-unique categories. The process of learning Chinese ideograms becomes an icon of an imaginative process through different types of cognitive mechanisms, as indicated in the following statement by Ricci: “we will represent below a hundred characters as a model […], the scholar should take interest in expanding his knowledge, or take them as an aid to create mental schemes.”53 The third chapter of Xīguo jìfă, entitled “How to Establish Positions,” shows the Chinese writing learner the different steps to memorize characters or sets of characters. The first step suggested by the author is to determine a priori the places where the concept to be memorized should be assigned. Such places can have three dimensions: large (i.e., a school, a convent, a palace), medium (i.e., a hall, a pavilion, a room), and small (i.e., the corner of a room, a bench, an altar). Thus, to memorize verbs, for example, they are represented as colored towels and placed in a wooden bench that is located inside a room of a large building. The second stage is to prefer real places since [w]hat is real is easy, while what is established with the imagination is difficult. If this latter faculty is not exercised and learned with engagement, errors and omissions cannot be avoided. However, its secret is only the creative imagination, which we can initially [practice] with a certain delight and enjoyment, [the creation] of places that are half real and half imaginary is, as it were, the secret of secrets.54 52 Ibidem, 125. 53 Ibidem, 131. 54 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 95.

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The other steps described by Ricci define how to create ad hoc mental spaces in which to contain information to be memorized. One can observe, for example, that the places in which information is placed must have balanced proportions;55 they must be quiet and not crowded places,56 since the mind must have no difficulty in recovering an idea stored in memory. Furthermore, for memorized ideas to be retrieved, mental places must be balanced in terms of order and luminosity, and the ideas must have been stored easily.57 Furthermore, Ricci proposes a series of other spatial characteristics that must def ine the places of memory, such as beauty; cleanliness; a sheltered place as opposed to an outdoor place; flat surfaces; and the stability, originality, and recognizability of the places.58 He also mentions a reasonable distance between two places dedicated to similar ideas59 and the maintenance of what has been established in that place.60 As we can see, Ricci’s work puts forth the idea of memory and human categorization understood as spatiality. Ricci takes up this idea several times using metaphors that describe memory as a set of places or rooms in the palace or kùzàng (庫藏), which means “treasure chamber.”61 This type of conceptualization can be a legacy of the third book of Rhetorica ad Herennium in which the words “loci” (spaces) and “imagines” (images) are used several times and whose author states: “Now let me turn to the treasure-house of ideas supplied by Invention, to the guardian of all the parts of rhetoric, Memory.”62 Furthermore, Saint Augustine’s Confessions were likely influential, a text in which expressions such as “neighborhoods of memory” are found.63 However, the novelty of Ricci’s work lies in his application of this type of memorization or mental process to learning a language and in the way he presents the teaching of this mental process. It is also necessary to highlight that this conceptualization of memory as space anticipates by many centuries what psychology and cognitive semantics would take up more explicitly through the analysis of mental categorization processes and, 55 Ibidem, 96. 56 Ibidem, 97. 57 Ibidem. 58 Ibidem, 98–100. 59 Ibidem, 99. 60 Ibidem. 61 Ibidem, 142. 62 Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, III, XVI, 28. 63 Ibidem, 92.

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in particular, through the notions of frames,64 mental spaces,65 blending,66 and conceptual metonymy.67 We can see that Ricci repeatedly introduces the concept of fusion, a notion that could be related to what we nowadays call conceptual blending, which means the integration of two separate concepts or two parts of a single concept. Consider, for example, the following statement in which Ricci introduces the idea of conceptual blending between images:68 “two images are connected, considering the first half as the initial, the second half as the final.”69 Even the sentence “if you want to memorize several characters together in a single place, you have to merge the images of the characters and those 64 Firstly, we see the use of the word “frame” in Max Black’s interactionist theory of metaphor (Models and Metaphors), for which the metaphor has the capacity to produce something new in the interaction between the “focus” and the “frame” of an entire utterance. The “focus” represents the word that contains the translated meaning, and the “frame” is the whole that surrounds the “focus.” It is in this perspective that, according to Black, each word provides a more or less structured network of concepts or clichés operating in a given culture, a statement that would be accepted and expanded upon in the context of current cognitive linguistics studies. Moreover, this word became popular through the reception of Goffman’s sociology with his theory of the frame (Frame Analysis). An interesting contribution to this concept is Fillmore’s frame semantics (Frame Semantics). At the beginning (in 1968–69), the word denoted the actantial role or the structure of the cases. Then in 1982, Fillmore expanded the notion of frame within lexical semantics and affirmed that this structure was “the conceptual formation that enables the interpretation of an element” (Fortis, “La linguistique cognitive: histoire et épistémologie,” 7). In Lakoff and Johnson (Metaphors We Live By; Philosophy in the Flesh), the word “frame” is used in many ways: frame, conceptual frame, framework, frame elements, complex frames, simple frames. These notions fall within the definition of “frame” as a basic cognitive schema that is part of a certain idealized cognitive model (ICM) (Lakoff, Categories and Cognitive Models; Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, 70). In Lakoff and Johnson, one finds the first attempt to adapt Rosch’s prototype theory to linguistics (Fortis, “La linguistique cognitive: histoire et épistémologie,” 8). 65 According to the theory of mental spaces formulated by Fauconnier (Mental Spaces), the cognitive processes of the imagination can be understood through spatial reasoning. According to this theory, mental spaces are small conceptual packages or domains through which the knowledge of a cognitive agent is structured (Pollock, “The Phylogeny of Rationality”). 66 On the basis of this theory, Fauconnier and Turner (The Way We Think, 39) have formulated a theory of conceptual blending providing that some basic elements operate in it, such as input spaces, interspatial mappings, generic space, blending space, and, sometimes, background frames. The blend is the fourth mental space and represents the fusion of the two original input spaces. In it, the so-called “emergent structure” appears, which is a new, not copied structure that derives from the projection, always necessarily partial and selective, of the two mental spaces. 67 See Fauconnier and Turner, The Way We Think, 286–95. 68 See Gibbs and Steen, Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, 113. 69 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 113.

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of their meaning and this should happen naturally”70 shows the idea of conceptual blend inherent in cognitive semantics. Finally, to encourage students to learn Chinese writing, Ricci proposes the idea of conceptually blending certain sentences, as can be seen below: If the meaning of several sentences is to be merged together, then one or two sentences must be expressed with the help of one or two images, in order to arrive at the related general idea […]. Thus, for example, through the image of a man who has the appearance of a sage in the robe of Confucian scholars and who holds in his hand a plate of white jade which he is putting in a gold-decorated box and at his side stands a foreign merchant showing ten pieces of silver who cordially turns to him to sell it to him, we memorize the following three phrases I have a beautiful gem here: do I put it in a casket and hide it or am I looking for a good buyer to buy it?71

In addition to blending, Ricci adapts the rhetorical use of metonymy to the conceptual level, as can be seen below: Grain can be stored in a barn; wine through a chalice, gold through a bag; money through a piggy bank; clothes are stored in a bamboo basket; treats are memorized using plates and trays […]. Agriculture is memorized by means of plowshares and plows; fishing is memorized by means of a fishing rod and net […]; wealth is memorized by a man who has accumulated a lot of money.72

Ricci highlights the fact that there is a metonymic projection between the elements taken into consideration, showing the network of container/ content connections between the various mental inputs. This type of mental reasoning that serves to optimize the processes of memorization and the creation of images or, more precisely, mental Gestalten gives the student the opportunity to reflect meta-cognitively on the structural components of a Chinese character, as well as to motivate each character semantically. Generally, in the book, semantic motivation is arbitrary, because Ricci creates images ad hoc and does not refer to the etymology of Chinese characters. Even if Ricci arbitrarily “invents” the semantic motivation of characters through storytelling, it must be admitted that, 70 Ibidem, 118. 71 Ibidem, 120. 72 Ibidem, 105–6.

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according to Boers and Lindstromberg,73 recourse to “motivation” in foreign language didactics would not only make it possible to develop learning strategies related to the semantic dimension (through source and target domains), to the visual dimension (through illustrations), or to the bodily one (through mimicking); it would also push learners toward meta-reflection on the relationship between their mother tongue and the target language and toward a new understanding of the concept of “word,” which is no longer monolithic but represents a dynamic network, with a central “prototypical” meaning and several additional meanings propagated by multiple mechanisms (metaphorical, metonymic, analogical, of projection, of personification, etc.). Furthermore, according to Boers and Lindstromberg,74 semantic motivation can be combined with an etymological approach to language.

Analysis and remarks about The Palace of Memory Xīguo jìfă: The structure Chapter 1, “On the origin of the method,”75 deals with memory and the techniques used to remember; it presents a description of mnemotechnics through images. Chapter 2, “On how to use the method,” deals with the arrangement of images in a place according to a systematic sequence. As an example, Ricci puts four Chinese characters into a room. It is the passage studied most because only here does he combine images and places. Chapter 3, “On the method for setting up images,” does not describe Chinese characters, but examples are often drawn from Chinese culture. Chapter 4, “On the method for building images,” alternates descriptions of Chinese characters with general techniques of memorization. Chapter 5, “Narrating images,” deals with the memorization of cognitive contents. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, Ricci explains how to memorize words, sentences, and passages of texts through localization. In the second 73 See Boers and Lindstromberg, “Finding Ways to Make Phrase-learning Feasible,” 225–38. 74 See Boers and Lindstromberg, “How Cognitive Linguistics Can Foster Effective Vocabulary Teaching,” 24. The authors, in fact, also recommend introducing the diachronic study of motivation, because learners cannot only identify the nature of words and sentences; they can also make etymological comparisons with their L1. 75 The English titles of the six chapters are those translated by Hosne (see Hosne, “Matteo Ricci’s Occidental Method of Memory”).

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part, he teaches the method for building images. It is a theoretical section with examples drawn from Chinese culture. Chapter 6, “Supplementary information,” offers more than a hundred examples of images to memorize the Chinese characters. The structure of the work seems to indicate that Ricci added parts about the memorization of Chinese characters to the first treatise written in Italy for Lelio Passionei.76 It is also likely that the last chapter on the building of images of Chinese characters was written later, because the description of the characters was not very clear, according to Lackner.77 Remarks Let us give honor to Matteo Ricci where honor is due. As we said in the first paragraph, he anticipated many theorizations of cognitive linguistics, applying his knowledge of classical authors. Moreover, he was the first to “dare” to apply Western mnemotechnics to the learning and memorization of Chinese characters. Finally, in the last chapter, he maintains clearly that he intends to propose a pattern—that is, he does not merely want to teach the characters but to suggest a method for learning them. Nevertheless, we will now proceed to make some necessary critical remarks about this treatise. Memory In the first chapter, Ricci maintains, following ancient and contemporary scholars, that memory is weak in children, less weak in adolescents, and strong and steady in adults. Modern theories and studies have shown the contrary. Indeed, children demonstrate a procedural memory: they learn by moving, hearing, eating, speaking, and so on. This shows that their memory is very strong. Adults, with their maturity, have the ability to choose what they remember. In the case of the memorization of Chinese characters, memory involves the ability to recognize what people have already seen or studied.78 Consequently, it is another type of memory, the conative one, that is most frequently found.79 76 Piccinini in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 15. 77 Ibidem, 21. 78 See Finn et al., “Developmental Dissociation”; Clark and Lum, “Procedural Memory”; Jackson et al., “Working, Declarative, and Procedural Memory.” 79 See Edgell, Memory and Conation.

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Localization Ricci speaks a lot about localization, but he actually deals with the localization of Chinese characters only in the fifth chapter, in connection with words and sentences, and in a single passage of the second chapter when he puts four characters in each corner of a room and specifies the images to be associated with these characters. Afterwards, he maintains that to remember the four characters, one can enter the room with his/her imagination, find the corners, and remember the images; and from the images, one remembers the characters. He probably had Quintilian in mind, as Piccinini suggests.80 The Latin scholar writes: “When we return to a place after considerable absence, we do not merely recognize the place itself, but remember things that we did there, and recall the persons whom we met and even the unuttered thoughts which passed through our mind when we were there before.”81 Nevertheless, there is a huge difference between Quintilian and Ricci: The former refers to real places to remember people one has met there before, or the thoughts and feelings one has had whenever one was in those places. But the latter resorts to mental places that take one back to the images related to these places, and thanks to those images, to the Chinese characters. Ricci therefore describes a much more elaborate method. A case study: The four characters In the second chapter, Ricci (see the paragraph Xīguo jìfă: The structure) plans a room with four corners and puts a character in each corner. He starts from the southeastern corner, the most important according to the Chinese tradition,82 and moves counterclockwise. The characters are, in the following order: warrior, significance, benefit, goodness. The character for warrior is split into two parts, “spear” and “to halt,” which are etymological. Ricci creates the image of a warrior brandishing a spear while another warrior gets hold of his wrist to halt him. Consequently, there are two warriors. The narrative is simple and easy to remember, but the composition and semantics of the written compound can be harder because the relation between “spear-halt,” or rather “halt-spear” (“halt” is before 80 Piccinini in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 144, n. 30. 81 Orig. lat. “Nam cum in loca aliqua reversi sumus, non ipsa agnoscimus tantum, sed etiam, quae in his fecerimus, reminiscimur personaeque subeunt, nonnumquam tacitae quoque cogitationes in mentem revertuntur” (see Quintilianus, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, XI, 2, 17). 82 Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 26.

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“spear”), and “warrior” is metonymic and not immediately transparent. We are on a battlefield, but the image can also mean “to fight,” “to clash,” and “war,” because the character does not provide an image of them. The character for “significance” consists of the characters for “West” and “woman” and is explained through the image of a Muslim woman from the Xīxià (西夏) territory.83 The image is obscure for Western people and is clearly bound up with Chinese culture. This time we can see personification in the opposite direction, from the “woman” to the “abstract,” but the relationship is not immediately transparent. The meaning of the character can be either “significance” or “need,” the latter suggested by Hosne.84 The character for “benefit” is formed by the characters for “stem of rice” and “blade,” therefore “stem of rice scythed.” The image is “a farmer with a long scythe,” whose meaning relates to an agricultural economy. This time we can also see that metonymy does not make the meaning transparent: it is possible to think of either harvesting or working in the fields. The last example, “goodness,” is rather transparent because it is formed by “maidservant” and “child.” The narrative presents “a maidservant with a two-part hairstyle who plays with a child in her arms.” On the contrary, the meaning “goodness” is not immediate because nobody can say that a servant, who has been given this task, shows goodness. According to Spence,85 there is symmetry among the warriors and the Muslim woman and, we might add, between the farmer and the maidservant: men and women are in opposite corners. We can see that there are three meanings with the feature [+abstract] and just one with the feature [-abstract]86 if the first character means “warrior,” according to Piccinini,87 Spence88, and the Dictionnaire français de la langue chinoise.89 This contrasts with Hosne,90 who states that the meaning is “war.”91 Certainly the meanings of the four characters do not belong to the same semantic field, a fact that makes memorization more difficult. 83 According to Piccinini, the word “Xīxià” makes reference, in the text, to the Mongolian people of Western Siberia (Piccinini in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 144). 84 Hosne, “Matteo Ricci’s Occidental Method of Memory,” 144. 85 Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 26. 86 Aliffi, Il genere grammaticale e le entrate lessicali dei nomi latini, 31. 87 Piccinini in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 90. 88 Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 24. 89 Institut Ricci, Dictionnaire français de la langue chinoise, 1060. 90 Hosne, “Matteo Ricci’s Occidental Method of Memory,” 144. 91 The authors want to thank colleague Giusi Tamburello (professor of Chinese language at the University of Palermo) for her kindness and helpfulness in suggesting the Dictionnaire français de la langue chinoise.

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It would probably have been better to plan a room completely dedicated to a single semantic field. In order to offer evidence of the importance of localization, Ricci tells a tale from Cicero92 and Quintilian:93 in a house, a banquet hall fell in upon the guests, who died and whose relatives were not able to recognize them. Simonides, the only survivor, remembered the places where the guests were seated and succeeded in identifying every guest. Clearly, in this case he was dealing with a single semantic field, and localization was very important. This story is the f irst example of mnemotechnics through localization. Images and narratives Since Ricci connects localizations and images only in chapter 2, we intend to analyze the images and narratives that he takes into consideration in chapters 4 and 6; the latter is a sort of laboratory of the scholar. His techniques of image building have not been well studied. The central problem is the passage from images to characters. For instance, the character for “river” is described through a very poetic narrative: a man who looks at three big waterways but sees neither where they flow into nor from where they originate. The character is made up of three lines, the first one curved down below; there is no man. Ricci is coherent because he inserts men into narratives in order to arouse emotions (see the paragraph The construction of Ricci’s didactic discourse: Imaginative processes, spatiality and memory), but is it easier to remember the three lines through the narrative? Some characters and images are transparent, like the one for “female of animal”: “a mare […] and a foal sucking her milk”94 and “male of animal” (“a stag with two horns with eight ramifications”95). The mental processes involved are the following: 1. metonymy, as in “to hear”: “an ear” in the middle of “a door”;96 2. metaphor, as in “brightness”: “sun + moon”;97 3. the iconic principle of quantity, as in “crowd”: “three men.”98 92 See Cicero, De orat. II, LXXXVI 352–53. (The quotation in Piccinini in Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 144, n. 31.) 93 See Quintilianus, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, XI, 2, 12–13. 94 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 141. 95 Ibidem, 141. 96 Ibidem, 103. 97 Ibidem. 98 Ibidem, 141. In reference to the three processes, see Dirven and Despor, Cognitive Explorations of Language and Linguistics, 5–13.

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The treatise was not met with success, and one might wonder why. According to Hosne, the German scholar Lackner “states that the way in which Chinese characters are transformed into imagines (images) is an essentially tautological one because all Chinese characters work as images, even though not all of them are images.”99 Hosne herself closes her paper affirming that “[i]n sum, even though Ricci translated a whole method and technique into Chinese, beyond this linguistic adaptation its images were untranslatable in terms of the purposes for which they were intended.”100 With regard to Lackner’s statement, it would be true if pictograms were not transformed into ideograms and phonetics characters. Hosne’s statement is too severe, because Ricci notes that Chinese characters are too numerous, making it “impossible to explain all their typologies.”101 We observe that: a. metonymy is too often ambiguous if it is out of context, as we said above regarding the characters for “warrior” and “benefit.” For instance, if one says metonymically “Romeo and Juliet,” the listener can think of the author Shakespeare, the city of Verona, a marriage opposed by the families, the performance watched some weeks before; b. metaphor is a bit more transparent, but it can involve things that not everyone knows. For instance, Ricci suggests that one imagine a couple formed of a husband and a wife through a couple of Mandarin ducks, which are monogamous, but not everyone might know this fact nor recognize the ducks; c. the iconic principle of quantity is easy, but it does not always work. For instance, “two moons” creates “friend,” and “three women” forms “lust.” Even so, we must appreciate Ricci’s efforts and his humility, demonstrated by his suggestions of two images of the character “mountain”: 1) a man who is climbing a mountain and is watching from far away; 2) a great paintbrush holder placed on a desk. We could observe that the former is a narrative and the latter is a visual metaphor. He also suggests two images for the character “mountain top”: i.) a man whose name is “Qiu” who climbs the tallest “mountain” and ii.) a sepulchral monument on the top of an isolated mountain. In the character, “Qiu” is a homophone for the name, and the 99 Hosne, “Matteo Ricci’s Occidental Method of Memory,” 140. 100 Ibidem, 154. 101 Ricci, Il castello della memoria, 131.

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sepulchral monument is upon “mountain.” Consequently, Ricci plays with the complexity of the whole character and with the homophony of the character placed on the highest point.

Conclusion Ricci’s discourse oscillates between explanation, argumentation, and didacticization, even if the borders between them are never clearly defined. He provides guidelines that must be followed to facilitate the memorization of Chinese characters. The author states that several requirements must be met for memorization to occur: 1) the process of observing the shape of the character; 2) the character decoding process; 3) the search for analogies and similarities through a process of narrativization and creation of mental scenarios; 4) a global memorization of characters without an etymological analysis of each constituent. Ricci wants to transmit the method for constructing mental images by allowing the learner a certain creativity and freedom, so that learning becomes an individual act in an open and active process by which the learner can build his/her own method. As we can observe, his theories are correct, coherent, and decidedly advanced; they even anticipate the theories made within linguistics and cognitive psychology. An example of this is his anticipation of concepts related to analogy, imageability, and semantic motivation. Furthermore, Ricci resorts to the concept of “spatiality” on several occasions in the discussion of memory, an approach that shares elements with the Western mnemotechnical tradition and with the concepts of spatiality linked to “frames,” “mental spaces,” and “blending” that would become popular in cognitive linguistics and psychology. From a practical standpoint, however, the concept of localization is applied only to the four initial characters in the second chapter. But in the sixth chapter, in which he constructs the images, the author gives more importance to images and to memorization by narrativization or mental scenarios, without taking into account the construction of the palace of memory. The novelty of Ricci’s contribution is, therefore, the didactization of the mental process of memorization through a complex dialectic aimed at transmitting Western knowledge and welcoming the knowledge of Otherness through—in the words used by Poli in this book—a way of inculturation. Indeed, Ricci has been “able to define the space of mediation and of mutual understanding [and] the result is a message suited to connecting two

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civilizations which, until then, were alien to each other, and are finally ready to meet each other, under the sign of respect and understanding for each other’s experiences.”102 Although his work has fallen into oblivion, it is feasible to imagine that students would benefit from his approach if it were applied to the teaching of foreign languages, especially with respect to learning frames and to techniques for creating conceptual bridges between writing and meaning.

References Primary Sources [Cicero, Marcus Tullius], Rhetorica ad Herennium, vol. 3 (Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classical Library/Harvard University Press, 1954). Institut Ricci, Dictionnaire français de la langue chinoise (Shenzhen: Institut RicciKuangchi Press, 1976). Loyola, S. Ignazio di, Gli esercizi spirtuali, ed. Pio Bondioli (Milan: Società editrice Vita e Pensiero, 1944). Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. With an English Translation by H[arold]. E[dgeworth] Butler, vol. 4 (Harvard: Loeb Classical Library/Harvard University Press, 1961). Ricci, Matteo S. J., Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci. I commentari della Cina, II, ed. Pietro Tacchi Venturi (Macerata: Stabilimento tipografico Giorgetti Filippo, 1911–13). Ricci, Matteo S. J., Il castello della memoria. La mnemotecnica occidentale e la sua applicazione allo studio dei caratteri cinesi, ed. Chiara Piccinini (Milan: Guerini e Associati, 2016). 102 See Poli, “Quali linguaggi per quali lingue,” 71–72. Moreover, “[i]f the Jesuits succeeded in gaining access to the unknown land, the communicative denominator that allowed for a dialogical relationship between the two utmost ends of the world was the unitary horizon in which differences were reconciled because they were perceived as if they were expressions of the same common reality. Yet the final result of the process of improving each other’s acquaintance and revealing an increasing ability in expression and the sharpness of dialogical reasoning is not to be considered as the outcome of a single individual. It is rather the action of the entire community of Jesuits also in addition to the Chinese scholars who worked with them. This is confirmed by a set of clues, proving that the encounter of the West with the East triggered scientific curiosity and challenged comparison in an intriguing dialogue. It is a well-established fact that mathematics, geometry and astronomy books devised by Ricci were translated with the help of some Chinese literati cooperating as consultants” (Poli, “The Italian Language of Matteo Ricci,” 155–56).

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Secondary sources Aliffi, Maria Lucia, “Il genere grammaticale e le entrate lessicali dei nomi latini,” in Grammatica. Teoria e storia, ed. Lucio Melazzo (Rome: Il Calamo, 2002), 7–34. Black, Max, Models and Metaphors (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962). Boers, Frank, and Seth Lindstromberg, “Finding Ways to Make Phrase-learning Feasible: The Mnemonic Effect of Alliteration,” System 33 (2005), 225–38. Boers, Franck, and Seth Lindstromberg, “How Cognitive Linguistics Can Foster Effective Vocabulary Teaching,” in Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary and Phraseology, ed. Franck Boers and Seth Lindstromberg (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2008), 1–61. Bonin, Patrick, Margaux Gelin, and Aurélia Bugaiska, “Animates Are Better Remembered than Inanimates: Further Evidence from Word and Picture Stimuli,” Memory & Cognition 43.3 (2013), 379–82. Cacciari, Cristina, Similarity in Language, Thought and Perception (Brussels: Brepols, 1994). Chamot, Anna U., “Implementing the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach,” The Bilingual Research Journal 19.3/4 (1995), 379–94. Clark, Gillian M., and Jarrad A. G. Lum, “Procedural Memory and Speed of Grammatical Processing: Comparison between Typically Developing Children and Language Impaired Children,” Research in Developmental Disabilities Journal 71 (2017), 237–47. De Groot, Annette, “Representational Aspects of Word Imageability and Word Frequency as Assessed through Word Association,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 15 (1989), 824–45. Dirven, René, and Marjolijn Despor, Cognitive Explorations of Language and Linguistics (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1998). Ducornet, Étienne, Matteo Ricci, le lettré d’Occident (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1992). Edgell, Beatrice, “Memory and Conation,” in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, 20–1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), 191–214. Fauconnier, Gilles, Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language (Cambridge, MA/London: The MIT Press, 1985). Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner, The Way We Think (New York: Basic Books, 2002). Fillmore, Charles J., “Frame Semantics,” in Linguistics in the Morning Calm, ed. The Linguistic Society of Korea (Seoul: Hanshin, 1982), 111–37. Finn, Amy S., Priya B. Kalra, Calvin Goetz, Julia A Leonard, Margaret Sheridan, and John D. E. Gabrieli, “Developmental Dissociation between the Maturation

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of Procedural Memory and Declarative Memory,” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 142 (2016), 212–20. Fortis Jean-Michel, “La linguistique cognitive: histoire et épistémologie. Introduction,” Histoire Épistémologie Langage 34 (2012), 5–17. Gaonac’h, Daniel, Acquisition et utilisation d’une langue étrangère: l’approche cognitive (Paris: Hachette, 1990). Gibbs, Raymond Jr., and Gerard J. Steen (eds.), Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics. Selected Papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997). Goffman, Erving, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1974). Hofstadter, Douglas, and the Fluid Analogies Research Group, Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought (New York: Basic Books, 1995). Holyoak, Keith J., and Paul Thagard, “Analogical Mapping by Constraint Satisfaction,” Cognitive Science 13 (1989), 295–355. Hosne, Ana Carolina, “Matteo Ricci’s Occidental Method of Memory (Xiguo Jifa) (1596): Untranslatable Images of a Classical Art of Memory in Ming China,” Journal of Early Modern History 22 (2018), 137–54. Jackson, Emily, Suze Leitão, Mary Claessen, and Mark Boyes, “Working, Declarative, and Procedural Memory in Children With Developmental Language Disorder,” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 63.12 (2020), 4162–78. Jones, Gregory V., “Deep Dyslexia, Imageability and Ease of Prediction,” Brain and Language 24 (1985), 1–19. Lakoff, George, Categories and Cognitive Models (Berkeley: Institute for Cognitive Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1982). Lakoff, George, Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1987). Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (New York: Basic Books, 1999). Lind, Marianne, Hanne G. Simonsen, Pernille Hansen, and Elisabeth Holm, “Name Relatedness and Imageability,” in 14th Meeting of the International Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics Association, Cork, June 27–30, 2012.

McDonough, Colleen, Lulu Song, Kathy Hirsh Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, and Robert Lannon, “An Image Is Worth a Thousand Words: Why Nouns Tend

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to Dominate Verbs in Early Word Learning,” Developmental Science 14.2 (2011), 181–89. Monneret, Philippe, “L’iconicité comme problème analogique,” Le français moderne. Revue de linguistique française (2014), 46–77. O’Malley, J. Michael, and Anna Uhl Chamot, Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Paivio, Allan, Imagery and Verbal Processes (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1979 [1971]). Paivio, Allan, Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). Paivio, Allan, John C. Yuille, and Stephen A. Madigan, “Concreteness, Imagery, and Meaningfulness Values for 925 Nouns,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 76.1/2 (1968), 1–25. Piccinini, Chiara, “Introduzione; Capitolo I; Capitolo II; Capitolo III,” in Matteo Ricci, S. J., Il castello della memoria. La mnemotecnica occidentale e la sua applicazione allo studio dei caratteri cinesi, ed. Chiara Piccinini (Milan: Guerini e Associati, 2016), 15–80. Pinto, Maria A., and Sonia El Euch, La conscience métalinguistique. Théorie, développement et instruments de mesure (Laval: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2015). Poli, Diego, “La scrittura del cinese come chiave interpretativa dell’universale nell’adattamento di Matteo Ricci e nella speculazione in Occidente,” in Attualità di Matteo Ricci. Testi, fortuna, interpretazioni, ed. Filippo Mignini (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2011), 103–48. Poli, Diego, “Quali linguaggi per quali lingue: la missiologia dei Gesuiti fra Cinquecento e Seicento,” in Linguaggi per un nuovo umanesimo, ed. Maria C. Benvenuto and Paolo Martino (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2015), 57–79. Poli, Diego, “The Italian Language of Matteo Ricci Poised between Estrangement and Inculturation,” in New Perspectives in the Studies on Matteo Ricci, ed. Filippo Mignini (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2019), 153–82. Pollock, John L., “The Phylogeny of Rationality,” Cognitive Science 17.4 (1993), 563–88. Pratt, Jay, Petre V. Radulescu, Ruo Mu Guo, and Richard A. Abrams, “It’s Alive! Animate Motion Captures Visual Attention,” Psychological Science 21 (2010), 1724–30. Rosch, Eleanor, and Barbara B. Lloyd, Cognition and Categorization (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978). Sagnier, Christine, Métacognition et interactions en didactique des langues. Perspectives sociocognitives (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013). Spence, Jonathan D., The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York: Viking Press, 1984). Tyler, Lorraine K., and Helen E. Moss, “Imageability and Category-Specific Effects,” Cognitive Neuropsychology 14 (1997), 293–318.

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Tyler, Lorraine K., Helen E Moss, Adam Galpin, and Kate J. Voice, “Activating Meaning in Time: The Role of Imageability and Form-Class,” Language and Cognitive Processes 17.5 (2002), 471–502. VanArsdall, Josh E., James S. Nairne, Josefa N. S. Pandeirada, and Janell R. Blunt, “Adaptive Memory: Animacy Processing Produces Mnemonic Advantages,” Experimental Psychology 60 (2013), 172–78.

About the authors † Maria Lucia Aliffi (02.23.1950–05.16.2022) was professor of general linguistics, historical linguistics, and Armenian Language at the University of Palermo. She investigated problems of Armenian, Greek, and Latin languages; didactics; typology; syntax; morphology; lexicology; and semantics in synchronic and diachronic terms. Mariangela Albano is associate professor of French linguistics and French didactics at the University of Cagliari. Her work seeks to observe language theory and epistemology, critically examining the position of some contemporary cognitive approaches. She also investigates problems of metaphors, phraseology, lexicography, didactics, and translation. Personal website: https://www.unica.it/unica/page/it/mariangela_albano

À propos des auteures † Maria Lucia Aliffi (23.02.1950–16.05.2022) a été professeure de Linguistique générale, de Linguistique historique et de langue arménienne à l’Université de Palerme. Elle a étudié les langues arménienne, grecque et latine, ainsi que la didactique des langues, la typologie, la syntaxe, la morphologie, la lexicologie et la sémantique en termes synchroniques et diachroniques. Mariangela Albano est professeure associée de linguistique et de didactique du français à l’Université de Cagliari. Son travail porte sur la théorie et l’épistémologie du langage; elle examine de manière critique la position de certaines approches cognitives contemporaines. Elle étudie également les questions de la métaphore, de la phraséologie, de la lexicographie, de la didactique et de la traduction. Site web personnel : https://www.unica.it/unica/page/it/mariangela_albano

5

The role of British missionary scholars in setting the foundations for the academic study of Chinese in British universities1 Tinghe Jin and Steven Cowan Abstract: This chapter explores the role that British missionary scholars played in laying the foundations for future university-based study and teaching of Chinese. The seminal role of the London Missionary Society is highlighted and discussed in association with Nonconformist academies that were flourishing during the late eighteenth century. We argue that the origin of Chinese language studies in Britain is not to be found within universities during the nineteenth century but instead can be traced to dissenting missionary academies where very high levels of academic teaching and intellectual endeavor were characteristic features of their practice. In particular, we discuss some of the pioneers working at the beginning of the nineteenth century, who together helped to lay the foundations for future academic teaching and learning of Chinese in British universities. Résumé : Dans ce chapitre, nous étudions le rôle joué par les missionnaires britanniques pour jeter les bases de l’étude et de l’enseignement du chinois à l’université. Nous mettons en lumière le rôle fondamental de la London Missionary Society en rapport avec celui des académies non-conformistes qui étaient florissantes à la fin du dix-huitième siècle. Nous montrons qu’au dix-neuvième siècle l’origine des études chinoises en Grande-Bretagne ne se trouve pas dans les universités, mais qu’elle peut être retracée dans les académies missionnaires dissidentes, dont la pratique se caractérisait par un niveau élevé d’enseignement et d’effort intellectuel. Nous évoquons en

1 [Le rôle des missionnaires britanniques dans la disciplinarisation des études chinoises au sein des universités anglaises].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch5

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particulier certains des pionniers travaillant au début du dix-neuvième siècle, qui ont contribué à jeter les bases de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage futurs du chinois dans les universités britanniques. Keywords: Chinese language studies. Missionary imperialism. British missionary scholars. British Orientalist studies. Mots-clés : Histoire des études chinoises. Impérialisme missionnaire. Savants missionnaires britanniques. Orientalisme britannique.

The work of a small number of Nonconformist missionaries, linked to a particular training academy, laid the philological and intellectual foundation for subsequent Chinese language studies in British universities. Their work and influence were also the basis for ever-growing interest in and familiarity with the classical literary canon of China and facilitated ever widening engagement with the Chinese language of British administrators and those with commercial interests. These pioneers produced a formidable range of lexical and literary works in Chinese and English, which left a permanent and lasting legacy within Protestant religious communities in China, the study of Chinese in British universities, and more widely within the literary community around the English-speaking world. Among the main contributors to this tradition of scholarship are David Bogue (1750–1825), a key Nonconformist educator; one of his students, Robert Morrison (1782–1834), who produced the first comprehensive Chinese–English dictionary (1815–1823), A Grammar of the Chinese Language (1815), and a translation of the Old and New Testaments (1815);2 a missionary named William Milne (1785–1822), who worked with Morrison on the Chinese Translation of the Bible and supervised the printing press at the Anglo-Chinese College that was established in Malacca; and Samuel Kidd (1804–1843), who became the first professor of Chinese at University College London in 1837. Their work provided a foundation for those who followed, such as Samuel Fearon (1819–1854), who became the first professor of Chinese at King’s College (London) in 1847; James Legge (1815–1897), who became the first professor of Chinese at Oxford in 1876 and was responsible for a massive volume of translations of Chinese classics; and Thomas Wade (1818–1895), who became the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge in 1888 and left his name to a system of notation in the Roman alphabet for Chinese.

2 Hancock, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism, 130–32.

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In most of Europe by the close of the eighteenth century, China had ceased to be the land of mystery that it once was. Knowledge about Chinese languages had been based on the information brought from missionaries and other travelers since the early sixteenth century.3 An early example of fanciful speculation about the Chinese language was exemplified in an early novel written by Francis Godwin, The Man in the Moone (1638), in which the language spoken in the moon, it was said, reflected features of the Chinese language. When the hero of Godwin’s book, Domingo Gonsales, landed in China on his return voyage from the moon, he found that, unlike the inhabitants of the moon who have only one language, “almost every Province in China, hath its proper Language”4 but that the Mandarins used a language of their own, which was the same throughout China and which “like that of the Lunars did consist much of tunes.”5 While publications about China and the Chinese people were common in several forms, by the end of the eighteenth century, publications referring to the Chinese language in English remained limited. In 1811 the British took control of the Dutch territories in what is now Malaysia and Indonesia, thus strengthening their presence within the trade flows between India and China. The control of the Malacca Straits guaranteed British naval and thus commercial dominance. This control also greatly facilitated seaborne trading between India and China. At various trading posts located on Sumatra, Java, and the Malay mainland, Europeans encountered local Chinese populations speaking several Chinese languages, principally Hokkien6 and Cantonese.7 Among the Chinese trading population, Mandarin, spoken in the northeast with Peking (Bĕijīng) at its center, was an administrative and literary language spoken by a small number of the more prosperous and influential traders. In Canton (Guǎngzhōu) itself, Cantonese was the principal language, although much formal legal and financial interaction there was conducted using Mandarin. 3 Tong, “Inventing China,” 19. 4 Godwin, The Man in the Moone, 121. 5 Ibidem, 123. 6 Hokkien, or Fújiàn huà, originates from the eastern coastal areas of Fújiàn province. It was from this area that a majority of migrant laborers from China came to work in parts of modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia where their culturally Chinese descendants still speak Hokkien. Hokkien is also widely spoken in Taiwan. Cantonese (Guǎngdōng huà) is the language spoken in the province of Guǎngdōng, including Hong Kong. The original Chinese settlers into Britain, coming from Hong Kong and Guǎngdōng, brought with them Cantonese (see Price, The Chinese in Britain). 7 Harrison, Waiting for China, 83–85.

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The Qīng Government imposed severe restrictions of movement and social intercourse upon foreign traders who, since 1757, had been restricted to trading at a location close to Canton for many years.8 For example, trading representatives from the European nations and the United States of America were required by the Imperial Court to vacate Canton for the summer period, between March and October, and move to Macau, which was a Portuguese concession located on the western side of the estuary of the Pearl River, with Hong Kong on the eastern side.9 Item 9 of the regulations governing foreign trade from Canton stipulated that “foreigners may neither buy a Chinese book, nor learn Chinese.”10 Canton was the only licensed trading port at that time.11 In a letter sent from the Qiánlóng Emperor to King George the Third, when he refused to establish extended and separate diplomatic and trading relations with the British, it was explained that foreigners could travel to Peking as official delegates of their nations but were then forbidden to leave and would be required to remain in China for the rest of their lives.12 Thus, the Chinese authorities were aware of the potential of language exchange being used by foreigners for unwanted purposes, and, to achieve their aims, they created major blockages for individuals seeking to enter China. This situation changed after the conclusion of the first Opium War through the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, when the British forced the Imperial Court to open other ports and lift a number of previous restrictions, also securing favorable concessions for access and trading.13

London Missionary Society and David Bogue’s Academy Gosport It is with a teacher named David Bogue that we trace the first steps to establish a Protestant missionary presence in the Far East (this was then referred to within the London Missionary Society as the “Ultra-Ganges”) and thereby lay the foundation for the eventual acceptance of Chinese language 8 Morrison and Kidd, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, 234; Kwan, “Translation and the British Colonial Mission,” 278. 9 Carroll (Canton Days, 41–51) provides a description of the summer period in Macau focusing up George Thomas Staunton’s dislike of the place and the time. 10 Song, Training Labourers for His Harvest, 84. 11 Waley, The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes, 13. 12 Letter from King George III to Qiánlóng Emperor in 1793, National Archives, Kew, London, ref. No. FO 1048/1. The translation of the letter written by Qianlong Emperor is available via the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University, or from Backhouse and Bland, Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking. 13 Waley, The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes, 221.

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studies within the curriculum of British universities.14 Bogue’s involvement as a teacher began in a very modest way through establishing the Academy in Gosport, where he resided, a small port town on the south coast of Hampshire, England.15 Bogue’s “academy” followed a familiar pattern of receiving a promising young man seeking religiously conservative tuition with a mentor-teacher for a general education, along with intensive Biblical studies.16 Bogue began with his first student in 1777/78,17 a momentous year for any Nonconformist living in Britain, with the Declaration of Independence having been made by the British colonies of North America the year before. Arising from this seaport location, the Gosport Academy was an ideal place for a young man who was considering traveling to faraway places to sow the seeds of the Christian Gospel. The year 1789 marked a turning point when Bogue received funding from a conservative evangelical banker who, concerned about the rise of Unitarianism among Nonconformists, provided financial support for the tutoring expenses of students.18 During the first years of the Academy up to 1800, Bogue developed a curriculum for his small number of students that reflected the comings and goings of the town, including geographical studies.19 One of the main focuses of study however lay with learning Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in order to train students in Biblical textual analysis and criticism.20 French was the only modern European language that was formally offered at Gosport.21 A distinctive characteristic of Bogue’s academy was his acceptance of students from the range of Protestant and nonconforming denominations. Theology was the core in the Gosport curriculum.22 For students, the main destination was the ministry, as they aimed to dedicate their lives to a chapel congregation as well as to engage in evangelical outreach. Bogue offered a broad curriculum to support the specifically theological studies.23 The students lodged with members of the church congregation and therefore became part of the small but thriving dissenting community in the town. However 14 Missionaries were not able to operate within the mainland of China. Therefore, the London Missionary Society strategy was to establish satellite missions between India and China, where there were large populations of expatriate Chinese engaged in trade and commerce. 15 Terpstra, David Bogue D.D. 1750–1825, 27. 16 Ibidem, 32. 17 Ibidem, 28. 18 Terpstra, David Bogue D.D. 1750–1825, 29–30. 19 Ibidem, 39. 20 Ibidem, 39. 21 Ibidem, 41. 22 Ibidem, 41. 23 Ibidem, 37–41.

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small the number of students at Gosport were, it was sufficient for Bogue to gain a nationwide reputation among ministers and academy teachers. In 1793–94 a widespread denominationally mixed group of Evangelicals began discussing the idea of forming an evangelical missionary society. It was proposed that this should be modeled upon the non-sectarian Society for the Abolition of Slavery. This led to the formation in 1795 of the London Missionary Society. A key stimulus for the success of the idea came after a publication in the Evangelical Magazine in September 1794, in which Bogue wrote: Ye were once Pagans, living in cruel and abominable idolatry. The servants of Jesus came from other lands, and preached His Gospel among you. Hence your knowledge of salvation. And ought ye not, as an equitable compensation for their kindness, to send messengers to the nations which are in like condition with yourselves of old, to entreat them that they turn from their dumb idol to the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven? Verily their debtors ye are.24

A further stage of development occurred in 1800 when the London Missionary Society, which Bogue had been partially responsible for creating, sent their students to Gosport for the training of all of their prospective missionaries after their initial attempts, particularly in the Pacific area, had floundered due to lack of practical training in adapting to circumstances very different from what they experienced in England.25 Bogue developed a distinctive strategy for missions that was to be put into practice by students when they went abroad.26 This plan of studies required missionaries to become fully conversant in indigenous and locally spoken languages so that, instead of taking the lead in all aspects of their work, their primary function was to create local congregations that would eventually be self-sustaining and led by ordained ministers from within their own congregations. The work of these missions was equally to establish schools where Christianity was taught along with other general studies and local languages, as well as to establish a printing press to produce and circulate tracts and other publications. One of Bogue’s students was Robert Morrison, who joined the London Missionary Society in 1804, arrived at Gosport in 1805 for further training to become a missionary, and began learning Chinese. 24 Cited in Ndille, “Missionaries as Imperialists,” 23. 25 Terpstra, David Bogue D.D. 1750–1825, 4/25. 26 Ibidem, 103–27.

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Robert Morrison. Laying the foundations for Chinese studies in Britain The dominant figure in the early history of teaching Chinese in a British context was Robert Morrison, who decided, while studying at Gosport, to be the instrument to realize Bogue’s strategy for missions. He set out on his journey to China alone in 1807, with limited funds secured from the London Missionary Society.27 At first he needed to travel across the Atlantic to America to secure a safe passage around the Horn of Africa to Madras, on the eastern side of India, and thence through the Malacca Straits, leading to a route to southern China. He spent much of his long journey developing his knowledge of Chinese through the manuscripts of the Latin–Chinese dictionary and Jean Basset’s Harmony of the Gospels.28 Morrison studied Chinese language with Yong Sam-Tak, a Chinese student learning English in London who worked with Morrison to transcribe the Chinese Harmony of the Gospels from the Basset manuscript.29 Due to tight controls over who was permitted to reside within the compound of the European Factories at Canton, Morrison was initially registered as an American.30 A clear challenge while living in the factory compound was to avoid the Chinese Catholic converts who would report the presence of a British Protestant missionary to the authorities. However, when Morrison met George Thomas Staunton, who was to become the Canton Factory chief officer for the East India Company, his situation eased.31 Staunton, who had been studying China and Chinese from the age of twelve, helped Morrison to learn Chinese and grew to welcome Morrison’s ability to translate between the languages, leading to appointing him as a translator to the East India Company when Staunton became ill and had to return for over a year to England.32 This enabled Morrison to become employed and thus based in Canton despite being a missionary. Far from detracting from Morrison’s studies, the daily familiarity with formal, administrative, legal, and diplomatic Cantonese and Mandarin intensified his linguistic abilities. This learning was reinforced through reading and conversation.33 While some directors of the East India Company were concerned about his 27 Daily, Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China, 96–98. 28 Ibidem, 99. 29 Ibidem, 93; Price, The Chinese in Britain, 69. 30 Daily, Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China, 107. 31 Ibidem, 107. 32 Hancock, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism, 71–73. 33 Ibidem, 55.

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missionary status and involvement, he had become indispensable, especially through his ability to understand and respond to the sometimes evasive correspondence from Chinese officials.34 Morrison’s main impact upon Chinese language studies was his fourvolume dictionary divided into three parts. The East India Company, strongly supported by Staunton, felt that the project would bring credit to themselves and backed the production of 750 copies with cost of more than £10,000—a very considerable sum for this day35 but also an indication of the wealth at their disposal through the growing trade of opium, which was conducted semi-illicitly through independent traders.36 Complete copies of the volumes sold for 20 Guineas (one Pound and one Shilling), an indication of the production quality of the work.37 In 1814 the East India Company had shipped a printing press and a printer named Peter Thoms to Macau from Britain. Thoms also established a press with William Milne at the College in Malacca in 1818. As Yang has shown, Thoms’s production of the dictionary in Macau required extending their printing expertise and capacity with dual-language pages.38 Given the scale of the project, its completion by 1823 was testimony to Morrison’s developing knowledge, his ability to give increasing amounts of time to the work, and the increasing skill of the Chinese print workers and block cutters, who together managed to accelerate their output. Consequently, the work that commenced in 1807 began publication in 1815 and moved to completion within sixteen years. The complete volumes run to over 4,608 pages,39 most of which contain varying numbers of printed Chinese characters. Volume three is the English-to-Chinese dictionary running from “A” to the word “Zone.” This was printed in London by Black, Parbury and Allen in 1822, in order to avoid expensive shipments of the original unbound volume. This volume was widely expected to be one of most used regular references by those learning the language. 34 Ibidem, 56. 35 Carroll, Canton Days, 238–41. 36 For an interesting mid-nineteenth century account of this history, see Alexander (Major General of the Madras Army), The Rise and Progress of British Opium Smuggling, ch. 2, 21–38. This chapter describes the consequences of the smuggling within China. The fact that a third edition was published in 1856 indicates the demand among people who were concerned about the trade and British government attitudes. 37 Yang, “The Making of the First Chinese-English Dictionary: Robert Morrison’s Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts (1815–1823),” 300. 38 Ibidem. 39 Estimates vary depending upon publication editions. Ryu (“Robert Morrison’s Influence on Translation, Printing, and Publishing in Asia”) counts it as 4,715.

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Fig. 6. Morrison, Dictionary of the Chinese Language, vol. 1 (1815), p. 44240

The illustration above is taken from volume 1, page 442. It displays words based on the radical for mouth, and within the explanations are examples of Morrison’s notations in Roman script. Many of these were based upon pronunciations not typical of that spoken in the Hebei/Shandong areas and were subject to revision when Thomas Wade produced a revised and more accurate notation system from Chinese into Roman script, first published in 1867.404 1 Scrimgeour identifies that the detailed cultural and contextual 40 In places he presents the very early character forms from oracle bone script that predated the emergence of classical characters. 41 Cooley’s (1981) book focuses upon Wades diplomatic endeavours which blended at times with his linguistic teaching activities.

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explanations of the Chinese language provided by the dictionary went beyond typical bilingual lexicography. Thus, Morrison’s lexicographical practice influenced the future Chinese bilingual lexicographic work in China.42 Morrison’s Grammar of the Chinese Language was intended for use along with the dictionary by those intending to learn Chinese; it was published in London by Black, Parbury and Allen in 1815.43 It became a standard reference work for those undertaking basic Chinese studies under Professor Fearon at King’s College (London). Presumably, it would have been used as a reference work by London Missionary Society students who were studying at Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. Morrison was persuaded to join Lord Amherst’s mission to Peking the year following publication, in 1816,44 about which he published a detailed account in 1820.45 This was a tacit recognition by the British authorities that Morrison had become indispensable to them in the nine-year period since he had first arrived in Macau. When Morrison returned to Britain in 1824 following the successful publication of his dictionary, he brought with him over 800 Chinese books with the intention to deposit them at a university library for future reference. The offer was refused by both Oxford and Cambridge, and the collection lay in storage for many years until the new University College London accepted them, laying the basis for the present-day China collection at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, which was created in 1916.46 This library was fully cataloged and reported upon in 1854 by John Williams (1797–1874), who was commissioned by the governing council of University College. This was the f irst attempt to classify and analyze the collection since University College had acquired it nearly twenty years earlier. Williams was an amateur Sinologist who 42 Scrimgeour, “Between Lexicography and Intercultural Mediation,” 444; Yao, “Definitions of Parts of Speech in Early Chinese-European Dictionaries,” 142. 43 There was an edition published in India and then a London edition. Transporting printed sheets to make up 500 volumes of a book from India to England was not easy. The printing press at Serampore, in Bengal, was in a college established by the noted Baptist Missionary William Carey. He set up his college and press in the Danish colony of Frederiksnagar in Serampore when proscriptions were passed by the East India Company against missionaries operating under their wing. Carey’s approach toward establishing a mission was very close to that of David Bogue. 44 Kitson and Markley, Introduction: Writing China. 45 Daily, Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China, 145; Morrison, A Memoir of the Principal Occurrences. 46 Hancock, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism, 177–78.

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was best known for his studies of the records of astronomical events in Chinese historical sources.47

Establishing the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca As we have just seen, Morrison is a foundational figure for the development of the teaching and learning of Chinese in Britain. However, it was William Milne who was primarily responsible for supervising the construction and establishment of the missionary college in Malacca where so much of David Bogue’s original plan was developed.48 This was particularly the case with respect to giving life to Bogue’s emphasis upon creating a broad educational setting in which to place the missionary endeavors. The experiment in Malacca was important because a wide range of educational possibilities and approaches were undertaken at the college to form a basis for future teaching elsewhere. Milne and Morrison wanted to fulfill Bogue’s four-point plan for such a college: 1) To teach Chinese and English 2) To teach students various branches of practical general knowledge 3) To promote Christian learning and conversion 4) To be the base for printing various types of publications in English and Chinese—magazines, school primers, fuller tracts in Chinese, sermons, Biblical stories and commentaries, translations of extracts of the Bible49 Milne had spent three years of study at Bogue’s Gosport Academy, and it was from there that the idea of traveling to China to join Morrison’s mission came about. After a lengthy journey in 1813, Milne and his wife and baby arrived at Macau to meet with Morrison. However, after just three days, they were forced to leave because of the Catholic authorities’ displeasure at the presence of another Protestant. They were forced to travel to Canton where the British trading “factory” was situated. Morrison suggested he move to Batavia (Jakarta) to survey the possibilities for setting up a printing press and mission in Java where large numbers of Chinese workers and traders lived, thus exploiting the routes between India and China. By 1815 Milne had settled on basing himself in Malacca, where he established a college and 47 “Williams, John,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, . 48 Terpstra, David Bogue D.D. 1750–1825, 146. 49 Hancock, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism, 113–15.

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printing press. This was opened by 1818. In this section of the chapter, we focus on the educational work undertaken at the college following another of Bogue’s principal injunctions concerning the creation of sustainable missions—the creation of schools and colleges. For Morrison, the semi-legal nature of his printing activity inhibited his work in Canton, so securing a press free from Imperial Court restrictions was of great importance. Milne believed in using relatively simple printed dialogues within his teaching.50 These would be learned by heart and then subject to oral revision and repetition with the teachers. The purpose of prioritizing this was to make the colloquial Chinese more familiar to beginning learners. Ying compares Morrison’s writing to that of his colleague Milne and states that Morrison’s tracts were “less creative in style,”51 arguing that Milne preferred for their publications to be edited and translated to render them more suitable to the particular circumstances in which they would circulate and thus to account for the cultural assumptions shaping the thinking of non-Christians. Morrison disliked the idea of shaping biblical messages to the vernacular traditions of local populations.52 In this respect, there were clear differences of practice and view between the two, with Morrison tending to prefer more formal treatment of ideas and texts to Milne’s, who wished to be more creative in adapting texts to the vernacular of those to whom they were being distributed. Our view is that these alternative approaches reflected the difference between the two men in relation to how they engaged and interacted with Chinese people on a regular basis. Milne was essentially a teacher and active preacher, while Morrison had become absorbed in reproducing religious manuals in the most authoritative formal Mandarin—very much the professional approach of a busy administrator and negotiator, as we learned in the previous section. One was seeking ways of engaging a range of listeners and students, while the other was concerned with establishing credibility through a text that displayed elegant and accurate Mandarin. This tension was to continue within Chinese studies as it expanded from small beginnings at the Malacca college and into the competing academic centers of University College (1826) and King’s College London (1829). 50 For a discussion about curricular concerns, see Harrison, Waiting for China. It was Milne in particular who drove forward the broader syllabus and range of activities, always consulting his mentor, Morrison. Dialogues took the form of two characters exchanging questions and responses. This had been a popular and common form of small printed books for learning basic ideas throughout the eighteenth century. For examples of this genre, see works by Hannah More (1745–1833), in Stott, Hannah More: The First Victorian. 51 Ying, “Evangelist at the Gate: Robert Morrison’s Views on Mission,” 316. 52 Ibidem, 316–17.

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Chinese language studies enter the English universities Another product of the Academy at Gosport under David Bogue, whose destiny lay in the Far East, was Samuel Kidd. For the purposes of the present chapter, his distinction is that he became the first professor of Chinese at a British university—University College London in 1837, fairly soon after it was created in 1826. For some of that time (1828–32), Kidd was also principal of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. Although he was a very committed missionary, it was said that Kidd was more of a sedentary scholar than an active preacher.53 Samuel Kidd was born in 1804, so he was just thirty-three years old when appointed as a professor at University College London. From an early age, he seemed to have a marked propensity for learning languages, and, as his published writings show, he was familiar with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and read works in Portuguese, French, and German. The first three languages were commonplace accomplishments for a young man seeking ordination, because being able to read the Bible in its earliest texts was fundamental to committing one’s academic and contemplative life to knowing the sacred Christian texts. He was just fourteen years of age when he began at the Academy in Hull, in North East England, and by age sixteen he joined Bogue’s Academy in Gosport with the intention of securing ordination and going as a missionary among the Chinese. By 1824 the name of Robert Morrison would have been prominent among younger students seeking ordination and missionary service through the London Missionary Society, so there was a model to emulate for the coming generation. In their library they would have also had copies of Morrison’s recently completed dictionary, the last volume of which was published in 1823. Therefore, before setting sail in 1824 at only age twenty, Kidd was likely to have begun to acquaint himself with Chinese and would have been able to use the long voyage to improve his knowledge. These biographical details serve to highlight the untenable situation arising from the Test and Corporation Acts54 that prevented Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists from holding any form of public office or attending or graduating from the English universities (Oxford and/ or Cambridge). The Nonconformist community had among its members leading industrialists, intellectuals, and scientists, yet they were barred 53 Harrison, Waiting for China, 86. 54 The Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in 1828 as a prelude to Catholic emancipation in 1830.

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from participation in many aspects of public life. It was against this restriction, enforced since 1661 and 1673, that young men such as Kidd could see opportunities for their lives across the seas, where they might experience personal freedom from such sectarian restraints. The appointment of a thirty-seven-year-old Nonconformist minister to a professorship at a London university was by any standards a remarkable institutional statement for modernity. Samuel Kidd arrived in Malacca to join the staff at the Anglo-Chinese College in 1824, which would have been furnished with its own copy of the Morrison dictionary and other self-published teaching materials.55 One of his first priorities would be to learn Hokkien in addition to continuing with his Mandarin. Hokkien was the language of the majority of the Chinese workers and settlers who had built up around the European trading centers over the preceding two centuries. It was also the f irst language of most of the Chinese students attending the college.56 Kidd’s teacher at the college was David Collie, who believed in concentrating on this dialect over Mandarin, as this was what most of the resident Chinese spoke.57 By 1828, still only twenty-four years of age, Kidd had succeeded Collie as principal and was teaching and preaching in Hokkien58 and possibly Mandarin. Ill health forced Kidd’s wife to return to England, and he soon followed in 1832 after bouts of epilepsy. He became minister to a Congregational community in Manningtree, on the border of Essex and Suffolk by the sea. Given the very small size of the town, the appointment would have been something of a sinecure allowing Kidd ample time to continue his Chinese studies. He then was offered a professorship at the new University College London in 1837.59 His professorial lecture, published in 1838,60 gives us an insight into his thinking about the place of Chinese language and studies within a university. Much of the content reflected the course he was teaching—mostly through a system of open lectures attracting a variety 55 Kidd was to use Morrison’s dictionary published in his teaching at University College after being appointed to the Chair of Chinese (Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China, 31). Two of his young students were William Milne’s son and James Legge. 56 Harrison, Waiting for China, 64–66. Harrison provides a detailed chronological account of the development of the college and of the role that Morrison and Milne played in its establishment. He describes the difficulties the college experienced trying to maintain adequate staffing for the teaching of Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay, and English (ibidem, 83–85). 57 Ibidem, 64–66. 58 O’Sullivan, “The Anglo-Chinese College and the Early Singapore Institution,” 61. 59 Ward and McDougall, “Chinese Studies in the UK,” 35. 60 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language.

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of participants and not just enrolled students working toward a degree. One such participant was James Legge, the future translator and professor at Oxford. Kidd’s inaugural lecture in 1838 is in some ways contradictory. From the outset of the lecture, Kidd argues that the study of language reflects light on history and conditions of the human species, with language shaping, to a degree, the way that individuals and communities think, feel, and act. However, he then says that “philological improvements, even when effected by native genius, most frequently owe their origin to foreign influence.”61 Throughout his published writings, there is a contradiction between his evident celebration of the richness and diversity within Chinese literary and linguistic traditions and his sense that the relative social and economic backwardness of China was due to their resistance to outside influences. In his later writing, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, Philosophy, Antiquities, Customs, Superstitions, Laws, Government, Education, and Literature of the Chinese,62 Kidd states that “as the genius of the Chinese language is embodied in its primitives, it is totally distinct from an alphabetic tongue.” He also recognized and studied various dialects in China.63 Kidd’s lecture outlines the many and varied qualities to be found within Chinese. However, he asserts that: The Chinese language does not afford much scope for oratorical display […] Their modes of speech, however, are not unaffected by the existing sense of moral and relative obligations; and as there is no difficulty now in depicting vices, so when the Christian spirit is imbibed, there will be no lack of terms expressive of its virtues and charities; though in a language addressed to the eye, and frequently offensive to the ear, sentiment must be expected greatly to predominate over sympathy.

He is ascribing the perceived deficiencies within the language to the perceived lack of social and moral development in the country, arguing to his listeners and readers that this will be corrected when “the Christian spirit is imbibed.”64 The statement is peculiar to anyone who has spent time living and working in China, walking in any street, shop, or restaurant and taking part in the animated and expressive conversations that take place between 61 Ibidem, 4. 62 Kidd, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, 13. 63 Ibidem, 21. 64 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, 11.

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people in both Mandarin and other local languages. This may reflect the formal nature of the uses of Chinese that Kidd experienced while working at the college. His suggestion that the speech he encountered was in some way “offensive to the ear” further suggests a lack of involvement and empathy with some of the people he encountered. Just two years after his lecture, British gunboats were attacking and destroying installations along the coast of China and forcibly insisting upon expanding and controlling the opium trade that the Imperial Court of Peking wished to constrain. Evangelicals like Kidd, who would have decried the sponsorship of the drug trade, nevertheless welcomed the significant opening up of the interior of China by the Nanking Settlement, imposed following the barbarity of British military action. Kidd’s extensive knowledge of the structure of languages and their literatures did little to shake his belief in a fundamentalist biblical paradigm that insisted on human history beginning from the creation of Adam by God, approximately four thousand years before the time he was writing.65 Evangelicals such as Kidd were challenged to fit the facts of the longstanding Chinese civilization and culture into this Christian chronological framework. Hence, we read statements from the lecture like the following: The confusions of languages at Babel is the original source of the difference in human tongues, for until that period the whole earth was of one language and one speech.66

Within his writing and thinking, there seems to be a tension between his role as a modern, academic philologist and his adherence to certain aspects of biblical fundamentalism that produces attitudes reflecting a sense of Eurocentric superiority. Kidd writes that characters in symbolic tongues “are purely ideographic, and therefore do not necessarily constitute a system of phonetic signs.”67 This is certainly not true in Chinese, as Chinese characters have phonetic components. Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva68 identify that “almost all Chinese characters are comprised of both semantic and phonetic components which to one degree or another convey a vague idea about their 65 Protestants used the calculations of Archbishop Ussher, dating the beginning of the world to 4004 BC. This chronology was incorporated into the authorized version of the Bible for use in Britain in 1701. Ussher died in 1665. 66 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, 7. 67 Kidd, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, 2. 68 Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva, “Orientalism and Occidentalism.”

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meaning and pronunciation.”69 When speaking of the intellectual status and capacity of China, Kidd states: Had their minds been enlarged by the sublime revelations of Holy Scripture, and a knowledge of the modern sciences and arts, resources would then have existed for furnishing symbols adequate to convey the amplitude and variety of European intelligence, through the powerful medium of pictorial representation; but until the Chinese tongue has been enriched by the splendid conceptions of the Western world, a just comparison cannot be instituted between it and alphabetic languages.70

These are cited because of the contrast they make with the otherwise perceptive descriptions and analysis of aspects of Mandarin speech and writing that he presents to his audience. However, Kidd also states that “the symbolic mode would seem far preferable to the alphabetic […] if the necessity of written forms was first discovered, either to note the divisions of time, to instruct youth, to transmit memorable circumstances to posterity, or to communicate with the absent.”71 Kidd describes certain Chinese ways of thinking and acting as “barbarous,” not atypical for both his time and the religious milieu that he belonged to.72 These imperialist attitudes were engrained in the early teaching of Chinese in Europe, contributing to the orientalist discourse surrounding Chinese language.73 He states that: But Chinese, notwithstanding its general copiousness, is deficient in terms expressive of strong feeling or benevolence, irrespective of oral defects arising from its monosyllabic character and uniform cadences.74

Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva have identif ied that “monosyllabic (a one-to-one correspondence between word, character, and syllable)” is one of the myths and misconceptions about Chinese language, leading to construction of “an essentialist, immutable, and orientalist image of 69 Ibidem, 110. 70 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, 10. 71 Kidd, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, 5. 72 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, 11. 73 Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva, “Orientalism and Occidentalism,” 107; Xiang, “Orientalism and Enlightenment Positivism,” 23. 74 Kidd, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, 11.

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the Chinese language.”75 This simplistic view of the Chinese language is attributed to the confusion between character and word and between language and writing in Chinese.76 In written form, Chinese characters are presented as a graphic unity separately, regardless of whether they stand on their own as words or they need to be bound up with other characters to make up words, hence containing meanings.77 Each character does stand for a syllable, and the descriptions of the Chinese language by these early missionaries were based on Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese shows more elements of what has been described as monosyllabilism, as one character may convey the meaning of more than one word in modern Chinese. This characterization of the language by English Protestant missionaries of the early nineteenth century such as Kidd reflects the same prejudices as their Portuguese or Italian Renaissance predecessors regarding the “monosyllabism” of Chinese. However, at the same time, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832), the f irst Chair of Sinology at the Collège de France, recognized the double, ideo-phonogrammic—and no longer exclusively ideogrammatic—nature of sinograms. Messling identif ies that Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat “‘defend[ed]’ the value of Chinese language and textual culture as being on the same level as the Indo-European.”78 However, “there is no evidence to the effect that the spoken language has been monosyllabic at any given moment in time,” and the polysyllabic nature of how the language has been spoken has been reflected in the written forms of modern Chinese.79 In this respect, Kidd reflects his predominantly academic study of Mandarin rather than an engagement with sophisticated users of Chinese, which offers ample scope for highly expressive and emotionally charged speech-making. As mentioned earlier, most of the Chinese people that Kidd met spoke Cantonese or Hokkien as their first language, and Mandarin was for them a formal and administrative idiom. During his time working in Malacca, Kidd experienced the modification of languages brought about through social and demographic forces, noting how the Chinese men who had settled married Malay women, leading to their children speaking a dialect of Malay overlaid with Hokkien Chinese. The 75 Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva, “Orientalism and Occidentalism,” 116. 76 Ibidem. 77 Some studies have identif ied that around 30–40 percent of Chinese characters are free morphemes, and it appears that Chinese has more free and semibound monosyllabic morphemes than English (DeFrancis, The Chinese Language, 185). 78 Messling, “Representation and Power,” 1. 79 Casas-Tost and Rovira-Esteva, “Orientalism and Occidentalism,” 113.

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dialect was Malay/Hokkien rather than Mandarin,80 so students attending the college would need to learn Mandarin from scratch as well as be taught unadulterated Hokkien. The first hundred or so pages of China, or, Illustrations…81 were devoted to the Chinese language. The work is subdivided into seven chapters making full use of over 900 books that formed the Morrison Library, which Kidd duly acknowledges. Kidd is especially dismissive of the American author and philologist Peter Du Ponceau, who advanced several claims about the origins of Chinese and its characteristics without actually knowing the language. The extensive critique of Du Ponceau within the first section offers Kidd an opportunity to argue why learning the language must be the central aim of Chinese studies. Du Ponceau (1760–1844) published his academic paper on Chinese in 183882 and was thus very much in mind when Kidd was writing his book. Kidd is especially keen to question Du Ponceau’s assertions that all writing must be a direct representation of the spoken language, Chinese cannot be ideographic in origin, and all writing represents language in some of its elements: words, syllables, and simple sounds.83 Kidd demonstrated why, in his view, the ideographic qualities of written Chinese were a response to a multilingual empire where some form of common written system was a necessity that transcended the individual phonetic and lexical qualities of particular Chinese languages and dialects. Another striking element of the opening section of Kidd’s China, or, Illustrations…84 was the space accorded to arguments for a historical affinity between Chinese and the hieroglyphic script of Egypt, stating that both must have shared a common source rather than one deriving from the other. He tries to develop the argument that the similarities he detects between Hebrew and Chinese must stem from the lengthy time the Hebrews spent in tutelage in Egypt. Kidd lays the groundwork for the view that the proper context for the study of Chinese in the university lies in studying it alongside Chinese history, politics, literature, and religion. In this way, Kidd’s professorship anticipates continuing discussions on Chinese language studies concerning the social and cultural context within which the study of the language should take place. In the following section, we briefly consider 80 O’Sullivan, “The Anglo-Chinese College and the Early ‘Singapore Institution,’” 61. 81 Kidd, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols. 82 Du Ponceau, A Dissertation on the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing. 83 Kidd, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, 15–20. 84 Ibidem, 9.

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contributions to teaching and learning Chinese by the successors to these pioneers, examining the work of Professors Samuel Fearon and James Legge.

Vocational Chinese studies enter the mainstream: Samuel Turner Fearon at King’s College London Samuel Kidd’s tenure at University College London was short-lived, as he died just five years after taking up the post. However, he established the viability of teaching about Chinese culture and history as a distinct branch of cultural and literary studies and taught many students who moved on to become Sinologists, diplomatic officers, missionaries, and future academics. Following Staunton’s lobbying, King’s College (London) appointed a Chair in Chinese, eventually settling on Samuel Turner Fearon. He first traveled to the Far East with his father in 1826 and spent time as student at the College in Malacca from the age of seven, where he learned local Chinese dialects, possibly Hokkien and Cantonese, and formal elements of Mandarin. He became an interpreter during the First Opium War at only age twenty, remaining to become a government official in the newly formed British administration of Hong Kong. By the age of twenty-seven, he held a senior post in Hong Kong within the revenue department. Upon returning to London, Fearon was appointed to the position of Chair of Chinese in 1847 at King’s College, on the recommendation of George Thomas Staunton. King’s College was established in London by renowned establishment figures, with the express purpose of challenging the leading educational institution of the capital, namely the secular and nonconformist University College (founded in 1826). While Fearon was accomplished in spoken Chinese and was essentially a colonial administrator, he was not a scholar of Chinese literature and culture, so it was no surprise that he gave few lectures while holding the chair. He also did not publish translations from Chinese. However, Staunton had been tasked with a specific and important project: to ensure that a flow of future colonial officers who could communicate in basic Chinese were trained and accredited, enabling them to secure positions while working in China in the changed circumstances following the First Opium War.85 Fearon was in charge of the scheme that transformed King’s College into a base for vocationally directed Chinese studies throughout the nineteenth century, only replaced by School of Oriental and African Studies during the twentieth century. The scheme in effect freed the British 85 Kwan, “Translation and the British Colonial Mission,” 271–72.

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government from over-reliance upon Nonconformist academics in the mold of Morrison.

The Mission arrives in Oxford. James Legge Although Samuel Kidd did not enjoy a long spell in his Chair at University College London, one lasting distinction during his tenure was that he was the first lecturer of Chinese to a young student named James Legge (1815–1897), who at the time was studying at an academy in Highbury, North London. Legge was destined to break new ground academically within British Chinese studies for his translations of Classical Chinese texts, as well as for his heterodox views concerning Chinese religious and philosophical beliefs, which upset some of his fellow London Missionary Society colleagues.86 For example, his view that Shàngdì 上帝 was the correct term for “God” in Chinese offended other missionaries who believed that Chinese culture did not have a concept of a single God but instead had terms for a multiplicity of deities. Legge argued that Shàngdì came from texts two thousand years pre-dating Jesus, and thus, by using the term, it was possible to argue that Christianity was reintroducing a concept that was there with the early philosophers of their traditions.87 James Legge had been sent by the London Missionary Society to Malacca in 1839. He followed Kidd’s path and became the seventh president of Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca from 1840 to 1843, and he then co-led the movement to transfer the Anglo-Chinese College to Hong Kong, also referred to as Ying Wa College. It fell to Legge to supervise the transfer of the college to Hong Kong following the settlement arising from the Nanking Treaty. The favorable terms conceded by the Imperial Court of Peking to the British Government, following the First Opium War (1839–42), extended British access into the mainland and enabled trade to expand using the lease of Hong Kong as a long-term base. This changed situation created the basis for Legge and the London Missionary Society to move the college to Hong Kong to continue their missionary, educational, and publishing work, thus to some extent realizing the original designs of David Bogue. Missionaries such as Legge found themselves in the contradictory 86 An interesting example of a particular religious issue is to be found on p. 201 of Bowman (James Legge and the Chinese Classics) regarding the desire of a Chinese man to be baptized before he died and who had two wives. A decision was eventually made to baptize him despite the objection of some London Missionary Society members. 87 Starr, “The Legacy of Robert Morrison,” 80–81.

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position of being strongly opposed to the British policy of promoting the opium trade while being direct beneficiaries of the success of enforcing that policy, as it opened some parts of China to their missionary endeavors. Hancock describes the dilemmas facing the American evangelist Bridgeman, who realized that the political conflict between the Imperial Court of Peking and foreign forces could lead to a relaxation of proscriptions against missionaries operating in mainland China.88 Legge’s tenure in Hong Kong as the principal of Ying Wa College continued into 1858. Just a year before the college transferred to Hong Kong, Legge married Robert Morrison’s daughter Mary (1816–1852) in 1843. During this period Legge’s achievements were many, including playing a decisive role in establishing the Hong Kong Central School in 1862, which was formed by amalgamating three existing Chinese schools that had been receiving colonial government funding and where the curriculum consisted of the traditional Chinese classics, modern science, and English (see the Queens College website). It was in Hong Kong that Legge became familiar with the curriculum taught in traditional Chinese schools, including the Four Books and Five Classics that had been the fundamental texts within the Chinese schooling system for centuries.89 Unlike many of his fellow missionaries, Legge recognized the value of understanding and appreciating the traditions and beliefs of China. As soon as he arrived in Hong Kong, he began translating into English the Chinese texts that he had seen being used in Chinese schools. For this work, he followed Morrison’s example of referring everything he wrote to Chinese scholars and assistants, three of whom returned to Scotland with him in 1870, when he traveled to receive his honorary doctorate from Aberdeen University. Apart from believing in the importance of making Chinese classics available to English readers, Legge also believed in engaging more general readers and became the editor of the Chinese Serial, which was the first Chinese-language newspaper.90 After returning to China later in 1870, he extended his translation work and traveled extensively, especially to visit sites associated with the ancient writers and philosophers, such as the birthplace of Confucius in Shāndōng. 88 Hancock, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism, 244. 89 Bowman, James Legge and the Chinese Classics, 568–71. For a full account of Legge’s educational work in Hong Kong, see ibidem. 90 A Chinese source is to be found at 香港隨筆)\香港報刊業先鋒 ──《遐邇貫珍》\ 張茅 (takungpao.com.hk). An English-language source can be found at Hong Kong Newspaper: Chinese Serial (jsandsmark.blogspot.com). Legge contributed a majority of the articles in both English and Chinese to the editions of the newspaper, which was the first of its kind to be published in China.

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Legge’s principal contribution was to introduce into the English-speaking world the works of Mencius along with a prodigious output of Chinese classics. By translating and publishing The Four Books and Five Classics, Legge contributed to an understanding of the deep administrative and educational history of China. He felt that some elements of this formal traditional curriculum should be retained and studied, alongside modern “Western” knowledge and literature. Girardot comments that Legge’s “scholarship was surprisingly original and critical at times, but it also tended to trust too reverently the testimony of ancient tradition.”91 Legge marks the point in the British tradition of teaching and learning Chinese when the f ield was led by people who no longer viewed China and the Chinese as “barbarians” but instead began to approach their history and culture with recognition of its integrity as a culture.92 This approach was not, however, without its detractors, especially from many attending the Shànghăi missionary conference in 1877.93 He was, however, not one to be locked in his own ivory tower, and while at Oxford, Legge became involved in forming the Association for the Education of Women (1878), led by fellow social Liberals, including Thomas Hill Green (1836–1882) and Arthur Acland (1847–1926). In the following year, Somerville Hall was formed and was the first non-denominational college for women.94 This involvement reflected his long-standing beliefs in extending education to girls and women from his time in both Malacca and Hong Kong.

Conclusion As Chinese language and cultural studies has expanded and entered the mainstream in universities, it is worth understanding how this tradition of scholarship and learning developed. The presence of very large numbers of fluent Chinese speakers as students in European and American universities has transformed the understanding and appreciation of both the Chinese language and the history of engagement between China and the wider world. Yet the patterns and pathways that this engagement took from its early days in Britain remain little known. The origins of Chinese studies within the British Academy emerged out of a tension between the colonializing, 91 Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China, 526. 92 Ibidem, 522–23. 93 Ibidem, 214–17. 94 Adams, Somerville for Women.

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commercial voraciousness of the European powers (particularly the British) and the fundamentalist Protestantism of evangelical missionaries. Representatives of commercial interests, embodied chiefly by the East Indian Company and subsequently companies like Matheson Jardine, could also be committed Sinophiles in addition to seeking to secure maximum financial profits. Evangelical missionaries aiming to implant a European religious ideology contributed toward the tradition of a global appreciation for the glories of Chinese literature and culture that began with Jesuit missionaries from the sixteenth century. The work of the London Missionary Society was always profoundly educational in that their academies sought to produce intellectual leaders for their congregations, leaders who were initially denied the benef its of a university education. Young students entered higher studies at academies with a fearless zealousness that enabled them to lay the basis for Chinese studies in universities within just a few decades. This chapter has briefly outlined a lineage of early contributors to this tradition who promoted and produced the means for the wider study of Chinese in universities in the English-speaking world. For those interested in the history of higher education, the names of David Bogue, Robert Morrison, Samuel Kidd, Samuel Fearon, and James Legge deserve greater recognition than they currently receive within courses. Girardot points to the often contradictory directions of these missionaries’ work, fostering the sort of Orientalism described by Edward Said while also, at the same time, calling attention around the world to the vast cultural legacies of the Chinese philosophical and literary tradition.95 Their stories are an important part of the long struggle to open access to British universities to anyone, irrespective of their faith or denominational allegiances.

References Primary Sources Alexander, Robert, The Rise and Progress of British Opium Smuggling: The Illegality of the East India Company’s Monopoly of the Drug; and Its Injurious Effects upon India, China, and the Commerce of Great Britain, 3rd ed. (London: Judd & Glass, 1856). Backhouse, Edmund, and John Otway Percy Bland, Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914). 95 Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China, 526.

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Kidd, Samuel, Lecture on the Nature and Structure of the Chinese Language, Delivered at University College (London: s.n., 1838), 1–38. Kidd, Samuel, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, Philosophy, Antiquities, Customs, Superstitions, Laws, Government, Education, and Literature of the Chinese (London: Taylor & Walton, 1841). Morrison, Robert, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts (Macau: P. P. Thoms, 1815–23). Morrison, Robert, A Grammar of the Chinese Language (Serampore: The Mission Press, 1815). Morrison, Robert, A Memoir of the Principal Occurrences during an Embassy from the British Government to the Court of China in the Year 1816 (London: James Nichols, 1820). Morrison, Eliza, and Samuel Kidd, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, D.D. Compiled by His Widow with Critical Notices of His Chinese Works, by Samuel Kidd, and an Appendix Containing Original Documents, vol. 1 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1839).

Secondary sources Adams, Pauline, Somerville for Women: An Oxford College, 1879–1993 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Bowman, Marilyn Laura, James Legge and the Chinese Classics: A Brilliant Scot in the Turmoil of Colonial Hong Kong (Vancouver: Friesen Press, 2016). Carroll, John M., Canton Days: British Life and Death in China (London: Bowman & Littlefield, 2020). Casas-Tost, Helena, and Sara Rovira-Esteva, “Orientalism and Occidentalism: Two Forces behind the Image of the Chinese Language and Construction of the Modern Standard,” Journal of Multicultural Discourses 4.2 (2009), 107–21. Cooley, James C., T.F. Wade in China: Pioneer in Global Diplomacy 1842–1882 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981). Daily, Christopher A., Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013). DeFrancis, John, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1984). Girardot, Norman J., The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge’s Oriental Pilgrimage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). Godwin, Francis, The Man in the Moone, ed. William Poole (Plymouth: Broadview, 2009 [1638]). Hancock, Christopher, Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism (London: T. & T. Clark, 2008).

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Harrison, Brian, Waiting for China: The Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, 1818–1843, and Early Nineteenth-Century Missions (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1979). Kitson, Peter J., and Robert Markley, “Introduction: Writing China,” in Writing China: Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations, ed. Peter J. Kitson and Robert Markley (Cambridge, UK: D. S Brewer, 2016). Kwan, Uganda Sze Pui, “Translation and the British Colonial Mission: The Career of Samuel Turner Fearon and the Establishment of Chinese Studies in King’s College London,” in Sinologists as Translators in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, ed. Lawrence Wang-chi Wong and Bernhard Fuehrer (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2015), 271–305. Messling, Markus, “Representation and Power: Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s Critical Chinese Philology,” Journal of Oriental Studies 44.1/2 (2011), 1–23. Ndille, Roland, “Missionaries as Imperialists: Decolonial Subalternity in the Missionary Enterprises on the Coast of Cameroon, 1841–1914,” International Journal of African Society, Cultures and Traditions 7.1 (2019), 23–35. O’Sullivan, R. L, “The Anglo-Chinese College and the Early ‘Singapore Institution,’” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 61.2 (1988), 45–62. Price, Barclay, The Chinese in Britain: A History of Visitors and Settlers (Stroud Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2019). Ruy, Hyun-Guk, “Robert Morrison’s Influence on Translation, Printing, and Publishing in Asia,” Design Discourse 4.2 (2009), 1–13. Scrimgeour, Andrew, “Between Lexicography and Intercultural Mediation: Linguistic and Cultural Challenges in Developing the First Chinese–English Dictionary,” Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 24.3 (2016), 444–57. Stott, Anne, Hannah More: The First Victorian (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). Terpstra, Chester, David Bogue D.D. 1750–1825, Pioneer and Missionary Educator (unpublished thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1959). < https://era.ed.ac.uk/ handle/1842/7666> Ward, Julian, and Bonnie S. McDougall (eds.), “Chinese Studies in the UK,” European Association of Chinese Studies Survey 7 (1998). Yang, Huiling, “The Making of the First Chinese-English Dictionary: Robert Morrison’s Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts (1815–1823),” Historiographia Lingusitica 2.3 (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2014), 399–422. Yao, Xiaoping, “Definitions of Parts of Speech in Early Chinese-European Dictionaries: From R. Morrison’s A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1819) to S. W. Williams’ A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1874),” Journal of Sino-Western Communications 2.2 (2010), 141–53.

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Ying, Fuk-Tsang, “Evangelist at the Gate: Robert Morrison’s Views on Mission,” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63.2 (2012), 306–30. Xiang, Suchen, “Orientalism and Enlightenment Positivism: A Critique of Anglophone Sinology, Comparative Literature, and Philosophy,” The Pluralist 13.2 (2018), 22–49.

About the authors Tinghe Jin is an assistant professor at the School of Education, Durham University. Tinghe’s research specializes in intercultural education concerning identity perceptions of students and teachers. Her research also links intercultural perspectives with pedagogy development and teachers’ professional development. She is also the founding president of the Chinese Educational Research Association in the United Kingdom and has co-edited books and journal special issues addressing issues and developments in Chinese educational research. Her recent book Interculturality in Learning Mandarin Chinese in British Universities was published with Routledge in November 2020. Personal website: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/tinghe-jin/ Steven Cowan was a lecturer in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Institute of Education, University of London, and retired in 2018. He has undertaken research in India, China, and Oman. A recent joint publication with Professor Gary McCulloch was A Social History of Educational Studies and Research, for which the authors were awarded the Book of the Year prize in 2019 by the Society for Educational Studies. Steven Cowan’s special educational interests are literacy during the Enlightenment period, progressive educational thinkers, and radical educational policies.

A propos des auteurs Tinghe Jin est professeure adjointe à Durham University (Education Institute). Elle consacre ses recherches à l’éducation interculturelle, en particulier aux représentations identitaires des étudiants et des enseignants, en cherchant à lier perspectives interculturelles, développement de la pédagogie et développement professionnel des enseignants. Elle est également présidente fondatrice de la Chinese Educational Research Association au Royaume-Uni et a coédité des livres et des numéros spéciaux de revue portant sur la

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recherche chinoise en éducation. Elle a publié Interculturality in Learning Mandarin Chinese in British Universities chez Routledge, en novembre 2020. Site web personnel : https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/tinghe-jin/ Steven Cowan était lecturer au département des sciences humaines et sociales de University of London (Institut of Education) et a pris sa retraite en 2018. Il a mené des recherches en Inde, en Chine et à Oman. Il a fait paraître récemment, en collaboration avec le Pr. Gary McCulloch, A Social History of Educational Studies and Research, un ouvrage pour lequel les auteurs se sont vus décerner le prix du livre de l’année 2019 par la Society for Educational Studies. Les intérêts particuliers de Steven Cowan dans le domaine de l’éducation sont l’alphabétisation à l’ère des Lumières, les penseurs éducatifs progressistes et les politiques éducatives radicales.

III West Africa

6

Language policy within the French colonial army: The First World War and beyond1 Cécile Van Den Avenne

Abstract: This chapter deals with the language policy of the French colonial army, more specif ically as enforced within the battalions of riflemen known as tirailleurs sénégalais around the First World War. The vast range of ethnic origins found among the tirailleurs—only a minority being Senegalese—created significant linguistic diversity. The various documents analyzed here show two types of strategies allowing for intercommunication: using vehicular languages and translating. Regarding the choice of a vehicular language, they show a variety of situations, with a vernacular sometimes being selected, such as Bambara (Bamanankan), or French, which was sometimes simplified. I discuss connections and tensions between the various methods as seen through the involvement in the First World War, and I try to demonstrate the anthropological biases that determined their choice. Résumé : Ce chapitre porte sur la politique linguistique de l’armée coloniale française, plus précisément telle qu’elle était mise en œuvre au sein des bataillons de tirailleurs appelés tirailleurs sénégalais, autour de la Première Guerre mondiale. La grande diversité des origines ethniques des tirailleurs—seule une minorité étant sénégalaise—crée une importante diversité linguistique. Les différents documents que nous analysons montrent deux types de stratégies permettant l’intercommunication : l’utilisation des langues véhiculaires et la traduction. En ce qui concerne le choix d’une langue véhiculaire, ils montrent une variété de situations, avec le choix d’une langue vernaculaire, comme le bambara [= bamanankan], ou bien celui du français, parfois simplifié. Nous discutons des liens et 1 [La politique linguistique au sein de l’armée coloniale française: la Grande Guerre et au-delà].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch6

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des tensions entre les différentes méthodes telles qu’elles sont suivies au moment de la participation des tirailleurs aux combats de la Première Guerre mondiale, et nous essayons de montrer quels biais anthropologiques en déterminent le choix. Keywords: Anthropology. French colonial army. Intercommunication. Language policy. Senegalese tirailleurs. Mots-clés : Anthropologie. Armée coloniale française. Intercommunication. Politique linguistique. Tirailleurs sénégalais.

In 1857 the first regiment of Senegalese tirailleurs was created; in 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the numbers maintained in French West Africa reached approximately 12,000 men. Shortly before the war, General Mangin, who published his famous work La Force noire,2 developed a plan for a black army intended to engage in external conflicts and for the creation of an “indigenous reserve” in each colony, ready to act in case of emergency. After this, there was a change in terms of recruitment and in the characteristics of the black units of the colonial army: the troops of professional soldiers became troops of basic conscripts, often requisitioned under duress, a phenomenon that would accelerate with the engagement of battalions of Senegalese tirailleurs in the Great War. As such, in addition to the 31,000 tirailleurs already mobilized, five recruitment campaigns increased the number to 167,000 men, half coming from Upper Senegal and Niger, one fifth from Guinea, 14 percent from Ivory Coast, 13 percent from Senegal, and 7 percent from Dahomey.3 The tirailleurs known as sénégalais (Senegalese) were in fact made up of a minority of Senegalese members. The Senegalese originating from the Four Communes4 were enlisted in the regiments of mainland France and considered French “citizens.” The diversity of the tirailleurs’ origins resulted in great linguistic diversity within the battalions, without taking into account the fact that 7 to 10 percent of them were made up of metropolitan French members: the officers, a portion of the sub-officers, 2 Mangin, La Force noire. 3 For a complete synthesis, see Michel, “L’armée coloniale en Afrique Occidentale Française.” 4 As early as 1833, citizenship was granted to certain free residents of the colony. In 1916 French citizenship was extended to the inhabitants of the Four Communes of Senegal (Saint-Louis, Rufisque, Gorée, and Dakar). French citizens benefited from the same political rights as the French and had a representative in the French national Assembly. Residents from the rest of AOF were French subjects.

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Fig. 7. “Map of the races of French West Africa providing Senegalese tirailleurs” (legend), in La Dépêche coloniale illustrée, February 1917, n.p. [23>24]: “French West Africa and black troops”

and those with technical skills were French. The Africanization of senior military off icials hardly went beyond the level of sub-off icers, and in 1916 the military and civil authorities still rejected any idea regarding the promotion of indigenous soldiers to the ranks of officers. The question of communication was therefore both a horizontal and a vertical problem: it concerned both everyday communication between tirailleurs as well as the more crucial matter of understanding orders. The different documents at our disposal account for two types of communication practices: on the one hand, the use of vehicular languages and, on the other, the use of translation. Furthermore, with respect to the choice of a vehicular language, they reveal a plurality of practices and hesitation between an indigenous language with the potential to move up to the rank of vehicular language within the army (in this case Bambara, as I will show) and French (or a potentially simpler version of it), which could also take on this role. I will describe here both the connections and the tensions between different practices that become apparent in light of engagement in World War I and will reveal the anthropological conceptions that underpin them. Indeed, military practices can be understood as greatly influenced by the way

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ethnographical knowledge was established in and around West Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century.

What vehicular language for the tirailleurs? Bambara and/or petit-nègre? Though linguistic diversity was great among the battalions of Senegalese tirailleurs, one language did dominate and would obtain a particular status as vehicular: Bambara (in French)5 or Bamanankan, a language of the Mande group spoken in an area ranging from Upper Senegal through Guinea to the Sudan (present-day Mali). The army merely recovered and accentuated the vehicular uses of this language, a language of commerce before the colonial conquest and hence a language used by interpreters during the colonial conquest. In fact, Bambara was one of the earliest described West African languages.6 In his Manuel à l’usage des troupes opérant au Soudan français et plus particulièrement en zone saharienne,7 Colonel Mangeot explains how military authorities perceived the Bambara language as a vehicular language within the army: [I]t would be good for everyone to have suff icient knowledge of the Bambara language. More and more, it has been confirmed as a language commonly spoken by all the tirailleurs; whether they come from Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Mossi, Guinea, or Senegal, our tirailleurs called up and enlisted are learning the rudiments of Bambara little by little and rare are those who leave the service without speaking it fluently.

Our European officers must follow this example. The language is easy, the vocabulary is basic, the grammar is simple.8 I hypothesize that, except for the few speakers of Bambara as a first or a second language, the variety of Bambara employed in the regiments was rudimentary and simplified, just like the variety of French that was used, which I will examine below. The manuals available to Westerners were mainly glossaries and describe (in an extremely simplified way) the 5 I will use the French term “Bambara” in this chapter. It is the name used in the historic sources I analyze. Bamanan(kan) is the name commonly used in English. 6 The first Bambara dictionary dates back to 1825 (Dard, Dictionnaire wolof et bambara); the first description is by Binger (Essai sur la langue bambara). 7 Bulletin du Comité d’études historiques, 590–648. 8 Ibidem, 611.

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construction of only a few types of simple sentences. They offer typical phrases based on the model of conversation guides, like those published for tourists still today. This is the case of the manual written in 1910 by Moussa Travélé, a speaker of the Bambara language and an official interpreter of the Upper Senegal and Niger colony. Maurice Delafosse (whom I consider later in this chapter), then former administrator of the Bamako circle as well as the author of a Bambara manual,9 wrote in the preface to the work—not without condescension—that the author “merely sought to help Europeans residing in Bambara country manage to quickly and easily speak well and be well understood.”10 This manual offers, in particular, a standard conversation entitled “census tour,” with sentences such as: “Where is the chief of the village? Have you finished paying your taxes? Take a look in the huts to make sure no one’s hiding,” highlighting the fact that this manual was above all intended for colonial administrators. Another much more precise manual is a military book written specifically for colonial troops11 by a White Father, Marius Ferrage, a missionary in the Sudan and interpreter in the 74th battalion of Senegalese tirailleurs. The author writes in the preface of his work: Although most of our Senegalese tirailleurs know the most common words in the French language, it is sometimes quite difficult, if not impossible, to make oneself understood by them other than in their language. Therefore, in accordance with the desire expressed by Monsieur le Colonel Julien, commander of the Group of Senegalese Battalions in Algeria, and encouraged by his great benevolence, we are publishing this Petit Manuel français-bambara. Our goal, in presenting it to numerous European officers serving among black forces, is not to teach them a language with which only prolonged practice could serve to familiarize them, but indeed to give them an easy tool […].

This manual describes with precision different simple phrases in Bambara but does not account for the construction of complex sentences. It also offers a varied range of dialogues in Bambara, which range from greetings, wishes, and expressions of gratitude to dialogues taking place in military contexts (in the barracks, in the ranks, in the trenches, etc.). Very little is actually known about the use of Bambara in the tirailleurs regiments and about the competencies of both non-native tirailleurs and 9 Delafosse, Essai de manuel de langue mandé ou mandingue. 10 Travélé, Petit manuel français-bambara. 11 Ferrage, Petit manuel français-bambara à l’usage des troupes noires.

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Fig. 8. Cover of Ferrage, Petit manuel françaisbambara à l’usage des troupes noires (1918)

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Fig. 9. Excerpt taken from Ferrage, Petit manuel français-bambara à l’usage des troupes noires (1918)

French off icers in this language. Literary sources reveal rudimentary knowledge of the language, which appears in different novels that chart the adventures of tirailleurs in the trenches of Verdun. Indeed, starting at the end of the First World War and up until the Second World War, dozens of novels in which Senegalese tirailleurs appear were published. The editorial success of this kind of novel depended on the popularization of these Senegalese tirailleurs, whose wartime exploits were magnified in the press during the First World War and who established connections to the civil population during their wintering on the Mediterranean and in Marseille, Fréjus, Nice, and Menton. Though some of these novels could be called “second hand” but were often documented by social actors (administrators or members of the military) aware of the colonial realities, many of them were in fact published by former officers of colonial regiments. In these novels one finds several depictions of micro-interactions in Bambara. An example can be found in the work of a memoirist12 that compiles various documents summarizing episodes of Senegalese tirailleurs’ involvement 12 Séché, Les Noirs. D’après des documents officiels.

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in the Great War. A chapter entitled “Les Sénégalais à Berry-au-Bac” charts the attack on coast 91 on October 15, 1914, transcribed from a story told orally by Albert Mallet, the captain of a company of tirailleurs.13 Alphonse Séché inserted short dialogues that include some expressions in Bambara: ‑ Yeut’nant, yeut’nant, implore une voix, ki kana (viens ici) ‑ Djondo ? (Qui est-ce ?) ‑ Sibiri Sibiri, un magnifique Bambara et l’un des meilleurs tireurs.14

And later in the text: Moussa interroge un tirailleur ‑ a sara !—il est mort.15

But these novels show more complacently the interactions taking place in “français-tirailleur,” also known as “petit-nègre.”

The invention of français-tirailleur The term “français-tirailleur” designate the form of French spoken by the so-called Senegalese tirailleurs within the French colonial army. Robert Chaudenson gives the following definition: [It is a] somewhat artificial pidgin, which proceeds both from approximate varieties produced by speakers in exolingual situations and from didactical generalizations reputed to make easier and to accelerate the learning of this minimalized form of French.16 Tirailleur French therefore appears to be the product of this dual process. Firstly, it results from the approximation and simplification co-produced in interactions between officers and their indigenous soldiers, a process similar to those of other pidgins (that is, types of spoken languages with limited applications, such as commerce, ancillary relationships) or to what is often 13 Which is said to have been composed of “one hundred and forty recruits (Mossi people), sixty old blacks, former tirailleurs more or less capable of campaigning, and finally, of about fifty men from Senegal, Mauritania, and Guinea. No homogeneity. Military training more than insufficient” (ibidem, 81–82). 14 Ibidem, 89. 15 Ibidem, 91. 16 Chaudenson, La créolisation : théorie, applications, implications, 54.

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designated by the term “foreigner talk” (that is, the simplified variety of a language produced by native speakers when addressing an interlocutor who does not speak his or her language). Secondly, a process of stabilization through more or less formalized teaching is evident, as implied by the 1916 publication of a manual entitled Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais.17 This work can be read both as a description of a spoken language created by tirailleurs through contact with their European instructors and as a manual helping European officers learn to speak in order to “be understood within a short amount of time, by their men, to give to their theories a format that would be intelligible to everyone and, in this way, to intensify the training process.”18 The author(s) of this manual is (are) anonymous. To understand the context of its writing, I will elucidate the nature of linguistic knowledge being established during the second half of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century in French West Africa, which was mostly in the hands of colonial administrators and military. Most famous was the case of Faidherbe, Governor of Senegal between 1854 and 1865, to whom we owe, among other things, the first descriptions of the Fula, Soninke, Wolof, and Serer languages, published between 1859 and 1887. The leaflet testifies to an—albeit vague—understanding of Bambara, which, as described above, may have been used as a vehicular language within the army. Accordingly, in the first pages of the work, the basic rule for producing français-tirailleur is specified: “Always give French sentences the very simple form that all the primitive dialects transcribed of our West Africa have,”19 and the different examples given of “primitive dialects” are all examples of Bambara. Those examples therefore serve to justify the invention of this spoken language. An example in the chapter “Article” follows: In the dialects of our A.O.F., the article does not exist: to designate an object, we indicate only its name. Example: falo means in Bambara, the donkey, a donkey, donkey. It is therefore not necessary in these sentences to use an article.

It is difficult to fully grasp what might explain the systematization of teaching français-tirailleur within the colonial army without mentioning the influence of Maurice Delafosse (1870–1926), a colonial administrator and linguist. Maurice Delafosse is indeed considered to be the first to have provided a linguistic 17 Anonymous, Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais. 18 Ibidem, 5. 19 Ibidem, 5.

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description of petit-nègre, “a natural and rational simplification of our so complicated language,”20 and to have promoted this spoken language to the rank of “language.”21 Building on a representation of black populations as primitive and of the languages of Sub-Saharan Africa as “simple languages,” he writes: How could we expect for a Black, whose language is of rudimentary simplicity with an almost always absolute system of reasoning, to quickly assimilate a language as refined and illogical as ours? It is indeed the Black—or, more generally, the primitive—who forged petit-nègre, in adapting French to his state of mind.22

And he concludes his introduction with the following words: If we want to be understood quickly and well, we must speak to Blacks at their level, in other words, speak to them in petit-nègre.

The syntactic description of petit-nègre completed by Delafosse in his work fits into twenty lines: · use of verbs in their most simple form (infinitive of the first conjugation, past participle, imperative) · negation expression only by the second part of the adverb: pas · suppression of gender and number distinctions · suppression of the article or agglutination of the article into the noun · considerable use of the verb gagner and of the expressions y a and y en a as semi-auxiliaries · use of the adverb là as a demonstrative · suppression of the prepositions à and de and frequent substitution by the preposition pour Remarks on phonetics are then added: the muted f inal e replaced by a pronounced vowel (caissou for caisse), phenomena of vocal harmonization (piti for petit), the substitution of dorso-velar consonants by dental fricatives (semise for chemise, zenou for genou). It is quite probable that Delafosse’s first description served as a basis for the authors of the military manual (and it is also feasible that he himself 20 Delafosse, Vocabulaire comparatif, 263. 21 In one work, in which he proposes a classif ication of the languages of Africa, Delafosse classifies petit-nègre among “Afro-European languages” alongside broken English, Sabir, Portuguese creole, and French creole (Enquête générale des langues d’Afrique). 22 Ibidem, 264.

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Fig. 10. Excerpt taken from: Anonymous, Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais (1916), p. 21

authored the leaflet, as he was in fact a polygraph).23 Delafosse was also the author of one of the first manuals (if not the first) in the Mande language (family of Mande or Mandinka languages, which include Bambara). 23 For a presentation of Delafosse’s trajectory, see Amselle and Sibeud, Maurice Delafosse. Entre orientalisme et ethnographie.

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I will not return to the syntactic description of this spoken language as presented in the manual (it has been studied by others; see Manessy24 and Houis25); in fact, it builds on Delafosse’s rudimentary description, providing expressions likely to be used in the context of military training (such as: “Patrouille y a parti vite”).26 There are also tables presenting translations between Standard French and tirailleur French. Two other elements can be taken into consideration to understand the emergence of this use of “simplified French” (this variety was so called in the notes of the Ministry of War; see below). One concerns the choice of the linguistic variety, the other the methods of acquisition imagined. The choice of the linguistic variety, which can be described as an artificial auxiliary language produced by simplification and systematization, appears to correspond with the movement that initiated the artificial creation of different international languages starting at the end of the nineteenth century. Among these languages, Volapuk (created in 1879) and Esperanto (created in 1887) became real languages of communication. In this context, français-tirailleur could be considered a kind of Esperanto for colonial use—the one caveat being that these different artificial languages were not conceived of to improve relations with “uncivilized natives” but to “serve everyday social relations, commercial exchanges, and scientific and philosophical rapports,”27 as specified by the Délégation pour l’adoption d’une langue auxiliaire internationale established in 1901. As for the acquisition methods imagined, they echo the emergence and development of the methods for teaching foreign languages through the Direct Method, in particular the famous Berlitz Method (explicitly cited in a note by the Ministry of War; see below). The Direct Method was prescribed in the programs and training of the Ministry of Public Education for teaching foreign languages in secondary schools; it consists in an approach that does not use the student’s native language. In other words, the approach does not use translation but centers on the direct connection between reference and signified. An excerpt from the Manuel à l’usage des troupes opérant au Soudan français et plus particulièrement en zone saharienne, by Colonel Mangeot,28 describes what was heard in the army while using the Direct Method: 24 “Français tirailleur et français d’Afrique.” 25 “Une variété idéologique du français: le langage tirailleur.” 26 Delafosse, Vocabulaire comparatif, 31. 27 Auroux, Histoire des idées linguistiques, III, 380. 28 Bulletin du Comité d’études historiques, 613.

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In all our regiments of Senegalese tirailleurs, it has always been the tradition to dedicate a few hours a week to the teaching of our language. The method is simple. We start by teaching them in French the names of clothing and weapons given to them; during training, we teach the meaning of orders, the names of objects found on the ground. Little by little, we assemble the words into short simple sentences. Once they know these basics, the tirailleurs progress quickly. At night in camp, the older ones, those who speak our language fluently, teach the lesson. Here again, there is a sense of pride that emerges, the older ones want to impress the recruits with their knowledge and the recruits have the desire to speak même chose l’officier français. This pride must be cultivated.

When put to narrative form in an overtly stereotypical way, these ideas render the following, in which one can observe a combination of the Direct Method and the practice of translation (in this case to Bambara): Then comes the French lesson. The men are split into small groups which cannot always be led by European instructors or properly trained natives as Samba. We must thus be attentive to our volunteer instructors who commit amusing errors. Look at corporal Baba’s group. The tirailleurs are sat in a circle, attentively watching. Baba in the middle, standing, gives the day’s lesson: Les alimaux comestiques. He announces this title, then turns to the tirailleurs: Afo anofé (repeat). Murmurs are heard and Baba continues: -La premier ça y en a la bef (le bœuf) -Afo The tirailleurs repeat “la bef” without understanding. Baba explains: -La bef a bekankan “missi” The tirailleurs have understood that the “missi” and “la bef” are the same animal. Baba continues: -La deuxième y en a “la miton” (le mouton) Same interrogation. The tirailleurs repeat “la miton” and Baba explains that “la miton” is the “saga.”29 29 Extract from Bonnet, Samba, héros de l’Empire, 41, a novel written by a captain of the marsouins (marines) that charts the trajectory of a young Malinke man, whose father was a tirailleur who fought in the First World War. Problems of translation and the different misunderstandings

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While visiting the wintering camp at Fréjus, Alphonse Séché, the aforementioned memoirist, tells of the ways in which the rudiments of French were taught, underscoring the pedagogical inadequacy (the use of repetition) and the linguistic difficulties that arise: Elsewhere, a corporal explains: “In one week there are seven days, which are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday [marcredi]— he strongly accentuates the a30—Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.” […] The corporal makes them repeat the same words endlessly. His patience is only matched by the difficulty of the Senegalese to retain what is taught to them. Occasionally, the instructor speaks his language. The tirailleurs not always being of the same race, sometimes they do not understand Bambara, Toucouleur, or Susu any better than French. I feel sorry for the European non-commissioned officers, limited, for the most part, to expressing themselves in petit-nègre, even when they give instructions to indigenous officers.31

Interpreters of indigenous languages or the use of simplified French: Linguistic issues during the First World War The engagement of battalions of Senegalese tirailleurs in the Great War reveals linguistic problems quite similar to those that would emerge from speakers of dialects within French regiments.32 Indeed, while the “old” tirailleurs had the time to acquire the basics, or more, of the French language, the new recruits often did not speak French at all. Though different documents attest to translation practices on the front, the linguistic consequence of the war would be an increase in the learning of French. The military authorities would eventually decide against creating a group of interpreters, as will be dicussed, and in favor of intensifying the acquisition of French. But the practice of translation was not absent, as camps and units both had European translators that result from them, as well as the different mistakes produced by a lack of knowledge of French, are some of the comical results that are fully exploited by this type of novel, which I have nicknamed “y a bon” novels. 30 The correct French word is mercredi. 31 Séché, Les Noirs. D’après des documents officiels, 72–73. Text reproduced in its entirety on the following website: . 32 “That we teach Alsatian recruits French, no one, assuredly, has anything to say. But why would we not also teach French to indigenous recruits?” (Larchain, “Enseignons le français aux indigènes,” 1).

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(colonial administrators as well as White Fathers) and African ones (non-commissioned off icers). Accordingly, the journal charting the operations of the 61st battalion of Senegalese tirailleurs mentions the role of a translator before a battle in the Somme in a report from July 9–10, 1916, in the following terms: The battalion commander has a few of the tirailleurs words translated by way of native warrant officers with the goal of clearly setting the objective and sparking their enthusiasm.33

The language used is not specified. It may have been Bambara; the mention of a translation completed by several native warrant officers may also imply that translation was done to and from several languages (perhaps Fula, Wolof, and Mossi, groups represented in this battalion, according to an assessment of last names) as well as to and from different languages serving as vehicular languages for groups originating in the same geographical areas but not belonging to the same linguistic groups. Furthermore, in two notes written for the Ministry of War,34 General Famin, Director General of colonial troops, indicated, on the one hand, that several soldiers coming from AOF (European soldiers) speaking fluent Bambara were placed in the Senegalese battalions as interpreting medics and, on the other hand, that European medics would be given the title of corporal or sergeant “on the condition that they speak the indigenous language fluently and could, in that case, serve as interpreters.” An awareness of linguistic plurality in the battalions of Senegalese tirailleurs and the imperfect mastery of the French language by the tirailleurs led to a debate among members of the Clemenceau cabinet, the chronology of which is reconstituted here. On October 8, 1917, the Chairman of the Board, Minister of War, sent to the Inspector General of Indigenous Contingents a note signed General Mas, Director of Colonial Troops, which indicated that: Senegalese battalions are made up of tirailleurs, of different races, who do not speak the same language. It was brought to my attention that the dispersal among units of tirailleurs who could not be understood by the officers, nor understand them, often caused disadvantages

33 Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre (SHAT), 26 N 871, JMO du 61e BTS. 34 Notes from July 11, 1917, and July 20, 1917, SHAT, AG, 6 N 97.

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Fig. 11. Drawing taken from La dépêche coloniale illustrée, February 1917, n.p.: “French West Africa and the black troops”

and recommended that [i]t might be advantageous to bring the isolated tirailleurs together in squads or half-sections under the order of officers of the same race, when possible.

The response of General Pineau, Inspector of Indigenous Contingents of Colonial Troops, highlights the inconvenience of such a measure: on the one hand, it would be difficult to apply to “certain little-known races and to those with small populations,” and, on the other hand, it would have as a negative result the “potential entente between men of the same group” and a “greater likelihood that collective complaints be made.”35 General Pineau advised to train the most officers possible from different races, taking into account the numbers of each of the races and especially with respect to teaching 35 November 6, 1917, SHAT, 6N97: Fonds Clemenceau, études diverses sur le personnel de l’armée 1916–1919.

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the elements of our language, which is indispensable in order to exercise command over the native without having to turn to interpretation, which is always more or less faulty.

He adds: I have picked up on the existence of more than fifty different dialects and, in these conditions, I see only one means of commanding possible: imposing a single language, ours.

The question becomes more complicated when religious authorities (represented in this debate by the White Fathers, a missionary order that was very present in Sub-Saharan Africa) get involved. On March 12, 1918, Monseigneur Lemaître, Vicar Apostolic of the Sahara and of French Sudan on a special mission among Senegalese troops, wrote a letter to the Ministry of War asking for the creation of a group of military interpreters of colonial languages comparable to the group of interpreters available to troops in mainland France, arguing that [t]he presence in France of Europeans speaking the basics of these same languages as well as of natives speaking our language fluently makes the creation of this group of interpreters quite easy to put in place immediately.36

Different military authorities would express opposition to the creation of this group of interpreters. Accordingly, a letter from General Mordacq, dated March 23, 1918, specifies that “the language unit can only be usefully and easily pursued through the teaching of simplified French, already spoken by all the indigenous officers and by a large number of tirailleurs.” Interpreters in these conditions would only have impaired the “natural dissemination of French.” For the training of natives, he recommended using Europeans who lived in the colonies, knew the language, and had experience with the natives. A note by General Mangin, dated March 11, 1918, expresses a similar idea: The truth is that the language unit must be continued through the teaching of simplified French, which constitutes, at the moment, the language of the tirailleur. This teaching is done through the direct method (Berlitz 36 SHAT, 6N97: Fonds Clemenceau, études diverses sur le personnel de l’armée 1916–1919.

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method), which does not require knowledge of the different languages of West Africa.

And in a note from April 21, 1918, the same General Mangin declared himself opposed to the creation of a special body of interpreters, arguing that the languages spoken in AOF are too numerous (more than sixty), that only a handful of Europeans speak two or three of them, and, furthermore, that the most common languages (that is, Bambara, Fula, Mossi, and Wolof) are, according to him, those with the most speakers who also speak French. Hence, “the variety of languages spoken by the tirailleurs obliges them to have a common language, and this language can only be French.” A series of other responses, emanating from different military authorities, all go in the same direction: using so-called “simplified French” and opposing the creation of a group of interpreters. For example, General Mazillier, commander of the first Colonial Army Corps, wrote to the Ministry of War a letter dated April 27, 1918, in which he notes: in the companies, the natives who do not understand each other try to quickly learn a bit of French, which serves as their common language.

He adds: The Sudanese dialects, with the exception of two or three, have but a very limited number of words, which suffice for the natives. They learn the corresponding words in French and the verbs very quickly and make the petit-nègre language themselves, which they use with us and among themselves.

On June 17, 1918, in the final report that followed his mission among the battalions of Senegalese tirailleurs on the front, Monseigneur Lemaître reported that he had given a speech that was translated into Bambara by his deputy, a former missionary in Sudan, and that this speech was very well received. The Lemaître mission, accused of having spread errors about the troops of tirailleurs, was suspended by Clemenceau in November 1918. At stake here, and underpinning this matter of language policy, was in fact a battle between church and state.37 Indeed, beyond the different 37 It interesting to highlight that the use of local languages was favored within the colonial structures leaving more room for ecclesiastics, even in primary instruction. One example is the Belgian Congo.

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practical arguments (e.g., plurality of languages, difficulty finding competent translators), a strong argument was waged against indigenous languages: that of the potential increased authority of the White Fathers. For General Mangin, the desire emanating from a member of the Church to create a group of interpreters was the sign of a desire to increase the prestige of the White Fathers in the eyes of the natives, as they were the only Europeans who actually knew native languages and therefore the only ones qualified to serve as interpreters. General Mangin underscores the consistent refusal of the White Fathers to dress in military uniforms when serving as interpreters and goes so far as to call them “harmful foreign agents.”

The refusal of petit-nègre The use of French was therefore ultimately recommended within the colonial army—f irst simplif ied French, which would progressively give way to Standard French. Very early on, opinions arose against the stereotypical jargon that was petit-nègre,38 and the different critiques put forward would lead to the decision within the army to abandon this practice. An important factor would lead to the “francophonization” of the tirailleurs. Starting in 1915–16, “wintering camps” were organized for the Senegalese tirailleurs in the barracks of the Côte d’Azur or in tents on the beaches north of Fréjus. The number of men attending these camps greatly increased: 28,000 men in May 1916, 40,000 in December, 45,000 in 1917.39 These wintering camps contributed to contact between the tirailleurs and civilian populations. Furthermore, they constituted an opportunity to set up different forms of learning, in particular French language classes and French literacy classes. The Committee of Assistance to Black Troops formed on March 24, 1915, whose president was J.-M. Le Cesne, Vice-President of the French Company of West Africa and which included a great number of important colonial figures with economic interests in AOF; this organization recommended teaching the tirailleurs the “basic rudiments of school education.”40 A school was created in the recovery ward of Menton, and an instructor from the African milieu (a teacher exercising in AOF), chosen 38 In an article published on September 22, 1916, in Les Annales coloniales, which gives an account of the publication of the work Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais, it is already written that it refers to the Senegalese language as spoken by the French (cited by Michel, Les Africains et la Grande Guerre, 116). 39 See Michel, Les Africains et la Grande Guerre. 40 La Dépêche coloniale illustrée, Dec. 1915, 31.

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from among the auxiliaries, was appointed. A key goal of this education system was to allow tirailleurs to rise in rank and to become agents useful to France once back in Africa, all while the system offered them better living conditions. In one of these wintering camps, Lucie Cousturier obtained authorization to open a school where she attempted to teach Standard French to tirailleurs. In an interesting critical description of the approach used in the colonial army (even more interesting because she represented an early “voice of dissent”), she writes that the “military jargon” they used comes from two sources: first from that of Bambara recruits who indicated, through their babbling in presence of our language, their preferences in terms of forms and words; and second, that of the white instructors who adopted these babblings and their consequences as a principle of military Esperanto. Imagine if, when we had to teach our language to an Englishman, we took careful note of the deformations that his first attempts inflict on the syntax and pronunciation of French and relied on them to present him with a form of reduced French adapted to his English abilities. On the basis of the disappointing results of this approach, it would not be necessary to declare the mental infirmity of the English with regard to languages […]. 41

The tirailleurs became aware through contact with the civilian population that they spoke a variety that was not the “French of France” and that it was in fact a ridiculous variety; once they became aware, they sought to escape what Lucie Cousturier called a “verbal prison.” She also noted, with respect to the tirailleurs that she met in Côte d’Azur, that they had learned, in witnessing laughter, that their language caused them ridicule: “it’s only French for tirailleurs,” they sadly admitted. One of her students, who was more malicious, maintained that “these were words found by the Europeans to make damn fun of the Senegalese.”42 Ten years after the First World War, the Règlement provisoire du 7 juillet 1926 pour l’enseignement du français aux militaires indigènes (1927), which was actually a textbook for teaching French through the Direct Method, was published.43 It stipulates in particular that “it is formally prohibited 41 Cousturier, Des inconnus chez moi, 82. 42 Ibidem, 84. 43 For a description of this textbook, see Kahn, “Un manuel pour l’enseignement du français aux militaires indigènes, 1927,” 97–103.

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to speak Sabir (or petit-nègre),” with its use being called “old mistakes” and petit-nègre being singled out as inadequate to fulfill its functions, in that it is hardly any simpler than certain simple forms of Standard French. (This same textbook highlighted the fact that it was less difficult to say balaie la chambre than to say toi y en a balayer la chambre.) Therefore, the teaching of French and in French would ultimately be adopted within the colonial army.

Opening: Specific languages or French for all? The linguistic approach of the military authorities with respect to soldiers from the colonies, and especially those from the Sub-Saharan African colonies (though the issues would be similar for North African or Asian soldiers), are underpinned by two types of anthropological approaches: the cultural approach, which favors the use of indigenous languages, the practice of translation, and an “adapted” form of French, in contrast to a universalist approach, which advocates Standard French within the army. The invention of “tirailleur French” seems to be a culturalist response to the question of the use of French by “natives.” This culturalist approach is illustrated elsewhere in other endeavors, particularly in the way some wintering camps were organized. In Fréjus, for example, specific places of worship were built: the famous mosque of Djenné in Mali was reproduced in pink reinforced concrete, and a Buddhist temple, known as the pagoda of camp Gallieni, was erected by Indochinese tirailleurs. This culturalist approach can also be seen in a shelter for the injured set up in the Hotel Carlton in Menton and run by one Doctor Maclaud, “who spoke the dialects of French West Africa” and conceived it as a “center for the re-Senegalization” of tirailleurs, where they could rediscover their way of life and their traditional activities (they could play awale there, a traditional West African game, and organize palavers and music and dance nights around the tam tam). Doctor Maclaud also took initiatives of a linguistic kind. On the wall of a hallway, signs ordered “Makow!” (silence) in Bambara. And on a washing machine turned into an alcazaras (a kind of water jar), a trilingual (French/ Bambara/petit-nègre) label read: “Boisson hygiénique—Cani—y a bon.”44 But in the end, it seems that the universalist approach prevailed within the military hierarchy, and this was illustrated linguistically in the decision to use and to teach Standard French rather than the different indigenous languages and petit-nègre. However, this does not mean that the culturalist 44 Séché, Les Noirs. D’après des documents officiels, 245.

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approach did not significantly mark practices among the troops. Later testimony accounts for the longevity of the use of “Sabir.” What took place within the institution of the army, through what can be described as the implementation of language policy, accounts for the different ways of envisioning otherness within the colonial system. On the one hand, it echoes how the disciplines of anthropology and ethnology were created around the same time and, on the other, the specificity of French colonial policy in Black Africa. These elements reveal a tendency toward Republican assimilation, in tension with other practices, such as indigenism and indirect administration.45

References Primary sources Anonymous, Le français tel que le parlent nos tirailleurs sénégalais (Paris: Imprimerie-Librairie Militaire Universelle L. Fournier, 1916). Binger, Louis-Gustave, Essai sur la langue bambara (Paris: Maisonneuve Frères & C. Leclerc, 1886). Bonnet, Gabriel, Samba, héros de l’Empire (Paris: Sequana, 1941). Bulletin du comité d’études historiques et scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris: Larose, Oct.–Dec. 1922). Cousturier, Lucie, Des inconnus chez moi (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001 [1920]). Dard, Jean, Dictionnaire wolof et bambara (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1825). Delafosse, Maurice, Essai de manuel de langue mandé ou mandingue (Paris: Leroux, 1901). Delafosse, Maurice, Vocabulaire comparatif de plus de soixante langues ou dialectes parlés à la Côte d’Ivoire (Paris: Leroux, 1904). Delafosse, Maurice, Enquête générale des langues d’Afrique (Paris: Masson & Cie, 1914). Ferrage, Marius, Petit manuel français-bambara à l’usage des troupes noires (Paris: Imprimerie-Librairie Militaire L. Fournier, 1918). Larchain, Michel, “Enseignons le français aux indigènes. Pourquoi ne pas profiter, pour le faire, de leur séjour en France ?” La Dépêche coloniale et maritime 7516 (1923). 45 On this subject, read for example the presentation of Faidherbe, conqueror, administrator, ethnologist, and inventor of the idea of Black Africa, in Amselle, Vers un multiculturalisme français, 117–50.

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Mangin, Charles, La force noire (Paris: Hachette, 1910). Règlement provisoire du 7 juillet 1926 pour l’enseignement du français aux militaires indigènes (Paris/Limoges/Nancy: Charles-Lavauzelle & Cie, Éditeurs Militaires, 1927). Séché, Alphonse, Les Noirs. D’après des documents officiels (Paris: Payot, 1919). Travélé, Moussa, Petit manuel français-bambara (Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, 1910).

Secondary sources Amselle, Jean-Loup, Vers un multiculturalisme français. L’empire de la coutume (Paris: Aubier, 1996). Amselle, Jean-Loup, and Emmanuelle Sibeud, Maurice Delafosse. Entre orientalisme et ethnographie, l’itinéraire d’un africaniste, 1870–1926 (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1998). Auroux, Sylvain (ed.), Histoire des idées linguistiques, vol. 3 (Liège: Mardaga, 2000). Chaudenson, Robert, La créolisation: théorie, applications, implications (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2003). Houis, Maurice, “Une variété idéologique du français: le ‘langage tirailleur,’” Afrique et langage 21 (1984), 5–17. Kahn, Gisèle, “Un manuel pour l’enseignement du français aux militaires indigènes, 1927,” Le français dans le monde. Recherches et applications (1990), 97–103. Mannessy, Gabriel, “Français tirailleur et français d’Afrique,” in Le français en Afrique noire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1994). Michel, Marc, “L’armée coloniale en Afrique Occidentale Française,” in L’Afrique occidentale au temps des Français. Colonisateurs et colonisés, c.1860–1960, ed. Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch (Paris: La Découverte, 1992). Michel, Marc, Les Africains et la Grande Guerre. L’appel à l’Afrique, 1914–1918 (Paris: Karthala, 2003).

About the author Cécile Van Den Avenne is Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. After her PhD, which was focused on linguistic biographies of migrants from Mali to France, she worked on writing activities in West Africa and especially Mali in a linguistic and anthropological framework (writing practices and public space: toponymy, street naming, contemporary multilingual writing practices). Her research then took a historical turn and is now focused on linguistic practices in situations of colonial contact. Her

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last book, De la bouche même des indigènes (Vendémiaire, 2017), deals with that subject in the context of colonial French West Africa. Personal web://www.ehess.fr/fr/personne/c%C3%A9cile-van-den-avenne-0

À propos de l’auteure Cécile Van Den Avenne est directrice d’études à l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Après un doctorat portant sur les biographies linguistiques des migrants du Mali en France, elle a travaillé dans une perspective linguistique et anthropologique sur les activités d’écriture en Afrique de l’Ouest et notamment au Mali (pratiques d’écriture et espace public : toponymie, dénomination des rues ; pratiques d’écriture multilingues contemporaines). Ses recherches ont ensuite pris un tournant historique et portent désormais sur les pratiques linguistiques dans les situations de contact colonial. Son dernier ouvrage, De la bouche même des indigènes (Vendémiaire, 2017), traite de ce sujet, dans le contexte de l’Afrique occidentale française coloniale. Site web personnel : https://www.ehess.fr/fr/personne/c%C3%A9cile-vanden-avenne-0

7

The “civilization-language-culture” relationshipin reading books for teaching in French to allophone schoolchildren (1885–1930): A window opened to the past1 Valérie Spaëth

Abstract: The study of excerpts from f ive reading books intended for African allophone children between the end of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth century makes it possible to delineate the history of these fascinating objects located in a system of historicity that has disappeared. While these texts were initially intended to be read to learn a non-native language (French) and to anchor or transmit exogenous or already hybridized values, they give rise to multiple interpretations. These textbooks thus offer keys to grasping the complexity of the processes that construct the relationship between civilization, language, and culture. Indeed, they were able to serve both colonial propaganda and the pedagogical ideals of the teachers to promote a form of assimilation or integration. Résumé : L’étude d’extraits de cinq livrets de lecture destinés aux enfants africains allophones entre la fin du dix-neuvième et le premier tiers du vingtième siècle permet de délinéariser l’histoire de ces objets fascinants, inscrits dans un régime d’historicité disparu. Par cette opération historiographique, alors qu’ils sont initialement destinés à être lus pour apprendre une langue non maternelle (le français), pour ancrer ou transmettre 1 This chapter was published under the title “La relation ‘civilisation-langue-culture’ dans les livres de lecture pour l’enseignement en français aux publics enfantins allophones (1885–1930) : une fenêtre ouverte sur le passé…” in Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde (2018), 60–61.

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch7

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des valeurs exogènes ou déjà hybrides, ils donnent lieu à de multiples interprétations. Ces livrets de lecture offrent ainsi des clés pour saisir la complexité des gestes qui construisent le rapport entre civilisation, langue et culture. Ils ont pu en effet servir à la fois à la propagande coloniale et aux idéaux pédagogiques des enseignants, promouvoir une forme d’assimilation ou d’intégration. Keywords: History of the dissemination of French. Reading books in French for allophones. Memory-history. Colonization. Acculturation. Mots-clés : Histoire de la diffusion du français. Livres de lecture français pour allophones. Mémoire-histoire. Colonisation. Acculturation.

Introduction In the twenty-first century, looking at the French-language reading books for foreigners that were published and used between the end of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries (the “twilight zone” that Hobsbawn identified as the age of empire)2 constitutes a fascinating or even exotic trip as much as it does a real epistemological adventure. Admittedly, the risk of hyperconstructivism, which “fills” the holes of history,3 is high in these situations involving temporal intersections. But these reading books provide significant traces of societies at the time marked by the complex dynamics of globalization and mixed,4 hybrid5 experiences, on both the linguistic and cultural levels. As objects of research, sites of memory,6 and patrimonial objects for us, these textbooks have above all been living spaces and places of transmission—objects for teaching and for learning, in this case French.7 I will explore them in this sense, as cultural objects in their own right, constituting an observation point “on the processes of cross-border hybridization and […] multiple imbrications between cultural

2 Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875–1914, 14. 3 Ginzburg, À distance. 4 Gruzinski, Les quatre parties du monde. 5 Appadurai, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. 6 Nora, Les lieux de mémoire. 7 This scholarly work is situated, as all our work, within a perspective of history made up of connected, transnational traces (Bloch, Apologie pour l’histoire; Ginzburg, À distance) that considers history “against the grain” (Benjamin, “On the Concept of History”).

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areas.”8 These reading books, which so many hands have touched, whose images—themselves an anchoring point for so much imagination—have been scrutinized by so many pairs of eyes, form a kind of window into bygone societies, whose historicity, though discrete, remains alive. One can envision these societies as a kind of “organized assembly of discourse, recording diversified registers and making up diversified civilizational collections.”9 In building on the idea that these objects carry traces of a kind of “dramatization of the relationship to oneself and to the world, which establishes society as a figure of the species,”10 I propose to interpret a small corpus composed of excerpts from five reading books, published between 1885 and 1931, intended for allophone child audiences for whom French was the language taught, the language of instruction, and for whom it would eventually become the language of their education. These textbooks allow us access to “acting” forms of linguistic ideologies in the teaching of French in French, particularly those that weave the complex connections between the notions of French civilization, language, and culture, at a time when the framework for teaching in French in societies marked by different forms of exogenous tutelages was organized and developed. The period chosen, 1885–1931, constitutes a pivotal moment for understanding the competing and complementary processes of homogenization and heterogenization11 of the links between language, civilization, and culture. In the case of French, it is also a matter of implanting the language and the culture in a national territory from within and of promoting, from outside, the link between French civilization and culture through an organized process of deterritorialization. This chapter aims to show that this dissemination was organized according to multiple forms of circulation and to introduce the idea of differentiation into what—from the perspective of the twenty-first-century researcher—seems to belong to the same paradigm, that of colonization. Indeed, the dynamics of deterritorialization/reterritorialization of French, a real “collision of spaces and temporalities,”12 a distinctive feature of the 8 Savoy, Objets du désir, désir d’objets, 34. “Sur des processus de croisements transfrontaliers et […] imbrications multiples entre aires culturelles.” 9 Legendre, Leçons X. Dogma, instituer l’animal humain, 106. “Montage ordonné de discours, relevant de registres diversifiés et constitutifs d’ensembles civilisationnels diversifiés.” 10 Ibidem. “Théâtralisation de la relation à soi et au monde, qui constitue la société en figure de l’espèce.” 11 Appadurai, Modernity at Large. 12 Savoy, Objets du désir, désir d’objets, 28. “Téléscopage des espaces et des temporalités.”

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history of the globalization of the language, is made concrete through at least two types of institutions, ideologically opposed and distinct in terms of the geographical area in question but simultaneously f itting within the same educational-pedagogical paradigm. The Alliance israélite universelle was created in 1860 alongside the Jewish emancipation project, particularly with respect to the Ottoman Empire, which had the largest number of communities. The Alliance française was created in 1883 within the framework of the national colonization project and, within this context,13 was intended for the colonies and the protectorates. Both projects depended on another institution, the education system, which was also fractured during the second part of the nineteenth century, as it was oriented toward two distinct moral and educational horizons (though also marked by the idea of surpassing borders): the religious and the secular. The corpus considered here concerns only the second horizon14 but involves both institutions. In any case, the relationship between language, culture, and civilization engenders stories, which are often edifying for the child who is required to read them. These stories are thematized and made normative for the education system within disciplinary frameworks that are then reinforced (spelling, grammar, morals, history) and can serve as a base for reading and writing exercises. Le Tour de la France par deux enfants [A tour of France by two children; see below] seems to be intended for those located “within”— the young French child, no matter his or her language, incidentally—but it provides a discursive and thematic model for the “outside” as well. The other four excerpts introduce an anthropological and cultural rift, as they are intended for an “other.”

Observing the civilization-language-culture relationship in reading books This relationship is complex on at least three levels that intertwine and oblige one to take some distance from the objects of research and to avoid the emergence of methodological biases as much as possible. This observation therefore places this research in a situation of betweenness that is 13 In another context, that of teaching to foreigners, Alliance française began building a vast network across Europe and the Americas at the end of the nineteenth century. 14 Judaism is considered as a culture in this context.

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twofold: between both the local and the global scales, and the past and the present. The first difficulty linked to considering the texts in question is of an external or even meta nature regarding the object studied. This difficulty concerns the twenty-first-century researcher who, in interpreting this relationship, is an individual anchored in postmodernity (which claims to have witnessed the end of history), ideologically “stuck” between deconstructionism and hyperconstructivism, and who must conduct his or her own historicization. But the internal difficulties are also numerous and varied in nature. First, generally speaking, the civilization-language-culture relationship is organized within the anthropological and cultural classification system of the time (foreigners versus the colonized versus religious communities), with the ideologies that underpin them, particularly regarding the relationships maintained with the languages and cultures of the students in question (languages to dominate, to exclude, to integrate, etc.). At the micro-level and more specifically, this relationship must be examined in the light of its contemporaneous pedagogical framework. In this case, the language lesson, the instructive story, and the Direct Method constitute the pillars of a modern method for teaching reading in French. Furthermore, the educational stories themselves are already part of a tradition in children’s literature.15 Observation thus becomes interpretation after admitting the coexistence of several depths of meaning and that it is crucial to reconstruct, going beyond the literality of the stories. The dramatization of the relationship to the world and the categorization of cultures organizes and structure them. The moral value of these stories, the smoothing out of social relations made visible in the dialogues, and the roles attributed to the characters in them appear to be keys to civilization, the values of which are believed to be universal. Culture is conveyed more directly and more singularly by the language itself, its vocabulary, landscapes, clothing, etc.; it is the quintessential place of hybridization and of transfer.

15 The reading books by Mrs. Leprince de Beaumont, Le magasin des enfants, dialogues d’une sage gouvernante avec ses élèves (The children’s store, dialogues of a wise governess with her pupils), originally intended for the children of an English family that she was raising in French, would have great success with wealthy families across Europe from 1756 on. The stories are mainly fairy tales whose moral value is instructive. In the nineteenth century these reading books were already classics among the children of high society.

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Le Tour de la France par deux enfants: “Site of memory,” object for history, model for the dissemination of French in French The first reading book excerpt of interest in this study possesses a quality that is already recognized as a “site of memory” by historians.16 Le tour de la France par deux enfants, due to the number of editions (more than 400 between 1877 and 1914) and the duration of its use (until around 1950 in France, but into the 1960s at Carnot High School in Tunis, for example17), can be considered a model for the dissemination of French in French. Ten years before the Great War, the 1905 edition already contained all the elements framing this study: the story as a basis for a language lesson and a means to access the knowledge of “the homeland,” the Direct Method as a methodology of transmission, the importance given to child audiences and to their relational universe, and the universal nature of the moral presented more specif ically through French language and civilization. The excerpt of interest here closes out the Tour de la France and therefore the book itself (see image below). The lesson presents demographic growth, of which colonization was an integral part, and technological progress (here the “mainland” Parisian) as pillars of the power of French civilization. The fight against illness and alcoholism is also fully integrated into this educational hygienic and moral approach, which aimed to build a society made up of individuals sharing a common investment in the “glory of the homeland, its honor, its wealth, and its strength.”18 One must consider that most of the little boys who read these words in 1904 would perish a few years later in the trenches that were supposed to protect their beautiful homeland. The reading books intended for the colonial empire follow this narrative pattern, but they would in fact constitute a kind of anthropological break from this pattern. The stories contribute to the sequencing of social space and of colonial society and to the establishment of public order within a colonial regime where control over the population is obtained above all through the regulation of exchange and potential cultural intermixing. The categorization of subjects is subtly exhibited in the 16 Ozouf and Ozouf, “Le Tour de la France par deux enfants,” 291–321. 17 Source: a private interview. This textbook initially intended for French schoolchildren within the national territory, no matter their native language, did not, however, lack circulation in the colonial Empire. The history of the circulation of reading books is yet to be completed. 18 “La gloire de la patrie, son honneur, sa richesse et sa force.”

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Fig. 12. G. Bruno, Le tour de la France par deux enfants (last page, 1904 edition)

dramatization of their exchanges. The methodological approach remains identical and the themes appear to be universal, but the intervention into the language, the choice of vocabulary, and the discourses taught introduce this differentiation.

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Categorization of beings and landscapes: The city as a meeting place and a place of controlled cultural intermixing (Machuel 1885)19 Louis Machuel, as director of primary schooling in Tunisia, was confronted early on with the linguistic and cultural alterity of his students: In being called to organize primary schooling in Tunisia, where the majority of students who attend our schools are of foreign origin (Italian, Maltese, Israelite or Arab), we recognized the need to have an approach to reading that was also at the same time an approach to language.20

The implementation of the colonial context is fully integrated into the methodology applied to teaching useful French, “through language use […], the teacher must speak and most of all have students speak as much as possible […] language must be made the subject of everything.”21 The excerpt chosen, the twelfth lesson of the textbook, “Vengeance d’un éléphant” (Revenge of an elephant), sheds light on the specific organization of the language-culture-civilization relationship within a colonial context in which cultural intermixing and encounters are controlled just as much by space as by morals. The image and the text allow for aspects of colonial life to be performed: the domesticated animal (the elephant), the native socialized by his function (the keeper), the implanted colonist (the tailor). The city appears to be French, with a church steeple in the background, cobblestone roads, and houses aligned; only the characters in the street imply any mixing. The animal and its keeper are the most surprising elements to a Western eye; the crowd of curious spectators behind them indicates that the scene is also a street show. These are the modalities of the encounter that make sense here for enacting a universal kind of moral, the underlying adverb indicating nonetheless 19 For a more precise analysis of Machuel’s manuel, see Spaëth, “La formation du français langue étrangère,” and Spaëth, Généalogie de la didactique du français langue étrangère. Also see Nishiyama, “Les civilisés ont-ils besoin d’apprendre la langue des indigènes?” 20 Machuel, Méthode de lecture et de langage à l’usage des étrangers de nos colonies, “Préface.” “Appelé à organiser l’enseignement primaire en Tunisie où la plupart des élèves qui fréquentent nos écoles, sont d’origine étrangère (italienne, maltaise, israélite ou arabe), nous avons reconnu la nécessité d’avoir une méthode de lecture qui fût en même temps une méthode de langage.” 21 Ibidem. “Par l’usage […], il faut que le maître parle et surtout fasse parler le plus possible […]; il faut faire du langage à propos de tout.”

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Figs. 13a & 13b. Louis Machuel, Méthode de lecture (1885). Lesson 12, “Vengeance d’un éléphant”

that the rationalization of exchanges influences the criterion of utility: “one must never uselessly hurt animals.”22 Here the subtle relationship that bimodally (through the image and the text) links civilization, language, and culture allows access to a scope of meaning in which the relationships between animals, natives, and colonists are organized without words, in the space of a city displaying colonial settlement and in accordance with the expectations of a specific moral, in which functionality dominates.

The categorization of subjects: Everyone plays a role in colonial production and organization (Sonolet and Pérès 1915) The third excerpt of this study is taken from one of the first official textbooks intended for French West Africa (AOF), in accordance with the recommendations of the first inspector of education in AOF, Georges Hardy, who

22 “Il ne faut jamais faire du mal inutilement aux animaux.”

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progressively set up the framework for a colonial pedagogy that posited education as the keystone: In order to transform the primitive peoples of our colonies, to make them as devoted as possible to our cause and useful to our endeavors, we have at our disposal but a very limited number of means, and the most certain of all is to take the native as early as childhood, to make him to frequent us assiduously and that he be subject to our intellectual and moral ways for several years; in a word, open schools where his spirit can be modeled to our intentions.23

Published in 1915 in the collection of Publications exécutées par ordre du Gouverneur général de l’Afrique occidentale française (Publications executed on the command of the General Governor of French West Africa) and illustrated by the painter of the Department of the Colonies, La méthode de lecture et d’écriture de l’écolier africain (The reading and writing books of the African schoolchild), subtitled “Complete teaching course for use in the schools of French West Africa,” is a central element of the political, educational, and administrative apparatuses of the colonies. It also functions like a vade mecum for colonial social exchanges, strictly articulated around the administrative and political ends pursued in this part of the empire starting from the administrative establishment of AOF in 1904. The excerpt chosen (see Fig. 14) constitutes a coherent statement that divides into squares and stabilizes—through the juxtaposition of images explained with simple sentences in the present tense—children’s colonial social world within which they had to envision themselves. Note that “the grinder,” “the merchant,” “the potter,” “the griot,” and “the soldier” are treated equally, making the places and roles attributed to each of them appear to be natural. The social progression confirmed by the presentation of professions is explained in the last paragraph. Indeed, the soldier, the sailor, the garde-de-cercle, and the interpreter were all professions offered by colonial authorities, and although they are but auxiliary jobs—a fact that was essential in this framework of subordination—they bestow meaning upon their recipients that goes beyond the 23 Hardy, Une conquête morale: l’enseignement en A.O.F., VIII. “Pour transformer les peuples primitifs de nos colonies, pour les rendre le plus possible dévoués à notre cause et utiles à nos entreprises, nous n’avons à notre disposition qu’un nombre très limités de moyens, et le moyen le plus sûr, c’est de prendre l’indigène dès l’enfance, d’obtenir de lui qu’il nous fréquente assidûment et qu’il subisse nos habitudes intellectuelles et morales pendant plusieurs années, en un mot de leur ouvrir des écoles où son esprit se forme à nos intentions.”

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Fig. 14. Sonolet and Pérès, Méthode de lecture: “Les métiers” [Professions] (1915)

traditional scope of the natives’ day-to-day activities, governed by repetitive gestures (grinding, selling, sewing, weaving, protecting, etc.). The notions of a relationship to established order and duty appear here as motifs for promotion and responsibility. Furthermore, subjection is first presented in its private form (“the boy serves his master”)24 and is then raised to the level of public duty (going to war, stopping wrongdoers, translating into French).25 Everyone is in their place, everyone can and must recognize his or her function in this colonial order “in the making” (in terms of administration) that is taken for granted in the simple, assertive pedagogical discourses, the images of which constitute the basis for a reality that remains, in large part, yet to come. 24 “Le boy sert son maître.” 25 “Faire la guerre, arrêter les malfaiteurs, traduire en français.”

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The end of history, the advent of a Franco-African colonial culture (Davesne 1931) The presentation of the syllabary Mamadou et Bineta at the colonial exhibition of Paris in 1931 launched the extraordinary circulation of a textbook whose f inal publication dates to 1993, despite its prohibition in many countries of AOF. André Davesne, its author, had been a primary school inspector in Dahomey since 1927.26 From the beginning, the textbook was presented as the result of a colonial pedagogy that Hardy was the first to promote, and it was also the starting point for its renewal. Indeed, for the first time, a complete textbook was available for AOF: a language course that presented the first approach to learning French and that was intended for the teacher, a syllabary, and a reading book. The three volumes articulate with one another and organize (also for the first time) a quite specific progression and relationship between speaking and writing in order to respond to the needs of a teaching context that appeared to be heading toward a stabilized form. The approach is a remarkable synthesis of pedagogical experience in Africa. The Direct Method was no longer discussed. It established itself since French had already been imposed as the only language of education. A strict balance was enforced between oral and written teaching; frameworks for vocabulary and cultural elements delicately articulated the colonial ends that had been structured around an administration in need of ever more auxiliaries. The Davesne method built the colonial imagination as much as it legitimated it by building upon the idea, which seems then to have never been questioned, of a Franco-African colonial culture. The latter depends on a politics of behavior and of bodies. Chapters I and II of the syllabary (see Fig. 15) are dedicated to school and to the human body and show how the reading session is an opportunity to set up certain behavioral frameworks. The two short texts are organized from the point of view of the student (“I go to school.” “My name is Mamadou.”)27 and are punctuated by diacritical signs designating liaisons and syllables, which indicate the strategies for teaching reading as well as for learning to read. School is presented as the antithesis of the hut: “It’s clear, I’m happy here.”28 Activities are divided into different spaces, which gives meaning to certain gestures: “In the courtyard, I play, I run, I jump […]. In the classroom,

26 See Vigner, “Une grammaire scolaire dans l’Afrique coloniale.” 27 “Je vais à l’école, je m’appelle Mamadou.” 28 “Elle est claire, j’y suis bien.”

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Fig. 15. Davesne, Mamadou et Bineta (1931). Ch. 1—“School” and Ch. 2—“The Human Body”

I work, I sit on my bench, I write on the chalkboard […].”29 The relationship to the teacher is essential and is indicative of the colonial situation: “The teacher speaks. I listen to the teacher.”30 This lesson on school is directly related to the following one, which concerns the human body. Far from being a class on anatomy though, the lesson is about Mamadou’s hygiene, as he is a future auxiliary of the French colonial administration, where cleanliness and good health are the minimum guarantors of effective operation. 29 “Dans la cour, je joue, je cours, je saute […]. Dans la classe, je travaille, je m’assieds sur mon banc, j’écris sur une ardoise.” 30 “Le maître parle. J’écoute le maître.”

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Another area, another intermixing, the construction of the subject, scenes of private life, and the secularization of the moral The last excerpt of this corpus, to which I will now turn, presents a radical change in ideological framework, all while staying on the same methodological and thematic course taken in the other textbooks studied.31 This text transports us to the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the network of the schools of the Alliance israélite universelle.32 Moïse Fresco’s textbook would have many subsequent publications; the textbook was made up of a Syllabaire et premier livre de lecture (Syllabary and first reading book) and a book of Exercices gradués de langue française (Graduated exercises in French language), the first edition of which can, through successive cross-referencing, be dated to around 1891 for the syllabary33 and to 1895 for the exercise book.34 This approach presents a specific category within the reading books intended for allophone children at the time: it was not intended for native students in the colonies35 nor for African schoolchildren;36 it was made “for all the countries where we speak a language other than French.”37 This statement, universalist in nature, inverses the official French point 31 The prefaces of both volumes of the textbook make explicit reference to the status of French, which is not the language of the students for whom the book is intended, and to the need for adapting the teaching of the foreign language to this situation. Carré, then General Inspector for primary education in France, countersigned the preface of this exercise book. By 1895 he had already published, in 1889, his Méthode pratique de langage, de lecture, d’écriture plus spécialement destinée aux élèves des provinces où l’on ne parle pas le français et qui arrivent en classe ne comprenant ni ne sachant parler la langue nationale (Practical textbook for language, reading, and writing, more specifically intended for students of the provinces in which French is not spoken and who arrive in the classroom without understanding or speaking the national language). The Direct Method is promoted in both cases, but the comparison stops there, for the underlying ideologies in Fresco and Carré are quite different. 32 In 1910 there were sixty schools across the Ottoman Empire and twelve in Constantinople alone (Bulletin de l’Alliance israélite universelle, no. 35). For more specific information, see Spaëth, “La création de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle,” and Spaëth, “Mondialisation du français dans la seconde partie du XIXe siècle.” 33 For more information, see Omer, “La présentation de la France, de l’Espagne et de l’Empire ottoman,” 217–9. The edition considered in this chapter is the 50th. This is from the interwar period. 34 See the preface to the Exercices… 35 Machuel, Méthode de lecture et de langage à l’usage des étrangers de nos colonies. 36 Sonolet and Pérès, Méthode de lecture et d’écriture de l’écolier africain. Cours complet d’enseignement à l’usage des écoles de l’Afrique occidentale française. Davesne, Mamadou et Bineta apprennent à lire et écrire. Syllabaire à l’usage des écoles africaines. 37 “Pour tous les pays où l’on parle une autre langue que le français.”

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of view on the transmission of the language. It is the situation and the status of French that are signif icant, not the anthropological status of students. Published between Istanbul and Paris, by an author38 belonging to the Jewish community, this textbook contains no direct allusion to the communities it is intended to target. The emancipatory function given to education in French, the ideological autonomy of the pedagogues of the Alliance Israélite Universelle with respect to the French institutions as well as to the local religious authorities, and the geographical decentering at work facilitated a new and rather unheard-of stance within the domain of the transmission of French. The excerpt chosen, Monsieur Paul écrit (Mr. Paul writes; see Fig. 16), depicts the schoolboy Paul, who has just learned to write, in a sketch from private life. The illustration presents an indoor setting with characters belonging to the bourgeois European world, and writing is presented as the threshold to becoming “big.” School is depicted here not for its own sake but for what it permits: writing, an autonomous action, as well as one that brings about enjoyment. The tools of this autonomy, named but not shown, apart from the notebook in Paul’s hand, are the inkwell, the notebook, ink, and the fountainpen. They make up the schoolchild’s world that they can carry home. The two authoritative figures are present in the scene. The teacher, a figure of public authority, he who transmits and authorizes writing, gave Paul the tools for writing. The father, a figure of private authority, assesses the situation (here, Paul’s mistake: he drew moustaches and a beard on himself with the ink) and punishes him by putting the much-desired tools away in a drawer. The illustration depicts exactly what is stated in the lesson’s dialogues, the exchange between Paul and his father. The moral written in cursive seems out of sync and requires interpretation: “No enjoyment without work.”39 From an external standpoint, the sketch appears to be identical to those that can be found in the reading books intended for French schoolchildren, notwithstanding Fresco’s preface. But from an internal standpoint, it is entirely different. The illustration finds itself in the heart of Turkey during the interwar period. The Alliance Israélite Universelle schools had already contributed to the transformation of the social fabric of Jewish communities, particularly in the milieu of urban shopkeepers. The clothing and the bourgeois interior seen in the sketch communicate a great deal about what 38 The author, trained at the École Normale Israélite des Garçons, in Paris, was the Director of Schools for the Alliance Israélite Universelle network. 39 “Pas de plaisir sans travail.”

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Fig. 16. M. Fresco, Syllabaire (1891):”Monsieur Paul écrit,” 90–91

already existed or what was to come. A new kind of intermixing is displayed: between the traditional school of thought (studies, writing, the figure of the teacher and of the student) and a modern one (the autonomy of secular knowledge, the student as an autonomous subject, morals in the workplace). This secularized hybrid construction is unexpectedly revealed through the moral that closes out this brief episode: “No enjoyment without work.” The civilization-language-culture relationship apparent here can also be understood, depending on the standpoint adopted (internal or external), as much as a form of acculturation that follows a process of assimilation as a form of acculturation that follows the guidelines of integration.40

Conclusion: Reading books, makers of meaning and of history The study of reading books intended for allophone children between the end of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century has allowed me to delineate the history of these fascinating objects located within an order of historicity that has since disappeared. In uncovering them to observe these objects of study, the viewer can get caught in the webs of 40 Wachtel, Des archives au terrain.

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plurality in their meaning. Though the books were initially intended to be read to learn a language that is not one’s own, to anchor or to transmit exogenous or already hybridized values, this historical operation reveals their dual dimension: “external, for they employ or question the language or languages of their time; and internal, in that they produce meaning in and of themselves.”41 As such, the coexistence of different meanings attributed to a given story42 can give rise to multiple interpretations. If we as modern readers and observers are obliged to speculate generally, these textbooks offer keys to grasping the complexity of the gestures that construct the relationship between civilization, language, and culture. French acts as a kind of “fuse,” and the effects are not always apparent; they are often produced by the texts themselves. These reading books were able to serve both the colonial propaganda and the educational ideals of teachers and to promote a form of assimilation, integration, etc. From a child’s point of view, they contributed to building an imagination in which French has a place, and though we may have prejudice against their modes of appropriation, the traces left on history tell us that they have contributed, against all expectations, to diverse and colorful modes of acculturation. Taking this into account also means giving voice back to those who have perished, reconciling with memory and with history: “The past needs us to help it.”43

References Primary Sources Alliance Israélite Universelle, Bulletin de l’Alliance israélite universelle 35 (1910). Bruno, G. [= Augustine Fouillée-Tuillerie], Le Tour de la France par deux enfants (Paris: Librairie classique Eugène, 1904 [1877]). Carré, Irénée, Méthode pratique de langage, de lecture, d’écriture plus spécialement destiné aux élèves des provinces où l’on ne parle pas le français et qui arrivent en classe ne comprenant ni ne sachant parler la langue nationale (Paris: A. Colin, 1889). Davesne, André, Mamadou et Bineta apprennent à lire et écrire. Syllabaire à l’usage des écoles africaines (Paris/Strasbourg: Istra, 1931 [1930]).

41 Moatti, “Historicité et ‘altéronomie’: un autre regard sur le politique,” 109. 42 Banon, La Lecture infinie: les voies de l’interprétation midrachique. 43 Wachtel, Des archives au terrain, 427.

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Fresco, Moïse, Syllabaire et premier livre de lecture pour tous les pays où l’on parle une autre langue que le français, 50th ed. (Paris/Istanbul: Éditions M. Fresco, s.d. [1891]). Fresco, Moïse, Exercices gradués de langue française. Cours élémentaire (Paris/ Istanbul: Éditions M. Fresco, 1895). Hardy, Georges, Une conquête morale: l’enseignement en A.O.F. (Paris: A. Colin, 1917). Leprince de Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie, Le magasin des enfants, dialogues d’une sage gouvernante avec ses élèves (Paris: Delarue libraire et éditeur, 1859 [1758]). Machuel, Louis, Méthode de lecture et de langage à l’usage des étrangers de nos colonies (Paris: A. Colin, 1885). Sonolet, Louis, and Auguste Pérès, Méthode de lecture et d’écriture de l’écolier africain. Cours complet d’enseignement à l’usage des écoles de l’Afrique occidentale française (Paris: A. Colin, 1915).

Secondary Sources Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996). Banon, David, La Lecture infinie: les voies de l’interprétation midrachique (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987). Benjamin, Walter, “On the Concept of History,” in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken Books, 1969 [1940]). Bloch, Marc, Apologie pour l’histoire ou Métier d’historien (Paris: A. Colin, 1974 [1941]). Ginzburg, Carlo, À distance. Neuf essais sur le point de vue en histoire (Paris: Gallimard, 2001 [1988]). Gruzinski, Serge, Les quatre parties du monde: histoire d’une mondialisation (Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, 2004). Hobsbawm, Eric J., The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987). Legendre, Pierre, Leçons X. Dogma, instituer l’animal humain, chemins réitérés de questionnement (Paris: Fayard, 2017). Moatti, Claudia, “Historicité et ‘altéronomie’: un autre regard sur le politique,” Politica antica 1 (2011), 107–18. Nishiyama, Noriyuki, “Les civilisés ont-ils besoin d’apprendre la langue des indigènes? La politique linguistique éducative de l’arabe chez Louis Machuel dans la Tunisie sous le Protectorat français à la fin du 19e siècle,” Revue japonaise de didactique du français 2.2 (2007), 23–42. Omer, Danielle, “La présentation de la France, de l’Espagne et de l’Empire ottoman dans le manuel d’histoire de Moïse Fresco destiné aux écoles primaires de l’Alliance israélite universelle (début du XXe siècle),” in La Méditerranée des

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Méditerranéens à travers leurs manuels scolaires, ed. Pierre Boutan, Bruno Maurer, and Hassan Remaoun (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012), 217–34. Ozouf, Jacques, and Mona Ozouf, “Le Tour de la France par deux enfants: le petit livre rouge de la République,” in Les Lieux de mémoire, ed. Pierre Nora, vol. 1: La République (Paris: Gallimard, 1984), 291–321. Savoy, Bénédicte, Objets du désir, désir d’objets, coll. “Leçons inaugurales du Collège de France” (Paris: Fayard, 2018). Spaëth, Valérie, “La formation du français langue étrangère: le paradigme africain et ses enjeux de la colonisation aux indépendances” (doctoral thesis, 3 vols., Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1997). Spaëth, Valérie, Généalogie de la didactique du français langue étrangère. L’enjeu africain (Paris: Didier Érudition, 1998). Spaëth, Valérie, “La création de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle ou la diffusion de la langue française dans le bassin méditerranéen,” in Changements politiques et statut des langues, histoire et épistémologie, ed. Marie-Christine Kok Escalle and Francine Melka (Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 2001), 103–18. Spaëth, Valérie, “Mondialisation du français dans la seconde partie du XIXe siècle: l’Alliance israélite universelle et l’Alliance française,” Langue Française 167 (2010), 49–73. Spaëth, Valérie, “La relation ‘civilisation-langue-culture’ dans les livres de lecture pour l’enseignement en français aux publics enfantins allophones (1885–1930) : une fenêtre ouverte sur le passé…,” Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 60–61 (2018), 195–214. Vigner, Gérard, “Une grammaire scolaire dans l’Afrique coloniale. La grammaire dans la série Mamadou et Bineta: grammaire réduite ou grammaire adaptée?” Document pour l’Histoire du Français Langue Étrangère ou Seconde 52 (2014), 141–63. Wachtel, Nathan, Des archives au terrain. Essais d’anthropologie historique (Paris: EHESS, Gallimard & Le Seuil, 2014).

About the author Valérie Spaëth has been full professor of didactics of languages and language sciences at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle since 2012. She was director of the DILTEC laboratory (Didactics of languages, texts, and cultures) from 2014 to 2020. She works on the history of the diffusion of the teaching of French, especially as a second language and Francophonie. Her work combines political and historical analysis. Personal website: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/mme-spaeth-valerie-29902.kjsp

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A propos de l’auteure Valérie Spaëth est professeure de Didactique des langues et des sciences du langage à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle depuis 2012. Elle a dirigé le laboratoire DILTEC (Didactique des langues, des textes et des cultures) de 2014 à 2020. Elle consacre sa recherche à l’histoire de la diffusion de l’enseignement du français, notamment en tant que langue seconde et à la francophonie. Ses travaux combinent analyse politique et historique. Site web personnel : http://www.univ-paris3.fr/mme-spaeth-valerie-29902. kjsp

IV East Africa

8

From teaching non-Arabs Arabic to Arabization in 1950s Sudan1 Andrea Facchin

Abstract: This chapter illustrates the early debut of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) as a discipline by discussing the Sudanese experiment and its often untold history. It represents a unique example in the TAFL field, for it is strongly connected to Arabization policies. In this context, the research narrates the establishment of the Maridi Institute, where Ḫalīl Maḥmūd ʿAsākir directed a group of experts between 1954 and 1960. The study reports on how a script shift project was devised in order to rewrite nine South Sudanese local languages in a modified Arabic script (Zande, Dinka, Bari, Moro, Lotuko, Shilluk, Nuer, Morli, and Anuak) and thus to teach Arabic to non-Arab speakers, train prospective instructors, and face the challenges of Arabization within language transfer areas. Résumé : Ce chapitre traite des débuts de l’Arabe Langue Étrangère (TAFL) en tant que discipline d’enseignement à travers l’expérience soudanaise et son histoire souvent méconnue. Cette expérience représente un exemple unique dans le domaine du TAFL, car elle est fortement liée aux politiques d’arabisation. Dans ce contexte, on cherche à rendre compte de la création de l’Institut Maridi, où Ḫalīl Maḥmūd ʿAsākir a dirigé un groupe d’experts entre 1954 et 1960. En montrant comment un projet de changement d’écriture a été conçu af in de doter neuf langues locales sud-soudanaises (Zande, Dinka, Bari, Moro, Lotuko, Shilluk, Nuer, Morli et Anuak) d’un alphabet arabe modifié, d’enseigner l’arabe à des locuteurs non arabophones, de former les futurs instructeurs et de relever le défi de l’arabisation au sein de zones de transfert linguistique.

1 [De l’enseignement de l’arabe à des non-arabophones à l’arabisation dans le Soudan des années 1950].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch8

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Keywords: Sudan. South Sudan. Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. Arabization. Teaching methods. Script shift. Ḫalīl Maḥmūd ʿAsākir. Mots-clés : Soudan. Soudan du Sud. Enseignement de l’Arabe Langue Étrangère. Arabisation. Méthodes d’enseignement. Transcripturisation. Ḫalīl Maḥmūd ʿAsākir.

Introduction Often considered a peripheral zone of the Arab world, the region comprising today’s republics of Sudan and South Sudan (hereafter simply referred to as “Sudan” or the “Sudans”)2 was and is a focal point for scholars from different disciplines, such as linguistics, history, political sciences, etc., to such an extent that research pertaining to this region is vast. Notably, many scholars have discussed the Arabization policies comprehensively, since Sudan has represented—together with other Arab countries such as Algeria—a prime example illustrating the deleterious effects of colonization and the subsequent political reactions of the newly independent Arab nations. However, the Sudans are a useful example not only for historians of colonialism but also for linguists because of their rich linguistic landscape encompassing 133 living languages,3 most classified either under the Nilo-Saharan or NigerCongo language family, beyond English, Standard Arabic, and its unofficial Sudanese Spoken and creole varieties.4 In addition, the Sudans have also played a significant role in the field of applied linguistics, specifically in the Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language (henceforth TAFL), for the region prevailed as the theater of its initial impetus within the Arab world. Within this framework, this study investigates its origins and developments in 1950s Sudan to fill a gap in literature. As it turns out, scholars have either succinctly or only partly discussed the theme of the present research, sometimes providing a comprehensive retrospective,5 but they have rarely analyzed it from 2 Unless stated otherwise, attention is restricted f irstly to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956) and secondly to the “Republic of the Sudan” (Ǧumhūriyyat al-Sūdān) (1956–2011), politically united during the period analyzed in this chapter. 3 See Lewis, Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 4 The alternate names of these two varieties of Arabic are, respectively: Khartoum Arabic and Juba, Pidgin, or Southern Sudan Arabic. Notwithstanding, as Miller points out, before the 1960s, the Arabic-based varieties spoken in South Sudan were labeled “Simple Arabic” or “Southern Arabic” (Miller, “Juba Arabic as a Written Language,” 355). See also Owens’s and Dickins’s entries on the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. 5 Abū Bakr, “Taǧriba fī taʿlīmal-kitāba wa-l-qirāʾa li-l-mubtadiʾīn aḥādī al-luġa al-umm.”

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a critical viewpoint examining its influence over the years, the teaching methods, or transliteration phenomena connected to it. This research further analyzes a particular case study: a five-year experiment carried out by a team of Arab educators in the TAFL field on many schools located in the South Sudanese region between 1955 and 1960, a period in which the Sudan officially gained its independence from British colonial rule. It is worth noting that the Sudanese experiment features the teaching of Standard Arabic to non-Arabs, while it concurrently constitutes one of the most hybrid examples in the field because it is also highly connected to Arabization policies (taʿrīb) of the newly independent Republic of the Sudan. Because of its hybridity, this experiment has generally been discarded by the majority of TAFL Arab scholars. However, in several instances, some academics have cited it when describing the genesis of the TAFL discipline.6 The fact that this history turns out to be completely uncharted already makes clear that further investigation is urgently needed. At the same time, the Sudanese case study is of paramount importance, as it represents TAFL’s first debut within the Arab world, with the exception of minor isolated experiments like the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies or the American University in Beirut, where, in the early 1920s, “the young Anīs Frayḥa took up a position as adjunct professor […] and began teaching new American faculty members and their wives Lebanese colloquial Arabic.”7 Granting that all the histories linked to the genesis and growth of TAFL deserve full and in-depth investigation (partly conducted in the case of Lebanon),8 the Sudanese example still needs to be told further from a historical perspective to fill a gap in existing literature. This chapter thus intends to offer a critical overview, not exhaustive due to limits of space, on the Sudanese case study by addressing to two main questions. Firstly, by whom was the Sudanese TAFL experiment of 1955–60 inspired? Secondly, did the British indirect rule education policies have an impact on the cited experiment, and which pedagogical decisions were taken by the Arab educator team involved? Bearing this in mind, the aims of this research are to trace the history of the Sudanese case study, highlighting its particular features and explaining how this laid the foundations of the TAFL in Sudan for the years to come.9 6 Muḥammad Aḥmad, “Ṭullāb al-ʿarabiyya”; al-Ṭuʿma, “Mulāḥaẓāt”; Badawī, “Muqtaḍayāt al-kafāʾa.” 7 Wilmsen, Arabic as a Foreign Language at AUB, 141. 8 See Craig, Shemlan; Tempest, The Arabists of Shemlan; Kozah, “On Anis Frayha.” 9 For an in-depth analysis of the Sudanese TAFL landscape see Bašīr, “al-Taǧriba al-sūdāniyya.”

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Theoretical framework The Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language is a branch of applied linguistics commonly called in Arabic taʿlīm al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā (teaching Arabic to non-arabophones), or using a series of variants like li-l-aǧānib (foreigners), li-ġayr al-ʿarab (non-Arabs), etc. It remained a circumscribed occurrence within the Arab world until the twentieth century,10 although it does boast a longer history as a teaching practice outside the region, utilized since the twelfth century in non-academic contexts, e.g., at the Escuela de traductores of Toledo and in present-day Iran, Afghanistan, India, or Nigeria.11 It was around the 1950s that some of the newly independent Arab countries started the first TAFL experiments, which rapidly became a widespread teaching practice within the region, partly coinciding with the birth of TAFL as a research area. This latter phenomenon sprung from the interplay, exchange, and dialogue between the Arab nation states and the rest of the world around the end of the 1950s. To this end, the Sudanese TAFL experiment analyzed in this chapter is the first of its kind, and it is set chronologically even before the Harvard University conference of 1958, commonly associated with the birth of a new branch of applied linguistics, namely the teaching of Arabic to non-Arabs as a research area.12 However, contrary to the TAFL experiments launched more widely in various independent Arab nations, the Sudanese one represents a unique case. While other Arab institutes were generally concerned with responding to the practical training needs of foreigners learning Arabic in their homeland, the Sudanese enterprise aimed to tackle the problem of 10 In general, this could be stated also for the teaching of other foreign languages. However, Younes (in The Integrated Approach, 22) points out that the study of Arabic as a foreign language in the region dates back to the early Islamic period “when new converts, whose language was not Arabic, sought to understand the language of their sacred text.” Notwithstanding, one should clarify that language education at that time was neither institutionalized nor supported by any theoretical reflections. Facchin, Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language, 27. 11 Facchin, “Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the Arab World,” 194. 12 Both within the framework of the TAFL discipline and this chapter, there is often a thin line identifying which variety of Arabic is taken into account. As a general rule, in this contribution the language variety is specified when strictly necessary, and it is generalized when more than one variety is considered. In this sense, “Standard Arabic” refers to the modern, high, literary, and formal variety, named al-ʿarabiyya al-fuṣḥà or al-muʿāṣira, which is also the variety generally considered within TAFL scholarly production. Expressions such as “Arabic words” and “Arabic alphabet” or “script” are simplified without any additional specification so as not to overwhelm the reading.

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language interference13 (tadāḫul luġawī), which characterized the South Sudanese region. In 1964 the Egyptian Ministry of Education decided to build the Arabic Language Education Center for Foreign Students, which was fully dedicated to the language preparation of international students studying in Egypt. Analogously, the Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes was inaugurated in Tunis, with the same scope and in the same year. By contrast, in the case of Sudan, the establishment of TAFL projects hinged on the practical need of curing the interference of Sudanese local language systems—like Nubian, Bari, Beja, Fur, Shilluk, etc.—with Arabic,14 which gave birth to South Sudanese Arabic, often known as “Juba Arabic,” through the process of pidginization and creolization.15 To this end, the renowned Khartoum International Institute for Arabic Language (Maʿhad al-Ḫarṭūm al-duwalī li-l-luġa al-ʿarabiyya, hereafter simply Maʿhad al-Ḫarṭūm) was founded years later, in 1974, to rectify the aforementioned situation. These unique circumstances all contribute to the distinctiveness of Sudanese TAFL, which is located in a hybrid field of study merging general linguistic speculations, colonial linguistics, Arabization policies, language, and script contact, beyond TAFL itself.

Historical background To understand the Sudanese TAFL experiment fully and in depth, it is vital to concisely outline the history of language policies enacted in Sudan during British colonial rule and soon after independence on January 1, 1956. During the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898–1956), the British feared anti-colonial jihad and for this reason decided “to divide the Sudan 13 Generally speaking, in language interference areas, linguistic item borrowings (words, rules, categories, meanings, etc.) are imported from one language into the other. 14 While Owens (in “Creole Arabic: The Orphan of all Orphans”) acknowledges that Bari substratal influence is observable in South Sudanese Arabic, other scholars suggest the influence of Nubian and other Southern Sudanese local languages; cf. Wellens, An Arabic Creole in Africa, 13; Nakao, “Revising the Substratal/Adstratal Influence on Arabic Creoles”; and Leonardi, “South Sudanese Arabic and the Negotiation of the Local,” 357. 15 For further observations on Juba Arabic and the phenomena mentioned above, see the contributions by Miller and by Manfredi and Petrollino, cited in the bibliography. On creolization, Owens states: “Mahmud (1983) reports that it [expressly Juba Arabic] is nativized in the southern Sudan, i.e. a Creole, though at the same time it serves as a lingua franca not only in the southern Sudan, but among the southern Sudanese diaspora in general. Its total population of speakers is therefore hard to discern” (Owens, “Creole Arabic,” Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics).

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territory into a ‘north,’ which was almost completely Muslim, and a ‘south,’ where the population mostly practiced local religions.”16 In the South, the British administration favored English and local languages, which had to be written in Roman script, while officially seeking to exclude Arabic—and Islam—from local Southern government and to restrict the entry of Arabicspeaking northern Sudanese through the so-called “Southern Policy.” As Abdelhay, Makoni, and Makoni point out, “the modern history of Sudan can be re-articulated in terms of the ways in which top-down language planning is a function as well as an effect of inequality in the distribution of and access to resources of various forms.”17In this regard, 1928 was a crucial year for the British language policies, as the Rejaf Language Conference was organized, and, in accordance with the aforementioned authors, the “vernacular-construction” was formulated, specifically through the creation of a “stratified local sociolinguistic system with a Eurocentric audience design.”18 The conferees—mainly British officials and missionaries—prepared “an official list of ‘languages and dialects’ spoken in Southern Sudan and identified six languages (Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Bari, Lotuko, and Zande) that would be ‘suitable for development’ in textbooks.”19 After the conference, it was decided that schools should use a “tribal language” in lower grades, an “African lingua franca”20 in middle grades, and English for higher grades. Following the gradual concession of freedom by British authorities, Standard Arabic, taught in Arabic script, began to be introduced in South Sudanese schools in 1946,21 with the aim of replacing both local languages and English as media of instruction in the future.22 Against this background, the Southern provinces became “indivisibly part of the Sudan, and this was to be reflected in the new language policy”23 within the following decades. In 1949 the first northern Sudanese to lead the Ministry of Education (Wizārat al-maʿārif), Sirr al-Ḫatim al-Ḫalīfa (1919–2006), was appointed. This decision 16 Sharkey, “Language and Conflict,” 433. One should add that “British colonial language planning practices […] essentially amalgamated Arabic, Islam and pigmented, spatialised identity, constituting in the process of ‘northern Sudan’ vis-à-vis its southern counterpart”; see Abdelhay, Makoni, and Makoni, “The Sociolinguistic of Nationalism,” 457. 17 Abdelhay, Makoni, and Makoni, “The Colonial Linguistics of Governance in Sudan,” 343. 18 Ibidem. 19 Sharkey, “Language and Conflict,” 434. 20 For a complete overview on the Rejaf Conference, see Abdelhay, Makoni, and Makoni, “The Colonial Linguistics of Governance in Sudan.” 21 Miller, “Juba Arabic as a written language,” 357. 22 Abū Bakr, “Language and Education in Southern Sudan,” 13. 23 Ibidem.

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brought about a “rapid dismantling” of colonial policies and a subsequent imposition of Arabic language guidelines as a reaction to the British rule over education and language. Islam was not excluded from this logic, as Poggo affirms that Sudanese government officials began to pressure non-Muslims by making individual promotion to higher schools and access to scholarships contingent upon their embracing Islam.24 Standard Arabic (SA) became the official language throughout Sudan, and in the wake of independence, a national education pattern was established. This combined SA and English, while teaching in South Sudanese local languages and Juba Arabic in Roman script was prohibited.25 Notwithstanding, it is important to specify that the previous southern pattern of education—including South Sudanese local languages as media of instruction—continued to preside alongside the national method until the 1960s.26 Moreover, the training of trainers (tadrīb al-muʿallimīn) became one of the most urgent issues of the newly established Ministry, so much so that the first training sessions were held between 1949 and 1954.27 These meetings addressing major issues mainly tackled the challenges of Arabization in the composite Sudanese language landscape, as well as teacher preparation and schoolbook drafting. For this reason, the Sudanese government decided to start another project in 1955, consisting firstly in the introduction of SA as a subject in schools (idḫāl al-ʿarabiyya ka-madda) and secondly in turning it into the language of instruction (wasīlat al-taʿlīm). This was accomplished through the foundation of a dedicated institute, as illustrated below. 24 Sharkey, “Language and Conflict,” 436. 25 Miller, “Juba Arabic as a Written Language,” 357. 26 It is interesting to report what Abū Bakr states when referring to the “Anyanya,” namely a word in Lotuko meaning “poisonous snake” and at the same time identifying Southerners fighting against the Sudanese central Government in the 1960s: “Far from the eyes and control of the Government, the Anyanya were running their schools in the sixties in the jungles of the South according to the old system (vernaculars as media in classes 1 and 2 with English as a subject in these two years and as a medium of instruction from the third year on)” (“Language and Education in Southern Sudan,” 14). Furthermore, the claims of South Sudanese intellectuals properly explain the situation in which they found themselves soon after independence: “what Northern politicians regarded as policies of national unity, many Southern intellectuals regarded as cultural colonialism, precisely because they had no choice or voice in the matter” (Sharkey, “Arab Identity,” 36). According to the Sudan African National Union report of 1964, Southerners felt that “Arabized education was cheating them—that standards were low and failing, that teachers were weak, unmotivated, or merely propagandistic, and that Southerners, educated in Arabic, were left unable to compete with educated native Arabic-speakers” (ibidem). 27 Abū Bakr, “Barāmiǧ iʿdād wa-tadrīb muʿallim al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā,” 63.

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Arabic language teaching to non-Arabs in Sudan between 1954 and 1960 In 1954 Maʿhad Marīdī (the Maridi Institute) was established in the South Sudanese town of Maridi, near the international border with the Belgian Congo (today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo), where Ḫalīl Maḥmūd ʿAsākir from Cairo University was entrusted with the task of teaching Standard Arabic to non-Arab speakers (specifically speakers of South Sudanese local languages) and training prospective instructors at the Sudanese Ministry of Education.28 ʿAsākir was partnered with a team of assistants, who included Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa Abū Bakr, Aḥmad Ismāʿīl al-Baylī, and Muḥyī al-Dīn Ḫalīl al-Rīḥ.29 This team was later named by al-Ṭayyib al-Šayḫ “Southern Bureaus Arabic Language Division for the Preliminary Study of Southern Languages” (šuʿbat al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-l-mudīriyyāt al-ǧanubiyya bi-dirāsa awwaliyya fī luġāt al-ǧanūb).30 To overcome the long-standing problem of language transfer, the team devised a “script shift”31 project, creating a new system in modified Arabic script for writing five South Sudanese local languages32—Zande, Dinka, Bari, Moro, and Lotuko33—with the final goal of facing the Arabization challenge. Since the training of trainers was another pressing concern in 1950s Sudan, the project intended to make it easier for the 800 teachers coming from 400 different schools to start reading in Arabic. Nonetheless, according to Abū Bakr, the writing of Southern languages in modified Arabic script was devised for another reason: to minimize 28 Bašīr, “al-Taǧriba al-sūdāniyya,” 48. 29 In this group of names, one should also include Richard Hill (1901–1996), English historian of Sudan, mentioned by Bašīr (in “al-Taǧriba al-sūdāniyya,” 49) as part of the team of experts. 30 al-Ṭayyib al-Šayḫ, “Taǧribat šuʿbat al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya.” 31 More precisely, the transfer of a writing system from the language for which it was originally conceived to another. In this light, I embrace the terminological choices made by Baglioni and Tribulato, who suggest calling the phenomenon transcritturazione, which I recommend translating as “script shift.” As explained by the same authors, the term primarily has the advantage of being immediately transparent; secondly, it is difficult to confuse it with words of similar formation, such as “transcription” and “transliteration,” which have different meanings (Baglioni and Tribulato, Contatti di lingue, 19). 32 This is however not the first case in which Muslims’ African languages were written using the Arabic script. For Nubian Nobiin language, see Hāšim, “Competing Orthographies for Writing Nobiin Nubian”; for other Sudanese languages, see Gilley, Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages. 33 All these languages belong to the Nilo-Saharan family, except from Zande and Moro, which are Niger-Congo languages.

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the difficulties faced by South Sudanese school pupils.34 To be exact, after the introduction of Arabic in schools, children had to learn two or more languages depending on the education model, thus learning both Arabic and Roman script in the first two years. As Abū Bakr states: through the project, “it was hoped that a unification of the alphabet would tend to reduce linguistic diversity and consequently bring south and north socially close together.”35 Such stances clearly reflected that the alphabet unification proceeded only in one direction, toward the Arabic script. By the same token, the linguistic leveling aimed at bringing non-Arabic speakers closer to the prestigious variety of Standard Arabic, which also implied social unification. The experiment did not end after the first training sessions, as it continued for five years, from 1955 until 1960, in more than 500 schools: 400 village schools (madrasat qarya) and 154 primary ones (madrasa awwaliyya).36 The project was carried out in a series of cities, towns, and small villages scattered in the regions of Bahr El-Ghazal and Equatoria.37Among them, for instance, were today’s capital of the independent Republic of South Sudan, Juba, but also Nimule, Wau, Mundri, Yirol, Torit, Lainya, Loga, Tumbura, Yambio,38 and Maridi; this last location is the most frequently cited in literature because of its renowned institute. The efforts of the TAFL team led byʿAsākir mainly tackled phonological issues, as phonology (ʿilm al-aṣwāt) was the area of specialization of most of the scholars involved in the project.39 Thus, new Arabic letters and short vowels were created to represent the phonemes lacking in Arabic and characterizing South Sudanese local languages. Despite the debatable scientific choices, Abū Bakr ensured that non-Arabic-speaking teachers were trained and could read their mother tongue in Arabic script in only one week.40 This achievement allowed the team to gradually introduce schoolbooks in Arabic script and complete Arabization. By the end of the decade, in 1960, the team had produced five

34 Abū Bakr, “Language and Education in Southern Sudan,” 13. 35 Ibidem. 36 Abū Bakr, “Taǧriba fī taʿlīm al-kitāba wa-l-qirāʾa li-l-mubtadiʾīn aḥādī al-luġa al-umm,” 244. 37 These historical regions were dissolved in 2015 and are now partitioned into the thirty-two federal states of South Sudan. 38 Bāmbyū according to Abū Bakr, “Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa,” 351. 39 Bašīr, “al-Taǧriba al-sūdāniyya,” 50. 40 See Abū Bakr, “Barāmiǧ iʿdād wa-tadrīb muʿallim al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā,” 64.

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books41and put four more languages in Arabic script: Shilluk,42 Nuer, Morli, and Anuak, all belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family. The case of Maʿhad Marīdī and the other training sessions carried out within the southwestern territories of South Sudan between 1955 and 1960 therefore represents a noteworthy example relevant to both language teaching and planning that lies between TAFL and Arabization. The Sudanese experiment is characterized by a specific model of language learning and teaching, which is the product of the Arab mindset and concurrently the synthesis of the composite Sudanese language landscape and Arabization policies.

Which didactic model? While staying in line with the main aim of this contribution—that is, to examine language teaching and learning from a historical perspective, particularly the relationship between language policies and teaching in 1950s Sudan—the investigation in this chapter has sought to provide an answer to a crucial research question: By whom was the Sudanese TAFL case study of 1955–60 inspired? Did the British indirect rule, its education policies, and colonial linguistics have an impact on this experiment and the decisions taken by the Arab educators conducting it? Many years later, the Sudanese scholar Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa Abū Bakr, who cooperated with ʿAsākir, reported the principles that the Sudanese experiment was based on. In one of his most recent articles entitled “Three answers to three questions” (Ṯalāṯat asʾila wa-aǧwibatu-hā) issued in 2015, Abū Bakr mentions three principles: practical (maydānī), psychological (nafsī), and educational (tarbawī). The first is the most important, for it explains the other two and is linked to the practical experiment carried out by Abū Bakr andʿAsākir, key scholars in the field. The two scholars compared two groups of pupils:43 the first was taught to read and write the Arabic script through Standard Arabic 41 Le Clézio (in “Writing Shilluk,” 43) and Ḥiǧāzī (in “Taysīr al-kitāba al-ʿarabiyya,” 143) give notice of the books prepared. These were all published in 1960 in Khartoum, except from the Lotuko textbook, which was printed in Juba. They were all entitled al-Muṭālaʿa al-awwaliyya [First lessons], which were followed by the various translations, respectively, for Bari Silabārī ko kutuk na bārī, for Dinka Aṯor tweŋ, for Lotuko Ā kitāb ā hepe ō terri te ē kjana ō tuho, for Zande Bambata kitābu gedapaj, and for Moro Lusi ku luk. 42 Le Clézio, “Writing Shilluk with and Arabic Script.” 43 No data were provided on their ages.

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sample words, short sentences, or texts, while the second was taught the same but through their mother tongues (hereafter L1); these were texts in South Sudanese local languages written using the modified Arabic script mentioned above. As one can easily surmise without any technical knowledge of applied linguistics, the second group learned more quickly. According to Abū Bakr, they employed only twenty lesson hours to be able to read short stories in their L1, even though they were written in the Arabic script.44 This result encouraged the team to continue their training sessions, because it permitted those pupils who were proficient in reading and writing their L1 through the Arabic script to easily advance to Arabic texts, since they were able to overcome obstacles and difficulties more efficiently. This allowed the experts to pursue the main aim for which they were called upon: strictly speaking, Arabization, a component further discussed below. This practical result was also supported by a psycholinguistic finding made by the team of experts, as they observed anxiety (tawattur nafsī) in pupils while learning the Arabic alphabet. Saliently, Abū Bakr explains that, at beginner levels, it is a common habit to connect the sign to its sound by giving an example directly in the language of study, e.g., in Arabic, asad for letter alif, baqar for bāʾ, etc. As explained by the Sudanese scholar, when pupils are taught letters through examples in the second/foreign language, they cannot grasp the scope of learning (that is, to connect signs to their meanings) and thereby start to ask themselves why a given word is used to describe a certain object or concept, e.g. why the lion is called asad in Arabic instead of cuär or kör, the Dinka words, respectively, for the “cattle-eating” and “man-eating” types. As Abū Bakr affirms, the difficulty described above could turn into anxiety, causing wasted time both for the teachers, obliged to repeat, and their students, who are requested to learn by heart and connect new strings of sounds to an object already named in their L1.45 Consequently, this situation would result in a general lack of comprehension.46 By resorting to mother tongues, pupils would have been able to better understand the scope of the lesson and to connect the sign (ḥarf ) to its “phonic signified” (madlūl ṣawtī), a task they could not carry out when learning the Arabic script through Arabic words because they could not immediately grasp the meanings of the foreign words presented. 44 Abū Bakr, “Ṯalāṯat asʾila wa-aǧwibatu-hā,” 350. 45 Ibidem. 46 Ibidem, 351.

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The scientific assumptions—and the resulting theories—put forth so far have addressed the problem of linguistic arbitrariness without arriving at any viable teaching solutions that remove the obstacles and utilize Arabic as a vehicular language in the second-language classroom, but the choice of teaching Arabic script in South Sudanese children’s L1 should be related to, and thus explained by, the historical juncture that the newly independent Sudan was undergoing at the end of 1950s—more precisely, its language and education policies. From an educational perspective, Abū Bakr tried to justify the didactic approach tested in the project by explaining that Arabic script teaching through children’s L1 permitted going from the known (maʿlūm) to the unknown (maǧhūl) and from localism (maḥalliyya) to nationalism (qawmiyya).47 In this case, one must reconsider Arabization, which represented the main objective of the expert team and their patrons, the Sudanese government, and went hand in hand with nationalism and Islamization. As Sharkey points out, this aspect reflected “the worldviews of Muslim leaders who hoped to break from the colonial past and start afresh while forging alliances with Arab states,”48 at the same time bringing “the Muslim Africans nearer to Arabic language and hence to Islam.”49 As reported by Abū Bakr, there were three favorable results of this approach. Firstly, pupils studying their L1 enjoyed learning both their language and culture. Secondly, learning a mother tongue through the Arabic script paved the way to learning Standard Arabic, thus promoting Arabization. Thirdly, children using words in their L1, besides Arabic letters and a writing system, perceived all these aspects as part of their culture (ṯaqāfa), personality (šaḫṣiyya), and language environment (bīʾa luġawiyya).50 Despite the genuine nature of the team’s intentions and their mission of teaching, described as more dutiful than politically oriented, it is difficult not to conclude that there was a very fine line between language policy and teaching. South Sudanese local languages were written down using the modified Arabic alphabet, and they were taught to pupils in schools scattered around the Southern territory, all with the ultimate aim of Arabization; these features represent a clear case of language policy interfering with language teaching. From a scholarly perspective, one cannot affirm that the Sudanese TAFL experiment was anchored in clear theoretical foundations. It was mainly 47 Ibidem. 48 Sharkey, “Language and Conflict,” 428. 49 Hāšim, “Competing Orthographies for Writing Nobiin Nubian,” 220. 50 Abū Bakr, “Ṯalāṯat asʾila wa-aǧwibatu-hā,” 351–52.

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based on the reasoning in the field articulated by its educators along with practical solutions adopted after joint discussions, which were mainly driven by Arabization objectives, or what I propose to call a problem solving–oriented approach to pursuing Arabization. Nonetheless, Abū Bakr has recently linked51 the Sudanese experiment to the theories of the American linguist H. Douglas Brown, which were formulated many years later, in 1980, when the scholar published the Principles of Language Learning and Teaching;52 it was translated into Arabic in 1994.53 Abū Bakr reports decisively that the team embraced a kind of “preferable” teaching philosophy founded on an examination experiment (taǧriba fāḥiṣa) in the field (maydāniyya) and continuous verification (murāǧaʿa mutawāṣila).54 These positions contrast Abū Bakr with other Arab TAFL scholars, i.e., Maḥmūd Kāmil al-Nāqa, who maintained that there was no single best method, since each way of teaching had its pros and cons.55

The impact on the Sudanese TAFL research environment Thus far, the Sudanese experiment described, its theories, and its outcomes all represent the first fruit of the newly born branch of TAFL within Sudan and the Arab world. In this sense, it has undoubtedly had an impact on the Sudanese TAFL research environment of the 1950s and the decades that followed. Scholars like Abū Bakr, Qāsim, al-Ṭayyib al-Šayḫ, and Bašīr have extensively detailed56 the ensuing growth of the discipline within their homeland, although they have neglected to inquire about the impact of the 1950s experiment. Over time, the Republic of the Sudan witnessed the establishment of TAFL institutes,57 research units, and regularly hosted meetings, where Sudanese, Arab, and international scholars debated a wide range of topics, 51 Ibidem, 352; Abū Bakr, “Taǧriba fī taʿlīm al-kitāba wa-l-qirāʾa li-l-mubtadiʾīn aḥādī al-luġa al-umm,” 240. 52 Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 53 Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Arabic translation by Ibrāhīm ibn al-Quʿayd and ʿAyd ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Šammarī, Mabādiʾ taʿallum wa-taʿlīm al-luġa. 54 Abū Bakr, “Ṯalāṯat asʾila wa-aǧwibatu-hā,” 352. 55 Facchin, Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language, 102. 56 See all their works cited in the bibliography. 57 Among the most famous are the aforementioned Maʿhad al-Ḫarṭūm and the International University of Africa Arabic Language Institute. Additionally, other bodies have promoted TAFL over time. These are the African Islamic Center of Khartoum (al-Markaz al-islāmī al-ifrīqī), Omdurman Islamic University, and Khartoum University.

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e.g., teacher training, textbook drafting, curriculum design, or new technologies.58 Nevertheless, the discussions raised as well as the scholarly production published remained tied to a specific discourse, in which general and colonial linguistics, Arabization, African languages, script contact, and script shift projects converged to create the distinctive Sudanese TAFL. In practice, as it has been stressed recently, each Arab nation (during the post-independence era) started to proceed on separate pathways, and TAFL was not excluded from this logic.59 The broader Sudanese debate on TAFL developed into a hybrid research field that joined the ranks of the aforementioned established areas, while not forgetting the strong legacy of its first appearance. This mixture represents the uniqueness of Sudanese TAFL and its scholars, and it diverges from other Arab realities such as those in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, which have been less linguistically oriented.60 In view of this, studies conceived later by scholars in Sudan have addressed general TAFL issues but also undertaken linguistic challenges to consider the country’s highly multilingual landscape alongside questions of language transfer. Research has been published annually either in alMaǧallaal-ʿarabiyya li-l-dirāsāt al-luġawiyya (Journal of Arabic linguistic studies), issued by Maʿhad al-Ḫarṭūm, or in Maǧallat al-ʿarabiyya li-l-nāṭiqīn bi-ġayri-hā (Journal of Arabic for non-native speakers), f irst published in 2004 by the International University of Africa (IUA) Arabic Language Institute, based in Khartoum. Moreover, Sudanese scholars have insisted on comparative language analyses between Arabic and Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Mandinka, etc. in addition to research on Arabization, orthography, scripts contact, scripts shift projects, and phenomena. These last deliberations continue to be documented by Abū Bakr, who recently consolidated them in the “Arabic script annals” (Ḥawliyyat al-ḥarf al-ʿarabī), issued by his Yousif Alkhalifa Center for Writing Languages in Arabic Script (Markaz Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa li-kitābat al-luġāt bi-l-ḥarf al-ʿarabī) of the IUA. Thanks to several important contributors, Abū Bakr continues to direct new script shift projects, not only on Sudanese vernaculars such as Bejaand Tigre but also on other African languages like Swahili, Hausa, Wolof, Pulaar, etc.61 Such evidence clearly attests the unique features of the Sudanese TAFL research environment. In this vein, the 1950s experiment has played a key 58 For an overview—albeit not exhaustive—on the TAFL debates developed in Sudan between 1958 and 2018, see Facchin, Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. 59 Ibidem, 27. 60 Ibidem, 116. 61 See www.alharfalarabi.org.

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role in shaping it, so much so that the current Sudanese TAFL, its scholars, and its scholarly production may be distinguished from the research environments of other Arab nations.

Conclusion By identifying the common threads of language teaching, this study has endeavored to unravel the often untold history of the 1950s Sudanese TAFL experiment carried out by ʿAsākir and his team of experts. Targeting both village and primary schools and addressing prospective teachers through training sessions, the experts set up a script shift project, in which five schoolbooks were drafted and nine South Sudanese local languages were graphically rewritten using a modified Arabic script devised by the team itself. Since a critical perspective on both the graphic phenomenon and the TAFL methods characterizing the Sudanese project has not been represented in scholarly literature, the present contribution sheds light on the principles and the insights on which the 1950s experiment was based by investigating who inspired this work and what pedagogical decisions were made. Research has clarified that the project was not formulated on any theoretical foundations but rather emerged from psycholinguistic issues when confronting classroom-related practical problems (i.e., anxiety, waste of time, lack of comprehension) along with a problem solving–oriented approach characterized by examination experience in the field and continuous verification. Furthermore, the study has interrogated whether British indirect rule education policies had an impact on the Sudanese project and whether the latter left a mark on the national TAFL landscape over the decades that followed. Accordingly, research has demonstrated that the Sudanese experiment was mainly been driven by the Arabization challenge, aiming at bringing non-Arabic speakers of South Sudan closer to the prestigious variety of Standard Arabic and thus to Islam. In line with what historians of Sudan have generally argued, this contribution elucidates the impulse of Arabization as a reaction to the former colonizer’s administration of education and their notorious Southern Policy. Even though the expert team’s intentions could be described as more dutiful than politically oriented, writing—as Miller explains—is never a neutral and straightforward technical act, since it necessarily has selective and ideological implications. As a result, the team’s didactic choices and strategies steered toward nationalism and Islamization, specifically through alphabet unification, leveling of language diversity, and social fusion between North and South.

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Such language policy interference within the field of language teaching resulted in one of the most hybrid examples of TAFL projects because of its relation to Arabization along with the multilingual landscape of the African country. In turn, the legacy of the experiment in the 1950s, illustrated in this chapter, contributed to the particularity of the Sudanese TAFL and its research environment, which are currently a unique mixture of different disciplines converging in one single area of study.

References Abdelhay, Ashraf, Busi Makoni, and Sinfree Makoni, “The Colonial Linguistics of Governance in Sudan: The Rejaf Language Conference, 1928,” Journal of African Cultural Studies 28.3 (2016), 343–58. Abdelhay, Ashraf, Busi Makoni, Sinfree Makoni, and Abdel Rahim Mugaddam, “The Sociolinguistics of Nationalism in the Sudan: The Politicisation of Arabic and the Arabicisation of Politics,” Current Issues in Language Planning 12.4 (2011), 457–501. Abū Bakr, Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa, “Language and Education in Southern Sudan,” in Directions in Sudanese Linguistics and Folklore, ed. Sayyid Hamid Hurreiz and Herman Bell (Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1975), 13–18. Abū Bakr, Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa, “Barāmiǧ iʿdād wa-tadrīb muʿallim al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā (ʿalà ḍawʾ al-taǧriba al-sūdāniyya)” [Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language teachers’ training programs (in light of the Sudanese experiment)], in al-Siǧill al-ʿilmī li-l-nadwa al-ʿālamiyya al-ūlà li-taʿlīm al-ʿarabiyya liġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā. Al-Ǧuzʾ al-ṯānī, ed. Maḥmūd IsmāʿīlṢīnī and Alī Muḥammad al-Qāsimī (Riyadh: ʿImādat šuʾūn al-maktabāt, Ǧāmiʿat al-Riyāḍ, 1980), 61–67. Abū Bakr, Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa, “Taǧriba fī taʿlīm al-kitāba wa-l-qirāʾa li-l-mubtadiʾīn aḥādī al-luġa al-umm” [Teaching how to write and read in Arabic to monolingual beginners], Maǧallat al-ʿarabiyya li-l-nāṭiqīn bi-ġayri-hā 2 (2005), 239–52. Abū Bakr, Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa, ‘Ṯalāṯat asʾila wa-aǧwibatu-hā’ [Three answers to three questions], Ḥawliyyat al-ḥarf al-ʿarabī 1 (2015), 349–56. Badawī, al-Saʿīd Muḥammad, “Muqtaḍayāt al-kafāʾa fī taʿallum al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya kaluġa iḍāfiyya” [Proficiency requirements in the learning of Arabic as an additional language], in al-Munaẓẓama al-ʿarabiyya li-l-tarbiya wa-l-ṯaqāfa wa-l-ʿulūm, Taʿlīm al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā. Qaḍāyā wa-taǧārib (Tunis: al-Munaẓẓama al-ʿarabiyya li-l-tarbiya wa-l-ṯaqāfa wa-l-ʿulūm, 1992), 47–59. Baglioni, Daniele, and Olga Tribulato, Contatti di lingue – Contatti di scritture: Multilinguismo e multigrafismo dal Vicino Oriente Antico alla Cina contemporanea (Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari-Digital Publishing, 2015).

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Bašīr, ʿAzz al-Dīn Waẓīf ʿAlī, “al-Taǧriba al-sūdāniyya fī taʿlīm al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-l-nāṭiqīn bi-ġayri-hā wa-taṭwīr manāhiǧ al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-l-nāṭiqīn bi-ġayri-hā” [The Sudanese experiment of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers and its curriculum development], Maǧallat al-ʿarabiyya li-l-nāṭiqīn bi-ġayri-hā 16 (2013), 43–97. Brown, Henry Douglas, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (London: Pearson Education, 2006). Craig, James, Shemlan: A History of the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998). Dickins, James, “Khartoum Arabic,” in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. Kees Versteegh, Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, and Andrzej Zaborski, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 559–71. Facchin, Andrea, “Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the Arab World: Some Aspects,” Quaderni di Studi Arabi 12 (2017), 194–206. Facchin, Andrea, Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. Origins, Developments and Current Directions (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019). Hāšim, Muḥammad Ǧalāl Aḥmad, “Competing Orthographies for Writing Nobiin Nubian,” in Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages, ed. Leoma C. Gilley, vol. 9 (Nairobi: SIL-Sudan, 2004), 215–48. Ḥiǧāzī, Maḥmūd Fahmī, “Taysīr al-kitāba al-ʿarabiyya” [Arabic writing simplification], Ḥawliyyat Kulliyyat al-insāniyyāt wa-l-ʿulūm al-iǧtimāʿiyya 5 (1982), 127–52. Kozah, Mario, “On Anis Frayha,” in One Hundred and Fifty, ed. Nadia M. El-Cheikh, Lina Choueiri, and Bilal Orfali (Beirut: The American University of Beirut Press, 2013), 281–86. Le Clézio, Yves, “Writing Shilluk with and Arabic Script,” in Directions in Sudanese Linguistics and Folklore, ed. Sayyid Hamid Hurreiz and Herman Bell (Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1975), 33–43. Leonardi, Cherry, “South Sudanese Arabic and the Negotiation of the Local State,” Journal of African History 54.3 (2013), 351–72. Lewis, M. Paul, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth Edition (Dallas: SIL International, 2009). Manfredi, Stefano, and Sara Petrollino, “Juba Arabic,” in ApiCS, The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages, ed. Susanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber, vol. 3: Pidgins, Creoles, and Mixed Languages Based on Languages from Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas (Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, 2013), 54–65. Miller, Catherine, “Juba Arabic,” in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. Kees Versteegh, Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, and Andrzej Zaborski, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 517–25. Miller, Catherine, “Juba Arabic as a Written Language,” Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29.2 (2014), 352–84.

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Muḥammad Aḥmad, Abd al-Samī, “Ṭullāb al-ʿarabiyya ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā wamuškilātu-hum. Taǧribat Kulliyyat al-alsun” [AFL students and their difficulties: The Alsun experiment], in al-Siǧill al-ʿilmī li-l-nadwa al-ʿālamiyya al-ūlà li-taʿlīm al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā. Al-Ǧuzʾ al-ṯāliṯ, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Šalaqānī (Riyadh: ʿImādat šuʾūn al-maktabāt, Ǧāmiʿat al-Riyāḍ, 1980), 39–56. Nakao, Shuichiro, “Revising the Substratal/Adstratal Influence on Arabic Creoles,” in Challenges in Nilotic Linguistics and More, Phonology, Morphology and Syntax, Studies in Nilotic Linguistics, ed. Osamu Heida, vol. 5 (Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 2012), 127–49. Owens, Jonathan, “Creole Arabic: The Orphan of all Orphans,” Anthropological Linguistics 43.3 (2001), 348–78. Owens, Jonathan, “Creole Arabic,” in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. Kees Versteegh, Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, and Andrzej Zaborski, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 518–27. Qāsim, ʿAwn al-Šarīf, “al-Luġa al-ʿarabiyya fī al-Sūdān” [Arabic language in Sudan], al-Maǧalla al-ʿarabiyya li-l-dirāsāt al-luġawiyya 7.1/2 (1989). Sharkey, Heather J., “Arab Identity and Ideology in Sudan: The Politics of Language, Ethnicity, and Race,” African Affairs 107/426 (2008), 21–43. Sharkey, Heather J., “Language and Conflict: The Political History of Arabisation in Sudan and Algeria,” in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 12.3 (2012), 427–49. Al-Ṭayyib al-Šayḫ, Ḥusayn, “Taǧribat šuʿbat al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya fī manāṭiq al-tadāḫul al-luġawī fī Wizārat al-tarbiya bi-l-Sūdān” [The Arabic language division in the regions of language interference of the Sudanese Ministry of Education], in al-Munaẓẓama al-ʿarabiyya li-l-tarbiya wa-l-ṯaqāfa wa-l-ʿulūm, Taʿlīm al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā. Qaḍāyā wa-taǧārib (Tunis: al-Munaẓẓama al-ʿarabiyya li-l-tarbiya wa-l-ṯaqāfa wa-l-ʿulūm, 1992), 92–101. Tempest, Paul (ed.), The Arabists of Shemlan. Mecas Memoirs 1944–1978 (London: Stacey International, 2006). Al-Ṭuʿma,Ṣāliḥ, “Mulāḥaẓāt ḥawla al-ǧānib al-luġawī min iʿdād muʿallim al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā” [Observations on the linguistic aspects of AFL teacher training], in al-Siǧill al-ʿilmī li-l-nadwa al-ʿālamiyya al-ūlà li-taʿlīm al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā. Al-Ǧuzʾ al-ṯānī, ed. Maḥmūd Ismāʿīl Ṣīnī andʿAlī Muḥammad al-Qāsimī (Riyadh: ʿImādat šuʾūn al-maktabāt, Ǧāmiʿat al-Riyāḍ, 1980), 19–42. Wellens, Ineke, An Arabic Creole in Africa: The Nubi Language of Uganda (PhD diss., Universiteit Nijmegen, 2003). Wilmsen, David, “Arabic as a Foreign Language at AUB,” in Handbook for Arabic Language Teaching Professionals in the 21st Century, ed. Kassem M. Wahba, Liz England, and Zeinab A. Taha, vol. 2 (London: Routledge, 2018), 141–50. Younes, Munther, The Integrated Approach to Arabic Instruction (London: Routledge, 2015).

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About the author Andrea Facchin is a researcher of Arabic language and literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He holds a PhD from the same university, where he is coordinator of DAR Laboratory, working on Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. He has spent research periods abroad in Finland, the Netherlands, and Tunisia. He is the author of several articles on the Arabic language, its teaching, and its learning and the monograph entitled Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (Amsterdam University Press, 2019). His areas of interests are the history of Arabic language teaching, testing, language policies enacted in the Arab world during the modern and contemporary era, non-verbal communication, and cross-cultural understanding. Personal website: .researchgate.net/profile/Andrea-Facchin

À propos de l’auteur Andrea Facchin est chercheur en langue et littérature arabes à l’université Ca’ Foscari de Venise. Il est titulaire d’un doctorat de la même université, où il coordonne le laboratoire DAR consacré à l’enseignement de l’arabe langue étrangère. Il a effectué des séjours de recherche à l’étranger, en Finlande, aux Pays-Bas et en Tunisie. Il est l’auteur de plusieurs articles sur la langue arabe, son enseignement et son apprentissage, et d’une monographie intitulée Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (Amsterdam University Press, 2019). Il s’intéresse à l’histoire de l’enseignement de la langue arabe, aux tests, aux politiques linguistiques promulguées dans le monde arabe à l’époque moderne et contemporaine, à la communication non verbale et à la compréhension interculturelle. Site web personnel : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea-Facchin

9

Italian colonial educational policy in the Horn of Africa1 Raymond Siebetcheu

Abstract: The chapter illustrates the educational policy in the Horn of Africa during Italian colonization. It shows how the aim was to eliminate prominent and educated natives who were seen as potential inciters of rebellion against Italian rule. Colonization systematically hindered the development of national cultures, imposing the Italian language as the official language and limiting the duration of education to three or four years. For this reason, no attention was paid to the progress of schooling, which was left in the hands of clerics, soldiers, and local teachers. In connection to this process of Italianization and linguistic repression, Fascist propaganda was regularly disseminated in school textbooks. Résumé : Ce chapitre traite de la politique éducative menée dans la Corne de l’Afrique pendant la colonisation italienne. On montre comment il s’agissait d’éliminer les autochtones éminents et instruits, considérés comme des incitateurs potentiels à la rébellion contre la domination italienne. La colonisation a systématiquement entravé le développement des cultures nationales, imposant la langue italienne comme langue officielle et limitant la durée de l’enseignement à trois ou quatre ans. Pour cette raison, on n’accordait aucune attention aux progrès de la scolarisation, laissée entre les mains des religieux, des soldats et des enseignants locaux. Liée à ce processus d’italianisation et de répression linguistique, la propagande fasciste était diffusée de manière récurrente dans les manuels scolaires.

1 [La politique éducative coloniale italienne dans la Corne de l’Afrique]. Part of this chapter is adapted from the paper by Raymond Siebetcheu “La politique linguistique coloniale italienne dans la Corne de l’Afrique,” published in Cahiers du CRINI 2 (2021), “Droit et langue: pourquoi et comment des exceptions juridiques et linguistiques territoriales.”

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch9

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Keywords: Educational policy. Horn of Africa. Italian language. Italian colonization. Fascist propaganda. Textbooks. Mots-clés : Politique éducative. Corne de l’Afrique. Langue italienne. Colonisation italienne. Propagande fasciste. Manuels scolaires.

Introduction According to Palermo, colonial experience is an important aspect of Italian linguistic history because it allows us to observe the new (but actually old) ways of spreading Italian abroad.2 As Bruni points out, it is surprising that a part of Italian history, such as the linguistic colonial experience, has gone quite unnoticed.3 Labanca writes in the same vein, observing that it would be a mistake to interpret the history of Italian colonization without considering its linguistic aspects.4 For Vedovelli, it would be impossible to understand and interpret the trends of linguistic history without analyzing its roots.5 On the basis of these observations, I will illustrate in this study the language teaching and educational policy during Italian colonization in the Horn of Africa. But before focusing attention on education, I will propose some reflections on the ideological basis of colonial language policies. In collecting the data illustrated in this work, the archival sources (in particular the Italian colonial textbooks used in African schools) available at the IsIAO library—Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente—were fundamental. As Negash observes,6 the main problems for a study of colonial native education policy are the paucity of source materials published during the colonial era and the fragmentary nature of archival sources. For him, many of the existing sources leave much to be desired, and the few policy-oriented studies that do exist are highly complimentary of the fascist reforms. The same author also highlights the scarcity of the archival source material, because schools were not required to provide reports to the colonial administration until 1932. Referring to the material consulted at IsIAO library, I will focus in this chapter on conversation language books and colonial textbooks used in indigenous schools. 2 Palermo, Linguistica italiana, 270. 3 Bruni, L’italiano fuori d’Italia, 157. 4 Labanca, Oltremare. Storia dell’espansione coloniale italiana, 273. 5 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri, 28. 6 Negash, “The Ideology of Colonialism: Educational Policy and Praxis in Eritrea,” 109.

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Ideological basis of colonial language policies According to Calvet,7 linguistic colonization is nothing more than a “glottophagie” (glottophagia); he thus deliberately turns the notion of cannibalism against Europeans by arguing that they were the real “anthropophages” (cannibals), devouring the colonized and their languages.8 For Calvet, there are in fact two dogmas that glottophagia cannot do without: The first dogma is that the colonized have everything to gain by learning our language, which will introduce them to civilization, to the modern world. The second stipulates that, in any case, indigenous languages would be incapable of fulfilling this function, incapable of conveying modern notions, scientific concepts, incapable of being languages of teaching, culture, or research.9

Thus, in arguing against this form of linguistic racism, Calvet concludes that African languages, cultures, and communities exist only as evidence of the superiority of European languages. As De Mauro states, speaking a language is part of a lifestyle.10 To be forced not to use the language with which one is accustomed to expressing their thoughts and identity means to be forced to give up a form of life and consequently to die linguistically and culturally. It is probably in this sense that, without referring directly to languages, Mbembe alludes to the concept of “autophagia,” which generates the end of the community.11 In fact, according to this author, there is no community worthy of the name if it can no longer celebrate the memory of living people. From a linguistic point of view, Mbembe’s “autophagia” corroborates Calvet’s thesis by showing that Africans would not exist culturally without their languages. Another form of linguistic repression faced by Africans and their languages is the underlying ideology: the universalist model, analyzed by several scholars. For Makoni, for example, colonial linguistics, which “can be defined as the study of languages construction within a universalizing/totalizing colonial framework, has left a very complex legacy in language scholarship in Africa. Part of the complexity lies in its focus on culture-centrism.”12 Pennycook adds 7 Calvet, Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie. 8 Batchelor, Decolonising Translation. Francophone African Novels in English Translation, 37. 9 Calvet, Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie, 165–66. 10 De Mauro, L’educazione linguistica democratica. 11 Mbembe, Nanorazzismo. Il corpo notturno della democrazione, 450–56. 12 Makoni, “An Integrationist Perspective on Colonial Linguistics,” 87.

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that this led to the construction of language families, organic differences between language types, language trees, and so on and became closely tied to the scientific racism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.13 Calvet agrees with this idea when he observes that typological stratification of languages (isolation, agglutination, and inflection) is also related to language ideology. And recalling the normative Eurocentric aspect of this linguistic model, the same author illustrates that, for this ideology, “the inflected languages are the most advanced (this is the normative aspect) and correspond as if by chance to Indo-European languages (this is the Eurocentric aspect).”14 Therefore, the rough and oversimplified way in which missionaries transcribed the indigenous languages (on the basis of colonial languages) only demonstrated “the ways colonial agents made alien ways of speaking into objects of knowledge, so that their speakers could be subjects of colonial power.”15 For Bourdieu, this is “symbolic violence” that extorts submission, not perceived as such, based on “collective expectations” or socially inculcated beliefs.16 In the end, colonization is neither an evangelization nor a philanthropic enterprise, nor the will to push back the frontiers of ignorance, disease, and tyranny. Nor is it a project undertaken for the greater glory of God, nor an attempt to extend the rule of law. It is nothing more than racism.17

Italian colonial educational policy Before talking about educational policy, it is worth noting that it is closely linked to Italian colonial language policy. The latter was based on linguistic Italianization, which involved the reduction of the linguistic space of the dominant local languages, the propagandistic promotion of other local languages (such as Galla and Tigrinya), the prohibition of the learning and use of other foreign languages, and the Italianization of toponymy. This Italianization was also based on a process of babelization, observed in several colonies. Stroud observes in this sense that Historically, colonial linguistics was a prominent tool in the colonial project of governmentality, where a politics of “divide and rule” encouraged 13 Pennycook, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. 14 Calvet, Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie, 35. 15 Errington, Linguistics in a Colonial World, vii. 16 Bourdieu, Raisons pratiques, 169. 17 Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme.

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the multiplication of languages and the creation of unbridled linguistic diversity—an African “Tower of Babel”—that was seen to rationalize strict colonial regulation of linguistic realities.18

At the same time, especially during the Fascist period, learning foreign languages was prohibited because it constituted a danger for the regime. “All natives who can speak French or English are being arrested and removed to Mogadishu or elsewhere.”19 The role of schools was to educate against rebellion, to limit the intellectual level of natives in order to prevent them from having access to high schools and thus from having a more open political and cultural vision. In this sense, Pankhurst observes that Italian policy aimed to eliminate prominent and educated natives who were regarded as potential inciters of rebellion against Italian rule.20 For this reason, native pupils only needed basic knowledge of the Italian language to be able to work in specific professions (maids, carpenters, collaborators of Italian soldiers, etc.). In addition to a basic level of Italian, Africans had to know about Italy, its glories, and its history to become militiamen who faithfully respected the colors of their adopted homeland. As in other African areas, Italian educational policy in the Horn of Africa was founded on a cultural and linguistic ethnocentrism. According to Triulzi, colonization has systematically hindered the development of national cultures, imposing the language of colonizers everywhere as the official language and often as the language of instruction.21 The African people were thus forced to abandon their culture, local languages, and, in some cases, the process of literacy. Labanca recalls,22 in this sense, the sentence of an African historian who wrote: “Whatever colonialism has done for Africans in Africa, given its possibilities, resources, power, and influence, it could and should have done much more than it did.” Instead, according to Pankhurst,23 “Italian policy aim[ed] at the elimination of prominent and educated natives who [were] regarded as potential inciters of rebellion against Italian rule.” Labanca24 shares this idea, adding that school, which was supposed to “civilize,” train, and educate African subjects, was seen by 18 Stroud, “Multilingualism in Ex-Colonial Countries,” 509. 19 Pankhurst, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation,” 374. 20 Ibidem. 21 Triulzi, Storia dell’Africa e del Vicino Oriente. 22 Labanca, Oltremare. Storia dell’espansione coloniale italiana. 23 Pankhurst, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation,” 374. 24 Labanca, Oltremare. Storia dell’espansione coloniale italiana, 337.

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colonial administrations not as an instrument of integration but as a form of assistance to be left to the clerics, a source of expenses to be squeezed or something that threatened to foment nationalisms and rebellions. Italy thus opted for two principles in education: the institution of separate schools (discrimination between schools for the indigenous and Italians) and an education limited to a few years of training that did not allow one to reach a literate status. According to Negash,25 “during the first decade of colonial rule, from 1897–1907, the colonial administration perceived native education as a means by which the native would be elevated to intellectual parity with Italian citizens.” But, referring to the Eritrean context, this process—it was later thought—could give pupils the basis to challenge colonial rule by undermining the aura of prestige that surrounded the colonizer. For this reason, the colonial dictum ran as follows: the business of colonialism was absolute domination over the colonized for the benefit of the colonizer. Justifying his refusal to open schools for the native population, Eritrean Governor Ferdinando Martini wrote: First point, no, and again no to mixed schools for Whites and Blacks. The native child, more agile and alert, has the intelligence of the white child; therefore avoid comparison. Schools for Blacks? Is it worthwhile to create them? We cannot use the native in the postal and telegraph services. And happy the day when we will not even require their services as interpreters.26

Mbembe27 notes in this regard that, in a colonial situation, the racist has the upper hand. But this is not enough to eliminate fear. Indeed, for Mbembe, the racist is afraid of the black man even though he has proclaimed his inferiority. How can a person be afraid of one who has been devalued, of one who has previously been stripped from any attribute of strength and power, Mbembe wonders. After all, the same author concludes, it is not only a question of fear but a mixture of fear, hatred, and love withdrawn. Pankhurst recalls the British position at the beginning of the British administration of Eritrea (1941–52): These so-called Fascist schools are not schools in reality, but have been established for propaganda purposes […]. There were about 300 boys at 25 Negash, “The Ideology of Colonialism: Educational Policy and Praxis in Eritrea.” 26 Ibidem, 109. 27 Mbembe, Nanorazzismo. Il corpo notturno della democrazione, 139.

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first, but the number has now decreased to 150, the reason being that some of them died of typhus and others had to leave the school owing to starvation. It is said that the food given daily is scanty and unsuitable, and it is only the boys who have no place to go that stay in school. Time is spent in singing the National hymn of Italy, and “Giovinezza” and in training of a military nature.28

It is normal that the opinion of the British, at the time the enemy power, was not favorable to the Italian educational policy. This British position, which denounced, among other things, the fascism of the educational system and the abandonment of students, was confirmed by some Italian teachers in the Horn of Africa. In their letters, addressed to the periodical I Diritti della scuola,29 they made the following observation: Aims of school for natives should be: to educate them in the feelings of Italianness; to make them understand, admire and love the civilizing mission of Italy […]; to accustom them to love working in the fields […] and to think that under the sacred flag of Italy one should work in silence and obedience.30 In November 1939, there was a change in the indigenous school system: in addition to separate schools, the duration of schooling was reduced from four to three years, as opposed as the eight years provided for in the Gentile Law on compulsory schooling. As already noted, elementary education was of course mandatory for Italian children residing in the Horn of Africa. The seventh point of Decalogo dell’italiano all’estero (Italian Decalogue abroad) stated the following: Educate your children in the cult of Italy. Make them speak, read, and write their father’s language and study the history of Italy; send them preferably to Italian schools; buy them good Italian books. Try to spread among foreigners the knowledge of Italy, the love of its culture and its language.31 28 Quoted by Pankhurst, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation,” 375. 29 Volterra, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea,” 19. 30 “Obbiettivi della scuola per indigeni dovrebbero essere: educare i sudditi a sentimenti di italianità; far loro comprendere, ammirare ed amare la missione civilizzatrice dell’Italia […]; abituarli ad amare il lavoro nei campi […] e a pensare che sotto la sacra bandiera d’Italia si lavora in silenzio e in obbedienza.” 31 “Educa i figli tuoi nel culto dell’Italia. Obbligali a parlare, leggere e scrivere la lingua paterna e a studiare la storia d’Italia; inviali di preferenza alle scuole italiane; compra buoni libri italiani. Procura di diffondere tra gli stranieri la conoscenza dell’Italia, l’amore alla sua cultura e alla sua lingua” (Lega Navale, “Il Decalogo dell’italiano all’estero,” 13).

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Table 4.  Chronology of compulsory schooling in Italy Law

Date

Number of years

Age range

Casati Coppino Orlando Gentile Berlinguer Fioroni

November 13, 1859 July 15, 1877 July 8, 1904 May 6, 1923 February 10, 2000 December 27, 2006

2 years 3 years 6 years 8 years 9 years 10 years

6–8 6–9 6–12 6–14 6–15 6–16

School population in Italian Africa during the colonial period About 2,000 pupils out of 9,962 enrolled between 1921 and 1934 completed their schooling. If in 1931 only 6,181 Eritreans could read and speak in Italian (i.e., 1.1 percent of the population at the time) and the school age population was equal to 20 percent of the total, this means that the colonial school was an elite institution, accessible to a maximum of 2 percent of the school-age population and much less than 1 percent of the total population. It seems clear therefore that the actions of the colonial school administration did not lead to large-scale schooling. This demographic trend was instead reversed under British administration: “in 1943, 28 schools were opened (many of the buildings were those of the Italian schools) with 2,405 pupils and 30 Eritrean teachers, until 1951 when the school population (also including middle school pupils) reached 13,240 in 97 schools.”32 Table 5.  Public colonial schools in Eritrea and Somalia (1935)33 Schools for Italians TOTAL Schools for natives TOTAL

Pupils 1,391

Teachers 67

Classes 62

4,282

92

104

The teachers who worked in African schools were classified into four categories: ecclesiastical staff (especially nuns), soldiers, indigenous, and real

32 Volterra, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea,” 27. 33 Source: Data from the Annuario delle scuole coloniali dell’Africa orientale and the Manuale linguistico dell’Africa orientale.

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teachers. According to Palermo,34 it was not until the first decades of the twentieth century that the first teachers from Italian schools arrived in the colonies, although they had no specific training to deal with the particular educational context. Some teachers were trained at the University of Naples, L’Orientale, but they were almost exclusively integrated into middle schools not attended by natives. As Pankhurst writes, “no attention is paid to the progress of the school. It is left in the hands of a few Eritrean teachers. The work of the school is described as childish. It is only on occasions when visitors go to the school that the Italian teachers are present.”35 In 1932, in order to give an organic structure to these elementary schools taught almost entirely by religious staff, the Ministry created a technical office in Asmara for the pedagogical and disciplinary supervision of all the elementary schools. Giuseppe Bottai, Governor of Addis Ababa, considered this idea good, on the one hand, because the religious congregations achieved with very few means what would normally be impossible to obtain from the school superintendencies with a very limited budget; and, on the other hand, he considered it insufficient, because the teachers of religious congregations were often untrained and very empirical, pursuing the moral and religious recovery of natives as the primary purpose of their activity.36 In addition to communications regarding the curriculum and the use of textbooks sent by the Ministry of Education or by Catholic organizations, religious teachers had to rely more on their common sense and on being native speakers (even though, at that time in particular, being a native Italian subject did not necessarily mean knowing how to speak Italian, let alone knowing how to teach). An educational role was also entrusted to soldiers. Through indigenous schools, the Italian state set out to form a mass of loyal subjects among Africans, capable of living and operating in the climate of Italian civilization; and they sought to form Àscari—perfect soldiers—who, under the command of outstanding Italian officers, constituted a secure garrison of the vast Italian Empire.37 The soldiers, with the preparation received as part of their professional training, had to train Àscari in the handling of weapons and to carry out other military activities. The indigenous Salih confirms this idea by saying: “We didn’t study at school, we learned the use of weapons. The Italians told us: Eritreans are intelligent, but their heads don’t work.” 34 Palermo, Linguistica italiana. 35 Pankhurst, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation,” 375. 36 Volterra, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea,” 40. 37 Ibidem, 19.

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Another native, Asfaha Chasai, points out: Another thing I remember is that Eritrean students were also taught militarism [military skills] to become Àscari. For example, in the school in Cheren, I remember it very well, we had about a hundred muskets and everything we needed [leather equipment, ammunition] and then we had a bulucbasci [a non-commissioned officer] who taught us. That was the same for those of Adi Ugri and Saganeiti. […] These were military teachings.38

It is worth recalling that, despite difficult learning conditions, some natives managed to become teachers after their schooling. To adapt their preparation to the school context, they had to follow specific training in teaching and pedagogy. It must now be recognized that the best recruitment of indigenous teachers must be made among elements who have completed their studies in a school created ad hoc by colonizer and therefore completely controlled.39

Conversation language books These books, deliberately bi-tri-quadrilingual, were intended for Italian, European, and African speakers simultaneously. Another feature of these language books was their temporal (the first publications date back to the pre-colonial period) and spatial situation (the recipients of the language books lived or were destined to live and work in the Italian colonial areas). Among the earliest conversational books, I will note Dialoghi o conversazioni nelle due lingue italiana ed araba,40 a book in Italian and “vulgar” Arabic, written by the missionary Giuseppe Sapeto. Sapeto focuses on communicative situations deemed common and/or of significant importance to the learner. Analyzing his language book, Ricci41 observes the following: There are no grammatical norms or word lists; instead, some typical communication situations are proposed, created, in the author’s intention, 38 Ibidem, 16–18. 39 Enrico De Leone, Rassegna italiana politica letteraria e artistica, 646. 40 In Sapeto, Grammatica araba volgare ad uso delle scuole tecniche, parte 2. 41 Ricci, La lingua dell’impero, 176.

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with the most usual and convenient forms. The dialogues in Italian and Arabic, according to a widespread teaching practice, take place between Master and Disciple, since this certifies their fictional character. It is striking that most of the conversations have linguistic contents that are totally different from the common occurrences and the daily needs. 42

The analysis of the Sapeto language book reveals an interesting topic: the authenticity of the text. The theme would be at the center of the debate on language teaching in the seventies and eighties. In traditional methods, understood as methodologies clearly oriented toward the formal and structural dimension of language, as well as to grammatical-translational dimensions, one found only non-authentic texts—that is, texts built specifically to achieve pedagogical aims and not texts that reflected the characteristics of authentic interactive exchanges between speakers as social subjects.43 This view, now outdated, is therefore also illustrated in books from the pre-colonial period. For example, the Sapeto book, although it conforms to the communicative situations that are instrumental to learning, encounters difficulties in the translation phase, which could possibly be oriented from an intercultural perspective. In the book, there is no lack of pleasantries (almost always present in language books) or greetings and requests for information about personal and family health. I present below the Dialog VI, Dialogo VI Saluti e complimenti (Greetings and congratulations) from the Sapeto language book. ‑ Come è il tuo stato? Come va la salute? Come stai tu? ‑ Bene, gloria a Dio, in buonissima salute, e tu? - Iddio ti conservi, io non mi sento bene. - Mi dispiace assai; che cosa è accaduto alla tua signoria? - Mi ha colto la tosse—un dolore di testa—un reuma di cervello, ed oggi fui preso dalla febbre. - È un accesso passeggiero, e, se piace a Dio, ti vedremo presto in miglior salute. - Grazie per le tue bontà; la tua sposa come stà? 42 Orig. It.: “Non vi compaiano né norme grammaticali né liste di vocaboli; invece, vengono proposte alcune situazioni comunicative tipiche, realizzate, nelle intenzioni dell’autore, con le battute e i formulari più consueti e più convenienti. I dialoghi, in lingua italiana e araba, avvengono, secondo una diffusa prassi didattica, tra Maestro e Discepolo, dato che ne certifica il carattere f ittizio. Colpisce il fatto che gran parte delle conversazioni abbiano contenuti e fisionomia linguistica totalmente devianti dalle comuni occorrenze e dalle necessità quotidiane.” 43 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri, 80.

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- Benissimo; da molto tempo non ebbi il piacere di vedere tuo zio. - (Che tu viva!) Egli è morto il mese scorso in riva al fiume - Davvero? Non avevo ancora inteso ciò, però era inoltrato nell’età e malaticcio.

Drawing on Ricci’s observations, 44 note that the stylistic characteristics of the dialogues are, as seen here, artificial; this is also due to the contact and translation between two languages, Arabic and Italian, so far apart both from a typological and cultural point of view. From a sociolinguistic point of view, one therefore finds unreliable expressions for greeting, welcoming, praying, disputing, consulting, thanking, etc. This habit of creating books based on translation of contents into different languages is also observed in the Manuale amarico-italiano-francese (Amharic-Italian-French language book), published in 1912 by the Capuchin missionary Angelo Da Ronciglione. The method of interaction already found in the Sapeto book is confirmed in this one. It presupposes a situation of informal communication, and a very high formal level is highlighted. The Manuali linguistici per l’Africa orientale italiana (Language manuals for Italian East Africa), intended for soldiers, were prepared by the National Institute for Soldier Libraries with the authorization of the Ministry of War. These were multilingual language books used by soldiers but also by civilians, including tourists and civil servants. These books were prepared in the main languages of the Horn of Africa (Arabic, Amharic, Galla, Tigrinya) but also in French. They were intended to contribute to the cultural and moral elevation of the soldier by having him read appropriate and accurate books. In addition to notes on military service in Italian East Africa, these books contained some readings translated into the different languages but also elementary topics such as cardinal and ordinal numbers, as well as the Abyssinian calendar. The key point of these language books was the lexicon, with examples of phrasal formations, followed by glossaries in different languages. According to Vedovelli,45 this system is the basis for the idea of linguistic competence mainly as a translation activity: translation is considered the paradigm of second language competence and the task in which it is most involved. The model on which this approach is based is the grammatical-translational model, based on the explication of linguistic knowledge and on the conscious control of translation procedures (see Caressa’s 1935 Manuale linguistico per l’Africa Orientale). 44 Ricci, La lingua dell’impero, 177. 45 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri, 88.

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Even textbooks edited by the Catholic Mission maintained the same approach. Recall, for example, the Manuale di istruzione ad uso degli indigeni (Instruction manual for use by indigenous people) published in 1912. The textbook focuses on certain recurring points related to work activities (agriculture, crafts, etc.), civic education, hygiene, and the presentation of Italy as a civilized country. However, the language level of the textbooks was not suitable for non-native speakers. The texts were similar to those intended for native speakers. Ricci, who analyzes the same textbooks,46 observes that what makes the Italian level particularly diff icult for a non-native speaker-learner is the lexicon and particularly the high rate of technical words. The same author adds the presence of a complex syntax, a non-colloquial lexicon, various literary voices in pseudo-spoken contexts, and even some forms of Tuscanized Italian. As in other textbooks of this period, the teaching methods and contents are unrelated to the context. It is therefore clear that references to certain cultural aspects of Italy were unnecessary, not only because the natives would probably never go to Italy but also because such information was not useful for their daily tasks. According to Vedovelli, the characteristics of these textbooks were determined by the fact that, in most cases, they did not address the universe of foreign learners of Italian as second language.47 In the textbooks by Sapeto and Da Ronciglione,48 the authors make a bilingual (Italian-Arabic) and trilingual (Italian-French-Amharic) choice, respectively. The theoretical assumptions underlying this choice are well known. First of all, it recalls the Aristotelian approach to categories in linguistic analysis: grammatical categories are elements in themselves, placed in the essence of languages as a logical-conceptual structure prior to the diversity of idioms. Being universal, these categories allow us to put languages in a relation of equivalence, finding the differences between them at the level of form, not of categorial structure. As for Vedovelli,49 the authors or publishers of the early textbooks adopted at least three selection criteria: a) linguistic background of the pupils; b) contrastive analysis, based, as already mentioned, on the assumption of universal categories for linguistic analysis and capable of producing valid tools simultaneously for the teaching of several languages in contact; c) highly metalinguistic system of grammatical analysis based on Cartesian 46 Ricci, La lingua dell’impero. 47 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri, 49–50. 48 Da Ronciglione, Manuale amarico-italiano-francese. 49 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri, 49–50.

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and Port-Royal logic, which tended to demonstrate that, at the foundation of each language, there are universal characters specific to each time and place. Textbooks authors were thus convinced that grammatical categories, being universals, could allow all languages to be equivalent. These authors felt entitled to make a single work a double, triple, or even fourfold product, also taking into account the economic factor, since the same textbook could be used for learners of different languages. In the colonial context, the contrastive nature of textbooks was a means of teaching either Italian to the natives or native languages to Italians. Vedovelli adds that, theoretically, this contrastive approach has many limitations,50 largely illustrated by modern linguistics: in a Saussurean approach, the radical arbitrariness of languages leads to considering them as intrinsically different systems, capable of categorizing in radically different ways the same conceptual material that has its own boundaries in the human perceptual sensory capacities. The diversity between languages is radical—that is, it is placed at the root of semiotic processes classifying the experience. Despite limitations linked to ideological influence, Italian as a Foreign Language textbooks from past centuries are solid sources for verifying the effects of contact between past linguistic models and present-day language teaching models. These textbooks constitute the main documentary sources for a history of Italian language-learning ideas that can be integrated with that of historical events and language diffusion. If one considers the model of the categories of analysis during the colonial period, even if there are some limitations (in this case the universal categories), one can note that it raises some highly topical issues from a social and linguistic point of view. I refer, for example, to the issue of education in a context of multilingualism, which suggests that the authors of textbooks were at that time already aware of the need for parallelism and not necessarily for contrast.

Italian textbooks in African schools Textbooks in African schools can be divided into two categories: textbooks for Italians and textbooks for natives. This distinction is justified by the fact that curricula for these two audiences, the length of training, and location of each type of school were different. I will focus here on the textbooks used for indigenous schools during Fascism. 50 Ibidem.

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According to Pretelli,51 Fascism saw education as an essential means of “making Italians” both at home and in the colonies. Schools for Italians and for the indigenous population in Africa were a key part of this project. The same author adds that these educational institutions were set up partly to convince young Italians of their role as colonizers and bearers of an idea of “Italian civilization.” A small minority of Africans, allowed to attend schools set up for part of the local population, were educated to reinforce their role as inferiors and targets for a superior idea of “Italian civilization.” Fascism had a very significant influence on the design of school textbooks. Indeed, in addition to being based on strong processes of Italianization and rigid linguistic repression, it marked the apogee of Italy in Africa from a military point of view. In addition to the theme of war, illustrated in various forms, the dissemination of Fascist propaganda was recurrent in textbooks. Thus, images of Mussolini and his family, Rome, and modern Italy were not lacking in these books. Here are some examples taken from the textbooks for the second and third class edited by Fulvio Contini (1931): When you enter class in the morning, child, salute your King. He is the supreme Head of the nation, the first citizen of Italy. […] My little Mohammed, when you enter school, lift your purest heart to the Majesty of the King soldier, and repeat the promise of your faithful love. […] On your feet, children, stretch high the arm to salute the flag of Italy, your flag! It is the symbol of the Fatherland. […] Always be obedient, children. […] Good children, every morning on rising, wash themselves with cold water and soap. […] O children of Ethiopia, love the three colours of the Italian flag, because it is your flag, salute it, raising your right hand towards it, and promise to serve it with faithfulness and honour. […] O children of Ethiopia, you must feel proud to belong to the great Italian nation and to work under the insignia of the victor’s fascio.52

Although assimilated to other subjects, Italian grammar was present in the textbooks for natives. In the third-grade textbooks edited by Da Milano,53 the lessons were structured according to grammatical categories. Thus, regardless of the degree of difficulty, lessons on article, noun, verb, adjective, etc. were followed. According to the aims of the textbook, the idea was to exhaust the topics on one grammatical category before tackling 51 Pretelli, “Education in the Italian Colonies during the Interwar Period.” 52 See Pankhurst, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation,” 389. 53 Da Milano, Libro per le scuole elementari eritree.

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another. The textbook was therefore very similar to a reference grammar, organized on the basis of various grammatical topics. In addition to texts or dialogues that often introduced the lessons, grammar was explained through a “question and answer” strategy on theoretical understanding of the topic. One reason for using dialogues in textbooks is their expressive character, which simulates everyday language and therefore tends to make grammar explicit. In dialogues, the phenomena that do not match those subjects to the normative grammatical description are exposed precisely because spoken language prevails over the rule of writing.54

Conclusion The Italian colonial educational policy illustrated here can be summarized in one expression: the policy of “eating and not speaking.”55 This expression is borrowed from two sayings from the Horn of Africa. The f irst, from Eritrea, states that: “Gli italiani ci dicevano mangiate e non parlate, gli inglesi non mangiate ma parlate, gli etiopi non mangiate, non parlate” (The Italians told us eat and don’t speak; the English do not eat but speak; the Ethiopians do not eat and do not speak). The Somali saying goes: “La lingua araba serve per la religione, la lingua italiana a riempire il ventre” (Arabic is the language of religion, the Italian language serves to fill the stomach). These two sayings are indicative of the Italian colonial linguistic and educational policy as perceived by the populations of the Horn of Africa: A policy of “eating and not speaking” that did not aim to promote the linguistic rights of Africans. A policy based on non-democratic linguistic duties (teaching Italian only for three years). Currently in Ethiopia, there is no official language, since all Ethiopian languages are equally recognized by the state according to the 1994 Constitution. However, Amharic remains the working language and is the de facto official language of the federal government. In this country, English is the language of international communication. Even in Eritrea, the constitution does not indicate any official language but only emphasizes that the equality of all Eritrean languages is guaranteed. The de facto official languages are Tigrinya and Arabic. Italian, as a result of colonization, is known at least in terms of oral communication by the older population. In Somalia the official languages are, according to the constitution, Somali and Arabic. As in Eritrea, the elderly in this 54 Vedovelli, L’italiano degli stranieri. 55 Siebetcheu, Diffusione e didattica dell’italiano in Africa, 100.

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country still retain some “linguistic skills” in Italian, acquired during the colonial period. These indications clearly show that the Italian language no longer has any institutional influence in these three countries of the Horn of Africa. While Italian is no longer taught in local schools in all three countries, it is important to note that the largest Italian school abroad, with over a thousand students, is located in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.56 It is also interesting to recall that after Somalia’s independence, Italy played a decisive role in the process of increasing literacy and Somalization in the country thanks to specific lectures at the Somali National University. As part of the Somalia project, taking into account the Somali literary tradition, which is linked to orality and memorization, the intention was to prevent the Somali University cultural proposal from being perceived as foreign. In fact, the request to import Western cultural models (subjects, universities, diplomas) and to choose the Italian language (teachers, textbooks) for academic purposes could constitute a barrier in Somali schools. The aim was therefore to devise deliberately eclectic methodological textbooks that were highly functional for mass teaching. Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, this project came to a halt.

References Primary sources Caressa, Ferruccio, Manuale linguistico per l’Africa Orientale. Lingue amarica, galla, trigrina e versione in italiano e in francese ad uso dei miltari, funzionari, uomini d’affari, turisti, ecc. (Turin: Edizione SIPES, 1935). Contini, Fulvio, Il libro della terza classe—scuole elementari per indigeni, illustrato da G. Rondini (Florence: Bemporad—Ministero delle colonie, 1931). Da Milano, Giandomenico, Libro per le scuole elementari eritree, vol. 3: Classe III (Asmara: Tipografia francescana, 1930). Da Ronciglione, Angelo, Manuale amarico-italiano-francese (Rome: Casa editrice italiana, 1912). Lega Navale, “Il Decalogo dell’italiano all’estero,” Rivista Quindicinale Illustrata. Organo dell’Associazione “Lega Navale Italiana” 9.1 (1913). Rassegna italiana politica letteraria e artistica (1937).

56 Siebetcheu, “Africa.”

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Sapeto, Giuseppe, Grammatica araba volgare ad uso delle scuole tecniche […] con l’aggiuta dii alcuni dialoghi [ = Dialoghi o conversazioni nelle due lingue italiana ed araba] (Florence: G. Pellas, 1885 [1866]).

Secondary sources Batchelor, Kathryn, Decolonizing Translation. Francophone African Novels in English Translation (London/New York: Routledge, 2009). Bourdieu, Pierre, Raisons pratiques. Sur la théorie de l’action (Paris: Le Seuil, 1994). Bruni, Francesco, L’italiano fuori d’Italia (Florence: Franco Cesati Editore, 2013). Calvet, Louis-Jean, Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie (Paris: Payot, 1974). Césaire, Aimé, Discours sur le colonialisme (Paris: Présence africaine, 1955). De Mauro, Tullio, Educazione linguistica democratica (Rome/Bari: Laterza, 2018). Errington, Joseph, Linguistics in a Colonial World. A Story of Language, Meaning, and Power (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008). Labanca, Nicola, Oltremare. Storia dell’espansione coloniale italiana (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2007). Makoni, Sinfree, “An Integrationist Perspective on Colonial Linguistics,” Journal of Language Sciences 35 (2013), 87–96. Mbembe, Achille, Nanorazzismo. Il corpo notturno della democrazione (Rome/ Bari: Laterza, 2019). Negash, Tekeste, “The Ideology of Colonialism: Educational Policy and Praxis in Eritrea,” in Italian Colonialism, ed. Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 109–19. Palermo, Massimo, Linguistica italiana (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015). Pankhurst, Richard, “Education in Ethiopia during the Italian Fascist Occupation (1936–1941),” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 5.3 (1972), 361–96. Pennycook, Alastair, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (London: Longman, 1994). Pretelli, Matteo, “Education in the Italian Colonies during the Interwar Period,” Modern Italy 3 (2011), 275–93. Ricci, Laura, La lingua dell’impero. Comunicazione, letteratura e propaganda nell’età del colonialismo italiano (Rome: Carocci, 2005). Siebetcheu, Raymond, “Africa,” in Storia linguistica dell’emigrazione italiana nel mondo, ed. Massimo Vedovelli (Rome: Carocci, 2011), 485–573. Siebetcheu, Raymond, Diffusione e didattica dell’italiano in Africa. Dal periodo precoloniale agli scenari futuri (Pisa: Pacini, 2021).

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Stroud, Christopher, “Multilingualism in Ex-Colonial Countries,” in Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication, ed. Peter Auer and Li Wei (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2007), 509–38. Triulzi, Alessandro, Storia dell’Africa e del Vicino Oriente (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1979). Vedovelli, Massimo, L’italiano degli stranieri (Rome: Carocci, 2002). Volterra, Alessandro, “Le politiche educative fasciste per gli indigeni in Eritrea (1931–1941),” Mondo Contemporaneo 1.3 (2007), 5–42.

About the author Raymond Siebetcheu is associate professor of educational linguistics at the University for Foreigners of Siena, where he earned his PhD in Linguistics and Teaching of Italian as a foreign language (2010). Since 2011 he has been visiting professor at the Italian Unit of the University of Dschang (Cameroon). He has been involved in the working groups of several local and national research projects focusing on Italian language abroad and immigrant languages in Italy. He has published books and numerous journal and conference papers related to the following scholarly fields: language and migration, language and colonialism, Italian language in Africa, multilingualism at school, multilingualism in sport, linguistic landscape. Personal website: https://unistrasi.academia.edu/RaymondSiebetcheu

À propos de l’auteur Raymond Siebetcheu est maître de conférences en Didactique des langues modernes à l’Université pour étrangers de Sienne, où il a obtenu, en 2010, son doctorat en linguistique et enseignement de l’italien comme langue étrangère. Depuis 2011, il est professeur invité au département d’italien de l’Université de Dschang (Cameroun). Il a participé à plusieurs projets de recherche locaux et nationaux axés sur la langue italienne à l’étranger et les langues des immigrés en Italie. Il a publié des ouvrages et de nombreux articles dans les domaines suivants : langue et migration, langue et colonialisme, langue italienne en Afrique, multilinguisme à l’école, multilinguisme dans le sport, paysage linguistique. Site web personnel : https://unistrasi.academia.edu/RaymondSiebetcheu

V Middle East

10 How to create a language by describing it?Orientalists and pure colloquial Arabic1 Tarek Abouelgamal

Abstract: Diglossia is the framework commonly used to describe Arabic and a framework that Western universities follow to teach Arabic, despite major debates surrounding it. Native speakers of Arabic recognize the existence of two separate varieties, but they do not separate them when they effectively use the language, while the Western separation has resulted in a pedagogical product whose purpose is to help non-natives to acquire the pure dialectal language. This essay examines two colloquial Arabic textbooks: De Alcalá’s Arte (1505) and Jomier’s Manuel d’arabe égyptien (1965). The purpose is to contextualize these books (both written by members of Christian religious orders) in an attempt to understand their premises. The main finding of this research is that the grammatization process of this artificial language was built upon missionary ideology, a transcription system, and pedagogical materials like textbooks and dictionaries. Résumé : La diglossie est le cadre communément utilisé pour décrire l’arabe—un cadre dans lequel les universités occidentales ont inscrit l’enseignement de l’arabe, malgré les débats qui s’y rapportent. Les locuteurs natifs de l’arabe reconnaissent l’existence de deux variétés distinctes, mais ils ne les séparent pas lorsqu’ils utilisent effectivement la langue, tandis qu’en Occident, leur séparation a donné lieu à un produit pédagogique dont le but est d’aider les non-natifs à acquérir la langue dialectale. Dans ce chapitre, on examine deux manuels d’arabe populaire : l’Arte de P. de Alcalá (1505) et le Manuel d’arabe égyptien de J. Jomier (1965). L’objectif est de contextualiser ces ouvrages (tous deux écrits par des 1

[Comment créer une langue en la décrivant ? Les Orientalistes et l’arabe purement dialectal].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch10

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membres d’ordres religieux chrétiens) afin d’essayer de comprendre leurs postulats. La principale conclusion de cette recherche est que le processus de grammatisation de cette langue artificielle, le système de transcription et la production de matériaux pédagogiques, tels que des manuels et des dictionnaires, reposent sur l’idéologie missionnaire. Keywords: Alcalá (Pedro de). Jomier (Jacques). Egyptian Arabic. Colloquial Arabic Textbooks. Diglossia. Orientalism. Mots-clés : Alcalá (Pedro de). Jomier (Jacques). Arabe égyptien. Manuels d’arabe populaire. Diglossie. Orientalisme.

Introduction Imagine if all French textbooks were written by Italian, Spanish, or German or even by Egyptian, Algerian, or Chinese authors. Imagine if not a single French textbook were written by a French person. What is fantasy here is reality in the case of Egyptian Arabic textbooks. Why and in what circumstances did this reality come to exist? This is the main question I will explore in this chapter. The answer to this question can be found in two f ields: history and sociolinguistics. Historically speaking, Europeans have shown an interest in teaching Arabic since the early fourteenth century, during the Council of Vienne (in present-day France) held in 1311–12. The Council ordered that chairs needed be established in Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca for the instruction of “Oriental languages,” especially Arabic and Hebrew. But the decree remained unheeded until the sixteenth century. In 1505 the Andalusian priest Pedro de Alcalá published the first textbook of an Arabic colloquial variety. With regard to sociolinguistics, Arabic was described as a diglossic2 language (it was the first language to be described as such) in 1930 by the French linguist and Orientalist William Marçais (1872–1956). Then, in 1959, Charles Ferguson (1921–98) theorized the concept, which has since become a dominant sociolinguistic frame despite the publication of major subsequent works in the field.3 Avant la lettre, the Arabic language has been considered 2 It is interesting to note that Ferguson’s use of the term diglossia is a neologism based on the French word diglossie. 3 Some scholars were not satisfied with Ferguson’s schema. See, for instance, Blanc (“Style Variations in Arabic”), who indicated that communal factors were ignored, and Badawi (Mustawayāt

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by European Orientalists since the sixteenth century and until at least the early nineteenth century to be a language with a dual nature: on the one hand, it is a language that is not far from the divine, strongly linked to the holy book of Muslims (the Qurʾān); and, on the other, there is also the popular language, namely vulgar Arabic.4 Marçais and Ferguson are located at the end of a journey of half a millennium, during which Arabic grammar, syntax, and civilization were studied extensively in Europe. This chapter proposes to answer the following two questions: Regarding the way Arabic is taught now in most Western universities, especially in France, is the pedagogical separation between two aspects or varieties of the same language due exclusively to pedagogical reasons? And was this diglossia decisive in terms of the understanding of the language’s grammar and the way it has been taught? I shall consider in what ways sociolinguistic description affects the way we teach Arabic at European universities and other institutions. The conceptual framework for this chapter will be the notion of “applied sociolinguistics,” first used by Peter Trudgill (1984), along with John Eisele’s notion of “regimes of authority.”5 The first concept helps to see how sociolinguistics interacts with a wide range of fields, in the present case with educational and pedagogical matters. The second concept shows how scientific discourse may convey doxai. In other words, schematic concepts such as diglossia may have given birth to concrete processes such as the creation of two different classes for teaching Arabic, since one is facing a di (two) glossia (languages). Some doxai are common among native speakers, others among textbook authors and learners. Eisele declares that these regimes of authority contribute to “somewhat amorphous, overlapping traditions of opinions, ideas, and approaches to language use and linguistic representation, sometimes embodied in authorizing institutions but not always.”6 I will first provide insight into the life and work of two authors of colloquial Arabic textbooks: Pedro de Alcalá and Jacques Jomier. Although four centuries stand between the two men, I claim that they share the same al-ʿarabiyya al-muʿāṣira fī Miṣr), El-Hassan (“Educated Spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant”), Joseph Dichy (“La pluriglossie de l’arabe”), and, more recently, Al-Batal (Arabic as One Language) and Munther Younes (“To Separate or to Integrate, That Is the Question”), who argued that social factors were ignored by Ferguson. 4 Vulgar was the term used between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries in the European textbooks of Arabic to designate what Arabs call ammiyya. The Latin radical, like the Arabic one, refers to the idea of the ordinary people or the populace. 5 Cf. Peter Trudgill, Applied Sociolinguistics. 6 Eisele, “Approaching Diglossia,” 3–23.

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approach and attitude toward linguistics and language teaching, and they also both belonged to the clergy. Secondly, I will discuss the theoretical framework in which spoken Arabic textbooks are published (i.e., sociolinguistic description, orientalist interests, and efforts to grammatize).7

Pedro de Alcalá: Following Latin paradigms and avoiding the language of al-faquies Pedro de Alcalá was born ca. 1455; he drafted two important works: a textbook of Granadan Arabic8 and a Castilian–Arabic dictionary9 (Vocabulista aráuigo en letra castellana). Both written in Castilian, not in Latin, they were intended to help priests in the process of converting Muslims in the aftermath of the Reconquista. Little is known about his life, either before or after the publication of his books, although it is evident that he was not a powerful person within the Order of Saint Jerome, to which he belonged. One must keep in mind that Saint Jerome, a grammarian and translator of the Bible, is an emblematic figure in the Catholic Church. Pedro was the confessor to Hernando de Talavera, the first archbishop of Granada and confessor to Queen Isabella of Castile. Talavera (ca. 1428–1507) was a New Christian who converted from Judaism, which may explain his wholehearted involvement in the conversion of non-Christians, in particular Jews and Muslims. He is described as a pacifist whose overtly conciliatory attitude eventually led him to be subjected to the Inquisition late in life. As a sign of Talavera’s attitude, he ordered Alcalá to provide clergy with pedagogical materials in Arabic to help convert Moriscos, a strategy aiming to promote tolerance toward the use of foreign languages in the liturgy. For a better understanding of the place of the Arte and the Vocabulista, it is crucial to examine the contours of Talavera’s strategy. The principal pillar of his policy was conversion by conviction, alongside a respect for local languages and customs, at least during the first stages of the endeavor. At the time, vernacular varieties were gaining increasing visibility. Talavera’s strategy was to promote the use of vernacular languages (Castilian Spanish and Granadan Arabic). He thus encouraged Nebrija to edit his Gramática (considered to be the first grammar book of a Latin vernacular 7 8 9

Term coined by Auroux, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation. Arte para ligeramente saber la lengua arábiga [The art of gently learning Arabic]. Vocabulista aráuigo en letra castellana [Arabic vocabulary written in Castilian].

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language). He later tried to reproduce Nebrija’s success with Alcalá’s Arte. After the Granadan revolt of 1499 against Cisnero’s forced conversion policy, Talavera published Instruccion del Arzobispo de Granada (Instruction from the Archbishop of Granada) to reiterate his ideas. He recalled the importance of the peaceful methods in converting non-Christians. Additionally, Talavera had good relations with al-faquies (Islamic jurists) “from whom he learned the details of Islamic Law and who helped him to form a clergy capable of teaching Christianity in Arabic.”10 He also possessed two copies of the Qurʾān in his personal library: one in Latin and the other in Roman.11 Alcalá therefore began to work on the Arte and the Vocabulista using Nebrija’s dictionary as a model. The Arte is composed of thirty-seven chapters (some of which are very short, only a few lines) that deal with the eight parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives [participles], prepositions, adverbs, interjections, and conjunctions). It is noteworthy that he scrupulously followed the Latin tradition by omitting the ninth part of speech, the article, which does not exist in Latin although it does exist in Arabic. Note that the Arabic grammatical tradition only recognizes three parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and ḥarfs.12 But Pedro tended toward universalism and thus declared that “the same definitions and explanations that there are in one language in respect to the expression of its concepts in its own terms, these are the same in all other languages […] for the same reason that this name Pedro is a proper noun in Latin, it is also such in Arabic.”13 The forty-page linguistic chapters are followed by fifty pages of catechism, including the Christian credo, the most significant Catholic prayers (Ave Maria, Pater Noster, and Salve Regina), the deadly sins, etc. The Castilian text is entirely translated in Arabic in a two-column content page: Castilian on the left, transcribed Arabic on the right. The other major work by Alcalá is a Castilian–Arabic dictionary entitled Vocabulista arauigo en letra castellana. The Vocabulista contains more than 10,000 entries in Latin alphabetical order. For each letter, Alcalá starts with verbs, giving three forms of each verb, specifically “presente, preterito perfecto, imperativo.” It should be noted that, although Alcalá’s classification ties in with the Arabic method of presentation (three forms: māḍī [past], muḍari’ [often translated nowadays with “imperfective” in texbooks, and 10 García-Arenal, “Granada as a New Jerusalem,” 25. 11 Ibidem. 12 This literally means “letter”; as a grammatical category, it encompasses prepositions, some adverbs, and some conjunctions. The ism category in Arabic includes adjectives. 13 Cowan, “Arabic Grammatical Terminology in Pedro de Alcalá,” 358.

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sometimes with “present”], and ‘amr [imperative]), his dictionary still uses European terminology to name these forms, especially the preterite perfect. The influence of Nebrija on Pedro de Alcalá’s books is undeniable. The terminology used in the Arte and the Vocabulista is essentially the same as that used by Nebrija in his dictionary.14 Alcalá would also follow the idea (shared by Talavera and Nebrija) that vernaculars should be “reduced”15 into rules. In the same vein, Alcalá strove to avoid the language of the sabios al-faquies, choosing the language of los populares, which he judged more appropriate for conversion. In the prologue of his Vocabulista, he asserts: “I had as an objective to adhere to the popular language, as I said, and in neither small nor large part, to adhere to the refined language of ‘al-faquies,’ for if I were to adhere to them, I would not achieve my intent, which is to teach the common [clergy].”16 Nevertheless, Alcalá did not completely neglect the standard language; for example, he deals with the declension case system, which is not relevant to spoken Arabic. But Nebrija was dealing with a language that uses Latin characters, whereas Arabic has its own graphemic system. Pedro de Alcalá had also followed Nebrija on this point; his Arte does not include any Arabic graphemes, except the alphabetical table, which serves only for transliteration. In his comments on this table, Alcalá claimed that Latin and Castilian letters could “suplir” (supplant) the Arabic ones. Here it is worth quoting Sylvain Auroux in describing this phenomenon: “in the case of the languages of written cultures, the problem of transliteration arises; […] Westerners’ knowledge not only leads to theories about the birth of writing systems; it is also an instrument of domination and a means to access other civilizations’ knowledge.”17 In light of the above, one can conclude that the Andalusian Hieronymite priest known as Pedro de Alcalá was not very influential within his order. He was a rather loyal man who acted as a tool in the service of a larger policy. The pedagogical material he created was the result of a twofold strategy: the political and religious (ideological) aspect guided by Talavera and the linguistic ethnocentric model inspired by Nebrija. The main linguistic idea that Alcalá would transmit to later generations of authors of Arabic textbooks is that the Arabic language is diglossic; there is one language for 14 Zwartjes, “More on ‘Arabic Linguistic Terminology in Pedro de Alcalá,’” 247–97. 15 This was the term used by Nebrija to name the fact of describing the rules of a vernacular language. See Auroux, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation, 112. 16 Translated by William Cowan, see Cowan, “Arabic Grammatical Terminology in Pedro de Alcalá,” 358. 17 Auroux, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation, 113.

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al-faquies and another one for ordinary people. In addition, to convince people that one’s own religion is better, one must speak to them in their vernacular language, not in the standard/literary one.

Jacques Jomier: Dialoging without dialogues Dominicans grasped Alcalá’s ideas (i.e., Talavera and Nebrija’s ideas) in the late nineteenth century. In 1890 Marie-Joseph Lagrange founded the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem. He then conceived of another foundation in the city he called “The Islamic intellectual capital and a center of a very important movement of European studies”;18 his project was to establish a Dominican school in Cairo like the one he founded in Jerusalem. But the project was not launched immediately. In fact, it would not be created until 1953. The foundation of the IDEO (Institut Dominicain d’Études Orientales) was put forth by an enthusiastic trio of Dominicans: Georges Chehata Anawati (1905–1994), Serge de Beaurecueil (1917–2005), and Jacques Jomier (1914–2008). My main focus will be on the latter. In 1932 the friar Jacques Jomier joined the Dominican order rather than the prestigious École Polytechnique where he was admitted. Later he spent thirty-six years in Cairo (1945–81). During this period he completed a great number of studies about Egyptian Islam and, of particular interest to this chapter, Egyptian Arabic. One of his major works was Manuel d’arabe égyptien, written with Joseph Khouzam (Egyptian Arabic textbook; hereafter MAE). Jomier’s main idea was that there is a close correlation between the daily religious practice of Egyptians and their daily spoken language. His publications give special attention to the effective practice, putting aside the classical philological approach; a synthesis of his observations and research about this topic was published under the title L’Islam vécu en Egypte 1945–1975 (Islam as lived in Egypt, 1945–1975). A specific popular phenomenon caught his attention: the Mahmal (the procession of sending the Kaaba cover from Egypt to Mecca). Thus, to establish a linguistic-cultural-religious dialogue with ordinary Muslims, Dominicans had to learn more about their daily religious practice alongside their vernacular language. On the linguistic front, Jomier published a dictionary of Egyptian Arabic for the first time in 1965, in addition to the aforementioned textbook. It is noteworthy that Jomier’s MAE was published at the behest of L’Association pour l’avancement des études islamiques. To 18 Morelon, “L’Idéo du Caire et ses intuitions fondatrices sur la relation à l’Islam.”

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be coherent, Jomier overrepresents the working-class milieu that he used to meet and spend time with in Cairo. The preface of MAE emphasizes that the content of the book was designed and completed among the working classes.19 I will now consider the content of the MAE. Although the objective of the book was to contribute to enhancing the dialogue (in the broadest sense of the term) between Muslims and Christians, it does not include any dialogue; it contains mainly monologues or isolated sentences, yet the dialogic form is one of the main characteristics of the spoken Arabic. Each of the twenty-eight lessons provides sentences, then translates them, before moving on to a grammatical section. The entire book is transcribed with the Latin alphabet and enriched with some diacritics, in addition to only one Greek letter: the epsilon.20 Transcription is used to “reduce” the spoken language, to tame the foreign language. Since Egyptians do not write their spoken language, foreign learners of this language can supplant it with their own alphabet; they do not need to learn the alphabet of the standard language, since dialect is supposedly an independent language. Moreover, Jomier’s transcription is highly rigorous; it resolves the problems raised by the Arabic alphabet. For instance, the Arabic alphabetic system has only three vowels, whereas Latin has five. The proposed system can therefore profess to be scientific. Historically, the scientific transcription was established for “oriental languages.” The first scientific attempt was that of the English Orientalist Samuel Lee (1783–1852), who taught Arabic and Hebrew and wrote Grammar of the Hebrew Language. Later, the ancestor of the IPA was established by the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884). Another linguistic topic that led to some general cultural consideration is the verbal system. The orientalist doxa admitted that Semitic languages have no tenses. Marcel Cohen published the first thorough study entitled Le système verbal sémitique (1914), in which he quotes Lévy-Bruhl: “the primitives do not see a kind of final stretch that resembles itself extending indefinitely before their imagination on which events are to be placed […] for the primitive, time is not, as it is for us, a kind of intellectualized intuition.” Marcel Cohen distinguishes two types of Semitics: those that have a purely aspectual language and those that have a verbal system that tends to develop into a tense system. He then concludes, adopting Lévy-Bruhl’s vision, that 19 “…ce livre conçu et réalisé en plein milieu populaire égyptien” (MAE, préface, vii). 20 The choice might be explained by the graphical proximity of the epsilon to the Arabic letter ‫ ع‬, which it transcribes.

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“the Semitics, whose verbal system relies on situated time, might therefore be closer to the approaches typical of civilized Europe.”21 From some European points of view, languages without the same tense system as European languages express a lower level of civilization. Jacques Jomier avoids this terminology, yet he appears to be somewhat sensitive to the importance of the supposed linguistic difference between Semitic languages (particularly Arabic) and European ones (particularly French). He states in the third lesson of the MAE that “here, time does not have the same importance as it does in the West.” The fact that the French word temps is the equivalent of the English time and tense might indicate either or both of them. In any event, Marcel Cohen and Jacques Jomier agree that the nature of a language’s verbal system seems relevant to such general civilizational conclusions.

The legacy of the Eurocentric Model and missionary linguistics The connection between language learning and ideas or ideology is not a matter of debate, since the authors of pedagogical materials generally mention their objectives. In this framework, it is important to notice that language is not taught for its own sake. The two cases analyzed here share some features but diverge on others. For example, Alcalá and Jomier belonged to Christian orders, they were interested in colloquial or vernacular language, and they used a transcription system in their textbooks as well as in their dictionaries. Nevertheless, they did not share the same stated goal: Alcalá intended to help priests in their conversion process, whereas Jomier intended to open a profound dialogue between Christianity and Islam by bringing forward the study of Islam. My purpose is not to question the intentions of Jomier (I will not search beyond the stated goal); my aim is merely to analyze the context in which his book was published, focusing on the implications of the diglossic approach he adopted. Between Alcalá and Jomier, dozens of Arabic textbooks were written and taught at nearly all the European universities (for example, the first Arabic chair was created in Paris in 1538, in Leiden in 1613, in Oxford in 1640, and in Kharkov in 1804). Two ideologies went together. The first is politico-religious domination (missionaries during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and colonialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). The second is (socio-)linguistic (and somewhat anthropological): diglossia. The 21 Cohen, Le système verbal sémitique et l’expression du temps, 299.

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idea introduced by Alcalá that there is one language of the al-faquies and another used by los populares was not called into question. The debate was merely over which one should be taught; authors like Erpenius (1584–1624) and Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838) chose classical Arabic, while others like Claude-Etienne Savary (1750–1788), Louis-Jacques Bresnier (1814–1869), and John Selden Willmore (1856–1931) opted for colloquial Arabic. This movement of the regular production and publication of textbooks followed the logic of what Sylvain Auroux has called grammatization. The consequence of this four-century-old process was the anchoring of the idea of diglossia, which was often confused with diglossia as a representation. Pierre Larcher has shrewdly observed that “Arabists took this [diglossic] representation of reality for reality itself.”22 According to him, Orientalists had initially acknowledged the term Arabic as a holistic term. At a later stage, they used the terms colloquial and vulgar, which subsequently led to the introduction of its antonym literary. With time, this process resulted in the creation of two different varieties and the emergence of diglossia. It is crucial, however, to underline the difference between European grammatization and grammatization in the case of spoken Arabic. In fact, the essential difference is that the grammatization of European vernaculars was done by authorities. Therefore, vernacular languages steadily gained legitimacy. But in the case of Arabic, it was a matter of description (obviously without the power to order Arabs to adopt their own vernaculars instead of their own prestigious language). But as time went by, especially during the colonial era, description became prescription in some cases; for instance, INaLCO23 offers an undergraduate degree in Oriental Arabic, for which the textbook has remained that of Jomier even in 2020. Some scholars remarked that during British colonial rule in Egypt, “this interest [in describing spoken language] was not for scientific research as they [Orientalists] professed, nor for the need to understand the Arabic vernaculars of the countries where they lived; the objective was to destruct eloquent Arabic and to replace it with colloquial.”24 More recently, Larcher has made the claim that “it is piquant to note that the Arab World adopted the diglossic representation, while Arabists are about to abandon it.”25 That 22 “Les arabisants prenant cette représentation de la réalité pour la réalité même” (Larcher, “Diglossie arabisante et fusha vs ammiyya arabes, ” 58). 23 Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. 24 Said, tārīḫ al-daʿwa, 12. 25 “Il est piquant d’observer que le monde arabe s’est rallié à la représentation diglossique de l’arabe, au moment même où les arabisants l’abandonnent” (Larcher, “Diglossie arabisante et fusha vs ammiyya arabes,” 59).

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means that the Arab world has adopted linguistic ideas that were hegemonic in the West for five centuries, two of which were marked by colonization.

Conclusion The reasons that all the spoken Arabic textbooks and dictionaries between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries were written by European authors are related to issues of ideology. European Arabists have traditionally considered Arabic to be a diglossic language since Ferguson’s article in 1959. This essay has shown that treating Arabic as diglossic was a working assumption that appeared five centuries prior to Ferguson’s article. The practice preceded the theory. The efforts undertaken to distinguish colloquial Arabic from standard or classical Arabic gave birth to a considerable number of textbooks and dictionaries in both varieties, separately from one another. The separation is responsible for a pure European product called the “purely dialectal”—a dialect totally unadulterated by a classical or literary model. Thus, the ideas of fifteenth-century Spanish priests and linguists such as Talavera, Nebrija, Alcalá, and others26 have paved the way for the teaching of Arabic in the twenty-first century. The authors of colloquial textbooks dedicated their works to describing a variation that is dependent on Standard Arabic and insufficient for the non-native learner. Those books have served to set the norm for the process of teaching Arabic in Europe. The language they teach has artificial borders and does not take into consideration the linguistic continuum reflected among native speakers.

References Primary sources Cohen, Marcel, Le système verbal sémitique et l’expression du temps (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1914). De Alcalá, Pedro, Arte para ligeramente saber la lengua arauίga (Granada: Juan de Varela de Salamanca, 1505). 26 Due to the constraints of this survey, I only focus on the origins and the current consequences of this process. I analyze more authors and textbooks more exhaustively (especially Guillaume Postel, Erpenius, Claude-Etienne Savary, and Silvestre de Sacy) in my PhD dissertation entitled Teaching the Elusive.

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De Alcalá, Pedro, Vocabulista aráuigo en letra castellana (Granada: Juan de Varela de Salama[n]ca, 1505). Jomier, Jacques, and Joseph Khouzam, Manuel d’arabe égyptien (Paris: Klinksieck, 1965). Lee, Samuel, A Grammar of the Hebrew Language, Comprised in a Series of Lectures, Compiled from the Best Authorities, and Augmented with Much Original Matter, Drawn Principally from Oriental Sources (London: James Duncan, 1827).

Secondary sources Auroux, Sylvain, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation (Liège: Mardaga, 1994). Avon, Dominique, Les frères prêcheurs en Orient (Paris: Le Cerf, 2005). Badawī, El-Saʿīd Muḥammad, Mustawayāt al-ʿarabiyya al-muʿāṣira fī Miṣr [Levels of Contemporary Arabic in Egypt] (Cairo: dār al-salām, 1973). al-Batal, Mahmoud (ed.), Arabic as One Language: Integrating Dialect in the Arabic Language Curriculum, (Washingtion, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2018). Blanc, Haim, “Style Variations in Arabic: A Sample of Interdialectal Conversation,” in Contributions to Arabic Linguistics, ed. Charles A. Ferguson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 81–156. Cowan, William, “Arabic Grammatical Terminology in Pedro de Alcalá,” Historiographia Linguistica 8.2/3 (1981), 357–63. Dichy, Joseph, “La pluriglossie de l’arabe,” Bulletin d’études orientales 46 (1994), 19–42. El-Hassan, Shahir, “Educated Spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant: A Critical Review of Diglossia and Related Concepts,” Archivum Linguisticum 8.2 (1977), 112–32. Eisele, John, “Approaching Diglossia: Authorities, Values, and Representation,” in Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic, ed. Aleya Rouchdy (London/ New York: Routledge, 2002), 3–23. García-Arenal, Mercedes, “Granada as a New Jerusalem,” in Space and Conversion in Global Perspective, ed. Giuseppe Marcocci, Aliocha Maldavsky, Wietse de Boer, and Ilaria Pavan (Leiden: Brill, 2014). Larcher, Pierre, “Diglossie arabisante et fusha vs ammiyya arabes,” in History of Linguistics, Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences, 14–19 September 1999, Fontenay-St.Cloud, ed. Sylvain Auroux (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1999). Morelon, Régis, “L’Idéo du Caire et ses intuitions fondatrices sur la relation à l’Islam,” Mémoire dominicaine 15, “Les dominicains et les mondes musulmans” (2001), 137–216.

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Said, Naffousa Zakariyya, tārīḫ al-daʿwa ila al-ʿāmmiyya wa-ʾāṯāriha fī Miṣr [The history of the call to adopt colloquial] (Alexandria: Dar Nashr al-Thaqafa, 1964). Tarrier, Jean-Michel, “À propos de sociolinguistique de l’arabe,” Bulletin d’études orientales 43 (1991), 1–15. Trudgill, Peter (ed.), Applied Sociolinguistics (London: Academic Press, 1984). Younes, Munther, “To Separate or to Integrate, That Is the Question,” in Arabic as One Language: Integrating Dialect in the Arabic Language Curriculum, ed. Mahmoud al-Batal (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2018). Zwartjes, Otto, “More on ‘Arabic Linguistic Terminology in Pedro de Alcalá,’” Historiographia Linguistica 41.2/3 (2002), 247–97.

About the author Tarek Abouelgamal previously taught Arabic at Sorbonne Université and currently teaches at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and at Sciences Po. He holds a PhD from Sorbonne University (CERMOM). The title of his thesis is Teaching the Elusive: Beyond the Didactic Diglossia . His research interests include linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language ideology. Personal website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tarek-Abouelgamal

À propos de l’auteur Tarek Abouelgamal a enseigné l’arabe à Sorbonne Université et l’enseigne actuellement à l’Institut du Monde Arabe à Paris et à Sciences Po. Il est titulaire d’un doctorat de Sorbonne Université (laboratoire CERMOM). Sa thèse s’intitule Enseigner l’insaisissable : la diglossie didactique ou comment la dépasser . Ses recherches portent sur la linguistique, la sxociolinguistique et l’idéologie de la langue. Site web personnel : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tarek-Abouelgamal

11 Politique d’enseignement au Liban au début du Mandat français : les manuels scolaires en français et la place de l’arabe au Collège de Beyrouth1 Manar El Kak Résumé : Ce chapitre permet de jeter un coup d’œil sur la politique d’enseignement adoptée au Liban quelques années avant et pendant les premières années du Mandat français (1920–1946). Alors que les congréganistes avaient jusque-là le monopole de l’enseignement francophone, les enseignants laïques commencent, dès 1905, à exercer leur influence. Ainsi, à l’étranger comme en France, un enseignement laïc se met en place : le Collège de Beyrouth, qui fait partie du réseau de la Mission laïque française, en est l’illustration. Mais, au lieu de reconduire ne varietur au Liban les pratiques en vigueur dans le pays mandataire, le Collège intègre très tôt l’enseignement de la langue arabe dans son programme, parallèlement aux méthodes de langue importées directement de France. Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of the educational policy adopted in Lebanon a few years before and during the f irst years of the French Mandate (1920–46). While the Congregations monopolized francophone education until then, secular teachers began to exert their influence as early as 1905. Thus, a secular education was established both abroad and in France: the Collège de Beyrouth, as part of the network of the Mission laïque française, is an illustration of this. However, instead of faithfully reproducing in Lebanon the practices of the mandate power, the College integrated the teaching of the Arabic language into its program very early on, in parallel with the language methods imported directly from France. 1 [Educational Policy in Lebanon at the Beginning of the French Mandate: French Textbooks and the Place of Arabic in Collège de Beyrouth].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch11

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Mots-clés : Politique d’enseignement. Méthodes de langue. Langue arabe. Mandat français au Liban. Mission laïque française. Collège de Beyrouth. Keywords: Educational policy. Grammar books. Arabic language. French mandate in Lebanon. Mission laïque française. Collège de Beyrouth.

Introduction Dans la période qui a précédé le Mandat français au Liban2, les écoles congréganistes ont joué un rôle de premier plan dans la propagation de la langue et de la culture françaises. Par ailleurs, l’enseignement religieux, pierre angulaire de ces écoles, était de rigueur dans cette région du Proche-Orient sous l’Empire ottoman. Vers la fin du dix-neuvième et à l’aube du vingtième siècle, la politique d’enseignement des missionnaires connait un nouveau tournant en raison des changements politiques survenus en France, sous le gouvernement d’Émile Combes, qui n’épargnent pas les congrégations religieuses. Ces dernières, “dont certaines ont été impliquées dans la crise nationaliste se voient frappées par la loi sur les associations, appliquée dès 1902 de façon draconienne”.3 Le droit d’enseigner leur est ôté en 1904. Ainsi, après la loi de séparation de l’Église et de l’État, votée le 9 décembre 1905, le Levant devient naturellement une de leurs terres d’exil, alors qu’en France les républicains renforcent le primat d’un enseignement laïc conçu dans le prolongement de la politique scolaire de Jules Ferry. Les données chiffrées fournies par Cloarec4 montrent l’importance de l’œuvre de scolarisation réalisée par des Français à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle, et principalement par les congréganistes dont la présence au Levant s’explique d’abord par le rôle qui leur avait été traditionnellement assigné dans la protection des chrétiens d’Orient. De manière générale, il existe une relation étroite entre politique et éducation, ancrée dès la fin du dix-huitième siècle dans la société française qui considère l’éducation comme un “quatrième pouvoir”, puisqu’elle voit dans “la formation des mœurs un fondement de la stabilité des lois”.5 Cette relation se fortifie au début du 2 Le Mandat a été mis en place en 1920. Le Liban, dans son acception actuelle, est créé la même année; il regroupe des régions auparavant distinctes dans l’Empire ottoman: le mutasarifia du Mont Liban, les villes de la côte (Beyrouth, Saïda, Tyr et Tripoli) ainsi que les anciennes cazas ottomanes de Hasbaya, Rashaya, Baalbek et Akkar. Voir Moeller, “Clientélisme, concurrence ou coopération?”, 149. 3 Fournié, “Le Mandat à l’épreuve des passions françaises”, 93. 4 Cloarec, “La France du Levant”, 16–17. 5 Kahn, “Éducation et politique”, 53.

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dix-neuvième siècle avec la création de l’Université impériale, qui renforce ainsi le contrôle de l’État sur l’instruction. Mais vers la fin du siècle, avec la gratuité de l’enseignement primaire (1881), l’obligation de suivre les cours élémentaire et moyen du primaire (de 6 à 13 ans) et la laïcisation de l’enseignement (1882), Jules Ferry met en place “l’État enseignant et surveillant”.6 La scission entre deux France, celle de 1789 et la France conservatrice, monarchique et catholique, est pérennisée. Le combat se poursuit par l’extension de la laïcisation de l’École dans les années 1880, à l’origine d’une guerre scolaire qui se conclut par la défaite de l’Église et l’abandon de ses prétentions en la matière, avec la déscolarisation de l’enseignement religieux à l’école primaire puis avec l’interdiction faite aux membres du clergé et des congrégations d’être des instituteurs publics (loi de 1886). Avec les lois sur les associations (1901) et sur les congrégations (1904), la tension entre école et religion s’exacerbe davantage,7 marquée en particulier par une “guerre des manuels”,8 où l’éducation morale et religieuse est remplacée par une instruction morale et civique. Cette lutte entre les tenants de l’enseignement congréganiste et de l’enseignement laïc s’est vite étendue hors de France. Elle n’est pas restée sans effet sur la situation politique et éducative au Levant avant la Première Guerre mondiale, en particulier. Ainsi la présence française au Mont-Liban, assurée jusque-là exclusivement par les congréganistes dont l’enseignement est dispensé en langue française, ouvre la voie à un enseignement laïc, avec deux établissements subventionnés par le gouvernement français: le premier dirigé par Henri Ollivier, de 1896 à 19049, et le second par Abel Augier, de 1903 à 1909. Malgré leur courte durée de vie et le faible effectif des élèves qui les ont fréquentés, ces deux établissements ont préfiguré la création, en 1909, d’une école connue sous le nom de Collège de Beyrouth, dirigée dès le début par le fondateur de la Mission Laïque Française, Pierre Deschamps.10 La période qui nous intéresse est postérieure à ces débuts. Elle se situe entre 1920, date de déclaration de l’État du Grand-Liban placé sous Mandat 6 Ibidem, 55. 7 Poucet, “Éducation et religion”, 73. 8 Loeffel, “Éducation et morale”, 82. 9 Ce collège doit fermer ses portes en 1905: mal soutenu par la France et installé dans un quartier de réputation médiocre, ses effectifs se sont peu à peu effondrés. Deux ans avant sa fermeture, un de ses anciens professeurs, A. Augier, fonde une école primaire supérieure d’une cinquantaine d’élèves, subventionnée par le ministère des Affaires étrangères. Voir Thévenin, La Mission laïque française, 62. 10 Cette association créée à Paris en 1902, avait pour but de diffuser partout dans le monde un enseignement français laïque. Thévenin, La Mission laïque française, 20–30.

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français, et 1943, date de la déclaration d’indépendance du Liban qui ne prendra effet qu’en 1946. Moeller précise que, durant cette période, dans les établissements de la Mission Laïque, à la différence des écoles catholiques et juives dont la clientèle était dans l’ensemble homogène du point de vue confessionnel, les élèves étaient issus de plusieurs communautés religieuses : pour la plupart, musulmans sunnites, grecs orthodoxes et juifs.11 Cette pluralité caractéristique du Levant et le fort ancrage communautaire des familles incita les directeurs des écoles laïques à s’éloigner quelque peu du laïcisme pratiqué en France ; ainsi, ils acceptèrent les pratiques religieuses au sein même de l’établissement, comme l’observance du ramadan et des prières. La plupart des parents d’élèves ne partageaient pas le laïcisme militant de beaucoup des professeurs, mais ils avaient choisi cette école pour sa neutralité en matière confessionnelle ainsi que pour les avantages qu’elle offrait en termes de promotion sociale.12 Davie13 note que, bien avant le Mandat français, à côté des enseignements supérieurs anglophones et francophones représentés respectivement par le Syrian Protestant College (1866), devenu American University of Beirut en 1920, et par l’Université Saint-Joseph (1875)—une université fondée par les jésuites, avec l’aide des dominicains—, des écoles primaires et secondaires avaient été implantées un peu partout : il s’agissait le plus souvent d’écoles locales communautaires et publiques ottomanes, où l’on enseignait, outre l’arabe et le turc, l’anglais, le français ou le russe. Ainsi, dans les différentes communautés chrétiennes et musulmanes présentes à Beyrouth, les jeunes gens fréquentaient l’une ou l’autre école “selon sans doute l’effet de proximité, mais aussi selon des stratégies éducatives qui (n’étaient) pas sans doute nécessairement communautaires”.14 C’est la raison principale qui avait conduit la Mission Laïque à ouvrir un établissement scolaire dans cette ville : la volonté de toucher une autre “clientèle”, majoritairement musulmane et privilégiant l’enseignement laïc, paraît ici probable. Loin de nous limiter à ce contexte politique ou religieux et aux raisons qui ont conduit à l’inauguration d’un établissement laïc au Liban, nous abordons dans ce chapitre quelques aspects du système éducatif français du début du vingtième siècle qui permettent d’éclairer les pratiques en vigueur au Collège de Beyrouth. Nous nous intéressons d’abord aux manuels scolaires, et plus précisément aux manuels de français, avec une attention particulière portée 11 Moeller, “Les écoles françaises au Liban”, 152. 12 Möller [= Moeller], “Elites as the Least Common Denominator”, 5. 13 Davie, Beyrouth et ses faubourgs. 14 Ibidem, 64.

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au cycle primaire. Puis nous traitons de la place réservée à la langue arabe dans les programmes du Collège, afin d’éclairer le bi-, voire le tri-linguisme caractéristique de la situation linguistique du Liban.

Organisation des classes et programme suivi au Collège de Beyrouth Dès sa création en 1909, le Collège de Beyrouth suit le même dispositif curriculaire et les mêmes programmes que les écoles de France, comme le montre la brochure de l’établissement pour la rentrée de 1910–1911 qui indique de manière détaillée les progressions d’une classe à l’autre et les manuels prescrits.15 L’enseignement dispensé est alors organisé en trois grandes divisions : enfantine, primaire et secondaire. Font également partie de l’établissement une école supérieure de commerce, une section de préparation à la faculté de médecine ainsi qu’une école “industrielle”. Dans la division enfantine, qui était mixte, les matières enseignées étaient la lecture (d’après la Méthode pratique de langage et de lecture d’I. Carré), le langage, le calcul et le dessin. Suivait une division primaire qui comprenait une Première où, à côté des cours de lecture (Méthode Carré. Lectures intuitives. Le premier livre de lecture d’I. Carré et le Livre élémentaire de lecture pour les pays de langue arabe de L’Hermet), les élèves réalisaient des exercices de langage, assortis d’une initiation à la grammaire, s’appuyant sur Le cours élémentaire de grammaire par Peltier et Gay, et à l’étude du vocabulaire, avec le Vocabulaire de l’enfance de Boisseau. Ils suivaient aussi des enseignements de calcul et de dessin. En Seconde primaire, ils disposaient des ouvrages des auteurs déjà cités, mais correspondant au niveau supérieur. Aux manuels déjà en usage s’ajoutait le Premier livre de lecture courante de Duchatenet; en calcul, on se servait de l’Arithmétique (cours moyen) de Chollet ; pour les leçons de choses, des Leçons de choses en 650 gravures de Colomb. S’ensuivaient les classes de la division secondaire, dont le programme d’enseignement était proche de celui qui était en vigueur en France dans les classes du 2e degré (1er cycle des lycées et collèges et écoles primaires supérieures). Dans la première classe du secondaire, l’accent était toujours mis sur l’enseignement du français, avec les manuels des mêmes auteurs auxquels s’ajoutait le recueil de Morceaux choisis (vers et proses) de Mironneau. L’enseignement se poursuivait avec l’arithmétique, l’histoire ancienne et l’histoire de la France, la géographie générale et l’histoire de l’Asie—une 15 Voir Thobie, Les intérêts culturels français dans l’Empire ottoman finissant, 46–47.

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importance particulière était accordée à l’Empire ottoman et à la Perse—, la physique, l’histoire naturelle et la géométrie. Le programme de la Deuxième secondaire comprenait les mêmes matières, avec des manuels rédigés par les mêmes auteurs, sauf dans les cours de langue où était introduit le Cours de grammaire et de composition française de Graillet et Myard. Le programme d’histoire changeait aussi, avec une insistance sur l’histoire romaine, l’histoire de l’Europe occidentale au Moyen-âge, les Croisades, ainsi que sur l’histoire de la civilisation arabe et l’Empire musulman; en géographie, les grands pays étaient mis en relief ; enfin, une nouvelle matière était introduite : la morale. La Troisième secondaire était un approfondissement de la Seconde. En Quatrième secondaire, les auteurs le plus souvent étudiés étaient Victor Hugo et Chateaubriand ; en histoire, on traitait des découvertes maritimes, des colonies, de la Renaissance, de la Réforme, de l’Empire turc, alors qu’en géographie, étaient abordées l’Europe et la géographie économique. À la fin de cette classe, les élèves passaient un examen dont les épreuves étaient assez semblables à celles du Certificat d’études primaires supérieures ou du Certificat d’études secondaires 1er degré français.16 Venait ensuite une division supérieure qui correspondait en partie au 2ème cycle des Lycées français. Alors qu’en France, le deuxième cycle comprenait trois années d’études, à Beyrouth, la division supérieure du Collège ne comptait que deux classes et conduisait à la première partie du baccalauréat, ainsi qu’à l’examen d’admission à la Faculté française de médecine. Le programme de ces deux classes était le même que celui qui était en vigueur en France. Le Collège comprenait aussi deux autres sections, les sections commerciale et industrielle, avec une scolarité d’une durée de deux ans, et un enseignement propre à chacune d’elles.

Politique d’enseignement au Collège de Beyrouth Moeller montre que l’influence occidentale, notamment française, avait été considérable dans tous les milieux confessionnels, dans la dernière période de l’Empire ottoman.17 Cela valait également pour le système éducatif qui avait été réformé sur le modèle français, permettant à la langue française de jouer un rôle important, malgré les voix critiques qui s’élevaient, en particulier dans certains milieux musulmans qui considéraient les écoles françaises comme un danger pour leurs enfants, en raison de l’influence occidentale 16 Thobie, Les intérêts culturels français dans l’Empire ottoman finissant, 57–58. 17 Moeller, “Une union éternelle?”, 46–47.

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qu’elles représentaient. Cela étant, le français a pu se répandre d’une manière générale au Liban et ce sont les chrétiens libanais qui en ont le plus tiré profit. Durant la Première Guerre mondiale, toutes les écoles étrangères avaient été obligées de fermer leurs portes et leurs enseignants contraints de quitter le pays. Ce n’est qu’entre 1918 et 1920 que les écoles françaises purent rouvrir au Liban dans une situation politique nettement différente, en raison de l’instauration du Mandat. Mais, à partir de 1925, se produit un nouveau changement politique. Ce changement est dû, d’une part, à la politique du gouvernement du cartel des gauches en France qui, succédant au gouvernement issu en 1919 de la Chambre “bleu horizon”, veut en finir avec l’influence catholique au Levant, d’autre part, à la révolte des Druzes en Syrie. Ce dernier événement fait prendre conscience au gouvernement français que les communautés musulmanes du Liban et de la Syrie risquent de se soulever contre le Mandat et de s’unir avec les nationalistes des autres pays arabes sous influence française.18 Par conséquent, Paris ne tarde pas à afficher son soutien aux écoles accueillant des musulmans, en l’occurrence, celles de la Mission laïque. S’ensuit alors une série de débats sur la place de l’enseignement du français au détriment de celle de l’arabe, ce qui amène un ancien élève d’un collège jésuite de Beyrouth à protester contre une “occidentalisation des mœurs” qui pourrait conduire les élèves libanais à une “rupture avec leur propre milieu, à travers une formation rationalisée qui allait les conditionner”.19 Un changement dans les programmes, intervenu d’abord au Collège de Beyrouth, a permis d’accorder, dès 1922, une place à l’enseignement de la langue et de la culture arabes, alors que, dans les collèges jésuites, un tel enseignement n’a été dispensé qu’au début des années 1940, quand la fin du Mandat se profilait déjà. Un autre tournant est signalé par Moeller. Il intervient au milieu des années 1930, avec l’accueil d’un plus grand nombre d’élèves catholiques (latins) au Collège ; il est dû au fait que l’école ouvre ses portes à des enfants de fonctionnaires français du Haut-Commissariat, ce qui conduit à une augmentation des effectifs. De manière générale, l’activité de l’école connaît alors un rebond important, surtout après 1935, comme l’attestent de nombreux articles et chroniques parus dans la Revue de l’enseignement français hors de France, la revue de la Mission Laïque. Après la présentation de quelques manuels scolaires en usage dans le cycle primaire du Collège de Beyrouth, une comparaison s’impose, lorsque les documents d’archive le permettent, entre ces derniers et certains de 18 Moeller, ibidem, 49. 19 Ibidem, 51.

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ceux qui étaient utilisés par les Français en Algérie, voire en Tunisie ou au Maroc. Il nous est paru utile, d’autre part, d’examiner succinctement la place de la langue arabe dans les programmes.

Manuels scolaires adoptés Un bref aperçu des manuels scolaires adoptés au Collège, fondé sur les commandes d’ouvrages passées le 28 octobre 1919 par le directeur de l’établissement20 et l’étude de Thobie,21 nous permet de mieux cerner les stratégies d’enseignement mises en œuvre. Nous prenons en considération uniquement le cycle primaire et les cours de français (lecture, langage) ainsi que les Leçons de choses. À noter que tous ces manuels étaient importés directement de France. Le premier des manuels de langue relève de la méthode directe,22 telle qu’elle avait été largement diffusée en France, une trentaine d’années plus tôt, via les ouvrages d’Irénée Carré.23 Il s’agit de la Méthode pratique de langage, de lecture, d’écriture, de calcul plus spécialement destinée aux élèves des provinces où l’on ne parle pas français et qui arrivent en classe ne comprenant ni ne sachant parler la langue nationale. Cet ouvrage, publié en 1889, est destiné aux cours élémentaire, moyen et supérieur, ainsi qu’au cours complémentaire. Ce qui le caractérise, comme le précise l’auteur dans la préface, est sa simplicité, dans la mesure où les mots qui y sont appris correspondent “aux objets que l’enfant observe autour de lui ou à des actes qu’il accomplit lui-même ou qui s’accomplissent devant lui, bref, des mots concrets uniquement”. Par ailleurs, dans les petites classes, là où les élèves apprennent à lire, le manuel fait appel à des pratiques didactiques alors nouvelles qui—bien qu’elles ne soient pas directement liées à la méthode directe24—signalent une volonté de rénovation des enseignements. On y emploie le procédé phonique, peu connu et encore trop peu pratiqué dans nos écoles primaires, quoiqu’il soit le plus rationnel de tous. La syllabe est lue d’abord dans son ensemble et c’est seulement après qu’elle a été lue 20 Archives nationales (Paris). Fonds de la Mission laïque française, 60/AJ, 122 (1919–1920). 21 Thobie, Les intérêts culturels français dans l’Empire ottoman finissant. 22 Broudic, “La puissante ténacité de l’obstacle de la langue bretonne”, 187. Cela reflète, en tout cas, le degré de similitude avec les méthodes suivies en métropole, dans les zones patoisantes. 23 Voir Boutan, “La ‘Méthode Carré’”. 24 La principale caractéristique de la méthode directe consiste à enseigner une langue étrangère dans cette langue même, sans faire le détour par la langue maternelle de l’apprenant.

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qu’elle est décomposée en ses sons et articulations par l’épellation orale et ses éléments graphiques ou lettres par l’écriture. Dès lors il importe peu qu’on se serve, pour nommer les lettres, de l’ancienne ou de la nouvelle appellation, ce nom ne devant influer en rien sur la lecture.25

De plus, l’enseignement dispensé laisse beaucoup de place à la pratique, il se veut gradué et méthodique. L’écriture, le calcul et le dessin y occupent aussi une place importante. La précision apportée par Carré concernant l’adoption d’un emploi du temps unique et cadré qui débute à 8 heures et se termine par des exercices de chant et de gymnastique à 11 heures, donne à ce manuel l’aspect d’un programme complet. Paru en 1902, le Vocabulaire de l’enfance de Georges Boisseau relève d’un enseignement élémentaire destiné au primaire. Dans sa présentation, l’auteur énumère trois buts : 1) enrichir le vocabulaire par un nombre considérable de mots pour permettre aux enfants d’exprimer facilement leur pensée ; 2) enseigner l’orthographe en observant les mots pour les employer correctement dans des phrases simples ; 3) s’exprimer avec précision à l’oral. Dans le corps du manuel, l’auteur précise avoir rangé les mots les plus usités de la langue française par catégories afin de faciliter leur étude au point de vue de leur orthographe, de leur définition et de leur emploi dans la phrase. À ce classement méthodique, il précise avoir joint de nombreuses illustrations et figures d’ensemble pour montrer la forme et les diverses parties des objets et ce, af in de familiariser l’enfant avec ces formes qu’il ne connait que superficiellement : ces vignettes constituent ainsi de véritables exercices d’observation et de langage et contribuent à développer son jugement et son raisonnement. La dernière phase sera celle de la rédaction, afin d’habituer les élèves à construire eux-mêmes leurs phrases en produisant une description ou un récit. La présentation se termine par un mode d’emploi du manuel, avec des conseils et des propositions destinés au maître. L’Enseignement par l’image. Leçons de choses en 650 gravures de Georges Colomb date de 1886. Ce manuel du cours moyen sollicite le sens de la vue pour aborder l’apprentissage, ce dont témoigne la première phrase de la préface : “L’enfant est tout yeux : ce qu’il voit le frappe plus que ce qu’il entend”. L’œil constitue la forme d’entrée pour aborder ce livre dont le titre constitue tout un programme, où il s’agit de présenter à l’élève les connaissances usuelles les plus indispensables sous une forme attrayante. L’image est mise en avant et se trouve accompagnée d’une légende courte et claire. Ce manuel est basé sur l’observation : les notions passent facilement et 25 Carré, Méthode pratique de langage et de lecture, 3.

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sans effort, elles sont présentées par le maître qui explique à ses élèves une scène extraite d’un récit, en leur montrant quel est le rôle joué par chaque personnage et leur inculque ainsi une foule de notions qu’ils sont amenés à assimiler sans efforts. Par cette démarche, la mémorisation cède la place à la compréhension, puisque l’élève sera amené à restituer dans une petite narration orale ce qu’il a observé et écouté. Les notions abordées sont des notions de base car elles ne concernent que ce que l’élève peut observer : pierres, métaux, matières alimentaires, éclairage et chauffage, vêtements, végétaux, amis et ennemis de l’homme (bêtes de somme et de trait, alliés de l’agriculteur, ennemis végétaux et insectes), matières industrielles et enfin l’homme lui-même (le corps humain). Ce qui est remarquable dans tous ces manuels est la clarté de la consigne et la précision de la démarche qui prend comme point de départ l’observation. En effet, à une époque où de nouvelles méthodes voient le jour, de nombreuses publications dans la Revue de la Mission Laïque soit mettent en valeur soit critiquent la méthode directe. L’enseignement cesse d’être un apprentissage par mémorisation ou récitation par cœur pour devenir un apprentissage moderne qui passe par l’observation d’abord et l’interaction ensuite (méthode socratique), dont l’objectif est d’amener les élèves à réfléchir et à s’exprimer correctement. Ces méthodes d’enseignement sont en phase avec le débat qui se déroule à l’époque en France, notamment en matière d’enseignement de la langue française dans des régions où d’autres parlers étaient en usage, comme l’occitan et le breton, ou bien l’alsacien (après 1918), avec notamment dans ce dernier cas, la mise en cause de la méthode directe de la part la Chambre des Métiers d’Alsace et de la Moselle. Cette dernière reproche à l’État de ne pas s’être intéressé aux résultats obtenus par l’école, en précisant, entre autres, un fléchissement du niveau des résultats où plus de 50 % des élèves auraient un bagage scolaire insuffisant. De plus, la connaissance de la langue française fait plutôt des progrès dans les milieux urbains alors qu’elle reste superficielle et fragmentaire à la campagne ; enfin, la connaissance de l’allemand est en régression sur toute la ligne.26

Brève comparaison avec l’enseignement français dans les colonies Pendant leur présence dans les colonies, les Français ont dispensé aux autochtones des enseignements spécifiques, comme l’indiquent les manuels 26 Pour plus d’informations sur ces débats, voir Lieutard et al., L’école française et les langues régionales, et plus précisément, Huck, “L’école primaire et les questions linguistiques”.

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en usage en Tunisie, au Maroc et en Algérie,27 où une méthode est destinée à “l’écolier indigène” de langue arabe (voir ci-dessous). Comme nous l’avons indiqué plus haut, alors que les manuels étaient directement importés de la France au Liban, ce n’était pas le cas de ceux adoptés dans les colonies et qui étaient davantage marqués par un contexte déterminé, comme nous allons le préciser. Cette différence est due, d’une part, à la situation particulière du Liban. En effet, l’existence d’une forte communauté chrétienne autochtone avait grandement facilité l’installation des congréganistes français, ce qui a eu pour conséquence, dans cette région et depuis longtemps une pratique importante de la langue française. D’autre part, avec la création du Grand Liban, et grâce à la présence d’une bourgeoisie sunnite à Beyrouth, la langue française a été perçue comme un moyen d’ascension sociale. Les élites se forment au Collège de Beyrouth qui deviendra un peu plus tard le Lycée franco-libanais. Cela revient à dire que les manuels scolaires employés au Liban n’ont pas subi d’adaptation particulière avant d’être mis dans les mains des élèves qui, pour certains, connaissaient le français, et souvent aussi l’allemand, l’italien, le turc, enseignés déjà au temps des Ottomans, à côté de l’arabe, leur langue maternelle. Par conséquent, le multilinguisme a toujours distingué les habitants de cette région. Il faut ici rappeler que dans les colonies, l’enseignement du français passait en particulier par le biais des leçons de morale et d’instruction civique qui pouvaient faire référence aux mœurs et aux croyances des peuples de ces régions, comme l’indiquent Bernard et Veller dans leur manuel intitulé Le Livre élémentaire de lecture courante de l’écolier indigène (pays de langue arabe)28 paru en 1908. On trouve ainsi cette précision destinée aux instituteurs : “Nos maximes morales, dont beaucoup sont tirées du Coran, seront l’occasion de petites causeries”. En effet, dans ces colonies, et plus particulièrement en Algérie, l’importance était plutôt accordée à la lecture ainsi qu’aux “leçons de choses et [à] des récits moraux” et de nombreuses illustrations et gravures à caractère local avaient pour objectif de rendre l’enseignement de la lecture plus efficace en fournissant à l’instituteur des sujets d’exercices de langage et d’explications d’images. Nous remarquons aussi dans le manuel de Bernard et Veller la prédominance de prénoms à consonance arabe, tout comme de nombreuses références de type religieux. Le contexte culturel de la région est mis en avant avec un rappel des différentes populations qui y vivent : Arabes, Kabyles 27 Voir Boutan, “Le traitement des ‘idiomes locaux’ à l’école”, 291–292. 28 Pour la politique d’enseignement en Algérie, voir Vigner, “Les exercices de langage”.

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et Français. L’objectif paraît alors distinct de celui des manuels scolaires adoptés au Liban : ceux qui sont utilisés en Algérie prennent davantage en compte les caractéristiques géographiques, culturelles et religieuses de cette colonie.29 Certains chercheurs signalent aussi le fait que l’objectif de l’enseignement français dans les colonies était axé sur la lecture et la communication plus que sur l’écriture,30 ce qui n’a pas été le cas au Liban, comme nous avons pu le voir.

Quelle place est accordée à la langue arabe dans le programme ? L’instauration du Mandat français au Liban et la création de la Mission laïque française à Beyrouth ont changé la donne. En fait, le Collège n’a pas négligé la langue arabe31 ; il lui a accordé une place au sein d’un enseignement laïc, ce qui rompait avec les pratiques des congréganistes installés de longue date dans cette région. Quelle a été alors la place occupée par cette langue au Collège de Beyrouth et quel rôle a-t-elle pu jouer dans l’attitude des Libanais ?32 Comme le bilinguisme, voire le trilinguisme,33 étaient depuis longtemps ancrés dans les pratiques langagières de la région, la langue arabe a toujours été enseignée au Collège. C’est ce que montre le recrutement local des “professeurs indigènes” 29 Bernard et Veller, Le Livre élémentaire de lecture courante, 63. 30 Voir supra, note 24. 31 Dès 1910, l’objectif de Deschamps est d’intégrer un bon enseignement de la langue arabe : “Nous serons une bonne école si nous savons être une bonne école arabe” (Thévenin, La Mission laïque française, 91). 32 Dans le compte-rendu du Conseil d’Administration du Collège de Beyrouth, publié dans la Revue, un nouvel emploi du temps est mis en application en novembre 1922. Il comporte 10 heures d’arabe pour les groupes élémentaires et moyen, 9 heures pour le groupe supérieur. Le directeur de l’enseignement arabe ayant alerté sa hiérarchie sur les difficultés d’application du programme dans les petites classes, avec les élèves la composant (enfants de 5 à 6 ans), il préconise la création d’une classe enfantine précédant la Première et correspondant par ses méthodes et ses programmes à la classe enfantine française. 33 Dans son étude intitulée “Liban : quels défis pour l’école ?”, Haddad attribue cette diversité culturelle à des raisons historiques, notamment aux guerres confessionnelles attisées par les Ottomans, dès le dix-neuvième siècle, dont la conséquence fut l’intervention des grandes puissances d’alors. La France plaça les Maronites sous sa protection et la Grande-Bretagne les Druzes sous la sienne. Une deuxième conséquence a été un double bilinguisme fréquent : arabe/français pour les uns, beaucoup moins systématique, et arabe/anglais pour les autres. Par conséquent, l’avènement du Mandat a institutionnalisé cette situation en imposant l’apprentissage du français à côté de l’arabe, jusqu’en 1955. Or, la situation est restée volontairement floue, car aucune disposition de loi n’est venue réglementer l’enseignement des langues, de crainte de braquer telle ou telle communauté religieuse.

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qui en étaient chargés.34 Ils jouissaient d’une certaine indépendance par rapport à leurs collègues français, recrutés en France, s’agissant notamment de la “mission civilisatrice” dont ces derniers avaient la charge. Sur un autre plan, la Mission laïque crée en 1925 un lycée dit “franco-arabe” à Damas dont l’appellation marque un tournant dans la volonté d’infléchir sa politique ; celle-ci vise désormais à s’appuyer explicitement sur un enseignement franco-national, non seulement par le recours à l’arabe qui devient plus fréquemment langue d’enseignement pour les matières “locales”, mais aussi par la création des sections nationales dites de langue française, débouchant, comme dans les autres écoles du pays, sur la préparation aux examens syriens. Cette politique émane de la volonté d’Edmond Besnard, alors secrétaire général de la Mission laïque, qui entend accorder à la langue maternelle des enfants confiés à la Mission une place éminente dans l’enseignement, objectif en vue duquel certains établissements avaient pris les devants, telle l’Académie arabe.35 Comme le montrent les nombreuses discussions tenues au Congrès de la Mission laïque française en 1936–193736, l’enseignement de l’arabe n’a été largement discuté qu’à partir des années 1930. Progressivement, l’enjeu autour de son enseignement comme langue nationale s’intensifie dans les objectifs et les finalités de ces lycées d’Orient en raison du bilinguisme qui ne faisait que prolonger un multilinguisme observable, nous l’avons dit, dès le milieu du dix-neuvième siècle dans cette région du Proche-Orient. D’autres enjeux sociétaux et politiques suscitent alors l’intérêt des Français, avec la montée des nationalismes arabes, le souci des peuples de se forger une nouvelle identité nationale et la volonté de se proclamer indépendants dans des pays dont les contours commencent à être tracés. La Revue de l’enseignement du français hors de France porte la trace explicite de ces débats. Juste avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en raison des changements qui commencent à se profiler dans cette région, de nombreuses livraisons de cette revue (articles, revues de presse, chroniques et documentations sur chacun des pays arabes placés sous mandat), traitent le volet éducatif en lien direct avec des questions politiques. La Revue discute ainsi de tous les problèmes rencontrés sur place, sur les plans éducatif et professionnel. En 1935, le changement s’intensifie, que ce soit au niveau de la direction de la Revue ou à travers les nombreuses discussions qui ont lieu dans les congrès 34 Haddad précise que l’enseignement dispensé pendant le Mandat a formé des générations de Syriens maitrisant à la fois l’arabe et le français et jouissant d’une vaste culture. 35 Thévenin, La Mission laïque française, 127–128. 36 Revue de l’enseignement français hors de France 105, août-sept. 1933, 266.

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et assemblées générales et font apparaître un nouveau centre d’intérêt, l’enseignement de la langue, de la culture et de la civilisation arabes dans des pays arabes en voie d’obtenir leur indépendance. Auparavant, les pays placés sous mandat ne faisaient que suivre, en matière d’enseignement, les pratiques en vigueur dans le pays mandataire, sauf en matière de langue arabe, comme on l’a vu. Le projecteur était plutôt dirigé sur les traits du système éducatif français qui pouvaient avoir un écho à l’étranger. En 1937, ces débats prennent de l’ampleur, notamment, lors de la tenue du Congrès de la Mission laïque française, dont les membres discutent des thèmes suivants : “Situation du français en Orient” (1ère séance), avec la participation de Tāhā Ḥusayn, “la part à faire dans nos programmes à l’Enseignement national et à la Culture françaises” (4ème séance), et des mesures concrètes sont préconisées par le Secrétaire général lors de la cinquième séance37 : la Revue change ainsi d’orientation et de politique, elle se tourne désormais plus nettement vers les pays de langue arabe placés sous mandat ou hors mandat et ce, en émettant le vœu que les maitres de la Mission laïque s’intéressent à la langue, à l’histoire et à la civilisation des pays où ils sont envoyés, que des cours spéciaux soient créés à cet effet par les directeurs dans tous les établissements et que les professeurs soient tenus de les suivre. Ce changement est en phase avec le processus de construction d’une identité nationale dont l’une des composantes principales est la promotion de la langue arabe. Avec ces données, il semble désormais impossible de dissocier langue et politique, même si l’enseignement de l’arabe n’a été largement diffusé que suite aux changements institutionnels qui ont touché le Liban et la Syrie avant leur indépendance.

Conclusion Ce bref aperçu historique permet de rendre compte de nombreux enjeux qui ont façonné l’enseignement au Liban avant et pendant le Mandat français. Les divergences étaient pourtant fortes. Là où l’intérêt des uns était de se former pour trouver un emploi, d’autres ont ainsi pu accéder aux plus hautes fonctions et former une élite qui allait bientôt diriger le pays et le conduire vers son indépendance avec le projet de renaissance arabe (nahḍa) porté par le mouvement nationaliste jusque dans la décennie postérieure à l’indépendance.38 Des personnalités notables, qui furent les élèves des 37 Revue de l’enseignement français hors de France 128, nov.-déc. 1937, 158. 38 Hanna, “Pour ou contre le Mandat français”, 187.

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écoles congréganistes ou du Collège, vont en nombre plus important occuper des fonctions importantes, même si cela avait déjà été le cas à la fin du dix-neuvième et au début du vingtième siècle sous l’Empire ottoman. Quant à la langue arabe, son enseignement a coexisté avec celui du français, notamment au Collège de Beyrouth et ce, jusqu’à la déclaration officielle de l’indépendance du Liban. Les choses y sont d’ailleurs restées floues, certains établissements ayant continué à enseigner toutes les matières en français à côté d’un enseignement de l’arabe, considéré comme langue vivante à enseigner et non comme langue d’enseignement.

Références Sources primaires Archives

Archives nationales (France). Fonds de la Mission laïque française (60AJ/118–141). Établissements scolaires. Collège de Beyrouth, 1909–1939.

Sources imprimées

Bernard, Paul et Paul Veller, Le Livre de lecture courante de l’écolier indigène (pays de langue arabe), 8e édition, (Paris : A. Colin, 1915 [1900]). Boisseau, Georges, Le Vocabulaire de l’enfance, étude raisonnée des mots usuels de la langue française (Paris : Delalain frères, 1902). Carré, Irénée, Méthode pratique de langage, de lecture, d’écriture, de calcul, etc., plus spécialement destinée aux élèves des provinces où l’on ne parle pas français et qui arrivent en classe ne comprenant ni ne sachant parler la langue nationale (…). Livre de l’élève (Paris : A. Colin, 1889). Carré, Irénée, Méthode Carré. Lectures intuitives. Le premier livre de lecture (Paris : A. Colin, 1898). Colomb, Georges, L’enseignement par l’image. Leçons de choses en 650 gravures (Paris : A. Colin, 1896). Duchatenet, A., Premier livre de lecture courante (Paris : E. Cornély, 1903). L’Hermet, L., Le livre élémentaire de lecture courante de l’écolier indigène (pays de langue arabe) (Paris : A. Colin, 1908). Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, Plan d’études et programmes des écoles primaires élémentaires, et instructions du 20 juin 1923… (Paris : Vuibert, 1934). Mironneau, Adolphe, Choix de lectures (Paris : A. Colin, 1908). Myard, J. et J.-B. Graillet, Grammaire et composition française (Paris : C. Delagrave, coll. Bibliothèque des écoles primaires supérieures et des écoles professionnelles, 1898).

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Peltier, Camille et P.-H. Gay, Cours de langue française à l’usage des écoles primaires élémentaires (Paris : C. Delagrave, 1909). Revue de l’enseignement français hors de France (Paris : Mission laïque de France, 1920–1940).

Sources secondaires Boutan, Pierre, “La ‘Méthode Carré’ et la politique linguistique à l’école primaire de la IIIe République vers la fin du XIXe siècle”, Tréma 14 (1998), 13–26. Boutan, Pierre, “Le traitement des ‘idiomes locaux‘ à l’école, en métropole et aux colonies  : le cas de l’Algérie”, in Hervé Lieutard et Marie-Jeanne Verny (dir.), L’école française et les langues régionales XIXe-XXe siècles (Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2007), 283–304. Broudic, Fañch, “La puissante ténacité de l’obstacle de la langue bretonne”, in Hervé Lieutard et Marie-Jeanne Verny (dir.), L’école française et les langues régionales XIXe-XXe siècles (Montpellier : Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2007), 177–195. Cloarec, Vincent, “La France du Levant ou la spécificité impériale française au début du XXe siècle”, Outre-Mers. Revue d’histoire 313 (1996), 3–32. Davie, May, Beyrouth et ses faubourgs (1840–1940) : une intégration inachevée (Beyrouth : Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain, 1996). Fournié, Pierre, “Le Mandat à l’épreuve des passions françaises : L’affaire Sarrail (1925)”, in Nadine Méouchy (dir.), France, Syrie et Liban 1918–1946 : Les ambiguïtés et les dynamiques de la relation mandataire (Beyrouth : Presses de l’Ifpo, 2013), 125–168. Haddad, Katia, “Liban : quels défis pour l’école ?”, Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres 17 (1998), 69–77. Hanna, Abdallah, “Pour ou contre le Mandat français. Réflexions fondées sur des enquêtes de terrain”, in Nadine Méouchy (dir.), France, Syrie et Liban 1918–1946 : Les ambiguïtés et les dynamiques de la relation mandataire (Beyrouth : Presses de l’Ifpo, 2013), 181–193. Huck, Dominique, “L’école primaire et les questions linguistiques en Alsace entre 1918 et 1940”, in Marie-Jeanne Verny et Hervé Lieutard (dir.), L’école française et les langues régionales (Montpellier : Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2015), 213‑229. Kahn, Pierre, “Éducation et politique”, in François Jacquet-Francillon, Renaud d’Enfert et Laurence Loeffel (dir.), Une histoire de l’école. Anthologie de l’éducation et de l’enseignement en France XVIIIe-XXe siècle (Paris : Retz, 2010), 53–60. Lieutard, Hervé et Marie-Jeanne Verny, L’école française et les langues régionales XIXe-XXe Siècles (Montpellier : Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2007).

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Loeffel, Laurence, “Éducation et morale”, in François Jacquet-Francillon, Renaud d’Enfert et Laurence Loeffel (dir.), Une histoire de l’école. Anthologie de l’éducation et de l’enseignement en France XVIIIe-XXe siècle (Paris : Retz, 2010), 79–85. Moeller, Esther, “Clientélisme, concurrence ou coopération ? Les écoles de La Mission laïque française face aux écoles israélites au Liban entre 1909 et 1943”, in Jérôme Bocquet (dir.), L’enseignement français en Méditerranée. Les missionnaires et l’Alliance Israélite Universelle (Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010), 149–165. Moeller, Esther, “Une union éternelle ? Les catholiques libanais et les écoles françaises au Liban, 1900–1950”, Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 45 (2010), 43–68. Moeller, Esther, “Les écoles françaises au Liban 1909–1943 : lieux de la ‘mission civilisatrice’ ?”, Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 46 (2011), 181–192. Möller [= Moeller], Esther, “Elites as the Least Common Denominator : The Ambivalent Place of French Schools in Lebanon in the Process of Decolonization”, in Jost Dülffer and Marc Frey (eds.), Elites and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century, (Basingstoke UK/New York : Palgrave Macmillan & Springer, 2011), 94–109. Poucet, Bruno, “Éducation et religion”, in François Jacquet-Francillon, Renaud d’Enfert et Laurence Loeffel (dir.), Une histoire de l’école. Anthologie de l’éducation et de l’enseignement en France, XVIIIe- XXe Siècle. (Paris : Retz, 2010), 69–77. Thévenin, André, La Mission laïque française à travers son histoire: 1902–2002 (Paris : Mission laïque française, 2002). Thobie, Jacques, Les intérêts culturels français dans l’Empire ottoman finissant. L’enseignement laïque et en partenariat (Leuven : Peeters, 2008). Vigner, Gérard, “Les exercices de langage : du plan d’études et des programmes de l’enseignement des indigènes en Algérie au Bulletin de l’enseignement des indigènes de l’Académie d’Alger (1893–1914)”, Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 62–63 (2019), 403–28.

À propos de l’auteure Manar El Kak est docteure en linguistique de Sorbonne Université dans le cadre d’une cotutelle internationale avec l’Université Libanaise. Elle est l’auteure d’une thèse intitulée Le pronom on entre hypothèse psychomécanique et point de vue contrastif (français-arabe). Elle s’intéresse à la polysémie grammaticale du pronom on en français ainsi qu’aux problèmes liés à sa traduction arabe dans la perspective énonciative de la psychomécanique

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du langage de Gustave Guillaume. Ses recherches portent sur la linguistique contrastive français-arabe, la sémantique grammaticale, les théories de l’énonciation et la traductologie. Site Web personnel : https://www.univ-reims.fr/cirlep/l-equipe-des-chercheurs-du-cirlep/manar-el-kak,9931,42699.html

About the author Manar El Kak holds a PhD in linguistics in the framework of an international cotutelle between Sorbonne Université and Lebanese University. She is the author of a thesis entitled Le pronom on entre hypothèse psychomécanique et point de vue contrastif (français-arabe). She is interested in the grammatical polysemy of the pronoun on in French as well as in the problems related to its Arabic translation in the enunciative perspective of Gustave Guillaume’s psychomechanics of language. Her research interests include French-Arabic contrastive linguistics, grammatical semantics, theories of enunciation, and translatology. Personal website: https://www.univ-reims.fr/cirlep/l-equipe-des-chercheursdu-cirlep/manar-el-kak,9931,42699.html

VI Southeast Asia

12 The Romanized writing of Vietnamese: A unique case in the Far East1 Thị Kiều Ly Phạm and Mariangela Albano

Abstract: Historical circumstances have left the Vietnamese language with a legacy of three written systems: sinograms, introduced at the same time as the Chinese Empire’s political control and the classical Confucian books; the nôm script, sinograms adapted to the Vietnamese language; and Romanized writing, created by Jesuit missionaries, which has had official status since 1945. The Vietnamese use of a Latin-type alphabet is a unique phenomenon among countries marked by Confucian doctrine in the East Asian cultural sphere. In this chapter, we retrace the creation of the Romanized writing ([chữ] quốc ngữ) since 1615 and its subsequent evolution. We analyze the historical and literary context and the opinions of the relevant figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to show the extent to which quốc ngữ has occupied the role of the official script of Vietnam. Résumé : Les circonstances historiques ont légué à la langue vietnamienne l’héritage de trois systèmes d’écriture : les sinogrammes, introduits en même temps que le contrôle politique de l’Empire chinois et les classiques confucéens ; l’écriture nôm, des sinogrammes adaptés à la langue vietnamienne ; et l’écriture romanisée, créée par les missionnaires jésuites, qui est revêtue d’un statut officiel depuis 1945. L’utilisation par les Vietnamiens d’un alphabet de type latin est un phénomène unique parmi les pays marqués par la doctrine confucéenne dans la sphère culturelle est-asiatique. Dans ce chapitre, nous retraçons la création de cette écriture ([chữ] quốc ngữ) depuis 1615 et son évolution ultérieure. Nous analysons le contexte historique et littéraire ainsi que les opinions 1 [L’écriture romanisée du vietnamien: un cas singulier en Extrême-Orient]. Some sections of this chapter have been developed in Phạm, Thị Kiều Ly, Histoire de l’écriture romanisée du vietnamien (1615–1919) (Paris : Les Indes Savantes, 2022).

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch12

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des personnalités concernées à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle et au début du vingtième siècle pour montrer de quelle manière le quốc ngữ a occupé le rôle d’écriture officielle. Keywords: Vietnamese language. Vietnamese writing. Alphabetical system. Chinese characters. quốc ngữ script. Mots-clés : Langue vietnamienne. Écritures du vietnamien. Système alphabétique. Sinogrammes. Écriture quốc ngữ.

Introduction Historical circumstances have left the Vietnamese language with a legacy of three scripts: Chinese characters, introduced in Vietnam when the Chinese Empire took political control of the country and when classical Confucian books were introduced; the nôm script, invented by the Vietnamese in the tenth century, which basically used Chinese characters but adapted them locally to the Vietnamese language; and Vietnamese Romanized writing, created by Jesuit missionaries starting in 1615, which has had official status since 1945. The use of a Latin-type alphabet is a unique phenomenon among continental Far Eastern Asian countries that have been politically and culturally influenced by the Chinese Empire and marked by Confucian doctrine. However, the Romanization of Vietnamese is not a unique case in the world; it is part of a universal movement. In the wake of the Renaissance, missionaries, with basic knowledge of Latin grammar (most often acquired in seminary) as their main “linguistic” background, were sent to evangelize the New World. Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian, or (later on) Jesuit missionaries, faced with the need to communicate with natives, had to learn their language and transcribed it into the Latin alphabet through the description of the language using the model of Latin grammar. In this chapter we retrace the creation of the Romanized writing of Vietnamese (quốc ngữ) and its subsequent evolution. We also show which religious, cultural, and political factors influenced this history. The Jesuits transcribed “Annamese”2 into the Latin alphabet to help their 2 In missionary reports starting in the seventeenth century, the Vietnamese people were called Annamites and their language Annamese. In this chapter we use the term Vietnamese as is done currently.

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fellow colleagues learn the language. After the arrival of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris, or MEP) in the second half of the seventeenth century, this script was taught in the local colleges of MEP in Vietnam and the general college in Siam. Under French colonization, which began in 1858 in Cochinchina, the role of quốc ngữ was reinforced, with its introduction into public education in 1861. It was then promoted to the status of official writing system, replaced sinograms among the literate, and became dominant in administrative or legal acts after the abolition of competitive examinations for the recruitment of mandarins in 1919. In addition, we analyze the historical and literary context as well as the opinions of relevant figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to show the extent to which quốc ngữ has occupied the role of the official script of Vietnam.

Before the creation of Vietnamese Romanized writing Chinese characters were introduced to Vietnam with the expansion of the Chinese Empire when the Hàn Dynasty installed the administrative system in Nam Việt (now Vietnam) in 111 BC. Until Vietnam’s independence from China in 939 AD, two languages were spoken in the country: Vietnamese and Chinese. During this period, Vietnam was sinicized, and Chinese characters became the official script taught to the literati.3 When Vietnam was emancipated from the Chinese Empire, sinograms remained the official script. The country adopted the model of the Chinese educational system by establishing schools where Chinese characters were taught and by organizing mandarin exams. The demotic script (chữ nôm) took off after the country’s independence from China in the tenth century, when the need for a truly national writing system was felt. From then on, two systems coexisted: Chinese characters and chữ nôm. There are two main categories of nôm characters. “Characters (of the first) category are borrowed from Chinese for their phonetic value to represent Vietnamese words with more or less the same sound.”4 The second category is known as “composite creations”: “There are new nôm characters made by combining two Chinese characters. One group, by far the most numerous, comprises characters in which one component 3 DeFrancis, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam, 10–12. 4 Ibidem, 24.

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is taken over for its meaning and the other for its pronunciation.”5 Nôm, the people’s writing, was used in everyday life and was also the means for creating literary works.

Romanized Vietnamese writing: The result of the work of missionaries The creation of Romanized writing: A tool for learning the Vietnamese language The creation of Romanized Vietnamese writing dates back to the arrival of the Jesuits in Cochinchina in 1615.6 The main objective was the evangelization and conversion of souls, and the learning of indigenous languages was the sine qua non condition for reaching this goal. The missionaries followed the European learning standard: the composition of a grammar book in accordance with the model for Greco-Latin grammar and the transcription of the indigenous language into Latin script.7 In a 1619 report,8 João Roiz [= Rodriguez] (1562–1633) announced that Francisco de Pina9 had completed a book of vocabulary of the local language (Cochinchinese).10 In a 1622–23 report (or thereabouts), Pina indicated that he had composed a treatise on the spelling and tones of Cochinchinese.11 In this report, he also explains how he had learned it: I also gathered stories of various types […] in view of confirming meanings and rules, till now I have asked someone to read them to me. Then I 5 Ibidem, 25. 6 Vietnam, which was called the country of Đại Việt at the time, was divided into two kingdoms: Tonkin (in the north) and Cochinchina (in the south)—names given to them by the Europeans. 7 Auroux, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation, 112–16. 8 Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu [=ARSI], Jap-Sin 71, fols. 002–012. Jesuit missionaries sent annual reports written in Tonkin and Cochinchina to the General College in Macau and/ or the Superior of the Society in Rome. 9 A Portuguese Jesuit (1585–1625) who joined the Company in 1605, he was sent to Cochinchina in 1617 and died in a shipwreck in 1625. He is considered the f irst missionary to become fluent in Vietnamese and was the master of Alexandre de Rhodes and the other Jesuits in Cochinchina. 10 An internal war had divided the country in two and accentuated its separation into two dialectal areas. Each area had its own phonological and lexical specificities, but there was broad mutual intelligibility between Tonkinese and Cochinchinese speakers. 11 Jacques, L’Œuvre de quelques pionniers portugais, 243. Original source: Biblioteca da Ajuda, Jesuítas na Ásia, vol. 49-V-7, fol. 414v.

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transcribe them to Portuguese letters, so that our people can read them and learn them by heart, just as for Cicero and Virgil.12

After settling in Cochinchina, the Jesuits devised the plan to expand evangelization to Tonkin. In 1626 the first two priests, Baldinotti 13 and Piani, went to Tonkin.14 The other missionaries were sent to this kingdom to strengthen the young clergy. Among them were Alexandre de Rhodes (1593–1660) and António de Fontes (1569–1648), who had previously stayed in Cochinchina (from as early as 1624) and spoke the Vietnamese language quite well. They played an essential role in the transmission of the Romanized Vietnamese script conceived in Cochinchina to their confreres in Tonkin. In a 1631 report, António de Fontes includes the five diacritical signs15 used to mark the six tones of Vietnamese and takes great care to isolate each syllable:16 Table 6.  António de Fontes. Signs for tones, ARSI. Jap-Sin 85, fols. 89r–123r. Transcribed words

Spelling in modern quốc ngữ

Kể suôy ân lẵng huyen (fol. 099r) Kể chẩm hà dang ăn huyen (fol. 099v)

Kẻ Suôi, An Lãng huyện Kẻ Chẩm Hà, Đàng An huyện

Kẻ Suôi: a village name An Lãng: a district name Chẩm Hà: a village name Đàng An: a district name

Gaspar do Amaral (1594–1646) inherited the work of his colleagues and made significant advances in the Romanization efforts. He composed a vocabulary book in 1634 17 that established the main spelling conventions of the Romanized Vietnamese script and helped missionaries learn the language. Henceforth, the writing of Vietnamese in Latin characters in Jesuit reports would almost conform to these spelling rules.

12 Translated by Jacques, L’Œuvre de quelques pionniers portugais, 43. 13 Giuliano Baldinotti (1591–1631), born in Pistoia, was ordained in Rome in 1609, left for Goa in 1622, and arrived in Macau in the same year. He settled in Tonkin in 1626. 14 Jap-Sin 80, fol. 001r–002v. 15 The Standard Vietnamese, i.e., its Tonkinese variant, has six tones. The neutral (or zero) tone does not require a diacritical sign. 16 Jap-Sin 85, fols. 89r–123r. 17 Jesuítas na Ásia, vol. 49-V-31, fols. 307r–321v.

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Fig. 17. De Rhodes, Dictionarivm Annamiticvm… (1651), col. 1-2

Based on the linguistic work of his confreres,18 Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon, published the trilingual dictionary Dictionarivm Annamiticvm, Lusitanvm, et Latinvm in Rome in 1651. The teaching of the Romanized script in the colleges of the Missions Étrangères de Paris Starting in 1658 the French Vicars Apostolic and secular priests of the MEP settled in Cochinchina and Tonkin. They founded a general college in 18 Alexandre de Rhodes synthesized Gaspar do Amaral’s and Antόnio Barbosa’s dictionaries: the former began with the Annamite language, the latter with Portuguese.

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Ayutthaya (Siam) in 1666 and local colleges in Tonkin, seeking to contribute to the training of local clergy. At the college in Ayutthaya, Latin was immediately taught to make it possible for future indigenous priests to celebrate the liturgy. Since 1673 the number of Vietnamese seminarians had increased significantly, as shown in Louis Laneau’s report, which mentioned seventeen students, twelve of whom were Cochinchinese and two of whom were Tonkinese.19 Given the growing number of Vietnamese seminarians and the difficulties they encountered in learning Latin, Louis Laneau (1637–1696) decided to train Vietnamese teachers, since their language was spoken by the majority of seminarians. The Romanized writing of Vietnamese was put into the program for Vietnamese seminarians and French secular priests. Only a small number of Jesuit catechists knew Romanized writing when the MEP priests arrived. However, “the characters of the country” (nôm script) were widely used in the composition of books made available to catechists or Vietnamese Christians. Until 1679, according to François Deydier’s report, the rituals of sacraments had to be written in the language and characters of Vietnam so that the priests could read them during ceremonies.20 Furthermore, the history of graphic systems shows how political and religious factors can influence their evolution. In the case we are considering, this history is punctuated by a seemingly anecdotal event, which occurred in 1685, when soldiers arrested the servant of one of the parish priests of the province of Nghệ An. The servant was in possession of reports written in both ideogrammatic and European characters. By chance, the soldiers opened the package of letters written in European characters—that were unknown to them—and consequently let the servant go.21 This was fortunate for the servant and for the history of the expansion of Romanized Vietnamese script, as “the other couriers in the ideogrammatic characters dealt with all the matters of the forbidden religion.”22 Having been made aware of the risks involved, Deydier (1634–1693) immediately sent out new orders: from then on, all reports could only be written with Latin characters, completely eschewing the more common ideogrammatic writing. As a result, Deydier introduced the young seminarians to the “letters of Europe” and encouraged them to use Romanized Vietnamese script.23 19 Forest, Les missionnaires français au Tonkin et au Siam, 196. Original source: Archives des Missions Étrangères de Paris (AME), vol. 851, 120. 20 Marillier, Nos pères dans la foi, 13. Original source: AME, vol. 651, 128. 21 AME, vol. 680, 288–89. 22 Marillier, Nos pères dans la foi, 14. 23 Ibidem. Original source: AMP, vol. 680, 288–89.

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These new directives considerably modified the role played by the script. While it had been a suitable learning method for the early Jesuits, due to the new circumstances and Bishop Deydier’s decision, it also became a means of communication between European seculars and Vietnamese seminarians and priests. From then on, Romanized Vietnamese script, already in use as a learning tool for foreign missionaries, was taught to Vietnamese seminarians. Vietnamese priests rarely used Latin (only for the liturgy). The choice of quốc ngữ for writing reports seemed appropriate. Then the European seculars used this script, in turn, to communicate with Vietnamese priests and Christians. This writing was extensively used in the activity reports that European and Vietnamese priests compiled for their superiors throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

The formalization of the Romanized script of Vietnamese: A unique case in the Far East The capture of the port of Tourane (today Đà Nẵng) in 1858 and the occupation of Cochinchina by the French profoundly changed the political, linguistic, and cultural situation in Vietnam. The Romanized Vietnamese script (now referred to as quốc ngữ) left the circle of the church and was then introduced into teaching in Cochinchina. The decree promulgated by Admiral Charner on September 21, 1861, answered the need to found an “Annamite-French school,” which was named the Adran School.24 Beginning at that time, the French and the Vietnamese entered a debate over the choice of script from among the three existing ones. The introduction of Romanized writing in public education and administration in Cochinchina Debates over choice of script On the side of the French colonialists, Admiral Bonard (1805–1867), the governor of Cochinchina, supported the use of Chinese characters. Bonard, the successor to Admiral Charner appointed to this position in November 1861, sought to weaken the influence of the church over the colonial administration and more specifically to separate religion and administration: “this mixing of religion with the politics of the country is, in my view, of great 24 Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies, Revue maritime et coloniale, 304–5.

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danger.”25 He thus declared that he was seeking to respect the customs and traditions of the Vietnamese. Bonard reorganized the teaching of Chinese characters to keep the “natives” following the traditional teaching methods. As for French officials, Bonard instructed them to learn the language through quốc ngữ in addition to knowing the Chinese characters. Admiral Bonard’s stay in Cochinchina lasted a little over two years. He returned to Paris for health reasons and was replaced by Admiral de la Grandière. In 1864 Grandière decided to create primary schools where children could learn the quốc ngữ script. Progress was quick thanks to the convenience and simplicity of quốc ngữ. Consistent with the report of the Ministry of the Navy and Colonies, 300 children could already write, and 600 could read after three months of learning this script.26 The quốc ngữ will, moreover, permit the teaching of our alphabet to the young Annamite generation and thus apply, in a general way, the method created by our missionaries. A local child will later be able to write his language in a few months, whereas, with Chinese characters, it takes him at least ten years to learn. What an extraordinary result!27 When French soldiers participated in interpreter training to learn Vietnamese, they chose one of the three script systems available to learn. The quốc ngữ script was chosen more often than not because of its convenience and ease of use. However, the debate over using one script or the other began among the literate Vietnamese of this period. These literati had been trained in both the traditional school and the Catholic college system. As for the opponents of the adoption of quốc ngữ, they were mainly literati who had only had a traditional education, such as Nguyễn Đình Chiểu (1822–1888), a writer, poet, and teacher. He was a kind of Confucian scholar who defended Confucian values and ideogrammatic writing.28 He was a nationalist and wrote poems and literary works, most often in chữ nôm, against the French and colonization.29 As a conservative, he rejected all ideas coming from foreign cultures and civilizations. He opposed the introduction of quốc ngữ, since this script belonged to the invaders of the national culture.30 On the other hand, church-trained scholars, such as Petrus Trương Vĩnh Ký (1837–1898) and Huỳnh Tịnh Paulus Của (1834–1907), understood the value of the quốc ngữ for the instruction of the people: “quốc ngữ must 25 Cited in Võ, La place du catholicisme dans les relations entre la France et le Viet-nam, 199. 26 Ministère de la marine et des colonies, 305. 27 Grammont, Onze mois de sous-préfecture en Basse-Cochinchine, 34. 28 Durand and Trần, Introduction à la littérature vietnamienne, 98–99. 29 DeFrancis, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam, 107–8. 30 Nguyễn, Việt Nam, chữ viết, Ngôn ngữ và xã hội, 63.

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become the script of the country. This writing is necessary for the betterment of the country. We should therefore seek to spread this writing by all means.”31 Petrus Ký supports the teaching of quốc ngữ script, but he also advocates teaching Chinese characters as the common script proper to the “mother tongue.” He analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each script from phonetic and semantic points of view.32 The Chinese script being both ideographic and phonetic, it has the double advantage of representing the idea and the articulation that should represent it, but there is an inconsistency between the written and the spoken language. He assesses the role that the Chinese language played in the constitution of Vietnamese vocabulary and the role it continues to play in its understanding. There is no reason, in his view, to cut the Vietnamese people off from their cultural roots by abolishing the teaching of sinograms. As for the quốc ngữ and nôm scripts: The Quốc ngữ, on the contrary, representing only sounds, is purely phonetic, and in this respect may be considered inferior to the Chữ nôm, which, though it performs only the functions of phonetic writing, nevertheless aids significantly in the intelligence of ideas by the keys which it preserves near the phonetic, and which figuratively represent the series into which these ideas have been classified; indeed, this real advantage of the Chữ nôm is primarily compensated for by the imperfection of the combination of these phonetics, which only provide a sound close to that which must be emitted: an imperfection not found in Quốc ngữ, whose sounds, formed by the combination of consonants and vowels ad hoc, are and can only be exact and precise.33

Despite the advantages of the nôm script over the quốc ngữ script, it is interesting to note that Trương Vĩnh Ký affirms that his thought should not be misinterpreted and that his intent is not to abolish ideographic writing altogether. He supports extensive learning of the quốc ngữ to increase the knowledge of the Vietnamese people. The official use of quốc ngữ script In 1863 quốc ngữ was not yet compulsory, but candidates for administrative positions who mastered it were given preference. The following year, 31 Trương, Manuel des écoles primaires, 1. 32 Trương, “Écriture en Annam.” 33 Ibidem, 9.

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instruction became free, and the organization of schools came under the supervision of primary inspectors. From then on, French, Vietnamese, and quốc ngữ were taught in parallel. In 1868 Admiral de La Grandière signed a decree related to the creation of a municipal school; it was “the first step toward secular education.”34 This school had three sections: the European primary school, the school for interpreters, and the school for adults.35 In the same year, Admiral Ohier signed another decree allowing for the opening of evening classes in quốc ngữ for adults. According to the same policy, in 1871, following the promulgation of the Dupré decree in Saigon,36 pupils had to write texts in quốc ngữ as part of the reading and writing exam in Vietnamese, in addition to a French test.37 In 1882 it became the officially prescribed script for writing administrative documents.38 The spread of quốc ngữ throughout the country and the choice of the language of education After the treaties of 1884 and 1885 establishing the protectorate, Vietnam was divided into three zones: Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. The protectorate regime prevailed in Tonkin and Annam, and direct administration by the French prevailed in Cochinchina. The f irst schools of the protectorate were founded in Hanoi and Lạng Sơn. Paul Bert (1833–1886), appointed Superior Resident of Annam-Tonkin in 1886, led an office with an active educational policy. He promptly opened a course on quốc ngữ in Hanoi after his installation. However, the question of choosing the medium of instruction remained. Teaching in Vietnamese Proponents of Vietnamese as the working language of the classroom fell into two camps. Some aimed to set up teaching conducted in Vietnamese (the partisans of the status quo). The others considered teaching in Vietnamese to be merely an intermediate stage to establishing teaching in French (the partisans of adaptation). 34 Roucoules, “Étude sur l’instruction publique en Cochinchine,” 31. 35 Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia, 100. Original source: Archives de la marine, BB4, 876, letter by Admiral Ohier to the Minister of Colonies, dated November 28, 1868, n° 1.083. 36 Marie-Jules Dupré (1813–1881) was Governor of Cochinchina from 1871 to 1874. The decree of 1871 made quốc ngữ obligatory for the written examination. 37 Potteaux, Lịch Annam thông dụng trong sáu tỉnh Nam Kì, 69–71. 38 Bulletin officiel de la Cochinchine française (1878), 110–11.

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Gustave Dumoutier (1850–1904) was one of the strongest advocates of teaching in Vietnamese; he felt it was impossible to impose teaching in French on the “Annamites […], a civilized, literate, refined race.”39 Based on his personal experience, he believed that pupils educated in French would receive only a mediocre education. Because of the strong results obtained at the religious schools, he became convinced that the pupils would acquire more knowledge, in various domains, in their mother tongue, whether it be a question of the courses given or the schoolbooks used. As for the proponents of teaching in Vietnamese as an intermediate step, they aimed for a “judicious adaptation of the old curricula, whose moral value, indispensable for social balance, would be preserved, to which more practical and modern subjects would be added.”40 In this context, French played the role of the foreign language during school. Its acquisition helped the Vietnamese to communicate with the French and to have access to a Western education.41 Once the children have mastered the knowledge in their mother tongue and completed primary education, teaching in French would be introduced at the higher levels. Promoters of adaptation, such as Roucoules, put forth arguments like the following: As we have established, the use of quôc ngu offers the immediate advantage of not breaking with the past or with habits, that have been often imposed, but ideally acquired. This writing system will be the slow but sure and necessary vehicle for the acquisition of a vocabulary that is not lesser but on the contrary more correct and more accurate than the one spread by the sabir. 42

In short, the proponents of teaching the Vietnamese language not only intended to use the characters but also to introduce the quốc ngữ script. On the one hand, they believed that Western and Eastern cultures should co-exist and that children educated in Confucian doctrine were wise and virtuous. They were not convinced that the French could succeed in completely cutting off the Vietnamese from their Confucian past. On the other hand, they intended to teach quốc ngữ so that children could learn to read and write in just a few months. 39 Dumoutier, “De la condition morale des Annamites du Tonkin.” 40 Bezançon, Une colonisation éducatrice ?, 61. 41 Trịnh, L’école française en Indochine, 94–95. 42 Roucoules, “Le français, le quốc-ngữ et l’Enseignement public en Indochine.”

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Teaching in French? The third trend, which advocated a policy of assimilation, was represented by Bishop Puginier (1835–1892), who aimed to Christianize the country and gradually led the inhabitants to use French and the Romanized Vietnamese script: For a long time, I have been advocating the teaching of French and European characters to write the Annamese language […]. This question is of great importance, and after the establishment of Christianity, I consider the abolition of Chinese characters and their progressive substitution by the Annamese language first and then by French, to find a mini-France of the Far East in Tonkin. 43

On the political side, Jules Ferry (1832–1893) favored complete assimilation through education, all while maintaining the foundations of traditional culture but making it capable of integrating the contributions of Western knowledge: [We are] convinced that school is one of the most potent instruments of colonization, convinced that in stationary peoples like those of Asia, our aim must be to develop the existing civilizations, not change their species. 44

Ferry thus sought to transpose the structures of the French educational system to Vietnam. Étienne Aymonier (1844–1929) was of the same opinion and thought that the Vietnamese language did not have enough vocabulary to express scientific and metaphysical concepts. The ideogrammatic writing was thought to prevent the French from carrying out political and scientific education and the “reform of the Annamite race.” Traditional writing would become archaic. He held that “the quốc ngữ provided a sufficient basis for public instruction.”45 He proposed teaching entirely in French, on the one hand, for economic reasons and, on the other, to bring about a separation from the church. Once French was widely taught in schools, “this new Asian France, populated by a prolific race, will grow, multiply and overflow into

43 Cao, Les missionnaires et la politique coloniale française au Vietnam, 301. Source: Letter from Bishop Puginier to the Minister of the Navy and Colonies, May 6, 1887. 44 Ferry, Le Tonkin et la mère-patrie, 291–92. 45 Aymonier, La langue française et l’enseignement en Indochine, 11.

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more backward, or less well-managed neighbors; it will thus propagate the language of old France if we know how to teach it.”46 This vision was criticized by the French settled in Indochina themselves, which leads us to reflect on the debates that continued within the government and in publications of the time. Nevertheless, even the proponents of teaching in French believed that quốc ngữ should be taught at the same time to maintain the presence of appropriate Vietnamese cultural elements as an intermediary step toward learning French.

Vietnamese modernist movements The Vietnamese modernist intellectual movement During the colonial period, the introduction of a French-inspired curriculum in the local secondary school system reinforced the role of French as a carrier language, to the detriment of Vietnamese (oral) and Chinese (written).47 In particular, this program introduced natural sciences and physics as well as philosophy and French literature in schools. From then on, new notions relating to the nation, the homeland, and the human race were spread across the education system and awakened in Vietnamese school children an awareness of their identity, power, and duty that was different from what the Confucian tradition had allowed. A new generation of Vietnamese educated in Franco-Indigenous schools could thus benefit from the contributions of Eastern and Western cultures. They read books by Rousseau or Montesquieu, which had reached Vietnam through Chinese translations, and thus discovered the values of freedom and human rights. They quickly understood the need for modernization to develop their country. The first movement founded by Vietnamese modernist nationalists, Trần Quý Cáp (1871–1908), Phan Châu Trinh (1872–1926), and Huỳnh Thúc Kháng (1876–1947), dates back to 1906. It was the Duy Tân Hội (Association for the modernization of the country) that aimed to propagate scientific and cultural knowledge, as well as to teach quốc ngữ and French. The courses were organized and widely distributed in Quảng Nam province. In Hanoi the association Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục (literally “The righteous school of eastern capital”) was established on March 3, 1907, by Phan Châu 46 Ibidem, 39. 47 Trịnh, “L’enseignement du français.”

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Trinh, Huỳnh Thúc Kháng, Ngô Ðức Kế, and Ðặng Nguyên Cẩn. In this school, both boys’ and girls’ classes were taught free of charge. From its inception, this small public school attracted a considerable number of students: Every evening, four hundred to five hundred listeners flocked to the lectures where characters, quôc-ngu and French were taught, alongside the main subjects of the French school curriculum, as a way of claiming equal treatment in the field of education. There were debates on customs as well as on philosophical issues. The Vietnamese became familiar with L’Esprit des lois, Le Contrat social […]. Numerous translations into Quôc-ngu were done, and instruction was given in Quôc-ngu. Women were admitted to the school as teachers and students. 48

Both movements actively contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, especially among the working classes. These activities, organized by Vietnamese nationalist scholars, attracted students from several social classes. Compared to the traditional village schools or the Franco-Indigenous schools, the number of students was still modest. However, many modernist scholars from the two movements continued to write books, publish newspapers, and organize revolutionary conferences. Through all these activities, the quốc ngữ spread widely. Dissemination in newspapers Exceedingly early in Cochinchina, on April 15, 1865, Gia Định báo—the first newspaper in quốc ngữ—appeared. The articles were mostly translations of texts published in the Bulletin officiel de la Cochinchine française. After 1869 Petrus Ký was appointed director of the newspaper and created a cultural section that dealt with literature and morals. There were articles devoted to Vietnamese literary works, poems, and proverbs. Trương Vĩnh Ký and Paulus Huỳnh Tịnh Của gradually transformed the newspaper to promote new knowledge and propagate the use of quốc ngữ. Several newspapers founded by Vietnamese people came into being, such as Nhựt trình Nam Kỳ (Cochinchina’s journal, 1897), Phan Yên báo (Phan Yên newspaper, 1898), Nông cổ mín đàm (The journal of agriculture and trade, 1901), and Lục tỉnh tân văn (The journal of the six provinces, 1907). They provided readers not only with news and cultural and literary knowledge but also with political information. The purpose of these newspapers went 48 Brocheux and Hémery, Indochine: la colonisation ambiguë, 229.

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beyond the objective initially set by the colonists; they played a role in disseminating quốc ngữ script and educating the people. As in Cochinchina, the newspapers published in Tonkin by Vietnamese nationalists aimed to spread quốc ngữ and educate the people. Đăng cổ tùng báo (1907) was the first private newspaper to appear in Tonkin in both scripts, Chinese characters and quốc ngữ. However, it was not a translation of articles using Chinese characters into quốc ngữ or vice versa; the two types of articles had different content. This newspaper gave itself the mission of propagating quốc ngữ to the people. Beginning with the very first issue on, its director, Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh, wrote an article entitled Người An Nam nên biết chữ An Nam (The Annamites must know the Annamese script) to present the advantages of quốc ngữ over ideogrammatic writing. Đông Dương tạp chí (Revue d’Indochine, 1913) was a pedagogical journal, but, again, it was also a means of propagating quốc ngữ among readers. Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh wrote several articles to help spread teaching methods and highlight interest in quốc ngữ.49 This journal launched a debate related to the use of Chinese characters by publishing an article with the title Chữ Nho nên để hay nên bỏ? (Should Chinese characters be kept or removed?). According to Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh, the Vietnamese language was heavily influenced by Chinese, just as most French words come from Latin. Thus, learning Chinese characters in Vietnamese is comparable to learning Latin in France, which is required in literary studies. It should be recalled that this argument was already put forward by Petrus Ký (1888). Invoking how France maintained Latin, Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh argued that Chinese language classes and the study of Chinese characters should be maintained in indigenous schools so that children would understand the history and culture of their country. As for the students in Franco-Indigenous schools, who preferred to learn French in order to work with the French people, Chinese classes were no longer necessary for them.

The official role of quốc ngữ script French administrators had already had experience with the introduction of quốc ngữ in the education system of Cochinchina, where this writing system had spread considerably. In Tonkin the expansion was just as rapid despite coming twenty years after Cochinchina: “It was a huge success, with about 49 Chữ Quốc ngữ (Writing in quốc ngữ); Cách viết chữ Quốc ngữ (The method for writing quốc ngữ).

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200 teachers coming from all the provinces. At the beginning of 1887, there were 117 free schools of Quoc Ngu.”50 The protectorate schools gradually replaced the old village classes where Chinese characters and Confucian doctrine were taught. From then on, quốc ngữ was taught in schools in Tonkin and Annam, while the number of classrooms teaching Chinese characters decreased correspondingly. Public school, known as quốc học, was set up to teach French to future mandarins in accordance with the royal ordinance of October 23, 1896.51 The Hậu Bổ school (in Hanoi), which adopted the French and Vietnamese languages (quốc ngữ was chosen for teaching Vietnamese), was founded following the decree of January 9, 1897.52 An 1898 order, signed by the Governor-General of Indochina, included the teaching of French and quốc ngữ in the mandarin education system. In 1906 the reform of traditional education was implemented. Thus, village schools were placed under the dual supervision of the mandarins authority and the head of the education service, who had colonial authority over public education.53 With the active support of Vietnamese intellectuals, quốc ngữ was widely taught in Tonkin and Annam to combat illiteracy. After the abolition of the competitive recruitment system for mandarins in 1919, quốc ngữ replaced Chinese characters in almost all activities of Vietnamese society and became the official national script in 1945.

Conclusion The Romanized writing of the Vietnamese language, or quốc ngữ, is the result of a long creative process that began in 1615. It is the fruit of several generations of Jesuit missionaries’ work to produce tools for learning the Vietnamese language. Francisco de Pina wrote the first vocabulary book as early as 1619 in Cochinchina, and Gaspar do Amaral was able to develop his famous vocabulary book in 1634. Alexandre de Rhodes synthesized Gaspar do Amaral’s and António Barbosa’s works, adding a part in Latin when he published the Dictionarivm Annamiticvm Lusitanvm, et Latinvm in Rome in 1651. From 1658 onward, the French Vicars Apostolic and the secular priests of the Paris Foreign Missions settled in Cochinchina and Tonkin. They founded 50 Bezançon, Une colonisation éducatrice?, 51. 51 Trung tâm lưu trữ quốc gia I (National Archives Center n° 1), Dossier 69565, 6–7. 52 Bezançon, Une colonisation éducatrice?, 51. 53 Trịnh, L’école française en Indochine, 32.

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a general college in Ayutthaya (Siam) and local colleges in Tonkin, intending to contribute to the foundation of an indigenous clergy. From then on, the Romanized Vietnamese script, already used as a learning tool for foreign missionaries, was taught to the Vietnamese seminarians. This script was used in the activity reports that European and Vietnamese priests sent to their superiors throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The capture of the port of Tourane (today Đà Nẵng) in 1858, followed by the occupation of Cochinchina by the French, profoundly changed the political, linguistic, and cultural situation in Vietnam. The quốc ngữ script was introduced into teaching in Cochinchina in 1861, and then in Annam and Tonkin after the Protectorate Treaty in 1884. With the active support of Vietnamese intellectuals, the quốc ngữ was then widely taught in Tonkin and Annam to fight illiteracy. After the abolition of the competitive recruitment system for mandarins in 1919, it was substituted for Chinese characters. The success of the Romanized writing of Vietnamese is thus the fruit of the convergence of two intentions: that of the French colonists, who wanted to learn Vietnamese more quickly and bring Vietnamese culture closer to French culture through writing, and that of the Vietnamese writers, who viewed it as a tool to fight against illiteracy.

References Primary Sources Manuscripts

Archives de la Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris, vol. 851, 120; vol. 651, 128; vol. 680, 288–89. Archives de la Marine (France), BB4, 876, lettre de l’Amiral Ohier au Ministre des Colonies, datée du 28 novembre 1868, n° 1083. Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Jap-Sin 71, fols. 002–012; Jap-Sin 80, fols. 001r–002v; Jap-Sin 85, fols. 89r–123r. Biblioteca da Ajuda, Jesuítas na Ásia (Lisbon), vol. 49-V-7, fol. 414v; vol. 49-V-31, fol. 89r–119r; vol. 49-V-31, fols. 307r–321v. Trung tâm lưu trữ quốc gia I [National archives center no. 1, Hanoi], File 69565, 6–7.

Printed Sources

Aymonier, Étienne, La langue française et l’enseignement en Indochine (Paris: A. Colin, 1890).

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Bulletin officiel de la Cochinchine française (Saigon: s. n., 1865–88). Dumoutier, Gustave, “De la condition morale des Annamites du Tonkin et des moyens pédagogiques d’en élever le niveau,” Revue indochinoise 105 (1900), 1009–12. Ferry, Jules, Le Tonkin et la mère-patrie. Témoignages et documents (Paris: V. Havard, 1890). Grammont, Lucien de, Onze mois de sous-préfecture en Basse-Cochinchine (Paris: Imprimeur de la Préfecture et de la Mairie, 1863). Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies, Revue maritime et coloniale, vol. 14 (Paris: Paul Dupont-Challamel ainé, 1865), 304–5. Potteaux, Ernest, Lịch Annam thông dụng trongsáu tỉnh Nam Kì [Yearbook in the six Cochinchinese provinces] (Saigon: Bản in nhà nước, 1873). Rhodes, Alexandre de, Dictionarivm Annnamiticvm [sic] Lusitanvm, et Latinvm ope Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide in lvcem editvm ab Alexandro de Rhodes E Societate Iesv, eiusdemque Sacrae Congregationis Missionario Apostolico (Rome: Typis, et sumptibus eiusdem Sacr. Congr., 1651). Roucoules, Émile, “Étude sur l’Instruction publique en Cochinchine,” Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saïgon (2nd sem., 1889). Roucoules, Émile, “Le français, Le quốc-ngữ et l’enseignement public en Indochine – Réponse à M. Aymonier,” Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saïgon (1st sem., 1890). Trương, Vĩnh Ký, “Écriture en Annam,” Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saïgon (1st sem., 1888), 5–9. Trương, Vĩnh Ký, P. J.-B., Manuel des écoles primaires ou Simples notions sur les sciences à l’usage des jeunes élèves des écoles de l’administration de la BasseCochinchine (Saigon: Impr. du Gouvernement, 1876).

Secondary Sources Auroux, Sylvain, La révolution technologique de la grammatisation (Liège: Mardaga, 1994). Bezançon, Pascale, Une colonisation éducatrice ? L’expérience indochinoise (1860–1945) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2002). Brocheux, Pierre, and Daniel Hémery, Indochine: la colonisation ambiguë, 1858–1954 (Paris: Éditions La Découverte, 2001). Cao, Huy Thuần, Les missionnaires et la politique coloniale française au Vietnam (1857–1914) (New Haven/Amiens: Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Centre de relations internationales et de science politique, 1990). DeFrancis, John, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam (The Hague/Paris/ New York: Mouton Publishers, 1977).

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Durand, Maurice, and Nguyễn Trần Huân, Introduction à la littérature vietnamienne (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1969) Forest, Alain, Les missionnaires françaises au Tonkin et au Siam, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, vol. 1 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997). Jacques, Roland, L’œuvre de quelques pionniers portugais dans le domaine de la linguistique vietnamienne jusqu’en 1650 (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2002). Marillier, André, Nos pères dans la foi: notes sur le clergé catholique du Tonkin de 1666 à 1765, vol. 1 (Paris: Églises d’Asie, 1995). Nguyễn, Phú Phong, Việt Nam, chữ viết, Ngôn ngữ và Xã hội (Ho Chi Minh City: Đại học sư phạm Thành phồ Hồ Chí Minh, 2005). Osborne, Milton E., The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia. Rule and Response (1859–1905), (Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 1969). Phạm, Thị Kiều Ly, Histoire de l’écriture romanisée du vietnamien (1615–1919) (Paris: Les Indes savantes, 2022) Trịnh, Văn Thảo, L’école française en Indochine (Paris: Éditions Karthala, 1995). Trịnh, Văn Thảo, “L’enseignement du français dans le secondaire et le supérieur au Vietnam de 1918 à 1945: un état des lieux,” Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde 25 (2020), 46–53. Võ Đức Hạnh, Étienne, La place du catholicisme dans les relations entre la France et le Viet-nam de 1851 à 1870, vol. 2 (doctoral thesis, Université M. Bloch, Strasbourg, 1975).

About the authors Mariangela Albano is associate professor of French linguistics and French didactics at the University of Cagliari. Her work aims at observing language theory and epistemology, critically examining the position of some contemporary cognitive approaches. She also investigates problems of metaphors, phraseology, lexicography, didactics, and translation. Personal website : https://unica-it.academia.edu/MariangelaAlbano Thị Kiều Ly Phạm holds a PhD in language sciences (2018) from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. She teaches in VNU School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vietnam National University (Hanoi, Vietnam). Her research mainly focuses on the history of grammar books and Romanized writing in Vietnamese (1615–1919), as well as on missionary linguistics in Asia from the sixteenth century onwards. She plans to conduct research on the work of the missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions on the grammatization of the languages of minority ethnic groups in Vietnam. Personal website: https://independent.academia.edu/PHAMLY3

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À propos des auteures Mariangela Albano est professeure associée de linguistique et de didactique du français à l’Université de Cagliari. Son travail porte sur la théorie et l’épistémologie du langage; elle examine de manière critique la position de certaines approches cognitives contemporaines. Elle étudie également les questions de la métaphore, de la phraséologie, de la lexicographie, de la didactique et de la traduction. Site Web personnel : Personal website: https://unica-it.academia.edu/ MariangelaAlbano Thị Kiều Ly Phạm est docteure en sciences du langage (2018) de l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. Elle enseigne à l’université nationale du Vietnam (Hanoï). Ses recherches portent principalement sur l’histoire des grammaires et de l’écriture romanisée en vietnamien (1615–1919), ainsi que sur la linguistique missionnaire en Asie à partir du seizième siècle. Elle envisage de mener des recherches sur l’œuvre des Missions étrangères de Paris consacrée à la grammatisation des langues des groupes ethniques minoritaires du Vietnam. Site web personnel : https://independent.academia.edu/PHAMLY3

13 On Indonesian and English as lingua francas: Colonial, national, global1 Joseph Errington

Abstract: Indonesian developed from a language of empire into an “anonymous” language of state now spoken by millions in the absence of a native-speaking ethno-national community. I compare the ways standard Indonesian is being assimilated to native habits of speech with ongoing changes in demoticized languages in Western Europe. I also compare Indonesian with global English to show how both, as lingua francas, are complementary resources for Indonesians’ vernacular engagements with each other and topical engagements with national and global modernity. Résumé : D’abord langue d’empire, l’indonésien est devenu une langue d’État “anonyme”, parlée aujourd’hui par des millions de personnes en l’absence d’une communauté ethno-nationale de locuteurs natifs. Je compare la manière dont l’indonésien standard est en train d’être intégré dans les pratiques langagières des Indonésiens avec les changements en cours dans les langues démoticisées d’Europe occidentale. Je compare également l’indonésien à l’anglais global pour montrer comment les deux langues, en tant que lingua franca, sont des ressources complémentaires pour les échanges quotidiens des Indonésiens entre eux et pour leurs implications actuelles dans la modernité nationale et globale. Keywords: Standard Indonesian. Lingua francas. Global English. Colonization. Literacy. Globalization. Mots-clés : Indonésien standard. Lingua franca. Anglais global. Colonisation. Litéracie. Globalisation.

1 [Sur l’indonésien et l’anglais comme linguas francas: local, national et global].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch13

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Introduction Under colonial regimes, the work of alphabetizing strange languages was guided by more than empirical ends; it provided “vectors of literacy” that enabled projects of education, conversion, and exploitation. Alternatively, challenges of language difference could be dealt with in a “top-down” manner by enabling selected colonial subjects to gain competences in their rulers’ languages. However fluent they might become—in French, Spanish, English, German, Portuguese, Italian—their non-native abilities could be judged deficient relative to those of their native-speaking superiors. Language pedagogies in this way enabled mutual intelligibility but also produced linguistic marks of what were understood to be racial differences among groups rather than biographical differences among individuals. These latter pedagogies have legacies in postcolonial nations where European languages endure as “neutral” means of communication among native speakers of different endogenous languages. They have value as means for promoting “linguistic homogeneity [that can be] associated with modernization and Westernization.”2 They also enable “direct” communication with citizens of former colonial powers and so help preserve interests of those “metropolitan countries”3 in their former colonies. Among nations in what some now call the Global South, Indonesia is an exception to this general condition. Its national language is a lingua franca and colonial legacy but is neither European nor ethnic. The immediate antecedent of Indonesian was a variety of Malay that was scholarized4 under the aegis of the Netherlands East Indies before being made a language of anticolonial resistance and then of revolution in the aftermath of World War II. Now it is the “neutral” lingua franca of millions of native speakers of hundreds of other languages. This essay considers the pedagogical didactics of this national lingua franca together with others now developing for English as a global lingua franca. They are described as presupposing broadly similar objects and goals, despite their different scopes of circulation (national and global). Indonesian, which developed as a response to challenges of intranational heterogeneity, can also be seen now to have analogues in nations in the Global North where the category “native speaker” is similarly losing some of its “naturalness.” The postcolonial didactics of Indonesian are discussed 2 3 4

Ricento, “Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Language Policy and Planning,” 198. Ibidem, 202–3. Raison-Jourde, “L’échange inégal de la langue.”

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here, then, as examples of Jean and John Comaroff’s broader argument that newer nationalisms in the Global South now can provide “privileged insight into the [linguistic] workings of the world at large.”5

Indonesian: A national lingua franca Standard Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia)6 counts structurally and historically as a variety of Malay (bahasa Melayu), a term that can identify manners of speaking and writing that are conveniently but too simply distinguished as “high” (tinggi) and “low” (rendah). Many low varieties of Malay were spoken across maritime Southeast Asia before Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century, and others developed within their colonial projects. Some of these were pidgins, improvised and acquired in engagements between persons with no other language in common, and later became creole vernaculars of major cities, including what is now the distinctive variety spoken in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Otherwise distinct are varieties of Malay spoken natively by members of that ethnic group and who are themselves native to regions of coastal Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and Borneo.7 Indonesian’s proximate antecedent was a “general, polished Malay” (algemeen beschaafd Maleisch), established in 1918 by Charles van Ophuijsen at the behest of the Dutch Empire. Based on experience in the Riau Islands, he partly described and partly devised this literate Malay as a solution to a longstanding problem of imperial rule. Previously, officials had relied on what was called “service Malay” (dienst Maleisch), a range of pidginized varieties used by both Dutch and natives, but not one of them was intelligible and legible everywhere. Service Malay was too variable to serve the communicative needs of an expanding imperial government over the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Dutch were reluctant, like their Belgian counterparts in the Congo, to propagate knowledge of their native language among colonial subjects. Van Ophuiysen’s work was thus commissioned and made the focus of “an extraordinary symbiosis of scholarship with the metropolitan politics of a colonizing state.”8 A proprietary attitude to “their” Malay may have made 5 Comaroff and Comaroff, “Theory from the South,” 1. 6 Except for schwa [ə] and the vowel transcribed in IPA as [ɛ], and here as é, Standard Indonesian orthography is used in this paper. 7 See Adelaar, “Where Does Malay Come From?” 8 Hoffman, “A Foreign Investment,” 74; Errington, Colonial Linguistics, 123–48.

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the Dutch slow to see that members of their ethnically diverse subaltern elite could turn it to very different purposes. Soon after, it was used to mobilize resistance to imperial rule, and in 1928 it was used to publicly name into existence the Indonesian land, people, and language. In the interest of brevity, I focus here on the later period in Indonesian history when Indonesian became integral for the project of national development that began in 1966. An authoritarian regime, headed by factions of the military who overthrew the first president, Sukarno, took power that year. This self-named New Order oversaw the massacres of hundreds of thousands, a bloody signal that the regime would brook no resistance to its agenda. Its uncontested power was symbolized and served by what came to be known as “good and true Indonesian” (bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar). This was a standard literate language with no native speakers and for that reason distinctively anonymous relative to the hundreds of native languages spoken in the country. Standard Indonesian was the language of state institutions, including the network of schools established by the New Order to propagate it across Indonesian territory.9 Over the course of the Cold War, Indonesian came to be regarded by outside observers as a highly visible success story in dealing with what were called “language problems of the developing world.”10 Indonesian was a linguistic miracle, as Joshua Fishman described it,11 that survived the New Order’s sudden fall in 1998. Data from national censuses indicate that, in 1945, very few of seventy million Indonesians knew Indonesian; in 2010, 40 of 240 million did not. According to this last census, Indonesians between the ages of ten and thirty-four virtually all reported themselves competent in the national language.12 In practice, however, structural properties of spoken Indonesian vary widely.13 This stems in part from transfer effects, as Indonesians assimilate its forms to their diverse native habits of speech. The upshot is that the success story of this lingua franca includes the emergence of “many kinds of [spoken] Indonesian.”14 This ongoing process has been enabled, moreover, by the absence of native-speaking models for Standard Indonesian. That 9 See Heryanto, “The Making of Language.” See also Errington, “Indonesian’s Development.” 10 Fishman, Ferguson, and Dasgupta, Language Problems of Developing Nations. 11 Fishman, “The Indonesian Language Planning Experience,” 333. 12 Badan Pusat Statistik, “Kewarganegaraan, sukubangsa, agama, dan Bahasa sehari-hari penduduk Indonesia.” For discussion of language related census data, see Steinhauer, “The Indonesian Language Situation and Linguistics.” See also Sneddon, The Indonesian Language, and Kozok, Indonesian Native Speakers. 13 See Goebel, “Language Diversity and Language Change in Indonesia.” 14 Lindsay, “Bahasa What?”

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absence was identified as a pedagogical challenge in the 1950s and 1960s, when several proposals were made for successfully propagating a uniform spoken variety (ragam ujar). One was to teach spoken Indonesian on the model of a single exemplary individual: Sukarno, the national leader, spoke it as the “extension of the tongue of the people.” Another was to assemble a committee of literate elites to establish oral/aural features of distinctively standard speech. As the noted pedagogue I Gusti Ngurah Oka noted some years later, neither strategy proved feasible. He concluded instead that teachers were best guided, to use his English phrasing, by their “common sense” (which he translated into Indonesian as perasaan umum),15 a conclusion echoed by Masnur Muslich when he revisited the question of pedagogical didactics thirty years later.16 A different pedagogical strategy was proposed more recently by the literary figure Ajip Rosidi. He pointed out that the most difficult features of Indonesian speech to teach are those least easily described, and so codified, in written form: manners of sound pronunciation, intonation, stress patterns, and so on. This makes them different from those linguistic conventions that can be “agreed on by all parties” (disepakati oléh semua pihak) in written form.17 His advice was that teachers orient students of Indonesian instead to the most conspicuous transfer effects from their native languages in order to reduce them. He offered in effect a subtractive strategy, designed not to help students emulate nonexistent native speakers but instead to use “fewer” native habits of speech when speaking the national lingua franca. This quick review of the pedagogy of national Indonesian serves here as context for shifting pedagogies of global English.

English as a global lingua franca The phrase “lingua franca” applies to a heterogeneous group of languages. Originally it named the kinds of pidginized talk, “sculpted by necessity,”18 used by Europeans (“Franks”) and native speakers of varieties of Arabic on the southern and eastern Mediterranean coast between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. It has since become a cover term of wider scope, including literate languages—Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, French, and English—associated with civilized and sometimes sacred discourse. 15 I Gusti Ngurah Oka, “Ragam Ujar Bahasa Indonesia dan Pengajaran Bahasa Indonesia,” 131. 16 Muslich, “Persoalan di sekitar bentuk ucapan baku Bahasa Indonesia,” 250. 17 Rosidi, Lafal bakuba hasa Indonésia, 95. 18 Schuchardt, On Lingua Franca, 27.

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This breadth reflects the negative semantic valence that “lingua franca” shares with phrases such as “vehicular language” and “language of wider communication”: all identify varieties of language relative to an absence of native speakers19 and thus differing from the commoner condition of “native languages,” “first languages,” or “mother tongues.” These latter phrases identify languages as competences acquired during the so-called “critical period” of an individual’s maturation, taken by most to end with puberty. These competences appear to be integral to individual biographies because they are inalienable or “natural,” as evident from their shaping effects on other non-native language competences acquired later in life. The ideological saliences of the category “native speaker” are evident when its use for individual competences is distinguished from its use to aggregate and disaggregate individuals by criteria. One such linkage, as noted above, made differences in language competence a naturalizer of differences between colonial subjects and rulers. In European and American nations, on the other hand, images of native speakership serve to regulate intranational language variation relative to social hierarchies. The naturalizing function of the “native speaker” relative to standard languages can be illustrated here with Stephanie Hackert’s account of the emergence of the “native speaker of English.”20 She shows how philological images of a pure, linguistic past began to coalesce in the late eighteenth century and became associated with manners of speech among literate elites. As persons came of age in politically and economically superordinate circles, they “naturally” acquired manners of speaking that became exemplary of English and associated with images of what Michael Silverstein calls “best speakerhood.”21 Elites’ habits of speech became reference points for evaluating others and associating their ways of speaking—“accented” or “dialects”—with membership in subordinate, subnational groups. Shifts in the ideological saliences of “native speaker of English” became evident in the late 1990s during brief controversy over its proper application: whether it properly applied to persons with English competences acquired during childhood in South Asia. Some who acknowledged their fluency, spoken and literate, nonetheless declined to identify them as such. They grounded this position not in issues of biography (i.e., when South Asians acquired it) but history: the formerly colonial status of their nation-states. 19 See Mauranen, “Conceptualizing ELF,” 7–24. 20 Hackert, The Emergence of the English Native Speaker. 21 Silverstein, “Monoglot ‘Standard’ in America,” 286.

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At issue then were the postcolonial salience and cryptoracial grounds of the distinction drawn by Braj Kachru,22 ten years earlier, between “inner circle” nations of English speakers—the United Kingdom and its former settlement (not exploitation) colonies—and “outer circle,” mostly postcolonial nations. Peter Muyskens foregrounded this blurred redline between individual competences and group membership by observing that we are all native speakers and then asking, “what language are we native speakers of?”23 In retrospect, this short-lived debate can be seen as foreshadowing other questions and debates centered on the pedagogical didactics of English as a global language. Of interest here are the ways they have assumed and promoted the “touch of neutrality” now distinguishing its values as a global lingua franca.24 Newer pedagogies have emerged with and responded to the dynamics that are causing forms of English to become unmoored from those who count, by received criteria, as its native speakers. Traditionally, English was taught as a foreign language (EFL) by Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs). These teachers are qualified by their ability to display what they teach, working with students who learn from but also emulate their “natural” habits of speech. Critiques of EFL methods have focused on the ideology of “native speakerism”25 that privileges this method along with the privileged position of the NEST. They thus reject the tacit premise that even students who never achieve native-like fluency should nonetheless emulate the “gold standard” represented by educated citizens of “inner circle” nations. Pedagogies of English as a second language (ESL), now more common in “second circle” nations, presuppose different teachers and goals. They assume that fluent, literate, but Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) can help students gain more narrowly defined competences. Many come to the classroom with (biographically) native competences in “local,” markedly nonstandard spoken varieties of English. Their more focused or primary goal is to acquire fluency in literate varieties. The didactics of EFL and ESL thus differ in this respect, as do biographies of teachers and students, on one hand, and pedagogical objects and goals, on the other. Under a newer paradigm centered on English as a lingua franca (ELF), persons with non-native-speaking backgrounds may be preferred as teachers.26 This is because their pedagogical abilities are informed by their own 22 Kachru, “Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism,” 11–30. 23 Muyskens, “We Are All Native Speakers,” 193. 24 Ammon, “World Languages,” 117. 25 Holliday, The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language. 26 See, e.g., Jenkins, “Native Speaker, Non-Native Speaker and English as a Foreign Language,” 10–11.

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experiences acquiring English, which give them greater ability to distinguish between students’ goals, not necessarily native-like fluency but rather communicative effectiveness—that is, to understand and be understood by native speakers of a vast range of other languages.27 Non-native speakers are likewise more aware of particular features of natively spoken English that are most difficult for non-native speakers to produce and recognize. Thus, they are better positioned to help students find strategies or “workarounds” to facilitate intelligibility, if not fluency. They may then learn to speak in ways that differ markedly from native use but are evaluated less with respect to “inner circle” metrics of fluency than situated communicative ends. In this latter respect, the pedagogy of ELF broadly parallels that suggested by Ajip Rosidi for Indonesian. In both scenarios students learn not to emulate (sound “more” like) native speakers of the language in question but to find ways to sound “less” like speakers of their native languages. EFL pedagogy is oriented to conventions which, as Ajip Rosidi put it for Indonesian, can be “agreed on by all parties.” Just as his pedagogy was oriented to modulating rather than eliminating variability in spoken Indonesian, the pedagogy of EFL is designed to help students modulate rather than eliminate non-native features of English. The development of English as a global lingua franca might be dated from the 1990s, two generations after the beginnings of the “miracle” of Indonesian. Both languages can be seen to have developed value by virtue of an absence of native connections to territories, communities, and speakers: ethnic Malays in the case of Indonesia and citizens of inner circle nations in the case of English.

National Indonesian and global English A common absence (not “lack”) of native speakers helps to compare these lingua francas as pedagogical objects. They can also be compared practically as communicative resources in everyday use by educated Indonesians. English has had a presence in Indonesia and circulated in shifting communicative infrastructures. Likewise, it figures commonly in interaction, as can be shown here with a few examples of bilingual usage drawn from conversation among residents of Pontianak, capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.28 They are native 27 Bhatt, World Englishes and Language Ideologies, 291–311. 28 This research was carried out between 2008 and 2011 under the auspices of the In Search of Middle Indonesia project, sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and

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speakers of a variety of Malay that is structurally very similar to Standard Indonesian but is ideologically distinct from it, as other ethnic languages. One clear, accentual contrast between Malay and Indonesian is between pronunciations of central vowels at the end of roots and words, many in fact cognate in the two languages. In Standard Indonesian this vowel is pronounced roughly like the vowel in the first syllable of English father (transcribed here [a]). In Malay it is pronounced more centrally and with some lip rounding, more like the second vowel of English sofa (this speech sound is referred to as schwa and transcribed here as [ə]). Calling this a difference in “accent” implies that the contrast is categorically exclusive and use of the two pronunciations are mutually exclusive. In practice, however, both commonly figure together in everyday talk, like the remarks transcribed as examples 1a and 1b. 1a. Kan bisə saja dalam waktu terténtu bisə berubah. So [it] certainly can, in a certain amount of time, [it] can change. 1b. Jadi dari, liat, dari nama--nyə saja kan Tarbiyah So looking just at its name, [it’s] Tarbiyah right?

The person who made the remark transcribed as 1a pronounced the word meaning “be able to” as in Malay (bisə rather than bisa), and then the grammatical term meaning “only, just” as in Indonesian (saja rather than sajə). 1b includes what would count as a “biaccentual” form, combining the Indonesian pronunciation of the root meaning “name” (nama rather than Malay namə) with a nominal/possessive suffix pronounced as in Malay (as -nyə rather than Indonesian -nya). “Biaccentual” is an awkward but useful word for describing these forms and the anomalous relation from which their elements are drawn. This is because they violate what Shana Poplack calls the bound morpheme constraint, her term for the broadly valid observation that switches between languages do not occur within a single word, in this case, between an Indonesian root and Malay suffix.29 It is nonetheless true that native speakers of Malay use biaccentual pronunciations of a range of words formed with Caribbean Studies (KITLV). More about the context and full range of this project can be found in Van Klinken and Berenschot, In Search of Middle Indonesia. I am deeply grateful to my research colleagues Uri Tadmor, Bathsheba Litamahuputty, Dian Bestitia, Nurfitri Nugrahaningsih, and Wahyudi Tarmiji Su’ib. 29 Poplack, “Sometimes I’ll Start a Sentence in Spanish y termino en espan֮ol,” 581–618.

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lexical cognates, e.g., Malay tigə and Indonesian tiga “three,” Malay kerjə and Indonesian kerja “work.” There are other lexical items with this general sound shape, however, that count as distinctly Indonesian and are consistently pronounced in the Indonesian manner, with final a. This reflects the social and semantic distinctness of a vocabulary that speakers acquire only at higher levels of education and which in use presupposes their expertise to engage topically with the modern nation (to discuss politics, bureaucracy, technology and media, and so on). Native speakers of Malay nonetheless vernacularize these distinctly Indonesian roots in biaccentual pronunciations of words like: acaranyə (Indonesian: acara “agenda”), lembaganyə (Indonesian lembaga “organization”), kendalanyə (Indonesian kendala “obstacle, problem”), and so on. By the norms of Standard Indonesian (“good and true”), these count as incorrect. As a matter of conversational practice, on the other hand, they count as appropriate in casual but not unsophisticated interaction. They are relevant here because they can be seen as indirectly enabled by Indonesian’s status as a lingua franca, a language whose speakers share an ambient awareness that such usage, though nonstandard, does not mark them as outsiders to some exemplary, native-speaking group. An absence of native speakers tacitly licenses what counts less as a “mixing” of different languages than an assimilation of socially “neutral” referential resources to casual (not substandard) interaction. I focus on this vernacularizing strategy because these same speakers apply it also to lexical items of English provenance. The constructions listed in Table 7 show that English “borrowings” can be modified with Malay rather than Indonesian grammatical elements. Such words, drawn from recordings of informal conversation among educated Malays, also appear to violate the bound morpheme constraint. But they are also evidence that lexical material from another lingua franca can be assimilated to sophisticated but informal discussion.

Conclusion: Lessons from the colonial past for the global present Because it is a lingua franca, some regard Indonesian as the language of an “improbable” nation30: it does not presuppose a “natural” alignment between language competence and senses of national belonging. This alignment was 30 Pisani, Indonesia Etc.

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likewise focal in influential writings on nationalism by Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner, both concerned with relations between print literacy and native speakership in national social formations. Anderson argued that through print literacy, native languages could enable imaginings of otherwise anonymous fellow members of a national community.31 Gellner focused instead on the infrastructural role of print-literate, standard languages for modern national economies.32 Both accounts presupposed that the condition of national modernity was broadly associated with monoglot conditions. In several ways globalization has destabilized these broad alignments over the last two generations as conditions of diversity in the Global North now seem to resemble more those of longer standing in the postcolonial world. They are being buffeted by a “global dispensation,” as Kathryn Woolard observes, and their citizens are “no longer so certain just what a normal language is.”33 Woolard draws this generalization from nuanced account of young bilinguals coming of age in the outskirts of Barcelona. They are fluent in Catalan and Castilian but have little sense of one or the other as a native language. They use and value both, Woolard observes, without the sense of “sociolinguistic naturalism” shared by members of older generations. Sociolinguistic changes in northern Europe, described under a variationist profile, document the ways that other national languages are becoming “destandardized” or “demoticized.”34 Grondelaers and colleagues, for instance, describe young speakers of Dutch as having weaker senses than their elders of linkage between social hierarchies and competences in national languages.35 Thirdly, infrastructures of mobility have made European cities sites of what some now call linguistic superdiversity,36 where residents acquired “truncated competences” derived from multiple languages. Their hybrid or translinguistic speech repertoires thus do not align with received notions of native speakership.37 Related to this are linguistic consequences of mobility 31 Anderson, Imagined Communities. 32 Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. 33 Woolard, Singular and Plural, 304. 34 See Coupland and Kristiansen, “SLICE: Critical Perspectives on Language (De)standardization,” 11–35. 35 Grondelaers, Van Hout, and Van Gent, “Destandardization Is Not Destandardization,” 119–49. 36 Blommaert, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. 37 Compare in this regard Rampton, Language in Late Modernity Interaction in an Urban School, and Goebel, Language and Superdiversity.

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that have led to new categories for language competences, identifying “new speakers” and “heritage speakers” relative to shifting relations between individual biographies and group memberships.38 These sociolinguistic conditions are widely interpreted as emerging from and responding to forces of globalization. If such new forms of intranational linguistic diversity continue to develop, then their nations may come to resemble more Indonesia. So too Indonesian, a lingua franca without native speakers, might be seen as a precursor for English, which circulates similarly but much more widely. So too the multiple varieties of spoken Indonesian discussed here might be taken as foreshadow wings for the so-called “World Englishes” now emerging, similarly valued not with reference to normative images of native speakership but to senses of engagement with local communities. Comparing English with Indonesian as pedagogical objects helps to consider linguistic diversity as a more widely recognized condition and as enabling what the Comaroffs call, relative to southern Africa, nationally imagined communities of difference.39 Table 7.  Examples of English/Malay lexical usage administrasianalogimastérplénintérésliteraturpoténsiprésentasipungsi data-

-nyƏ -nyƏ -nyƏ -nyƏ -nyƏ -nyƏ -nyƏ nyƏ -nyƏ

‘the administration’ ‘the analogy’ ‘the master plan’ ‘his/her interest’ ‘the literature’ ‘the potential’ ‘the presentation’ ‘its function’ ‘the data’

References Adelaar, Alexander K., “Where Does Malay Come From? Twenty Years of Discussions about Homeland, Migrations and Classifications,” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 160.1 (2004), 1–30. Ammon, Ulrich, “World Languages: Trends and Futures,” in The Handbook of Language and Globalization, ed. Nikolas Coupland (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 101–22. 38 See, for instance, Pujolar and O’Rourke, “Theorizing the Speaker and Speakerness.” 39 Comaroff and Comaroff, “Theory from the South,” 77.

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Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991 [1983]). [Badan Pusat Statistik Penduluk], “Kewarganegaraan, sukubangsa, agama, dan bahasa sehari-hari penduduk Indonesia” [Citizenship, ethnicity, religion, and everyday language among Indonesians], in Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2010 [2010 census results] (Jakarta: Badan Pusat Statistik Penduduk [Center for Statistics], 2011). Accessed March 15, 2023, . Bhatt, Rakesh, “World Englishes and Language Ideologies,” in The Oxford Handbook of World Englishes, ed. Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, and Devyani Sharma (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 291–311. Blommaert, Jan, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Comaroff, Jean, and Comaroff, John, “Theory from the South: or, How Euro-America is Evolving toward Africa,” Anthropological Forum 22.2 (2012), 113–31. Coupland, Nikolas, and Tore Kristiansen, “SLICE: Critical Perspectives on Language (De)standardization,” in Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe, ed. Tore Kristiansen and Nikolas Coupland (Oslo: Novus Press, 2011), 11–35. Errington, Joseph, “Indonesian’s Development: on the State of a Language of State,” in Language Ideologies, ed. Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathrin A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 271–84. Errington, Joseph, Colonial Linguistics: A Story of Language, Meaning and Power (New York: Wiley, 2008). Fishman, Joshua, Charles A. Ferguson, and Jyotirindra Dasgupta, Language Problems of Developing Nations (New York: Wiley, 1968). Fishman, Joshua, “The Indonesian Language Planning Experience: What Does It Teach Us?” in Spectrum: Essays Presented to Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana on His Seventieth Birthday, ed. S. Udin (Jakarta: Dian Rakyat, 1978), 333–39. Gellner, Ernest, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983). Goebel, Zane, Language and Superdiversity: Indonesians Knowledging at Home and Abroad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Goebel, Zane, “Superdiversity from Within: The Case of Ethnicity in Indonesia,” in Engaging Superdiversity: Recombining Spaces, Times and Language Practices, ed. Karel Arnaut, Martha Sif Karrebæk, Massimiliano Spotti, and Jan Blommaert (Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2017), 251–76. Goebel, Zane, “Language Diversity and Language Change in Indonesia,” in Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Indonesia, ed. Robert W. Hefner (New York: Routledge, 2018). Grondelaers, Stefan, Roeland van Hout, and Paul van Gent, “Destandardization Is Not Destandardization: Revising Standardness Criteria in Order to Revisit

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Standard Language Typologies in the Low Countries,” Taalen Tongval 68.2 (2016), 119–49. Hackert, Stephanie, The Emergence of the English Native Speaker. A Chapter in Nineteenth-Century Linguistic Thought (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2012). Heryanto, Ariel, “The Making of Language: Developmentalism in Indonesia,” Prisma 50 (1990), 40–53. Hoffman, John, “A Foreign Investment. Indonesia: Indies Malay to 1901,” Indonesia 27 (1979), 65–92. Holliday, Adrian, The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). I Gusti Ngurah Oka, “Ragam Ujar Bahasa Indonesia dan Pengajaran Bahasa Indonesia” [Spoken Indonesian and the teaching of Indonesian], in Problematik Bahasa danpengajaran Bahasa Indonesia [Problematics of language and the teaching of Indonesian] (Malang: Alma Mater, IKIP Malang, 1974), 117–32. Jenkins, Jennifer, “Native Speaker, Non-Native Speaker and English as a Foreign Language: Time for a Change,” IATEFL Newsletter 131 (1996), 10–11. Kachru, Braj B., “Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle,” in English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, ed. Randolph Quirk and Henry George Widdowson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 11–30. Kozok, Uli, “Indonesian Native Speakers—Myth and Reality,” 2016. Accessed March 15, 2023, < https://indonesian-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ Native-Speakers.pdf >. Lindsay, Jennifer, “Bahasa what?” [What language?], Tempo – English Language Edition, March 3, 2013, 52–53. Mauranen, Anna, “Conceptualizing ELF,” in The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca, ed. Jennifer Jenkins, Will Baker, and Martin Dewey (New York: Routledge, 2018), 7–24. Muslich, Masnur, “Persoalan di sekitar bentuk ucapan baku Bahasa Indonesia” [Problems involving the pronunciation of Standard Indonesian], in Bahasa Indonesia pada era globalisasi: kedudukan, fungsi, pembinaan, danpengembangan [Indonesian in the era of globalization: Its position, function, cultivation, and development] (Jakarta: Penerbit Bumi Aksara, 2010), 231–50. Muyskens, Pieter, “We Are All Native Speakers. But of Which Language?” in The Native Speaker: Multilingual Perspectives, ed. Rajendrah Singh (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998), 193–204. Pisani, Elizabeth, Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation (New York: Norton, 2014). Poplack, Shana, “Sometimes I’ll Start a Sentence in Spanish y termino en espan֮ ol: Toward a Typology of Code-Switching,” Linguistics 18.7/8 (1980), 581–618.

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Pujolar, Joan, and Bernadette O’Rourke, “Theorizing the Speaker and Speakerness: Lessons Learned from Research on New Speakers,” in New Speakers, Non-Native Speakers: Towards a Post-National Linguistics, ed. Joan Pujolar and Bernadette O’Rourke (2019). Accessed March 15, 2023, . Raison-Jourde, Françoise, “L’échange inégal de la langue: la pénétration des techniques linguistiques dans une civilisation de l’oral (Imerina, début du XIXe siècle),” Annales 32.4 (1977), 639–69. Rampton, Ben, Language in Late Modernity: Interaction in an Urban School (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Ricento, Thomas, “Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Language Policy and Planning,” Journal of Sociolinguistics 4.2 (2000), 196–213. Rosidi, Ajip, “Lafal baku bahasa Indonesia” [The standard pronunciation of Indonesian], in Bus bis bas—berba gaima salah bahasa Indonésia (Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya, 2010), 94–97. Schuchardt, Hugo, “On Lingua Franca,” in The Ethnography of Variation: Selected Writings on Pidgins and Creoles, ed. and trans. Thomas L. Markey (Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma, 1979 [1909]), 26–47. Silverstein, Michael, “Monoglot ‘Standard’ in America: Standardization and Metaphors of Linguistic Hegemony,” in The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology, ed. Donald L. Brenneis and Ronald K. S. Macaulay (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 284–306. Sneddon, James N., The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2003). Steinhauer, Hein, “The Indonesian Language Situation and Linguistics: Prospects and Possibilities,” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- envolkenkunde 150.4 (1994), 755–84. Van Klinken, Gerry, and Ward Berenschot, In Search of Middle Indonesia: Middle Classes in Provincial Towns (Leiden: Brill, 2014). Woolard, Kathryn, Singular and Plural: Ideologies of Linguistic Authority in 21st Century Catalonia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).

About the author Joseph Errington is professor of anthropology at Yale University. His research concerns linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics with a focus on Indonesian languages (i.e., Javanese, Indonesian, and a range of Malay dialects). In particular, he has studied the sociolinguistic change during a period of rapid transition from a Javanese monarchy to Indonesian

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democracy, between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. This research is presented in two books: one on language and social class in a Central Javanese town (1985) and another on the structure of the complex system of Javanese linguistic etiquette (1988). Between 1985 and 1986, his work centered on Javanese-Indonesian bilingualism, which is spreading as Indonesian enters the lives and communities of Javanese villagers. This complex process was the topic of a book published in 1998. His most recent publication is Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language (Oxford UP, 2022). Personal website: https://anthropology.yale.edu/people/joseph-errington

À propos de l’auteur Joseph Errington est professeur d’anthropologie à Yale University. Ses recherches relèvent de l’anthropologie linguistique et de la sociolinguistique. Elles portent plus particulièrement sur les langues indonésiennes (le javanais, l’indonésien et une série de dialectes malais). Il a notamment étudié l’évolution sociolinguistique dans la période de transition entre la monarchie javanaise et la démocratie indonésienne, entre la fin du dix-neuvième et le milieu du vingtième siècle. Ces recherches sont rassemblées dans deux livres: l’un consacré aux rapports entre langue et classe sociale dans une ville du centre de Java (1985), l’autre à la structure du système complexe des codes langagiers javanais (1988). En 1985 et 1986, il a étudié le bilinguisme javanais-indonésien, qui se répand à mesure que l’indonésien entre dans la vie des communautés villageoises javanaises. Ce processus complexe a fait l’objet d’un livre publié en 1998. Sa publication la plus récente s’intitule Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language (Oxford UP, 2022). Site web personnel : https://anthropology.yale.edu/people/joseph-errington

VII Europe

14 Un empire culturel et littéraire : quelques grammaires de l’italien langue étrangère (seizième–dixseptième siècle)1 Giada Mattarucco Résumé : La langue italienne a été une langue “sans empire” et longtemps sans nation, étrangère pour la plupart des habitants de la Péninsule même, mais l’on a eu très tôt le sentiment d’une civilisation littéraire commune à toute l’Italie. Les premiers codificateurs de la langue italienne, tels que Bembo, se sont basés sur ce patrimoine partagé, qui a été regardé comme un modèle en Europe également. Le but de ce chapitre est de montrer comment cette situation complexe et parfois contradictoire se reflète dans quelques grammaires italiennes pour les étrangers (étrangers au sens propre), publiées à la fois hors d’Italie et en Italie entre seizième et dix-septième siècle. Nous cherchons à vérifier les modèles proposés dans un petit corpus : notamment, quels sont les auteurs, les textes et les variétés linguistiques de référence et quel poids est attribué à l’usage vivant ? Abstract: The Italian language was a language “without empire” and for a long time without nation, foreign to most of the inhabitants of the peninsula itself, but there was an early sense of a literary civilization common to all of Italy. The first codifiers of Italian, such as Bembo, relied on this shared heritage, which was looked upon as a model in Europe as well. In this chapter, I aim to show the effects of this complex and sometimes contradictory situation on some Italian grammars for foreigners (foreigners in the literal sense), published both outside and within Italy between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I seek to verify the models proposed in a small corpus: in particular, what are the authors, 1 [A cultural and literary empire: Some grammars of Italian as a Foreign Language (16th–17th centuries)]. Translated from Italian to French by Céline Kraus.

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch14

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the texts, and the linguistic varieties of reference and what weight is attributed to living usage? Mots-clés : Histoire de l’enseignement. Grammaires. Italien langue étrangère. Questione della lingua (seizième–dix-septième siècle). Keywords: History of teaching. Grammar books. Italian as a Foreign Language. Questione della lingua (16th–17th centuries).

Introduction En retraçant l’histoire de l’espace italien, Walther von Wartburg observe qu’aucun pays roman ne semblait moins destiné à constituer une unité linguistique.2 En effet, l’Italie ne formera un État unitaire qu’au dix-neuvième siècle, bien plus tard que la France ou d’autres pays européens mais, malgré la longue fragmentation politique, l’unité culturelle s’est réalisée de bonne heure. Une tradition littéraire et artistique sans précédent voit le jour en Toscane, à Florence plus précisément, avec les “Trois Couronnes”, Dante, Pétrarque et Boccace, et des personnalités telles que Cimabue ou Giotto. Et cette tradition est aussitôt accueillie dans le reste de la Péninsule et ailleurs. Ainsi, la conscience d’une véritable “civilisation italienne” commence à se développer.3 “La langue littéraire se répand sur une unité géographique et culturelle avant que celle-ci n’existe réellement”, comme le résume Gian Luigi Beccaria.4 En d’autres termes, l’Italie a déjà une identité propre alors qu’elle est encore divisée et convoitée de toute part. Si les populations parlent quotidiennement des vernaculaires différents selon les lieux, les personnes cultivées aspirent à une langue écrite et littéraire commune, une langue vulgaire qui puisse, comme le latin, être l’expression de la culture la plus haute. Dante déjà, dans son De vulgari eloquentia, à côté des langues d’oc et d’oïl, reconnaît une langue du sì : il critique durement les variétés locales, à la recherche d’un vulgaire illustre, un vulgaire pour la poésie qui soit véritablement digne de l’Italie, même en l’absence d’un État unitaire. C’est le vulgaire propre à Dante lui-même : le toscan, et plus précisément le florentin, utilisé et perfectionné ensuite par Pétrarque et Boccace. De 2 “È evidente a chi cerchi di scrutare il passato dello spazio linguistico italiano, che nessun altro paese romanzo è stato meno predestinato a diventare un’unità linguistica”, Wartburg, La posizione della lingua italiana, 8.. 3 Voir Sabatini, “Storia illustrata dell’italiano”, 14. 4 “La parola letteraria si stende su un’unità geograf ica e culturale prima che essa esista realmente”, Beccaria, Mia lingua italiana, 5.

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plus, Dante lit les textes des poètes de la cour de Frédéric II, la célèbre École sicilienne, en version toscanisée, même s’il ne s’en rend pas compte. Les bases sont donc très tôt fixées, et pourtant on continuera pendant des siècles à discuter en Italie de la langue vulgaire, du rôle qu’elle devrait avoir et du nom qu’elle devrait porter : c’est la fameuse questione della lingua, débattue et exposée dans une série de traités du seizième siècle. Le modèle qui l’emporte est celui du florentin archaïsant, dont les deux piliers sont Pétrarque pour la poésie et Boccace pour la prose. Pietro Bembo, patricien et homme de lettres vénitien, théorise ce modèle dans les Prose della volgar lingua, un traité sous forme de dialogue qu’il publie dans sa ville chez l’éditeur Tacuino, en 1525. Une diff iculté mise en évidence dans les Prose est précisément le fait que les habitants de la Péninsule parlent des variétés différentes entre eux. “Les Napolitains utilisent un certain parler vulgaire, les Lombards raisonnent d’une autre façon et les Toscans d’une autre encore. Il en va ainsi du langage de tous les autres peuples: ils ne se servent pas de la même langue quand ils parlent l’un avec à l’autre”.5 Certes, le toscan domine, c’est le vulgaire le plus beau, mais le florentin du seizième siècle a connu bien des mutations par rapport à celui du quatorzième siècle. Par conséquent, selon Bembo, ceux qui naissent à Florence parmi ses contemporains n’ont aucun avantage sur les hommes de lettres provenant d’autres régions car ils sont convaincus de connaître déjà convenablement la langue et ils n’étudient pas suffisamment les textes des grands écrivains.6 Précédant Bembo, Giovanni Francesco Fortunio parvient à publier une brève grammaire de la langue vulgaire dès 1516. Fortunio, probablement d’origine frioulane, de Pordenone, fait paraître ses Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua à Ancône, où il est podestat. Dans l’avis aux lecteurs, adressé Agli studiosi della regolata volgar lingua, l’auteur s’efforce d’anticiper les réactions d’éventuels détracteurs ou rivaux : il dit craindre d’être critiqué en tant que non toscan (“Un homme […] dont la langue ressemble peu à la toscane”).7 Fortunio a toutefois lu de manière assidue Dante, Pétrarque et Boccace, et il sait que tous les lettrés, quelle que soit leur région d’origine, puisent pour bien écrire les “tosche parole”, les mots toscans, dans ces classiques.8 5 Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua, 106. 6 “[A]d un modo volgarmente favellano i napoletani uomini, ad un altro ragionano i lombardi, ad un altro i toscani, e così per ogni popolo discorrendo, parlano tra sé diversamente tutti gli altri”, ibidem, 111–115. 7 “homo (…) di loquela alla tosca poco somigliante”. 8 Fortunio, Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua, 114–116.

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Les mêmes modèles sont à la base d’autres répertoires grammaticaux et lexicographiques du seizième siècle, tels ceux élaborés par Alberto Acarisio, de Cento, et par Francesco del Bailo, dit l’Alunno, de Ferrare. Carlo Dionisotti observe qu’au fond la grammaire de la langue vulgaire naît en Italie comme la grammaire d’une langue étrangère, puisque ses premiers codificateurs, ceux-là même qui éprouvent le besoin de donner—et de se donner—des normes précises, sont des hommes de lettres non toscans, contraints d’apprendre dans les livres un vulgaire différent de celui qu’ils parlent, comme pour le latin.9 Dominée politiquement et militairement, convoitée par les étrangers, l’Italie joue à l’inverse un rôle prépondérant hors de ses territoires dans les domaines artistique, culturel et économique. L’italien est donc une langue sans empire10, mais jouissant d’un grand prestige. Fernand Braudel l’a défini comme “cet élément insistant de toute culture européenne”,11 en souhaitant une étude systématique de la diffusion de l’italien en Europe. Aujourd’hui beaucoup de travail reste à faire, mais nous disposons de plusieurs recherches sur les différents moments et aspects de l’italianisme hors d’Italie.12 Plus particulièrement, nous avons une meilleure connaissance des différents outils utilisés pour l’enseignement et l’apprentissage de l’italien par des étrangers, tels que des dictionnaires, grammaires et manuels de toutes sortes. Nous porterons ici notre attention sur quelques ouvrages appartenant à ce que Braudel a nommé la “seconde Renaissance”, c’est-à-dire la période qui va jusqu’à la moitié du dix-septième siècle.

Une langue pour gentilshommes, marchands et “hommes de lettres” La grammaire italienne composée en françoys de Jean-Pierre de Mesme est la première grammaire de la langue italienne publiée en dehors de la Péninsule et c’est aussi la première grammaire d’une langue étrangère imprimée en France.13 Le volume, sorti à Paris de la presse d’Estienne Groulleau, est daté de 1548, ce qui correspond en fait à l’année 1549, puisque le privilège et l’achevé d’imprimer sont du mois de mars, c’est-à-dire antérieurs au jour de Pâques qui marquait à l’époque le début de la nouvelle année. Le frontispice 9 Dionisotti, “Niccolò Liburnio e la letteratura cortigiana”, 36–37. 10 Selon la formule de Bruni, “Italiano all’estero e italiano sommerso”, 221–225. 11 Braudel, Le Modèle italien, 15–16. 12 Voir Stammerjohann, La lingua degli angeli, et Banfi, Lingue d’Italia fuori d’Italia. 13 Mesmes, La grammaire italienne, et Bingen, “Jean-Pierre de Mesmes: à propos de deux contributions récentes”, 331–357.

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est anonyme, mais la lettre dédicatoire est signée avec les initiales I. P. D. M. (Jean s’écrivait Iean) et, à la fin, l’auteur confirme son identité avec un jeu de mots : “Per me stesso son sasso”, soit Pour moi Mesme je suis Pierre. Pierre de Mesme, ou Jean-Pierre de Mesmes est né dans une famille particulièrement en vue : il a peut-être dans sa jeunesse séjourné et étudié en Italie ; ce qui est sûr, c’est qu’il s’intéresse à la langue italienne, dans laquelle il s’essaye très tôt à écrire des sonnets. Proche de la Pléiade, il participe à une œuvre collective en commémoration de Marguerite d’Angoulême (morte en 1549) : Le tombeau de Marguerite de Valois royne de Navarre.14 Ce recueil, paru en 1551, contient des vers latins des sœurs Seymour avec leur traduction en grec, français et italien et d’autres compositions de Nicolas Denisot, Jean Dorat, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim Du Bellay, Jean-Antoine de Baïf et, donc, Jean-Pierre de Mesmes (sa contribution compte cent quatre quatrains d’hendécasyllabes et deux odes en italien). En 1552, de Mesmes publie, toujours chez Estienne Groulleau, La comédie des supposez, pour laquelle il avait déjà demandé le privilège en 1549 : il s’agit de la traduction des Suppositi de L’Arioste avec texte original en regard, Pour l’utilité de ceux qui desirent sçavoir la langue italienne. De Mesmes se consacrera par ailleurs à la vulgarisation scientifique : il s’agit bien là d’un érudit actif dans divers domaines. La Grammaire est dédiée à Ettore Fregoso qui était le fils de Cesare Fregoso, un lieutenant de François Ier pris en traître et tué en 1541 par les hommes de Charles Quint. La dédicace est suivie par une lettre d’introduction Aux amateurs de la langue tuscane, à la fin de laquelle de Mesmes cite Bembo et fait son éloge. De fait, la citation tacite des Prose est évidente dès l’incipit de la lettre. De Mesmes répète qu’il aurait été plus simple que la nature concède à l’humanité entière de ne parler qu’une seule langue ; or à cause des hommes, les langues se sont diversifiées à Babel, mais la Providence a fait en sorte que chaque terre offre des biens différents, pour encourager les peuples à voyager et à entrer en relation les uns avec les autres. Alors, il est préférable que les contacts entre personnes de nations diverses, parlant des langues différentes, aient lieu sans besoin d’intermédiaires ou d’interprètes : Mais sçauroit on trouver moyen plus propre pour impetrer ce que vous requerez d’un estranger, ou de plusieurs, soit pour vostre prof it, ou commodité publique, si ce n’est en parlant à eux en leur langue, sans truchements et interpretes ?15 14 [Seymour], Le tombeau de Marguerite de Valois. 15 De Mesmes, La grammaire italienne, 11.

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C’est pourquoi il serait remarquable que les Français, gentilshommes, marchands ou hommes de lettres, sachent et comprennent les langues italienne, allemande et anglaise, et la première en particulier, puisque c’est la plus proche, la plus familière et la plus utile aux affaires entre les états français et italien (“pour les affaires de la rep. Françoyse, et Italienne”).16 De Mesmes se réfère de nouveau de manière implicite aux Prose della volgar lingua :17 il revient sur le fait que, pendant l’Antiquité, les Romains apprenaient le grec en plus du latin, leur langue maternelle, aussi bien pour enrichir les lettres latines à travers les lettres grecques que pour entretenir de bons rapports avec les Grecs : c’est peut-être uniquement pour cette raison que “ces deux nobles nations” ne se sont pas bousculées (le verbe utilisé dans la Grammaire est chatouiller). La langue italienne représenterait en somme pour les Français quelque chose de semblable à ce que le grec était pour les Romains. De Mesmes parle donc des bons rapports entre Français et Florentins : nous supposons qu’il entend par là la Florence et la Toscane de Cosme Ier de Médicis. Quant à la désignation de la langue, il utilise les mots italien, toscan et florentin presque comme des synonymes : si le titre du volume est Grammaire italienne, l’expression “langue tuscane” (utilisée notamment, on l’a dit, dans la lettre d’introduction) ou le mot “florentin” figurent, tout au long de l’ouvrage, aussi bien que “langue italienne”. De Mesmes inclut de plus les marchands parmi ses destinataires et fait allusion à des motivations telles que l’avantage personnel et la “commodité publique”, référence probable aux relations diplomatiques. Au-delà des intentions proclamées dans l’introduction, la Grammaire italienne semble fidèle au modèle florentin-archaïsant, sorti vainqueur de la questione della lingua du seizième siècle. De Mesmes réalise un travail de compilation, de traduction et d’adaptation de sources diverses qu’il ne révèle pourtant pas, à l’exception de “Monsieur Bembo”, nommé en tout quatre ou cinq fois, bien peu par rapport aux nombreux points où son œuvre est effectivement pillée. L’érudit français s’appuie non pas sur l’édition princeps des Prose, mais sur la seconde édition, celle de 1538 ; il puise surtout dans le dernier des trois livres du dialogue.18 La Grammaire emprunte plusieurs exemples à Fortunio, aux ouvrages d’Acarisio et à la Fabrica del mondo de l’Alunno, qui ne sont jamais mentionnés. Le texte le 16 Ibidem, 12. 17 Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua, 80. 18 Voir Bingen, “Sources et filiations de la ‘Grammaire italienne’ de Jean-Pierre de Mesmes”, 633–638.

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plus cité est le Canzoniere de Pétrarque, suivi par le Decameron, tandis que les citations de la Commedia sont moins nombreuses. De Mesmes allègue ensuite des poètes du stil novo, des prosateurs comme Giovanni Villani et d’autres auteurs mineurs des treizième et quatorzième siècles, mais il cite aussi des chefs-d’œuvre très appréciés en France, comme l’Arcadia de Sannazaro (citée par l’intermédiaire de la Fabrica de l’Alunno) et l’Orlando furioso (dans ce cas, la citation est directe) : n’oublions pas que de Mesmes est aussi le traducteur des Suppositi. Il s’agit d’un canon proche de celui de la Pléiade : un pétrarquisme étendu à Sannazaro et à l’Arioste. De Mesmes ne semble faire allusion à une dimension plus vivante de la langue que dans les premières pages, où il s’adresse aux diplomates et aux marchands: sa grammaire est en fait ensuite entièrement orientée vers la langue littéraire classique, avec de bons auteurs du florentin illustre à l’appui, Pétrarque en tête.

“Con la práctica y lección de Petrarcha” L’Arte muy curiosa por la qual se enseña muy de raýz, el entender y hablar la lengua italiana de Francisco Trenado de Ayllón, publiée en 1596 à Medina del Campo,19 naît elle aussi sous le signe du pétrarquisme. Cet ouvrage est précédé par deux grammaires contrastives du castillan et du toscan publiées à Naples et à Venise, mais qui ne servent essentiellement qu’à enseigner l’espagnol en Italie.20 L’Arte muy curiosa représente donc la première véritable grammaire de l’italien pour Castillans. Nous ne savons que peu de choses de Trenado de Ayllón: érudit de Villalpando (Zamora), marié à Doña Juana de París, il possède le titre de doctor et s’avère être alcalde mayor de Villalpando.21 Du moins, il était alcalde de la ville en 1595, année où, le 20 septembre, il obtient la licence d’imprimer pour sa traduction du Canzoniere de Pétrarque, traduction qu’il ne publiera pas 19 [L’art très curieux par lequel on enseigne dès le début la compréhension et l’expression de la langue italienne]. Nous disposons de l’édition établie par Gualano, in Una grammatica di italiano per ispanofoni del Cinquecento.. La citation dans le titre de cette section (“Con la práctica y lección de Petrarcha”) est tirée de la page 107 de cette édition. 20 Il s’agit des grammaires d’Alessandri (d’Urbino), Il paragone della lingua toscana et castigliana [La comparaison des langues toscane et castillane] et de Miranda, Osservationi della lingua castigliana. Nous renvoyons aux éditions critiques respectives de ces textes dans le cadre du projet La tradición gramatical del español en Italia, toutes les deux en ligne sur le portail . 21 Silvestri, Le grammatiche italiane per ispanofoni (secoli XVI-XIX), 13–26.

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mais dont on possède un manuscrit autographe incomplet. Pétrarque avait déjà été traduit en castillan, mais Trenado donne une traduction littérale accompagnée d’un commentaire.22 De ce commentaire nous pouvons déduire qu’il s’est rendu en Italie : il mentionne en effet Gênes et Rome, et les variétés linguistiques de la Péninsule.23 La traduction du “gran poeta” et l’Arte muy curiosa sont deux œuvres complémentaires, à travers lesquelles Trenado se propose de faire connaître la langue italienne en Espagne, “sabiendo (…) quanto desseada es de entender, en España, la lengua italiana”, comme il l’explique dans le Prólogo al lector de cette même grammaire : “avec la théorie véritable qu’offre le présent Art, et venant à la pratique en lisant ces rimes, le lecteur deviendra grâce à ces deux choses maître de cette langue autant que de la sienne, qui est celle dont nous nous servons.”24 Le privilège royal du 26 juillet 1595 pour l’impression et la vente souligne qu’il s’agit d’un manuel “muy copioso, por el qual se enseña el entender, hablar, y pronunciar la lengua italiana”, c’est-à-dire un manuel très riche qui enseigne à comprendre, parler et prononcer la langue italienne. On précise de plus que cet ouvrage s’avère très utile et nécessaire pour les vice-rois, les ambassadeurs et autres ministres au service du Roi envoyés avec des missions diverses dans les états italiens (“muy útil y necesario para los Vireyes, Embaxadores, y otros nuestros ministros (…) a los negocios, y cosas tocantes a nuestro Real servicio, a los estados de Italia”).25 Trenado cite la grammaire d’Antonio Nebrija, publiée à Salamanque en 1492 et connue pour avoir été la toute première grammaire imprimée d’une langue vulgaire européenne. Il renvoie ensuite au Vocabulario de Cristóbal de Las Casas (1570), le premier dictionnaire bilingue italien-espagnol publié en Espagne : il en conseille la consultation au début de l’apprentissage, tandis qu’ensuite les apprenants pourront se référer à d’autres répertoires italiens (“uno de los quen están en aquella lengua”).26 Trenado mentionne de plus des classiques latins tels que l’Institutio oratoria de Quintilien et l’Ars poetica d’Horace. L’italien est en effet régulièrement rapproché du latin. Trenado précise toutefois qu’il n’entend pas enseigner 22 Voir à ce propos Krebs Bermúdez, “Las traducciones de un soneto de Petrarca en el Renacimiento español”, 191–220. 23 Canals, “Francisco Trenado de Ayllón y el léxico petrarquista”, 62–76. 24 “Sirviendo esta Arte de la verdadera theórica, y viniendo luego el lector a la prática leyendo aquellas rimas, se hallará con estas dos cosas tan señor de aquella lengua, como de la propria que tenemos por uso”, Trenado, Arte muy curiosa, in Gualano,102. 25 Ibidem, 100. 26 Ibidem, 116.

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l’italien à partir du latin, mais bien à partir du castillan. Par conséquent, les mots sont classés selon trois listes : 1) mots italiens qui sont identiques en castillan, comme burla, ou conforme ; 2) mots qui se ressemblent dans les deux langues, comme anticho [sic], antiguo en espagnol, ou bono, bueno en espagnol ; 3) mots qui en italien sont comme en latin, mais qui s’expriment différemment en castillan: par exemple, ancilla, en castillan criada, moça de servicio, ou bien rapina, robo en castillan. Trenado souligne ensuite qu’il est plus facile et plus agréable d’apprendre l’italien que le latin mais que, pour l’italien aussi, l’étude de la grammaire doit être accompagnée de bonnes lectures. Pour compléter l’apprentissage, il faut en effet lire diversos libros y muy curiosos, que ay en aquella lengua, con que está enriquecida en su tanto no menos que la latina; antes, si digo mas no pienso que yerro, pues en ella está casi passado todo lo que ay en la latina, y la italiana tiene de suyo mucho más que no tiene la latina.27

Quant au canon des auteurs, Boccace et Dante sont cités, mais c’est évidemment Pétrarque qui occupe la première place s’agissant du nombre d’exemples fournis, ce qui est assez logique et cohérent puisque la grammaire complète la traduction du Canzoniere. Le modèle reste donc celui du florentin illustre, même si, dans sa grammaire, Trenado mentionne Rome “donde como corte universal es de creer que se habla lo mejor de toda Italia”.28

Favella toscana La grammaire de Jean-Pierre de Mesmes est publiée à Paris et elle est “composée” en français, l’Arte de Francisco Trenado de Ayllón est imprimée à Medina del Campo et elle est écrite en castillan. Ces deux ouvrages sont donc liés à l’enseignement de l’italien en dehors d’Italie et semblent destinés à des apprenants qui pouvaient étudier ou du moins commencer à étudier la langue italienne chez eux, grâce à des outils rédigés dans leurs langues maternelles respectives. Les mêmes considérations peuvent s’appliquer à la 27 Ibidem, 112. [(il faut lire) les livres divers et très curieux qu’il y a dans cette langue ; elle n’est pas moins riche que le latin ; et je ne crois pas me tromper en disant qu’elle l’est même davantage, car elle a non seulement presque tout ce qui, chez elle, provient du latin, mais elle détient de par elle-même beaucoup plus que le latin]. 28 Ibidem, 128. [où, comme il s’agit d’une cour universelle, on considère qu’on y parle le mieux de toute l’Italie]

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première grammaire de l’italien publiée à l’intention des Anglais, en 1550, à Londres : l’œuvre est écrite en anglais par William Thomas, un aventurier gallois qui avait séjourné en Italie, plus particulièrement dans la République de Venise. La grammaire de Thomas est accompagnée par un dictionnaire pour favoriser une meilleure compréhension de Boccace, Pétrarque et Dante (mentionnés dans cet ordre) : les sources citées explicitement sont l’Alunno et Acarisio.29 D’autres grammaires de l’italien écrites en latin étaient disponibles pour un public international et cultivé, telle l’Italicae grammatices praecepta ac ratio, manuel imprimé à Genève en 1567 par Scipione Lentulo, un Napolitain ayant fui l’Inquisition. L’ouvrage est destiné à deux nobles français et à un Anglais, élèves de Lentulo à Paris, et dédié au fils de l’électeur palatin. En latin toujours, il y a aussi les Institutionum florentinae linguae libri duo de Eufrosino Lapini. L’auteur, un Florentin, explique qu’il a composé ce manuel à l’étranger pour enseigner sa langue à des gentilshommes allemands, mais il dédie le volume à Jeanne d’Autriche, femme de François Ier de Medicis, et il en publie la première édition en 1569 dans sa ville d’origine. Dès la Renaissance en effet, ceux qui étudient l’italien directement en Italie ont aussi des outils à leur disposition. Dans ce cas, l’italien lui-même peut être la métalangue du manuel, comme dans les Avertimenti sopra le regole Toscane de Nicolò Tani, publiés en 1550 à Venise, alors le principal centre éditorial de la Péninsule, et dédiés à “Giovanni Buccitelli Francese”. L’auteur, Nicolò Tani “de Borgo San Sepolcro”, explique avoir composé son ouvrage pour enseigner la langue toscane certainement pas aux Toscans mêmes, qui la connaissent très bien depuis le berceau et n’ont donc aucun besoin d’en apprendre les règles, mais à ceux qui, nés et élevés hors d’Italie, n’ont pas été instruits par la nature (“que’ che per esser nati, et allevati fuor d’Italia, non ne sonno [sic] dalla natura instrutti”). Comme l’a remarqué Giovanni Nencioni, dans cette grammaire le modèle de Bembo du florentin illustre—avec les exemples classiques pris chez Pétrarque, Boccace, etc.—est accompagné d’autres formes toscanes vivantes, notamment des formes propres à l’aire linguistique d’origine de Tani.30 Les étudiants étrangers qui fréquentent les universités italiennes constituent un public particulier. C’est précisément à leur intention, sur la demande d’étudiants allemands, que Ferdinand Ier de Médicis crée en 1588, à l’Université de Sienne, la première chaire de toscana favella (langue 29 Thomas, Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer Voir Pizzoli, Le grammatiche di italiano per Inglesi (1550–1776), 104. 30 Nencioni, “Un caso di polimorfia della lingua letteraria dal sec. XIII al XVI”, 160–161.

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toscane), confiée à Diomede Borghesi, homme de lettres siennois qui avait pourtant vécu longtemps loin de sa ville natale et put y revenir grâce à la charge obtenue. Borghesi flatte les Allemands dans le discours d’ouverture de sa première année universitaire, prononcé en novembre 1589 et immédiatement publié. Il loue les Germani qui, non contents d’étudier la langue dans les livres, veulent l’apprendre à partir de son utilisation vivante (“dal vivo sermon”) en séjournant en Italie. Une série de questions rhétoriques permettent à Borghesi de demander si les Allemands vont à Capodistria, dans les Abruzzes ou en Valteline, pour contester évidemment qu’il en soit ainsi, puisque c’est plutôt à Sienne qu’ils viennent dans ce but : la supériorité et le prestige de la langue toscane sont reconnus en Europe (“è palese a ciascuno che la Toscana, mercé solamente del suo gratioso linguaggio, riluce oggi dì sopra le più illustri provincie d’Europa”).31 De Borghesi nous conservons de plus les notes manuscrites des cours dispensés entre 1589 et 1598, des pages et des pages pratiquement illisibles, avec d’innombrables citations des Trois Couronnes, de Guinizelli, Cino de Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti, Giovanni Villani et de nombreux autres auteurs. Borghesi engage souvent la polémique avec les auteurs des œuvres précédentes à la sienne, Bembo en premier lieu, mais il convient avec lui que le simple fait d’être né et nourri en Toscane ne suffit pas pour maîtriser la langue.32 Borghesi se lance dans d’interminables et subtiles dissertations, proposant une sorte d’étude monographique, érudite et probablement difficile à suivre pour son auditoire. De son côté, Girolamo Buoninsegni, un autre homme de lettres siennois, s’adresse aux étudiants étrangers débutants. Ancien élève de Borghesi, Buoninsegni est assistant et remplaçant de Celso Cittadini, deuxième titulaire de la chaire de toscana favella. Buoninsegni est de plus un lecteur particulier, privé, de la Nazione Alemanna. Et c’est justement pour les étudiants allemands qu’il rédige une petite grammaire avec les rudiments de la langue toscane,33 afin d’enseigner à écrire et parler comme il faut (“bene e correttamente scrivere e favellare”). Ce manuel ne propose pas la langue littéraire et antique en guise de modèle, mais la langue vivante, parlée en Toscane. L’ouvrage enregistre ainsi des formes familières voire carrément 31 Borghesi,  Oratione del sig. Diomede Borghesi, 7–8 ; désormais in Borghesi, Orazioni accademiche, 47. [Il ne fait aucun doute que la Toscane, uniquement grâce à son gracieux langage, brille aujourd’hui au-dessus des plus célèbres provinces de l’Euripe] 32 Diomede Borghesi, manuscrit autographe, avec le titre (d’une autre main) Lezioni di lingua toscana, 1589–1598, Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati di Siena, ms. H.VII.16, cc. 330r e 331r. 33 Buoninsegni, I primi principi della grammatica toscana. Voir Cialdini, “L’insegnamento della grammatica a Siena”, 127–153; Mattarucco, “Diomede Borghesi e Girolamo Buoninsegni lettori di lingua toscana a Siena”.

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vulgaires comme puttanaccia, donnaccia, furfantaccio, ladraccio (péjoratifs de putain, fripon et voleur) et des jurons tels que poffare (par euphémisme de poffardio, “Dieu peut le faire”), cappita, cancaro (autres euphémismes), Diavolo ! (diable !).34 Les exemples liés à la Toscane et en particulier aux lieux où l’enseignement se déroule occupent une place significative, voir “l’antica Siena. Il vicino Buonconvento”, “la Castellina, la Capraia, l’Elba, il Giglio” (à propos de l’utilisation des articles).35 Dans sa grammaire, Buoninsegni dit explicitement que les règles et la théorie ne se suffisent pas à elles-mêmes, et que les élèves doivent apprendre autant de la voix des maîtres que du contact avec les personnes: un précurseur, en somme, de l’enseignement moderne en immersion.

La Nouvelle méthode Au dix-septième siècle, il se publie de nombreux manuels d’italien pour étrangers.36 Au moins l’un d’entre eux est digne de notre attention, c’est la Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la langue italienne, œuvre de Claude Lancelot,37 solitaire de Port-Royal, maître des petites écoles et précepteur au service de la noblesse. L’ouvrage, paru la première fois en 1659, a eu de nombreuses éditions, toutes sans nom d’auteur, comme le prescrit la règle de l’anonymat imposée par Saint-Cyran aux membres de sa communauté. Par conséquent, cette Méthode italienne est connue aussi comme la Méthode de Messieurs de Port Royal : il en va de même pour les autres manuels de latin, grec et espagnol de Lancelot, en fait surtout célèbre pour la Grammaire générale et raisonnée de 1660, écrite avec Antoine Arnauld. Dans la Méthode italienne, la grammaire en tant que telle est précédée d’une longue Préface où Lancelot fait la synthèse de l’histoire de la langue et de la littérature italiennes. Il part de la situation contemporaine et de l’excellence de la langue italienne, parlée en Grèce, dans les îles du Levant, à la Sublime Porte, à la cour de l’empereur, à celle du roi de Pologne et de la plupart des princes allemands. Cette description de l’importance et de la diffusion de la langue italienne est suivie par un commentaire qui concerne la France en particulier : 34 Buoninsegni, I primi principi, 50 et 115. 35 Ibidem, 30 et 34. 36 Voir Mattarucco, “Grammatiche per stranieri”. 37 [Lancelot], Nouvelle méthode.

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Et tous ces peuples trouvent cette Langue beaucoup plus belle et plus avantageuse pour se bien expliquer, que leurs Langues naturelles. La France mesme, quoy que maintenant si amoureuse de sa Langue, et avec raison, ne laisse pas d’avoir une estime particuliere de l’Italienne ; & mesmes jusqu’à quelque excès: puisque c’est aujourd’hui en quelque façon un plus grand reproche à une personne de la Cour de ne pas sçavoir l’Italien, que de ne sçavoir ny le Grec ny le Latin.38

Lancelot juge donc excessive la considération de ses compatriotes pour l’italien. Une affirmation semblable, a fortiori dans un manuel d’italien, ne peut que surprendre, mais elle témoigne d’un désir de revanche par rapport à la mode italianisante qui a si longtemps fait fureur en France entre le seizième et le dix-septième siècle. Quant à la comparaison continuelle avec les langues classiques, elle s’explique par le fait que la langue italienne, selon Lancelot, doit être considérée “tout ensemble & comme morte, & comme vivante”,39 une sorte d’hybride en somme, en ce qu’il s’agit d’une langue parlée, certes, mais aussi et surtout d’une langue de culture, basée sur un canon bien établi d’auteurs. Dans sa préface, Lancelot propose en effet un aperçu de littérature, nommant Dante, Brunetto Latini, Giovanni Villani, Pétrarque et Boccace, l’humanisme, Poliziano et Sannazaro. Pour citer ensuite les codificateurs de la langue vulgaire : le cardinal Bembo au premier chef, puis Fortunio (dont les Regole sont décrites comme contemporaines du travail de Bembo), Giacomo et Trifone Gabriele, l’Alunno, Corso, Acarisio, Dolce, Ruscelli, Pergamini, “l’Auteur des Additions à Bembe”, c’est-à-dire Castelvetro,40 et enfin Buommattei. Un paragraphe à part est consacré à l’Accademia della Crusca, rappelée pour la rassettatura, l’édition expurgée du Decameron, pour les Avvertimenti de Salviati et pour le Vocabolario della Crusca, “le Dictionnaire qui porte son nom, qui est un Ouvrage de près de 40 années, tiré des plus excellens Auteurs du Siecle de la pureté (…) & qui a servy de modele à celuy que l’Academie Françoise a entrepris”.41 Lancelot conseille ensuite une série de lectures, réparties par genres. Parmi les historiens, il mentionne Guicciardini et le cardinal Bentivoglio, qui ont écrit “d’une maniere tres-exacte et tres-accomplie”,42 et Davila, moins 38 Ibidem, II. 39 Ibidem. 40 Il s’agit de Castelvetro, Giunta fatta al ragionamento degli articoli et de verbi di messer Pietro Bembo. 41 Lancelot, Nouvelle méthode, IX. 42 Ibidem, XIII.

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digne d’attention du point de vue du style, mais aux contenus captivants. Pour la prose, il y a Mascardi et Giovanni Della Casa, auteur du Galateo, modelé sur Boccace pour la langue et utile pour les bonnes manières. Pour la poésie, le maître de Port Royal suggère de lire l’Arioste, à condition de supprimer les passages immoraux, Le Tasse, apprécié lui pour le sujet de son poème mais réputé moins valide du point de vue de la langue, et Annibal Caro, retenu pour sa traduction de l’Énéide. Selon Lancelot, les élèves français peuvent aussi se familiariser avec d’autres auteurs italiens, en prose ou en vers, contemporains ou anciens, Pétrarque et Dante inclus, moins difficiles à lire qu’on ne le pense habituellement. Il est intéressant de comparer cette liste de lectures conseillées avec celle des auteurs effectivement cités dans la Méthode italienne. Dans les pages relatives aux règles grammaticales, l’auteur dominant reste Pétrarque, en accord avec la tradition italienne : à la deuxième place pour le nombre de citations explicites figure Boccace, tandis que Dante n’est nommé que trois fois. Suivent des exemples d’auteurs du seizième siècle, comme Le Tasse et Caro. La dimension littéraire du manuel est confirmée par la présence d’une troisième et dernière partie, avec une breve instruction de la Poësie Italienne. Dans ce bref traité de métrique, nous retrouvons des exemples du Canzoniere et des Trionfi de Pétrarque, de l’Arcadia de Sannazaro, de la traduction de l’Eneide de Caro et de la Gerusalemme liberata. Et enfin, des références à Marino, Cicognini et Salvator Rosa. La Méthode italienne de Port-Royal est en somme un manuel très riche, essentiellement basé sur la langue littéraire, une langue dans laquelle le poids des Trois Couronnes reste très fort, mais avec une ouverture vers des auteurs plus modernes.

Conclusion Dans les grammaires de l’italien pour étrangers éditées entre le seizième et le dix-septième siècle, depuis la Grammaire italienne de Jean-Pierre de Mesmes jusqu’à la Nouvelle méthode de Claude Lancelot, nous trouvons donc des références à la langue parlée et aux variétés linguistiques de la Péninsule et des allusions à l’importance de l’italien à l’étranger, du point de vue diplomatique et dans les cours royales. Dans la plupart des cas cependant, l’italien est identifié au toscan ou, de manière plus précise, au florentin illustre des Trois Couronnes, Pétrarque en tête. Ce choix obéit à des motifs évidents et offre des avantages très pratiques, aussi bien pour les grammairiens que pour les apprenants : la langue écrite représente en soi une base solide, à partir de laquelle il est possible de déduire

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des indications précises, des exemples et des règles. Cela vaut d’autant plus dans le cas de la tradition italienne, avec un canon d’auteurs et de textes solidement établi. Mais cette solution comporte aussi des implications plus amples dans une Italie encore divisée, tout comme en Europe ou ailleurs : Francesco Bruni parle d’une langue littéraire non ethnique, et même porteuse de messages universaux dans une époque saturée de culture comme la Renaissance italienne43.

Références Sources primaires Alessandri [d’Urbino], Giovanni Mario, Il paragone della lingua toscana et castigliana, a c. di Anna Polo (Padova : Cleup, 2017 [1560]). Bembo, Pietro, Prose della volgar lingua, a c. di Carlo Dionisotti (Milano : TEA, 1989 [1525]). Borghesi, Diomede, Orazioni accademiche, a c. di Carlo Caruso (Pisa : ETS, 2009). Buoninsegni, Girolamo, I primi principi della grammatica toscana (Siena : per l’erede di Matteo Florimi, 1618). Castelvetro, Lodovico, Givnta fatta al ragionamento degli articoli et de’ verbi di messer Pietro Bembo (Modena : per gli heredi de Cornelio Gabaldino, 1563). Fortunio, Giovanni Francesco, Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua, a c. di Claudio Marazzini e Simone Fornara (Pordenone: Accademia San Marco – Pro Pordenone editore, 1999), avec reproduction en fac-similé de l’édition originale, Ancona: Bernardin Vercellese 1516). [Lancelot, Claude], Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la langue italienne (Paris : Pierre Le Petit, 1659). Lapini, Eufrosino, Institutionum florentinae linguae libri duo (Florentiae : Apud Iunctas, 1569). Lentulus, Scipio, Italicae grammatices praecepta ac ratio in eorum gratiam qui ejus linguae elegantiam addiscere cupiunt. (Genève : Apud Joan. Crispinum, 1567). Mesmes, Jean-Pierre de, La grammaire italienne, a c. di Giada Mattarucco (Pescara : Libreria dell’Università Editrice, 2002) avec reproduction en fac-similé de l’édition originale (Paris : Estienne Groulleau, 1548 [= 1549]). Miranda, Giovanni, Osservationi della lingua castigliana, a c. di Carmen Castillo Peña (Padova : Cleup, 2018 [1566]). 43 Bruni, Italia : vita e avventure di un’idea, 233 : “una lingua letteraria non etnica, anzi portatrice di messaggi universali in un’epoca satura di cultura come il Rinascimento italiano”.

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[Seymour, Anne, Marguerite et Jeanne], Le tombeau de Marguerite de Valois royne de Navarre faict premièrement en disticques latins par les trois sœurs princesses en Angleterre. Depuis tracduitz en grec, italien & françois par plusieurs des excellentz poètes de la France, (Paris : Michel Fezandat & Robert Granjon, 1551). Tani, Nicolò, Auertimenti sopra le regole Toscane con la formatione de Verbi, & uariation delle uoci (Venezia : appresso Giovita Rapario, 1550). Thomas, William, Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, with a Dictionarie for the Better Understandyng of Boccace, Petrarcha, and Dante (London : Thomas Berthelet, 1550). Trenado de Ayllón, Francisco, Arte muy curiosa por la qual se enseña muy de raýz, el entender, y hablar la Lengua Italiana, con todas las reglas de la pronunciación, y acento, y declaración de las partes indeclinables, que a esta Lengua nos oscurecen (Medina del Campo : por Sanctiago del Canto, 1596).

Sources secondaires Banfi, Emanuele, Lingue d’Italia fuori d’Italia. Europa, Mediterraneo e Levante dal Medioevo all’età moderna (Bologna : il Mulino, 2014). Beccaria, Gian Luigi, Mia lingua italiana (Torino : Einaudi, 2011). Bingen, Nicole, “Sources et filiations de la ‘Grammaire italienne’ de Jean-Pierre de Mesmes”, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 46–3 (1984), 633–638. Braudel, Fernand, Le Modèle italien (Paris : Flammarion, 1994). Bruni, Francesco, “Italiano all’estero e italiano sommerso : una lingua senza impero”, Nuova Rivista di Letteratura Italiana 3–1 (2000), 219–236. Bruni, Francesco, Italia: vita e avventure di un’idea (Bologna : Il Mulino, 2010). Canals, Jordi, “Francisco Trenado de Ayllón y el léxico petrarquista”, in Linguistica contrastiva tra italiano e lingue iberiche, a c. di Lorenzo Blini, Maria Vittoria Calvi e Antonella Cancellier (Madrid : Instituto Cervantes, 2007), 62–76. Cialdini, Francesca, “L’insegnamento della grammatica a Siena: i Primi Principi di Girolamo Buoninsegni”, Studi di grammatica italiana, XXXV (2016), 127–153. Dionisotti, Carlo, “Niccolò Liburnio e la letteratura cortigiana”, Lettere italiane 14–1 (1962), 33–51. Gualano, Andrea, Una grammatica di italiano per ispanofoni del Cinquecento. L’Arte muy curiosa di Francisco Trenado de Ayllón. Analisi linguistica e trascrizione ragionata (Firenze : Cesati, 2016). Krebs Bermúdez, Víctor Eduardo, “Las traducciones de un soneto de Petrarca en el Renacimiento español”, Livius 6 (1994), 191–220. Mattarucco, Giada, “Grammatiche per stranieri”, in Storia dell’italiano scritto, a c. di Giuseppe Antonelli, Matteo Motolese e Lorenzo Tomasin. IV, Grammatiche (Roma : Carocci, 2018), 141–168.

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Mattarucco, Giada, “Diomede Borghesi e Girolamo Buoninsegni lettori di lingua toscana a Siena”, Studi di grammatica italiana XXXVII (2018), 173–202. Nencioni, Giovanni, “Tra grammatica e retorica. Un caso di polimorfia della lingua letteraria dal sec. XIII al XVI”, in Saggi di lingua antica e moderna (Torino : Rosenberg & Sellier, 1989 [1953]), 11–188. Pizzoli, Lucilla, Le grammatiche di italiano per Inglesi (1550–1776) : un’analisi linguistica (Firenze : Accademia della Crusca, 2004). Sabatini, Francesco, “Storia illustrata dell’italiano”, in L’italiano dalla nazione allo Stato, a c. di Vittorio Coletti e Stefania Iannizzotto (Firenze : Le Lettere, 2011), 9–53. Silvestri, Paolo, Le grammatiche italiane per ispanofoni (secoli XVI-XIX) (Alessandria : Edizioni dell’Orso, 2001). Stammerjohann, Harro, La lingua degli angeli. Italianismo, italianismi e giudizi sulla lingua italiana (Firenze : Accademia della Crusca, 2013). Tallon, Alain, Le nonce en France au XVIe siècle, agent de diffusion de la Réforme catholique ?, in Ilana Zinguer et Myriam Yardeni (dir.), Les deux Réformes chrétiennes. Propagation et diffusion (Leiden/Boston : Brill, 2004), 122–137. Wartburg, Walther von, La posizione della lingua italiana (Firenze : Sansoni, 1940).

À propos de l’auteure Giada Mattarucco a été élève du Collegio Ghislieri de Pavie, lectrice à l’Université de Haute-Alsace et collaboratrice linguistique à Sienne. Elle a soutenu une thèse sur les premières grammaires d’italien pour les Français à l’Università per Stranieri di Siena et à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. Elle est professeur de linguistique italienne à l’Università per Stranieri di Siena et membre du CIRSIL (Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur l’histoire des enseignements linguistiques). Ses recherches concernent notamment les manuels d’italien à l’usage des étrangers, Girolamo Gigli et des écrivains du vingtième siècle, tels que Natalia Ginzburg et Primo Levi. Adresse électronique : [email protected] Site web personnel : https://online.unistrasi.it/docenti/Persona.asp?ID=275

About the author Giada Mattarucco was a student at the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia, a lecturer at Université of Haute-Alsace, and a linguistic collaborator in Siena. She has defended a thesis on the first grammars of Italian for the French at the

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Università per Stranieri di Siena and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. She is professor of Italian linguistics at the Università per Stranieri di Siena and member of CIRSIL (Interuniversity Research Center on the History of Linguistic Education). Her research interests include Italian textbooks for foreigners, Girolamo Gigli, and twentieth-century writers, such as Natalia Ginzburg and Primo Levi. Email: [email protected] Personal website: https://online.unistrasi.it/docenti/Persona.asp?ID=275

15 “A language that reigns in the city”: Italian in grammar books for foreigners (second half of the 18th century)1 Norma Romanelli Abstract: While they emphasize the large circulation and the cultural domination of the Italian language, Italian grammar books published in Europe from the second half of the sixteenth century onward reveal the hybrid characteristic of a language that was perceived both as a dead and a living language. Applied to Italian, the concept of a dead language was based on an archaic and fundamentally written and literary model, that of the great fourteenth-century Tuscan authors. Compared to the codification of the written language, the oral dimension was far from being stable throughout Italy before the 1861 political unification. Here I present a few of the leading Italian grammar books published in France and in England beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century. This chapter shows how the spoken language was described in its use and, more generally, the model of Italian presented to the readers. Résumé : Tout en attestant de la grande diffusion et de la domination culturelle de la langue italienne, les grammaires italiennes publiées en Europe à partir de la seconde moitié du seizième siècle révèlent aussi la caractéristique hybride d’une langue qui était perçue à la fois comme une langue morte et comme une langue vivante. Appliqué à l’italien, le concept de “langue morte” se fondait sur un modèle archaïque et fondamentalement écrit et littéraire, celui des grands auteurs toscans du quatorzième siècle. Comparée à la codification de la langue écrite, qui a été profondément influencée par cette position théorique, la dimension 1 [“Une langue morte et vivante à la fois qui règne dans la cité”: l’italien dans les grammaires pour étrangers (seconde moitié du dix-huitième siècle)].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch15

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orale était loin d’être stable en Italie avant l’unification politique de 1861. Nous analysons ici quelques-unes des principales grammaires italiennes qui ont été publiées en France et en Angleterre à partir de la seconde moitié du dix-huitième siècle. Nous cherchons à montrer comment la langue parlée était décrite dans son usage et, plus généralement, quel modèle d’italien était présenté aux lecteurs. Keywords: History of Italian grammar. Italian grammar books for foreigners. Spoken language in grammar books (18th century). Diffusion of Italian language in Europe. Mots-clés : Histoire de la grammaire italienne. Méthodes de grammaire italienne pour étrangers. Langue orale dans les méthodes de grammaire (dix-huitième siècle). Diffusion de l’italien en Europe.

Introduction The history of the multiple forms of the presence of Italian in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin has been shown most notably by Bruni (L’italiano fuori d’Italia) and Banf i (Lingue d’Italia fuori d’Italia). On the one hand, there is Italian as “lingua leggera,”2 which would circulate “senza impero”3 throughout Europe as a result of its cultural prestige; and, on the other hand, there is the language of Dante that, in the Mediterranean Basin and in the regions that were known as the Levant,4 would serve the role of lingua franca, used in the contexts of commerce and diplomacy.5 The Italian language grammar books published in Europe from the second half of the sixteenth century onward refer to this situation when they compare the expansion of Italian in the world to that of Latin at the time of the Roman Empire. This is the case, to cite just one example, in Claude Lancelot’s Nouvelle méthode italienne (1660), in which the author writes that the Italian language possesses “so many charms, that it has almost been received in as many provinces as Latin,” since it is spoken “in Greece, in the Isles of the Levant, and at the door of the Great Lord; at the Court of the Emperor, and that of the King of Poland, and of most of the 2 Bruni, “Italiano all’estero e italiano sommerso,” 9–10. 3 Ibidem. 4 Levant referred to the area including today’s Balkan countries, Greece, and the Middle East. 5 For the spread of Italian abroad, see Baglioni, L’italiano fuori d’Italia.

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Princes of Germany.”6 Lancelot specifies that the “peoples” (les peuples) of these countries find the Italian language “much more beautiful and advantageous to explain themselves well than their natural languages.”7 While they highlight the breadth of the diffusion of Italian, grammar books also reveal the hybrid nature of this language that exported so well but was perceived both as a “dead language, contained within its authors,” and “a living language that reigns in the city.”8 The concept of a dead language as applied to Italian is linked to the typology of its codification, which, thanks to the foundational text by Pietro Bembo9 Prose nelle quali si ragiona della volgar lingua (1525), was based on an antiquated and fundamentally written or literary model: that of the great fourteenth-century Tuscan writers. In the Prose, Bembo in fact took a stand on this subject in response to Giuliano de’ Medici’s objection, in which he evoked the risk of speaking in such a way to the dead and not to the living (“It could be said, messer Carlo, that we would rather write to the dead than to the living”).10 The Venetian cardinal—by way of his brother Carlo—affirmed that, contrary to the variability of the common language, only the perfection of the Florentine auctores of the Trecento could guarantee communication with posterity, the true goal of the writer. This was in fact the reason for Bembo’s rejection of the cortigiane trends based on the use of the language in the courts of Renaissance Italy. A language devoid of “sure and strong rules,”11 like that of the court of Rome described by Calmeta in his work (now lost) Della volgar poesía (whose theory is illustrated in the Prose),12 could not constitute an appropriate model for achieving the aim of eternal survival that literature had set for itself. Incidentally, the Italian language 6 “Leur langue a tant de charmes, qu’elle s’est presque fait recevoir en autant de provinces que la Latine. L’on parle Italien dans la Grece, dans les Isles du Levant, & à la porte du Grand-Seigneur; à la Cour de l’Empereur, & à celle du Roy de Pologne, & de la pluspart des Princes d’Allemagne” Lancelot, Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la langue italienne, Préface, ii). 7 “Et tous ces peuples trouvent cette Langue beaucoup plus belle & plus avantageuse pour se bien expliquer, que leurs Langues naturelles” (ibidem, ii–iii). 8 Ibidem, préface, x. 9 Regarding the title of Bembo’s book, see Patota, La quarta corona, 41–61. The Prose are written in the form of a dialogue taking place in Venice before 1502, between Federico Fregoso, Giuliano de’ Medici, Ercole Strozzi, and Carlo Bembo. 10 “Si potrebbe dire, messer Carlo, che noi scriver volessimo a’ morti piú che a’ vivi” (Bembo, Prose, I, XVII-XVIII). 11 Ibidem, I, XIII. Regarding “cortigiana” theory and the part played by the Court of Rome between the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, see Marazzini, “Le teorie.” Regarding Italian spoken during the sixteenth century, see Maraschio, “Storia della lingua italiana.” 12 Marazzini, “La distinzione tra scritto e parlato,” 522.

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that would impose itself in sixteenth-century Europe was, as Dionisotti would write, a language “crystallized in its structure, longstanding, and resistant to all events.”13

The “ghost of spoken Italian” Compared to the codification of the written language, deeply influenced by this theoretical position,14 the oral dimension was far from stable throughout Italy before the political unification of 1861 and would remain so, even beyond this date. Without an institutional or political framework, the spoken language, indeed, lacked a clear model that could be shared by all the inhabitants of the peninsula, creating a situation that Luca Serianni rightly described as the “ghost of spoken Italian” (“il fantasma dell’italiano parlato”).15 The strict dichotomy established between the written literary language and the spoken dialects constitutes a historiographical subject that recent studies have nuanced by dating Italian, both written and spoken, as a shared language, to the pre-unitary period. The traces of a language of communication that could be defined as “utilitarian” and that developed alongside local dialects can be found in the stories of foreign travelers to Italy who had learned Italian in their countries.16 In this contribution, I present a few of the main Italian grammar books published in France and England from the second half of the eighteenth century onward and used by foreigners, with the goal of pointing out signs of the oral language and, more generally, the model of Italian presented to readers. I will consider in particular Annibale Antonini’s17 Grammaire italienne pratique et raisonnée (Paris: 1746), Antonio Curioni’s18 Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons (Paris: 1781), Angelo Vergani’s19 A New and 13 Dionisotti, “La lingua italiana da Venezia all’Europa,” 9–10. 14 See Patota, “I percorsi grammaticali,” and Patota, La quarta corona. 15 Serianni, “Lingue e dialetti d’Italia,” 56. 16 See Cartago, Ricordi d’italiano; Trifone, “Uno spunto foscoliano”; Serianni, “Lingue e dialetti d’Italia,” 25–51; Maraschio, “Storia della lingua italiana,” 51–69; Bruni, L’italiano fuori d’Italia, 157–58. 17 Settled in Paris since 1726, Antonini (1722–1755) was an Italian teacher, grammarian, lexicographer, translator, and editor of Italian classics. See his notice (Corpus de textes linguistiques fondamentaux): . 18 Member of the Accademia dell’Arcadia and teacher of Italian in Paris since 1782, Curioni (fl. 1781–88) stayed in London as well. 19 Vergani (fl. 1791–1811), member of the Accademia dell’Arcadia, taught Italian in France and in England. He published many handbooks for foreigners. See Romanelli, “Les grammaires de l’italien à l’usage des Français.”

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Complete Italian Grammar (Birmingham: 1791), and Vincenzo Peretti’s20 Grammaire italienne (London: 1795). The books in question will be read considering the debate over the vexata quaestio of common Italian that would emerge at the crucial moment in the history of the peninsula when, faced with the idea of the nation to come, discussions of the role of Italian and how the language would unfold in its social and political dimensions were flourishing. In the eighteenth century, the demand for foreigners to study Italian, be it within the peninsula or in other European countries, was extremely high; written teaching tools in the students’ native languages thus benefited from a thriving market.21 The goal of these books was to allow for both the written and oral mastery of the Italian language, and they complemented the grammar book stricto sensu with a variety of texts, often inherited from the Latin tradition of nominalia,22 “linguistic manners,” and colloquia. In the works examined, one finds collections of words and phraseological expressions, dialogues, poetic treatises, readings, and sample letters. Peretti dedicates a specific section to the contestation of “portable vocabulary” contained in the incredibly famous Maître italien (1678) by Giovanni Veneroni, a real bestseller that became the target of criticism from competitors. What type of linguistic model can be seen in these grammar books? Before attempting to answer this question, I will briefly revisit the dominant traits of the linguistic situation in Settecento Italy.23 Gianfranco Folena highlights the role played (in intellectual milieus receptive to the Enlightenment) by a confrontation with the linguistic contexts of France and England in identifying the specificity of the Italian situation;24 acknowledging the 20 Author of several books aimed at learners of Italian, Peretti (17??–1808) left Paris for London in 1793 after the revolutionary events. He published a third edition of his Grammaire after his return to Paris in 1803. See Romanelli, “Les grammaires de l’italien à l’usage des Français.” 21 The first grammar aimed at foreigners written in their mother tongue is the Grammaire italienne composée en françois by Jean-Pierre de Mesmes (1549), followed, approximately at the same time, by the first grammars of the same type intended for English, Spanish, and German people. Regarding grammars of Italian intended for French people, see Mattarucco, Prime grammatiche d’italiano per Francesi, and Romanelli, “Les grammaires de l’italien à l’usage des Français”; for English people, Pizzoli, Le grammatiche di italiano per Inglesi (1550–1776); for Spanish people, Silvestri, Le grammatiche italiane per ispanofoni (secoli XVI-XIX). See also Palermo and Poggiogalli, Grammatiche di italiano per stranieri dal ‘500 ad oggi. 22 See Buridant, La lexicographie au Moyen-Âge. 23 Among very numerous references, see Puppo, Discussioni linguistiche del Settecento; Folena, L’italiano in Europa; Formigari, Teorie e pratiche linguistiche nell’Italia del Settecento; Gensini, L’identità dell’italiano; Matarrese, Il Settecento. 24 Folena, L’italiano in Europa, 7–10.

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absence of a veritable common language would reveal the connection between linguistic problems and political and social ones and establish the need for a unifying center within which the Italian language could become a genuine tool for communication. In a letter in Italian sent to Voltaire, dated December 10, 1746, Francesco Algarotti provides a description of the ideal capital where “the comforts of life, the pleasures, and the fortune bring forth from each province the flower of a nation, where eight or nine hundred thousand people electrify one another,” where “the art of conversation can develop” and “the language may become rich with heterogeneity, and pure without pretention.”25 In fact, when we talk about a language shared by all Italians, it is always inextricable from its written model. This is the case of the “common Italian language” identified by Ludovico Muratori in his treatise Della perfetta poesia italiana (1706): There is a single, excellent language in Italy, belonging to all Italians, used […] by all illustrious writers, who in the different provinces of Italy have composed verses, or prose; therefore, it can reasonably be called “speaking Italian.” […] This common Italian language can be defined as grammatical; and it is a language one and the same everywhere in Italy, for there exists a single way of speaking, and of writing, true to grammar.26

As Trifone observes,27 this passage alludes to a controlled form of Italian based on grammatical rules indicated for the written language, in such a way that the specifically oral dimension of the language remains outside its descriptive framework. In sum, the distance between written and spoken language appears to be insurmountable, so much so that, as late as 1806, the young Alessandro Manzoni, in a letter to Claude Fauriel, would come to call Italian a “nearly dead” language (quasi morta)—an expression to which there will be occasion 25 Letter to Voltaire, December 10, 1746, quoted in Bonomi, Il docile idioma, 178. Author’s translation. 26 “Un solo dunque è il vero, ed eccellente linguaggio d’Italia, che proprio è ancora di tutti gl’Italiani, e si è usato […] da tutti gl’illustri scrittori, che in varie provincie d’Italia han composto o versi, o prose; laonde ragionevolmente può appellarsi parlare italiano. […] Ora questo comun parlare italiano può chiamarsi gramaticale; ed è un solo per tutta l’Italia, perché in tanti diversi luoghi d’Italia è sempre una sola, e costante conformità di parlare, e scrivere, per cagione della gramatica” (Muratori, Della perfetta poesia italiana, 99–100). 27 Trifone, “Varietà di lingua nel passato,” 147.

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to return—after expressing his regret over the fragmentation of Italy and over the “laziness and ignorance” of its inhabitants: To our regret, the state of the fragmentation of Italy, the laziness and the ignorance of its inhabitants, has created such a distance between the spoken language and the written one to the point that the latter can be considered as nearly dead.28

The subject of common Italian, which played an important role in the linguistic ideas of the eighteenth century, would be tackled from a different angle some years later by the Venetian writer Ugo Foscolo. In denouncing, on the one hand, the intrinsically written, literary, and highbrow nature of Italian and, on the other, the hegemony of the dialects of Italy29 at a time when the other countries of Europe benefited from a national language, Foscolo identifies a kind of “common language” (linguaggio commune),” which he defines as “mercantile and itinerant” (mercantile e itinerario), used for the sole purpose of allowing for a form of communication between speakers from different regions of Italy: Anyone living in or passing through the Peninsula can easily see that the Italian language is not spoken. Educated people in other countries of Europe have at their disposal a national language and leave the dialects to the masses. In Italy this is the privilege solely of those who, having to travel to the bordering provinces, have at their disposal a common language used for the sole purpose of being understood and that we could call mercantile and specific to the traveler.30

Spoken Italian as a koine, to which Foscolo alludes, is therefore reserved solely for occasions when different regions come into contact, since anyone 28 “Per nostra sventura lo stato dell’Italia divisa in frammenti, la pigrizia e l’ignoranza quasi generale hanno posto tanta distanza tra la lingua parlata e la scritta che questa può dirsi quasi morta” (Manzoni, Lettere, 19). 29 “Italian language never has been spoken: […] it is a written language and nothing else, therefore literary and not colloquial” (La lingua italiana non è stata mai parlata: […] è lingua scritta, e non altro; e perciò letteraria, e non popolare). From Foscolo to Gino Capponi, September 26, 1826. Quoted in Vitale, “Proposizioni teoriche e indicazioni pratiche,” 387. 30 “Che la lingua italiana non sia parlata neppur oggi apparisce a chiunque abita, e a chiunque traversa quella Penisola. Le persone educate negli altri paesi d’Europa si giovano della lingua nazionale, e lasciano i dialetti alla plebe. Or questo in Italia è privilegio solo di chi, viaggiando nelle provincie circonvicine, si giova d’un linguaggio comune tal quale tanto da farsi intendere, e che potrebbe chiamarsi mercantile ed itinerario.” Excerpt (quoted in Trifone, “Uno spunto foscoliano,” 309) from “Epoche della lingua italiana,” written by Foscolo during his exile in London (1823–25).

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who might use it in his own region would risk both not being understood and being perceived as ridiculous.

“Both a dead language and a living one”: Italian in grammar books for foreigners The question now arises as to whether these different questions just mentioned are echoed in the books intended for teaching Italian. The first feature that emerges from the texts in question is respect for literature as a foundation for linguistic norms in Italian, which is reflected in the almost sole inclusion of texts by authors, a constant in the Italian grammatical tradition.31 Consider, for example, Peretti’s volume. In his quest for legitimacy, he would base his work on the idea of explicit retrospection, including authors that were the most representative of tradition, as the presence of examples taken from major works of the bon siècle can attest: Boccaccio is the most frequently cited author, followed by Petrarch, Villani, and Dante. On the frontispiece, the presence of a quote taken from Buommattei’s Della lingua toscana (1643),32 the most important Italian language grammar book of the seventeenth century, is a kind of seal of authority that guarantees the value of the editorial enterprise. Vergani, convinced of the importance of literature in learning languages, also cites examples from Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Villani, as well as from Aristotle, Tasso, and Metastasio. Even an author like Curioni, who uses no literary excerpts to clarify rules of grammar, does not neglect to invite his readers to study “a good Italian author” thanks to whom they might train “their taste and their tongue.”33 But the laws of the market condemned this excessive erudition, as we can see from Antonini’s rearrangement of the content of his volumes over the years. Indeed, the rich display of examples of authors found in his Traitise (1726) is trimmed down in Grammaire à l’usage des Dames (1728) and again in Grammaire italienne pratique et raisonnée (1746) to leave room for dialogue, the lack of which had been criticized. A second distinguishing feature of the grammar books studied here is the definition given to Italian as “both a dead language and a living one.” This double identification often serves to call upon the superiority of the Italian 31 Patota, “I percorsi grammaticali,” 106. 32 “If they are not supported by the stability provided by the writings of great authors, languages lose their beauty due to the inconsistency of the populace that speaks them.” 33 Curioni, Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons, v.

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language, as under the pen of Antonini. Indeed, the surprising proximity between the Italian of his time and the Italian “of before” is understood as a “great advantage of the Italian language”: Italian can be considered both as a living language and a dead one. It is a dead language in that its rules, and even all the words that make it up, are taken from archaic authors; it is living in that we still speak it today, and in that we speak it in the same way that we spoke it before: and certainly this is the greatest advantage of the Italian language.34

This is as antiquated a position as it is a radical one, in that it not only considers the written language immobile, as was custom; it also considers the spoken language immobile, going so far as to refuse any distinction between “the language of the court” and the “language of the people.”35 What matters for Antonini is affirming the inalterable nature of Italian, as opposed to the instability of other languages, subject to “the tyranny and the vagaries of use.” Indeed, he writes, “usage is [in Italy] much more respectful and much more regular than it is elsewhere” and Italian “does not depend on the People of the Court, who are not usually very likely to study.”36 It is easy to read between the lines to find a polemical allusion to France, where the construction of a referential linguistic model depended on the proper use “from the best part of the Court, in accordance with the way of writing of the best of the Authors of the time,” as Vaugelas wrote in his Remarques sur la langue françoise (1647).37 While Antonini decided, most likely intentionally, to conceal the reality of the linguistic situation in Italy, it was not the case for Vergani. After a brief mention of the presence of Italian in the courts of Europe where it constituted “an essential part of civic education,” his grammar book opens with the acknowledgement of a paradoxical situation: the contrast existing between the influence of Italian abroad and its limited diffusion within the 34 “L’italien se peut considerer, & comme une Langue vivante, & comme une Langue morte. C’est une Langue morte, en ce que nous tirons ses regles, & même tous les mots qui la composent, d’Auteurs anciens; elle est vivante, en ce que nous la parlons encore aujourd’hu, & que nous la parlons de la même manière qu’on la parlait autrefois: & certainement c’est le plus grand avantage de la langue italienne” (Antonini, Traité de la grammaire italienne, ix). 35 Ibidem, v–vi. 36 Ibidem, xvi. 37 Vaugelas, Remarques sur la langue françoise, préface. In the linguistic model put forth by Vaugelas, the opposition between use and the rule cannot be superimposed onto the opposition between oral and written. On this subject, see Rey, Duval, and Siouff i, Mille ans de langue française, 542–48. On the concept of bon usage, see Trudeau, Les inventeurs du bon usage.

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peninsula. Vergani attributes this difference to the supremacy of Latin in all sectors of instruction and of the dissemination of knowledge: Though it is with profound regret, I must say that the Italian language seems to be better cultivated outside of Italy than within its borders. Latin, not Italian, is spoken in the schools of Italy, and Latin is the language used in the proceedings of our Academies, and in our treatises on philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and on almost all the arts and sciences, as if our language lacked the words, or the means, to express things, big or small, the most majestic or the most humble, scientific or informal.38

As the spokesman for the main points of the debate of his time, Vergani highlights an aspect typical of education under the old regime, summarized by Cesarotti with the expression “universal Latinism” (latinismo universal), and praises authors such as Muratori, who evoked the “commendable but excessive zeal in the teaching of Latin to young people, which did not allow them to practice Italian and allowed them to finish school knowing very little of their mother tongue,”39 and Vallisneri who, in his Saggio alfabetico d’istoria medica e naturale (1733), attempted to codify the terminology of medicine and natural history into the Italian language. 40

Models of spoken language Though it is representative of the major trends in la questione della lingua in the eighteenth century, Vergani’s grammar book certainly had no theoretical ambitions and remains the work of a practician traveling across Europe in search of professional opportunities, attempting to meet the expectations of 38 “Anzi bisogna pur ch’io dica, quantunque con mio grave rammarico, e’ pare che la lingua italiana sia più coltivata fuor dell’Italia che nell’Italia medesima. In Italia la lingua Latina è quella che a preferenza della nativa si parla nelle scuole, la latina è quella nella quale si pubblicano gli atti delle nostre Accademie, moltissimi trattati di filosofia, di Medicina, di Matematiche, e di quasi tutte le arti e le scienze, come se alla nostra lingua mancassero termini, e maniere per esprimer le cose grandi, e le piccole, le maestose e le umili, le scientifiche, e le familiari” (Vergani, A New and Complete Italian Grammar, vi). 39 “Il lodevolissimo sì, ma troppo zelo d’instruire i giovani nel Linguaggio Latino giunge a segno di non permetter loro l’esercizio dell’italiano, e di lasciarsi uscir dalle pubbliche Scuole ignorantissimi della lor favella natìa.” Quoted in Matarrese, Il Settecento, 26–27. 40 See Morgana, “De la quatrième édition du Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca,” 45. Regarding teaching of Italian in Italy before political unification, see Marazzini, “Per lo studio dell’educazione linguistica,” and De Blasi, “L’italiano nella scuola.”

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the public through the creation of effective pedagogical tools.41 This is also the case for Curioni. While promoting the qualities of his forty-eight-page grammar book that allows, as he states, to learn Italian “en très peu de temps & sans beaucoup de travail,”42 Curioni suggests turning to the services of an “intelligent Italian” to be trained on “the true prononciation”;43 this was a subject about which all the main actors had something to say, but without ever distancing themselves from the recommendations, generally common throughout Italy, that sanctioned the superiority given to the spoken language in Tuscany and, even more so, in Florence and Siena. Peretti recognized only this model as a reference,44 completely ignoring the phonetic phenomenon known as the “gorgia Toscana”45 that affected the prestige of the Florentine model, in particular for foreigners. Among the many testimonies on this subject, I will cite Stendhal’s, which declared that he was “furiously shocked at this much vaunted Florentine.”46 The Roman version, which eliminates the “throat fault” (difetto della gola,) was held in great esteem at the time and had been since the Renaissance,47 as the glottonym “Tuscan tongue in Roman mouth” (Lingua toscana in bocca romana) attests, of which Peretti said he was not aware, probably because Veneroni cites it in his manual.48 For Vergani, Rome, Florence, and Tuscany are, in his eyes, “the only places where Italian is spoken well, though we have not yet established if Roman is preferable to Tuscan or Tuscan to Roman.”49 In the end, he seems to lean toward a combination of these two versions, conciliating “the softness of the Roman pronunciation, the elegance of the words, that even the people possess in Florence.”50 And finally, Curioni settles by distancing himself from the “prejudices” on the matter because, for him, neither Rome nor Tuscany should be sought as a model; instead, we must turn to the cultured individuals “of whatever nationality” (“di qualsivoglia Nazione”).51 41 Regarding language teaching during the Enlightenment, see Caravolas, Histoire de la didactique des langues au siècle des Lumières. 42 Curioni, Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons, x. 43 Ibidem, préface, v–vi. 44 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 8. 45 “Gorgia Toscana” refers to the weakening of occlusive unvoiced intervocalic consonants in correspondant unvoiced spirants. 46 Stendhal lashes out at the pronunciation of “cocomero”: “Je vole au théâtre du Hhohhomero, c’est ainsi qu’on prononce le mot cocomero.” Quoted in Vitale, La veneranda favella, 597, n. 57. 47 Trifone, Roma e il Lazio, 312. 48 Veneroni, Le Maître italien, 11. 49 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, xvi. 50 Ibidem, xvi–xviii. 51 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 58–59.

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In addition to the recommendations concerning the best pronunciation of Italian, the parts of the manuals of this corpus dedicated to orality contain mostly dialogues or “informal expressions,” which appear in all the volumes: thirteen dialogues in Antonini’s manual, three in Curioni’s, some “informal expressions” in Vergani’s manual, and eight dialogues in Peretti’s.52 The dialogues are often preceded by lists of vocabulary words, like the “vocabulary English and Italian,”53 in which Vergani lists nouns in descending order (without dividing them into semantic fields), beginning with sacred words, moving on to vocabulary for food, clothing, and so on, and ending with first names. In like manner, in his “Recueil de Noms, de Verbes, d’Adverbes &c. les plus nécessaires,”54 Peretti first touches on “du monde en général,” “de l’Homme, de ses facultés,” and then moves onto “Repas, Boissons, Alimens, Maladies” and to the vocabulary of music. Furthermore, in relying on the authority of the Vocabolario della Crusca,55 he adheres to the critique of the “Vocabulaire portatif” put forth in the Maître italien and highlights more than one hundred words “that are not received in the Italian language, or for which [Veneroni] changes the meaning.”56 As an example, I will go further into some of the lemmas whose legitimacy Peretti contests57 because he considers them nonexistent in Italian (1, 3, 4, and 5) or the meaning given to them by Veneroni incorrect (2 and 6). 1. anguria ‘anguria, melon d’eau’; Melon d’eau se dit en Italien cocomero, & non anguria.58 2. burico ‘burico pour âne’; ane se dit asino ou ciuccio. Burico est une espèce d’habit ancien—Vocab. Della Crusca.59

52 Antonini, Grammaire italienne pratique et raisonnée, 229–84; Curioni, Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons, 6–26; Vergani, A New and Complete Italian Grammar, 144–68; Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 364–84. 53 Vergani, A New and Complete Italian Grammar, 123–43. 54 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 231–58. 55 The Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca has f ive editions. The f irst two (1612 and 1623) were published in Venice, the third (1691), fourth (1729–38), and fifth ones (1863–1925) in Florence. . 56 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 41. 57 With inverted comas: Veneroni definition. In italics: Perreti footnotes. 58 Peretti, Grammaire italienne, 41. 59 Ibidem, 44.

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3. fenestraro ‘fenestraro, vitrier’; si ce mot existoit, il signifieroit celui qui fait des fenêtres. Or il n’y a que les maçons & les menuisiers qui font des fenêtres, quoique le vitrier leur donne le complément.60 4. manizza ‘manizza, manchon’; le mot manizza n’est pas italien & manchon se dit manicotto.61 5. agazzare ‘agazzare’, mettre en fureur; Agazzare n’est pas Italien, & mettre en fureur se dit aizzare.62 6. graffio ‘graffio, remords’; graffio signifie égratignure, & jamais remords, qui se dit rimorsi. Ce mot graffio n’a même pas lieu au figuré; car il ne seroit pas plus permis de dire en Ital. I graffi della coscienza, au lieu de i rimorsi della coscienza, qu’en François les égratignures de la conscience.63

But is what Peretti indicates always founded? One can confirm that the first category of words contested (1, 3, 4, and 5) are in fact not exactly nonexistent. Take “anguria” (watermelon), for example. The lexical oscillation between “anguria” and “cocomero” has existed in Italian since the sixteenth century, but the only lemmatization of “cocomero” is found in the first edition of the Crusca, while its variant “anguria”—used in the regions of Northern Italy—would appear only in the fifth edition.64 With respect to “fenestraro” and “manizza,” though they are absent from the Crusca, they are used in the Venetian region: “fenestraro” is in fact lemmatized in Antoine Oudin’s Recherches italiennes et françoises, a fundamental reference for FrancoItalian lexicography,65 while “manizza, found in L’Interprete sinottico delle tre lingue Italiana, Francese, e Latina (1681) as a synonym for “manicottolo, o manicciolo,”66 appears in several modern-day dictionaries as a regional variation on “veneta.”67 60 Ibidem, 48. 61 Ibidem, 51. 62 Ibidem, 42. 63 Ibidem, 49. 64 “È per lo stesso che Cocomero. Ma in questo senso non si usa in Toscana” (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, vol. I, 508). 65 Oudin, Recherches italiennes et françoises, 87. Veneroni would continue Oudin’s volume and his name would appear on the frontispice starting in 1677. See Van Passen, “Appunti sui dizionari italo-francesi.” 66 Quoted in Minerva, “La sélection lexicale,” 29. 67 Treccani (www.treccani.it); Battaglia (vol. IX, 699; www.gdli.it).

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Finally, contrary to Peretti’s recommendation, the verb “agazzare” is found in the first three editions of the Crusca, alongside its diastratic variation (“modo basso”), first as a derivative of “gazza”68 and then as a verb,69 but always in the sense indicated by Veneroni—that is, “to infuriate.” With respect to the false meanings of which Veneroni is accused (2 and 6), the meaning “old piece of clothing” given to “burico” also appears in Francesco Alberti di Villanova’s Dizionario italiano francese (1798 [1777]),70 but, contrary to what Peretti indicates, the term is not lemmatized in the Crusca. “Asino” and “ciuco” are, but “ciuccio,” a form from the region of Southern Italy that Peretti cites, is not. It is nonetheless important to highlight that the meaning “donkey” that Veneroni attributes to “burico” is not unfounded, as it is an “idiotismo lombardo.”71 Finally, the figurative use of the term “graffio” (scratch), which Peretti refuses to acknowledge, is in fact attested as early as the first edition of the Crusca, in a quote by the fourteenth-century Dominican preacher and compiler Bartolomeo da San Concordio,72 and the figurative meaning would be explicitly mentioned starting in the fourth edition.73 It seems that two elements from this lexical sample should be retained. First, the existence in the Maître italien, as well as in the Oudin-Veneroni collection of dictionaries, of forms coming from Northeast Italy is reminiscent of the influence of conversation manuals and dictionaries published in Venetia prior to the Crusca, such as the Solenissimo Vochabulista (which initially included Venetian and German74 and was published for the first time in 1477 in Venice), Liburnio’s Le Tre fontane (1526), Alunno’s La Fabrica del mondo (1548), and Sansovino’s Ortografia delle voci della lingua nostra, o vero dittionario volgare et latino (1568).75 Second, the critiques formulated by Peretti—while they can be read as a kind of strategy used to discredit the most famous manual of Italian of the time—also reveal a great deal about the relationship of this author to the Crusca as a model. Indeed, his knowledge of the well-known dictionary seems less thorough than he leads 68 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1612, 579; Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1623, 370. 69 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1691, vol. 2, 4. 70 “buricco: sorta di veste, sorte d’habillement” (di Villanova, Dizionario italiano-francese, 65). 71 Bossi and Carta, Dizionario delle origini, invenzioni e scoperte, 486. 72 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1612, 379. 73 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1729, vol. 2, 652. 74 See Rossebastiano-Bart, Antichi vocabolari plurilingui d’uso popolare, and Benincà, Piccola storia ragionata della dialettologia italiana, 65–69. 75 Paccagnella, “L’editoria veneziana e la lessicografia prima della Crusca.”

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the reader to believe, though his choice of the term “cocomero” and the failure to acknowledge forms in use outside of Tuscany are indicative of his exclusive focus on Tuscany. However, one cannot rule out the possibility that Peretti may have in fact not known of the terms that he calls nonexistent, which would confirm the instability of the vocabulary used daily at the end of the eighteenth century. Be that as it may, it has been proven that this type of vocabulary is poorly represented in the Crusca and its tradition, which does not reflect, except on rare occasions,76 the wealth of geosynonyms used within Italy. From that point on, the publication in the eighteenth century of domestic vocabulary books, collections, dictionaries of dialects,77 and Francesco Alberti di Villanova’s Dizionario universale critico enciclopedico della lingua italiana (1797–1805) emerge as innovative attempts to document the use “del parlare comune e corrente.”78

The “vulgate of dialogues” I will now take a moment to return to the dialogues. These fictional accounts of the spoken language, commonly used in language-learning tools, gave rise to the “vulgate of dialogues,” which can be described as the repetition, from one manual to another, of identical themes and “entire portions of dialogue […] copied or reproduced.”79 Antonini’s, Curioni’s, and Peretti’s manuals also reveal the uniformity of content, which can be detected in the conventional conversations between gentlemen, exchanges of compliments, routine expressions, and key subjects in medieval “ways of speaking”—in other words, travel and staying at the inn.80 As for the typology of the sequences of dialogue, it can be summarized by short responses or alternative uses, separated by commas, providing different expressions used for the same practical purpose. Examples of this are found in Antonini and Curioni: Dio mercé; grazie a Dio; Lode al Signore/Dieu merci; graces à Dieu; graces au Seigneur (1746, 238) 76 See Aresti, “Sul patrimonio paremiologico,” 295–306. 77 See Della Valle, La lessicografia, 63–65. Regarding the history of the dictionaries, see Cresti, Prospettive nello studio del lessico italiano. 78 Alberti di Villanova, Dizionario universale critico enciclopedico della lingua italiana, prefazione, X–XI. See Lubello, “Lessicografia italiana e variazione diamesica.” 79 Chevalier, “Les dialogues médiévaux,” 22. 80 See Colombo Timelli, “Dialogues et phraséologie,” 34.

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La ringrazio dell’onor ch’oggi m’ha compartito, o le rendo grazie, o le sono molto tenuto/ Je vous remercie de l’honneur que vous m’avez fait aujourd’hui (1781, 11)

In manuals by authors demonstrating intellectual ambitions, little consideration is given to dialogues due to their practical nature, as in the case of Antonini, who reluctantly introduces them under pressure from the market, as shown. He warns his readers that it is a “collection of Italian expressions tossed out by chance,” without “science” or “erudition”81 (but conceals the fact that his main source of inspiration was the Maître Italien). As for the language used by Antonini, Folena attributed it to the well-known and often-cited definition of “Italiano bastardo” due to the presence of heterogenous linguistic elements (archaisms, informal language, and dialect). But more generally, an impression of a language “artificially” changed emerges from reading the dialogues as a whole,82 an issue that certainly deserves more thorough analysis on a larger corpus in order to evaluate the nature of the linguistic material used in the pedagogical tools intended for foreign speakers. In any event, it is helpful to remember that dialogues are often conceived as opportunities to go further with grammatical topics posing difficulties. It is the case in three of Curioni’s dialogues, which aim, as the title suggests, to illustrate the uses of the third person singular, the second person plural, and the second person singular.83 The “grammatical” objective is confirmed by the presence of commentaries on the dialogues84 dedicated to the clarification of critical points, in particular through recourse to archaic literary examples, not found elsewhere in Curioni’s manuals.85 But the dialogues also offer the opportunity for this author to draw on the rich Italian tradition of paremiology as well as on the informal register. Indeed, his second dialogues, depicting an exchange between two men commenting on the foolishness of a mutual friend who decided to move to Turkey, is entirely built on proverbs and peppered with informal terms and exclamations, the 81 Antonini, Grammaire italienne à l’usage des Dames, 243–44. 82 Folena, L’Italiano in Europa, 407. 83 E.g.: “Dialogo primo, In cui si parla alla terza persona, in vece della seconda” (Curioni, Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons, 6–25). 84 “Comenti dei dialoghi utilissimi per chi aspira alla perfezzione del moderno scrivere, e parlar Italiano” (ibidem, 26–59). 85 For instance, the pleonastic use of “si” and “egli” as “graziosi aggiunti” is illustrated by excerpts from Boccaccio and Bembo: “abbiam in Boccaccio, la ragione si è; […] e nel Bembo, or quand’egli arde il cielo” (ibidem, 55).

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French equivalents of which, often formally close to Italian, are provided in interlinear translation. The passage reads:86 Va in Turchia, per divenir via più infelice, che Dio nol voglia/Il va en Turquie, où il sera beaucoup plus malheureux encore, à Dieu ne plaise. Può far il mondo! che sconsigliato è costui/Est-il possible! qu’il est imprudent. Farà d’ogn’erba fascio; perché, dimmi con chi tu vai, e saprò quel che tu fai/Il employera le verd & le sec; car, dis-moi qui tu hantes, & je te dirai qui tu es. Ora si lamenta di brodo grasso; ma la moglie del ladro non sempre ride; dovrebbe pur sapere ch’egli è meglio un’uovo oggi che domani una gallina/ Il se plaint que la Mariée est trop belle; mais on ne rit pas toujours; il devroit savoir que un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l’auras. Ah poveretto! fa dei castelli in aria; e vorrà chiuder la stalla dopo scappati i bovi/Pauvre diable! il bâtit des châteaux en Espagne; & il voudra après la Mort le Médecin. […] è veramente incocciato/il est vraiment entêté. Son cipolle/des nefles.87

The presence of proverbs in these dialogues, which are usually embedded in the collections (as in the one included in the Maître italien),88 attests without a doubt to the diffusion of the paremiological component in manuals intended for foreigners. In fact, the presence of proverbs and of “maniere del favellare” in the Crusca, which adopts Agnolo Monosini’s Flos Italicae Linguae (1604) as a textual reference, can also be attested.89 For example, “far fascio d’ogni erba” can be found in the 1612 edition under the entry “fascio,” illustrated with a quote from Volgarizzamento del Dialogo di San Gregorio by Domenico Cavalca and with the Latin equivalent.90 From the second edition on, the proverb appears under the entry “erba” (grass) and indicating the Flos as a source.91 However, 86 Italian and French versions are separated by a slash. 87 Ibidem, 12–19. 88 “Far fascio d’ogni erba” (Veneroni, Le Maître Italien, 382); “Dimmi con chi tu vai, e sapero quel che fai” (ibidem, 385); “Si lamenta del brodo grasso” (ibidem, 387); “è meglio un uovo hoggi che domani una gallina” (ibidem, 189). 89 See Aresti, “Sul patrimonio paremiologicodella prima edizione del Vocabolario della Crusca.” 90 “Fas, nefasque confundere. Sacra profanis miscere” (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1612, 333). 91 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1623, 311.

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“Sempre non ride la moglie del ladro” and “Serrar la stalla perduti i buoi” are accompanied only by the equivalent sentence in Latin.92 Finally, “far castelli in aria” and “è meglio un uovo oggi, che una gallina domani” were entered later into the Crusca and are accompanied neither by the source nor the equivalent in Latin.93 Curioni completes his conversational fragment with f ixed sequences (such as “Dio nol voglia” or “può far il mondo”) and popular expressions like “incocciare” and “son cipolle.” The verb “incocciare” was lemmatized extremely late in the Crusca94 with the meaning “ostinarsi” (persevere) as well as “andare in collera” (be angry), the latter being a “voce del linguaggio familiare.” The entry “coccia,” an informal variation of “testa” (head)—from which the verb is derived—can also be found only as early as the fourth edition as “modo basso.”95 As for the familiar expression “son cipolle,” equivalent to the French “des nèfles” (or to “no way” in English), it is also cited in the “Recueil de manières de parler italiennes” (Collection of Italian ways of speaking) included in the Maître italien.96 These dialogues fell into disuse at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In his manual published in Paris in 1806 [1799],97 Vergani confirms his decision to replace them with a play by Goldoni.98 Even though the use of theater texts in manuals of Italian was not new at the time,99 the dissemination of the Venetian playwrights’ plays as an instrument for learning Italian100 and the linguistic model attributed to them call for reflection. Indeed, when Goldoni communicates about the language of his comedies, he reaffirms above all his role as a “poeta comico,” not as an “accademico della Crusca,” emphasizing that his main objective was to be understood “in Tuscany, in Lombardy, and in Venice.” From that point on, the strategy that becomes dominant is to use “more common language with respect to the Italian 92 “Malorum foelicitas non est diuturna” (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1612, 468); “accepto damno, ianuam claudere” (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1612, 843). 93 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1691, vol. 2, 299–300, and Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1729–38, vol. 5, 334–35. 94 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1899, vol. 8, 470. 95 Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 1729–38, vol. 1, 685. 96 Veneroni, Le Maître Italien, 368. 97 The Grammaire italienne en XX leçons, conceived of as a review of the Maître italien. 98 L’amore paterno o sia la serva riconoscente, performed for the first time in Paris in 1763. 99 Calderari’s La Mora (1588) appears in the Gvidon de la langue italienne and, as the editor writes, enables the discovery of the “style trivial des Italiens” (Duez, Le Gvidon de la langue italienne, 4). 100 Regarding learning of Italian by Voltaire, see Hecker, “Scritto come si parla,” 118.

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universal” in his writing.101 As a great number of studies have shown,102 this “more common language” was a kind of koine created to make the theatrical text more accessible to a linguistically heterogenous audience. And it was precisely with the aim of respecting the principle of common understanding103 that Goldoni asserted the need to distance himself from the older Tuscan model, which he defined as “almost dead” since no Italians use it.104 For all these reasons, it has been rightly stated that Goldoni “discovered and, in part, invented a form of ‘Italian for daily conversation,’”105 which would turn out to be particularly popular among foreigners.

Conclusion Though the book-based foundation of Italian is a key factor contributing to the spread of the language in the Mediterranean Basin, the strong cultural legitimacy of Italian can explain the longevity of the conception of this language as a means of accessing the best authors, due to its capacity to constitute a kind of neutral field in the European plurilingual context.106 Nonetheless, references to orality constitute a key aspect in learning the language, often represented as both living and dead. This chapter has demonstrated different forms of this representation in Italian grammar books intended for foreign audiences in the eighteenth century, at a time when “la questione della lingua” in Italy was centered around national linguistic awareness. This raises a series of questions that converge around the observation that the only language that Italians have in common is the written language based on an old model. However, when it comes to the spoken language, the models remain fragile. The authors of grammar books offer heterogenous views in their manuals: from the exaltation of the language presented as inalterable to the integration of what had been learned through reflection on language, such as the 101 “[…] I am not an academician of the Crusca, but a poet who has written comedies to be understood mainly in Tuscany, Lombardy, and Venice […] since comedy is more of an imitation of people speaking than of people writing, I have used language that is more ordinary, as compared to universal Italian,” preface to the Bettinelli edition (1750) in Goldoni, Teatro, 1285. Quoted in Trifone, “Lingua e dialetto in Goldoni,” 198. 102 Folena, L’Italiano in Europa; Matarrese, Il Settecento, 97–119. 103 Folena, L’Italiano in Europa, 91. 104 Preface to the Bettinelli edition (1750), in Goldoni, Teatro, 1285. 105 Trifone, “Lingua e dialetto in Goldoni,” 199. 106 Bruni, “Italiano all’estero e italiano sommerso,” 192–93.

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valorization of the use of Italian in a country dominated by Latin and the need for the Italian language to be truly shared. While the language remains theoretical and arbitrary in reality, the spoken language that the authors attempt to stabilize in the pages of their manuals attests to the instability of the linguistic repertoire that Italians had at their disposal at the time.

References Primary sources Studied works

Antonini, Annibale, Traité de la grammaire italienne (Paris: Lottin, 1726). Antonini, Annibale, Grammaire italienne à l’usage des Dames, avec des dialogues Et un Traité de la Poësie (Paris: Rollin, 1728). Antonini, Annibale, Grammaire italienne pratique et raisonnée (Paris: Prault fils, 1746). Curioni, Antonio, Grammaire italienne réduite en six leçons à l’usage des personnes instruites, suivie d’un discours italien pour se perfectionner dans cette langue (Paris: Prault, 1781). Vergani, Angelo, A New and Complete Italian Grammar (Birmingham: T. Pearson/ London: R. Baldwin, 1791). Vergani, Angelo, Grammaire italienne [simplifiée et réduite à] XX leçons, 4th ed. (Paris: Vergani, 1806 [1799]). Peretti, Vincenzo, Grammaire italienne, composée d’après les meilleurs auteurs et grammairiens d’Italie et suivant l’usage le plus correct de parler et d’écrire de nos jours (Londres: H.L. Galabin, 1795).

Other works

Alberti di Villanova, Francesco, Dizionario italiano-francese (Venice: Bettinelli, 1798 [1777]). Alberti di Villanova, Francesco, Dizionario universale critico enciclopedico della lingua italiana, 6 vols. (Lucca: Marescandoli, 1797–1805). Algarotti, Francesco, Saggio sopra la necessità di scrivere nella propria lingua, in Opere varie, vol. 2 (Venice: Pasquali, 1757). Bembo, Pietro, Prose della volgar lingua. L’editio princeps del 1525 riscontrata con l’autografo Vaticano latino 3210, ed. Claudio Vela (Bologna: CLUEB, 2001). Bossi, Luigi, and Giambattista Carta, Dizionario delle origini, invenzioni e scoperte (Milan: Bonfanti, 1828).

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Buommattei, Benedetto, Della lingua toscana, ed. Michele Colombo (Florence: Accademia della Crusca, 2007 [1643]). Cesarotti, Melchiorre, Saggio sulla filosofia delle lingue applicato alla lingua italiana, in Dal Muratori al Cesarotti: critici e storici della poesia e delle arti nel secondo Settecento, ed. Emilio Bigi (Milan/Naples: Ricciardi, 1960 [1800]). Duez, Nathanaël, Le Gvidon de la langve italienne avec trois dialogues familiers, Italiens & François. La comedie de la Moresse. Les complimens Italiens. Et vne guirlande de proverbes (Geneva: Samuel de Tournes, 1685 [1641]). Da Firenze, Angelo, L’Interprete sinottico delle tre lingue italiana, franzese, e latina (Bracciano: nella Ducale Stamperia di Iacomo Fei d’Andrea f igliolo, 1656). Foscolo, Ugo, “Epoche della lingua italiana,” in Saggi di letteratura italiana, ed. Cesare Foligno (Florence: Le Monnier, 1958 [1824-1825]). Goldoni, Carlo, L’amore paterno, in L’amore paterno, ed. Andrea Fabiano (Venice: Marsilio, 2000 [1763]). Goldoni, Carlo, Teatro, in Teatro, ed. Marzia Pieri (Turin: Einaudi, 1991). Lancelot, Claude, Novvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en pev de temps la langve italienne (Paris: Pierre Le Petit, 1659). Manzoni, Alessandro, Lettere, in Tutte le opere, ed. Cesare Arieti, vol. 7 (Milan: Mondadori, 1970). Muratori, Ludovico Antonio, Della perfetta poesia italiana, ed. Ada Ruschioni, vols. 1–2 (Milan: Marzorati, 1972 [1706]). Oudin, Antoine, Recherches italiennes et françoises (Paris: Antoine de Sommaville, 1663 [1640]). Vallisneri, Antonio, Saggio alfabetico d’istoria medica e naturale in Opere fisicomediche (Venice: Coleti, 1733). Vaugelas, Claude Favre de, Remarqves svr la langve françoise vtiles à ceux qvi vevlent bien parler et bien escrire (Paris: Veuve J. Camusat et P. Le Petit, 1647). Veneroni, [Giovanni] Sieur de, Le Maître italien (Paris: Michel David, 1700 [1678]). Veneroni, [Giovanni] Sieur de, Le Maître italien dans sa dernière perfection (Paris: Michel David, 1709). Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Venice: Giovanni Alberti, 1612). Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Venice: Sarzina, 1623). Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Florence: Stamperia dell’Accademia della Crusca, 1691). Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Florence: Manni 1729–38). Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Florence: Tip. Galileiana [repr. by Le Monnier], 1863–1925).

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Folena, Gianfranco, L’Italiano in Europa. Esperienze linguistiche del Settecento (Turin: Einaudi, 1983). Formigari, Lia, Teorie e pratiche linguistiche nell’Italia del Settecento (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1984). Gensini, Stefano, L’identità dell’Italiano. Genesi di una semiotica sociale in Italia fra Sei e Ottocento (Casale Monferrato: Marietti, 1988). Hecker, Kristine, “Scritto come si parla. Le idee del Goldoni sul linguaggio teatrale e la reazione dei contemporanei,” in Quaderni di teatro 7 (1985), 105–37. Lubello, Sergio, “Lessicografia italiana e variazione diamesica: prime ricognizioni,” in Prospettive nello studio del lessico italiano. Atti del 9 congresso SILFI (Firenze, 14–17 giugno 2006), ed. Emmanuela Cresti (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2008), 49–54. Maraschio, Nicoletta, “Storia della lingua italiana,” in La linguistica italiana alle soglie del 2000 (1987–1997), ed. Cristina Lavinio (Rome: Bulzoni, 2002), 21–93. Marazzini, Claudio, “Per lo studio dell’educazione linguistica nella scuola italiana prima dell’Unità,” in Rivista italiana di dialettologia. Scuola Società Territorio 9 (1985), 69–88. Marazzini, Claudio, “Le teorie,” Storia della lingua italiana, vol. 1, I luoghi della codificazione, ed. Luca Serianni and Pietro Trifone (Turin: Einaudi, 1993), 231–329. Marazzini, Claudio, “La distinzione tra scritto e parlato nella riflessione linguistica del Cinquecento,” in Percorsi linguistici e interlinguistici: studi in onore di Vincenzo Orioles, ed. Raffaella Bombi and Francesco Costantini (Udine: Forum, 2018), 519–30. Matarrese, Tina, Il Settecento (Bologna: il Mulino, 1993). Mattarucco, Giada, Prime grammatiche d’italiano per francesi [secoli XVI-XVII] (Florence: Accademia della Crusca, 2003). Minerva, Nadia, “La sélection lexicale et les critères de groupement des Vocabolari domestici (dix-septième dix-huitième siècles),” Quaderni del CIRSIL 5 (2006), 25–41. Morgana, Silvia, “De la quatrième édition du Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca au Dizionario Universale critico enciclopedico della lingua italiana,” Dix-Huitième Siècle 38 (2006), 39–67. Paccagnella, Ivano, “L’editoria veneziana e la lessicografia prima della Crusca,” in Il Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (1612) e la storia della lessicografia italiana. Atti del X Convegno dell’Associazione per la Storia della lingua Italiana. Padova, 20–30 novembre. Venezia, 1 dicembre 2012, ed. Lorenzo Tomasin (Florence: Cesati, 2013), 45–62. Palermo, Massimo, and Danilo Poggiogalli, Grammatiche di italiano per stranieri dal ‘500 ad oggi. Profilo storico e antologia di testi commentati (Pisa: Pacini, 2011).

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Patota, Giuseppe, “I percorsi grammaticali,” in Storia della lingua italiana, vol. 1: I luoghi della codificazione, ed. Luca Serianni and Pietro Trifone (Turin: Einaudi, 1993), 93–137. Patota, Giuseppe, La quarta corona. Pietro Bembo e la codificazione dell’italiano scritto (Bologna: il Mulino, 2017). Pizzoli, Lucilla, Le grammatiche di italiano per Inglesi (1550–1776). Un’analisi linguistica (Florence: Presso l’Accademia della Crusca, 2004). Puppo, Mario, Discussioni linguistiche del Settecento (Turin: Utet, 1966). Rey, Alain, Frédéric Duval, and Gilles Siouffi, Mille ans de langue française, histoire d’une passion (Paris: Perrin, 2011). Romanelli, Norma, “Le grammatiche di italiano per Francesi di Annibale Antonini (1726–1746),” in Le ragioni delle seconde lingue: un approccio grammaticografico, SILTA, Studi italiani di linguistica teorica e applicata, ed. Félix San Vicente and Hugo Lombardini (Pisa: Pacini, 2017), 303–20. Romanelli, Norma, “Les grammaires de l’italien à l’usage des Français (1660–1900)” (doctoral thesis, Université de Paris, 2019). Rossebastiano Bart, Alda, Antichi vocabolari plurilingui d’uso popolare: la traduzione del ‘Solenissimo Vochabulista’ (Alessandria: Dell’Orso, 1984). Schweickard, Wolfgang, “La lessicografia,” in Manuale di linguistica italiana (Berlin: De Guyter Mouton, 2016), 509–35. Serianni, Luca, “La prosa,” in Storia della lingua italiana. I luoghi della codificazione, ed. Luca Serianni and Pietro Trifone (Turin: Einaudi, 1993), 451–577. Serianni, Luca, “Lingue e dialetti d’Italia nella percezione dei viaggiatori setteottocenteschi,” in Italia e Italie. Immagini tra Rivoluzione e Restaurazione, Atti del convegno, Roma, 7–9 novembre 1996, ed. Maria Silvia Tatti (Rome: Bulzoni, 1999), 25–51. Repr. in: Serianni, Luca, Viaggiatori, musicisti, poeti. Saggi di storia della lingua italiana (Milan: Garzanti, 2002). Silvestri, Paolo, Le grammatiche italiane per ispanofoni (secoli XVI-XIX) (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2001). Trifone, Pietro, Roma e il Lazio (Turin: Utet, 1992). Trifone, Pietro, “Uno spunto foscoliano: la lingua itineraria,” in Chi l’avrebbe detto. Arte, poesia e letteratura per Alfredo Giuliani, ed. Corrado Bologna, Paola Montefoschi, and Massimo Vetta (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1994), 308–16. Trifone, Pietro, “Lingua e dialetto in Goldoni,” Limine. Quaderni di letterature, viaggi, teatri 11 (2015), 197–202. Trifone, Pietro, “Varietà di lingua nel passato,” in Manuale di linguistica italiana, ed. Sergio Lubello (Berlin: De Guyter Mouton, 2016), 146–61. Trudeau, Danielle, Les inventeurs du bon usage (1529–1647) (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1992).

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Van Passen, Anne-Marie, “Appunti sui dizionari italo-francesi apparsi prima della fine del Settecento,” Studi di lessicografia italiana 3 (1981), 29–65. Vescul, Cristina, “La Nova Fabrica della Pia Casa della Carità. Profilo storico architettonico e storico artistico,” in Dalla casa di carità alla Fondazione Filippo Renati: 250 anni di storia, ed. Alex Cittadella and Pietro Ioly Zorattini (Udine: Forum, 2011), 187–251. Vitale, Maurizio, “Proposizioni teoriche e indicazioni pratiche nelle discussioni linguistiche del Settecento,” in Teorie e pratiche linguistiche (Bologna: il Mulino, 1984). Vitale, Maurizio, La veneranda favella. Studi di storia della lingua italiana (Naples: Morano 1988).

Dictionaries Battaglia, Salvatore, Grande dizionario della lingua italiana (Torino: Utet). Il Treccani (Roma, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana).

About the author Norma Romanelli holds a PhD in linguistics from the Université Paris-Cité. Her research concerns the history of Italian grammaticography and the history of Italian grammar books for speakers of French. She is a member of the Laboratoire d’Histoire des théories linguistiques and has written papers on different aspects of Italian grammar. Personal website: https://htl.cnrs.fr/equipe/norma-romanelli/

À propos de l’auteur Norma Romanelli a obtenu un doctorat de linguistique à l’Université Paris-Cité. Ses recherches portent sur l’histoire de la grammaticographie italienne et sur l’histoire des grammaires italiennes destinées aux francophones. Elle est membre du Laboratoire d’Histoire des théories linguistiques et a écrit des articles sur différents aspects de la grammaire italienne. Site web personnel : https://htl.cnrs.fr/equipe/norma-romanelli/

16 L’enseignement du grec moderne comme langue étrangère : des missionnaires catholiques aux grammairiens philhellènes1 Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou Résumé : Le grec langue étrangère ou seconde est considéré comme un domaine d’enseignement récemment constitué. Pourtant, le besoin d’enseigner le grec moderne apparaît précocément, dès le dix-septième siècle, et donne lieu à des ouvrages écrits par des missionnaires catholiques, puis, au dix-neuvième siècle, par des grammairiens philhellènes et des hellénistes érudits. G. Germano, S. Portius, Τh. Parisinus, P. A. Fuentes, J. David, J. K. Mitsotakis, A. Thumb ont écrit des méthodes de néogrec, parfois nommées grammaires. Dans ce chapitre, on étudie les niveaux de langue présentés et les textes inclus dans ces ouvrages. La personnalité, les objectifs et les choix linguistiques de leurs auteurs, leur inscription dans le contexte social de l’Asie mineure et des îles de la mer Égée, où ils vivaient ou voyageaient, complètent l’image de ces premiers manuels d’enseignement du grec à l’époque d’avant les “méthodes”. Abstract: Greek as a Foreign/Second Language is considered a new field in language teaching. However, an early need for teaching Modern Greek emerged through books published starting in the seventeenth century. G. Germano, S. Portius, Τh. Parisinus, P. A. Fuentes, J. David, J. K. Mitsotakis, A. Thumb wrote manuals, which were sometimes called grammars. This study explores the language levels presented and the texts included in the pages of these books. The goals, personalities, and language choices of their writers in the social context of Asia Minor and the islands of the

1 [The Teaching of Modern Greek as a Foreign Language: From Catholic Missionaries to Philhellenic Grammarians].

Savatovsky, D., Albano, M., Phạm, TKL., and Spaëth, V. (eds), Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial Contexts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463728249_ch16

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Aegean, where they lived or traveled, complete the image of these early manuals of teaching Greek in an era before “methods.” Mots-clés : Linguistique missionnaire en Grèce. Grec langue étrangère ou seconde. Histoire de la didactique. Manuels de grec moderne. Keywords: Missionary linguistics in Greece. Greek as a Foreign Language. History of didactics. Modern Greek manuals.

Introduction Ce n’est que depuis une quarantaine d’années qu’est apparu en Grèce un intense besoin d’enseignement du grec moderne à des populations allophones, principalement immigrées ou refugiées. C’est sans doute la raison pour laquelle la didactique du grec langue étrangère ou seconde est considérée comme un domaine d’études tout récemment formé.2 Une recherche plus approfondie montre cependant que ce domaine jouit d’une histoire déjà ancienne—une histoire qui n’a été, le plus souvent, ni écrite ni même soupçonnée. Dans ce chapitre, nous cherchons à retracer la genèse de l’enseignement/ apprentissage du grec moderne comme langue étrangère en l’inscrivant dans le cadre des tentatives d’influence ou de mainmise occidentales sur la Grèce, une contrée sous domination ottomane depuis le quatorzième siècle—dès avant la chute de Constantinople, en 1453—et devenue indépendante au début du dix-neuvième siècle, pour une partie de son territoire actuel, à l’issue d’une longue guerre de libération (1821–1830/1832). Bien qu’il n’y ait pas eu colonisation à proprement parler, la Grèce continentale, la côte d’Asie Mineure, les îles égéennes, situées au carrefour des routes maritimes et terrestres entre l’Orient et l’Occident, ont été convoitées à de nombreuses reprises et souvent occupées par les différentes puissances européennes.3 Sans qu’il faille remonter à la quatrième Croisade et à l’Empire latin d’Orient (1204–1261), les pays de langue grecque apparaissent comme une terre disputée par les Ottomans, d’une part, les Vénitiens, les Florentins, les Catalans, d’autre part ; mais ils constituent aussi, au sein même de la Chrétienté, un motif de concurrence entre monde catholique et monde orthodoxe. À partir de la fin du quinzième et jusqu’à la fin du dix-huitième 2 Voir Moschonas, “The Discovery of Modern Greek as a Second Language”, 27, 30. 3 L’une des dernières tentatives de ce genre a été la mainmise de l’Italie sur le Dodécanèse, de 1912 à 1947.

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siècle, plusieurs régions hellénophones font partie—de manière parfois intermittente—de l’empire maritime vénitien : la Morée (c’est-à-dire le Péloponnèse), l’Eubée, Chypre, les îles ioniennes, Candie (la Crète) et d’autres îles grecques. Dans ce contexte, des missionnaires appartenant à divers ordres catholiques, très souvent de langue maternelle grecque,4 cherchent à attirer des groupes de Grecs orthodoxes dans le giron de l’Eglise romaine. Après une histoire longue de diglossie sociale, depuis la koinè de la période hellénistique et la variation dialectale des siècles de l’occupation ottomane,5 le grec moderne, dit aussi romaïque ou vulgaire, un parler qui paraissait jusqu’alors “dégénéré” ou “corrompu” à ceux qui connaissaient le grec ancien, devenu ainsi outil de communication avec les populations autochtones, devient aussi objet de description. Puis, au début du dix-neuvième siècle, des philhellènes français, anglais ou allemands affluent dans la contrée. À l’encontre parfois des visées expansionnistes du gouvernement de leur pays, ils rêvent d’une Grèce libérée et veulent faire connaître au public européen la langue des Grecs de leur époque. Certains d’entre eux prennent le rôle de linguistes de terrain—recueillant de nombreuses données, souvent d’origine dialectale—et font paraître des manuels destinés à d’autres étrangers, contribuant de cette manière à l’institution et à la promotion du néogrec. Nous cherchons ici à étudier certains de ces outils pédagogiques en dégageant les paramètres temporels et spatiaux, le contexte social, certaines des représentations et des interprétations6 qui ont contribué à instituer le parler grec vernaculaire en langue à part entière.

L’enseignement/apprentissage du grec comme langue étrangère dans une perspective historique Pendant les deux derniers siècles de l’occupation ottomane, le besoin d’un enseignement du grec à des étrangers s’était déjà fait sentir. Des manuels avaient été publiés ; ils étaient surtout destinés aux missionnaires catholiques, ainsi qu’aux négociants qui avaient établi des relations commerciales avec les îles de la mer Égée et les principaux centres urbains d’Asie Mineure, 4 D’après un témoignage du dix-septième siècle publié par É. Legrand en 1869, “tous les jésuites qui sont à Scio sont natifs du lieu…” (Relation de l’establissement des PP. de la Compagnie de Jésus en Levan[t], 9. 5 Sur la formation de la langue grecque moderne et les conflits autour de la “question linguistique” grecque, voir Tonnet, 2003 [1993], 11–18. 6 Auroux, Les modes d’historicisation, 106.

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où la langue grecque était largement répandue,7 comme Constantinople et Smyrne—des cités qui hébergeaient chacune une importante colonie de commerçants européens, notamment français.8 Ces manuels, qui suivaient principalement la méthode traditionnelle “grammaire et traduction”, ellemême dérivée de l’enseignement du grec ancien et du latin, ont été longtemps ignorés ou méconnus. Les chercheurs qui ont publié sur ce sujet (ils ne sont pas nombreux, on le verra) les considèrent rarement comme des méthodes de grec destinées à des non-hellénophones, s’attendant peut-être à voir le mot “méthode” (μέθοδος en grec moderne) figurer dans leur titre pour les envisager comme telles.9 Pourtant, dans la période que nous étudions, le terme générique de “grammaire”, comprend aussi ce sens.10 Qui s’est penché sur ces livres ? Minoïde Minás,11 représentant du “purisme comme discours sur la langue et comme pratique linguistique”,12 évoque dans sa Théorie de la grammaire et de la langue grecques (1827) certains des manuels publiés jusque-là, en critiquant les auteurs qui avaient choisi d’enseigner la langue vernaculaire ; É. Legrand, dans l’introduction à son édition de la Grammaire du grec vulgaire de Nikolaos Sophianos (1870 [c.1550])13, 7 Rotolo, Το νεοελληνικό λεξικό του Girolamo Germano, 39. 8 Voir Caravolas, Histoire de la didactique des langues au Siècle des Lumières, 132. 9 Le terme générique de méthode, utilisé pour désigner ce type d’ouvrage pédagogique, apparaît au dix-septième et se répand au dix-huitième siècle—d’abord dans le domaine de l’enseignement des langues classiques, puis dans celui des langues vivantes. Parmi les ouvrages que nous examinons ou évoquons ici, seuls ceux de Thomas Parisinus (1709), de Jules David (1821), d’Orient de Bellegarde et Delgay (1829) le comportent dans leur titre. De manière générale, le terme n’appartient guère alors qu’au lexique français et au lexique grec de la didactique des langues, y compris lorsque nous avons affaire à des traductions d’ouvrages français. Ainsi, pour ce qui nous regarde, la traduction anglaise de la Méthode… de David s’intitule Grammar… Les ouvrages de notre corpus publiés en allemand, en anglais ou en italien au dix-neuvième siècle, dont la f inalité—telle qu’on peut l’identif ier, ne serait-ce qu’à travers leur titre—est clairement didactique, s’intitulent Lehrbuch…. (Von Ludemann), Sprachlehre… (Schmidt), praktische Grammatik… (Mitsotakis) ou Handbuch… (Thumb); handbook… (traduction anglaise de Thumb) ou manual… (Thomson). Il en va de même de ceux qui s’intitulent “abrégé”: compendio… (Kutuffá), concise grammar… (Robertson), etc. 10 “Yet, there is no clear-cut difference between a grammar and a textbook used for language learning” (Delveroudi, “Modern Greek Grammars Written by or for Foreigners around the Greek Revolution (1818–1829)”, 9. 11 Μινωΐδης Κωνσταντῖνος Μηνάς (Minoídis Konstantínos Minás). La translittération de son nom est parfois orthographiée Mynas. 12 Pour un regard sur le purisme, voir Moschonas, “Vers une théorie performative du purisme”. 13 Publiée pour la première fois par Legrand dans la ‘Collection de Monuments pour servir à l’étude de la langue néo-hellénique’, c’est la plus ancienne des grammaires répertoriées par H. Pernot dans sa préface à la réédition du dictionnaire de Germano, en 1907. Voir sa notice dans le CTLF: http://ctlf.ens-lyon.fr/notices/notice_540.htm

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inclut une bibliographie des grammaires du néogrec, qu’il complètera en 1878 dans l’introduction de sa propre Grammaire grecque moderne. Plus récemment, en 1995, V. Rotolo étudie le Vocabolario italiano et [sic] greco de Girolamo Germano (1622) ; C. V. Kurelec décrit, en 1999, des manuels de grec moderne comme langue étrangère qui ont circulé avant la fondation de l’État grec—un article utile, mais pas toujours exact.14 I. Manolessou et D. Théophanopoulou présentent, en 2011, des grammaires publiées entre le seizième et le dix-huitième siècle, mais sans examiner en elles la dimension de la langue étrangère ; en 2014, M. Janse et B. Joseph étudient la formation de la langue commune, la Κοινή Ελληνική [la koinè grecque] en prenant appui sur le manuel du philologue allemand A. Thumb (1895) ;15 R. Delveroudi présente les grammaires du grec moderne écrites par ou pour des étrangers à l’époque de la guerre d’indépendance, dans une communication très documentée ;16 elle rédige aussi une note bibliographique pour le Corpus des textes linguistiques fondamentaux,17 consacrée au manuel de Jules David (1821) ; J.-A. Caravolas écrit plusieurs articles et une monographie sur David;18 enfin, les traces d’une référence à la koinè ont été cherchées dans des grammaires du dix-neuvième siècle par Nikolaos Pantélidis.19 Dans le prolongement de ces travaux, nous pouvons nous poser les questions suivantes : 1. Quels sont les premiers livres pouvant être considérés comme des manuels d’enseignement du grec moderne langue étrangère ou seconde ? 2. Qui sont les auteurs de ces manuels ? Quels sont leurs motivations et leur public ? 3. Quel est le type de langue enseignée (vernaculaire/démotique, archaïque/ puriste, mixte)20 et quelle est la langue ou quelles sont les langues de médiation (les métalangues de la description) ? 14 Dans son article “Les manuels du grec moderne” (1999), Kurelec considère, par exemple, la langue de toutes les méthodes qu’elle présente comme étant puriste, ce qui n’est pas le cas, on le verra plus bas; de plus, elle paraît y confondre les deux ouvrages de Jules David (1820, 1821). 15 Son Handbuch der neugriechischen Volksprache est demeuré, jusqu’à aujourd’hui, une référence dans le champ des études néo-helléniques. Voir Janse et Joseph, A New Historical Grammar of Demotic Greek, 2014. 16 Je remercie Rea Delveroudi pour l’accès prioritaire à cet article. 17 . 18 Voir Caravolas, Histoire de la didactique des langues au Siècle des Lumières et les quatre articles de Caravolas consacrés à Jules David indiqués plus bas, parmi les références bibliographiques. 19 Je dois à Nikolaos Pantélidis la découverte de la Grammaire de Mitsotakis (1891), pour laquelle je le remercie. Je lui suis encore plus reconnaissante pour la belle traduction de l’allemand au grec de la préface du livre. 20 Voir Caravolas, Histoire de la didactique des langues au Siècle des Lumières, 237.

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4. À quels domaines d’analyse linguistique avons-nous affaire? Phonétique/ phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe, lexique ? 5. Est-ce que ces manuels contiennent des textes ? Si oui, à quel genre appartiennent-ils ? Sous quelle forme ces textes sont-ils écrits (dialogue, narration, autre) ? Pour répondre aux deux premières questions, il apparaît que les premiers ouvrages, écrits pour la plupart par des hommes d’Église ou des missionnaires catholiques, s’adressaient à des missionnaires.21 Nous examinerons celles de Girolamo Germano (1622), Simon Portius (1638), Thomas Parisinus (1709) et Pedro Antonio Fuentes (1775).22 Pendant la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, on observe une production accrue de manuels (parutions, rééditions, traductions) et de traités consacrés au grec moderne. Nous avons ainsi ceux de l’Allemand Johann-Adolph Schmidt, en 1808 et 1824, de l’Anglais H. Robertson, en 1818 (composé d’après Th. Parisinus), du Français Jules David en 1820 (traduit en anglais par John Mitchell en 1824) et 1821 (réédité en 1827 et 1828, traduit en anglais par George Winnock en 1825), du Grec exilé à Paris Minoïde Minás en 1828, du Grec Michel Schinas en 1829, sans compter ceux de Masson en 1822, Friedemann en 1825, Kutuffá en 1825, Von Ludemann en 1826, Münnich en 1826, Scott en 1828 (d’après Th. Parisinus), Negris en 1828, d’Orient de Bellegarde et Delgay en 1829 et, un peu plus tard, de Sophocles en 1857, que nous ne pouvons examiner ici, faute de place.23 Ces livres, publiés pour la plupart pendant les années 1820 (celles de la guerre d’indépendance), dont certains réutilisent certaines des données recueillies et les résultats précédemment obtenus par les grammairiens missionnaires,24 s’adressent au premier chef à un public de philhellènes. Ces derniers, émus par le récit ou 21 Au dix-huitième siècle, des grammaires ont aussi été écrites pour les Grecs de la diaspora. Nous ne les prenons pas en compte ici, même si l’on peut considérer, dans certains cas, la langue sur laquelle elles portent comme étant une langue seconde. 22 Il convient de mettre à part l’académicien Charles Du Cange, qui n’était pas missionnaire ni même homme d’Église, mais avocat et homme de Lettres (historien et grammairien), et que nous mentionnons ici parce que son Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae graecitatis de 1688, qui contient la grammaire de S. Portius, est un dictionnaire du grec littéraire médiéval. 23 Voir Kurelec, “Les manuels du grec moderne”; Delveroudi, “Modern Greek Grammars Written by or for Foreigners”. 24 Thomas Parisinus est ainsi mis à profit par Scott et par Robertson. Ce dernier indique, dans le titre de sa Concise Grammar of the Modern Greek Language, qu’elle est chiefly composed from the “Nova Methodus”, & c., of Father Thomas et qu’il y a joint, en annexe, des expressions (phrases) et des dialogues portant sur des thèmes de la vie courante (most familiar topics), ainsi que des extraits d’œuvres littéraires néogrecques (Romaic authors).

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le spectacle de la révolution, décident d’apprendre le grec moderne lorsqu’ils constatent que leur grec ancien n’est pas suffisant pour communiquer avec les Grecs de leur époque. Mais le public visé par les auteurs est souvent plus large, même s’il n’est pas toujours précisé, dans les préfaces, à qui l’ouvrage s’adresse. La qualité des auteurs est en revanche le plus souvent indiquée. Aux missionnaires (Germano, Fuentes…) ou hommes d’Église (Thomas Parisinus) d’antan succèdent dans les cas les plus notables des professeurs (Schmidt, David, Minás), ou des savants. Mais les ecclésiastiques n’ont pas entièrement disparu de la scène. On sait ainsi, par exemple, d’après la page de garde de sa traduction de la méthode de Jules David, que le révérend G. Winnock, avait été aumônier auprès de l’armée britannique d’occupation des îles ioniennes, pendant les guerres napoléoniennes.25 Des manuels de ce type continuent d’être édités ou republiés jusqu’à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle et pendant les premières années du vingtième, comme la réédition critique de Simon Portius (1638) par le comparatiste Wilhelm Meyer (en 1889), l’ouvrage de Mitsotakis (1891) et celui de Thumb (1895, réédité en 1910, traduit en anglais en 1912), le plus souvent destinés à des savants ou des étudiants d’université. Meyer, Mitsotakis et Thumb sont du reste eux-mêmes des universitaires. Tous types de manuels et toutes périodes confondues, onze de ces ouvrages sont parus à Paris, sept à Leipzig, deux à Corfou, deux à Londres (mais il s’agit là de traductions), un à Madrid, un à Livourne, un à Strasbourg et deux à Boston.26 Les manuels ici présentés ont été choisis selon les critères suivants : 1. L’intention de leurs auteurs d’enseigner le grec moderne comme langue étrangère ou seconde ; 2. La chronologie des éditions, afin de dessiner une image représentative des méthodes en vigueur pendant les deux siècles étudiés ; 3. La diffusion de ces ouvrages à leur époque et la fréquence à laquelle ils ont été utilisés, d’après leurs rééditions ; 4. Le modèle de langue enseignée ; 5. Le profil des auteurs, leur langue maternelle et leur expérience de l’enseignement du grec. Les ouvrages sur lesquels nous insistons prennent essentiellement pour modèle la langue vernaculaire. Ce n’est pas la langue archaïque ni la katharévusa, la langue “purifiée” qui, en raison du prestige du grec ancien,27 aura gagné le combat contre la langue démotique (c’est-à-dire la langue de tous 25 Après le traité de Paris, les iles ioniennes seront placées sous protectorat britannique de 1815 à 1864. Scott en tire argument dans la préface à sa Grammar of the Modern Greek Language (1823): l’ouvrage peut être utile aux soldats et administrateurs britanniques. 26 Il s’agit de Negris, A Grammar of the Modern Greek Language et de Sophocles, Romaic, or Modern Greek Grammar. 27 Voir Mackridge, Language and National Identity in Greece, 82.

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les jours) quelques décennies plus tard, et qui conservera cette primauté jusqu’en 1976 en devenant langue officielle de l’administration et du système éducatif grecs, ce qui lui permettra de survivre sous différentes formes jusqu’à nos jours. On se concentrera principalement sur les manuels écrits par des auteurs français ou allemands ou bien grecs émigrés. Ces auteurs ont, dans la plupart des cas, souvent involontairement, évité le piège dans lequel sont tombés plusieurs auteurs grecs qui vivaient dans la nostalgie de l’antiquité. Probablement, la distance permise par une autre langue maternelle ou une autre langue quotidiennement pratiquée et le désir de mieux comprendre les interactions orales peuvent quelquefois soustraire les auteurs à la tentation de s’installer dans le pays imaginaire de l’archaïsme. On constate que les missionnaires avaient souvent, à cet égard, des horizons plus ouverts que plusieurs grammairiens contemporains.28

Manuels précoces du grec comme langue étrangère ou seconde Manuels du dix-septième siècle : les “grammaires” Commençons par quatre manuels de l’âge classique conformes à la méthodologie traditionnelle d’une “grammaire”. Le premier est inclus dans le Vocabolario italiano et [sic] greco de Girolamo Germano (1622). Né en 1568, en Sicile, Germano entre chez les jésuites à l’âge de vingt ans et il est envoyé à Chios, une île proche des côtes d’Asie Mineure, où il demeure de 1605 à 1627.29 Voici comment se présentent la communauté catholique de Chios et l’activité des jésuites, d’après la Relation de l’establissement des PP. de la Compagnie de Jésus en Levan[t] : Leur église est fréquentée comme celles de France. Ils ont environ 250 escholiers, entre lesquels il y a 12 ou 13 petits clercs destinés pour servir l’église. Quelques-uns d’entre eulx demandent d’entrer en la Compagnie. Ils sont envoyés à Messine ou à Rome pour faire leur noviciat et continuer leurs estudes. De là ils retournent à Scio pour régenter, et, après avoir régenté trois ans, ils vont faire leurs estudes de théologie et troisiesme an de probation en Italie ; à la fin desquels ils retournent encore à Scio pour 28 Voir Zwartjes, Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550–1800, 10. 29 Voir Rotolo, Το νεοελληνικό λεξικό του Girolamo Germano, 41. L’établissement des jésuites à Chios remonte à 1590 environ. Voir aussi Pernot, Girolamo Germano, grammaire et vocabulaire du grec vulgaire publiés d’après l’édition de 1622, 21.

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prescher, faire des missions par les isles de l’Archipélage et vacquer aux aultres fonctions de la Compagnie. D’où vient que tous les Jésuites qui sont à Scio sont natifs du lieu ; et, de plus, il y a en Italie une quarantaine des nostres qui sont Sciotes et qui ont pris leur vocation à Scio. Quelques-uns d’eulx ont esté avec nous à Constantinople ; d’aultres demandent de nous ayder en nos résidences qui dépendent de la province de la France; quelques-uns aussy ont eu charge en la province de Sicile.30

L’île de Chios n’est pas sans importance en ce qui concerne l’histoire de l’enseignement du grec moderne, comme nous le constaterons par la suite. Le Vocabolario italiano et greco, qui s’adresse aux missionnaires de la Compagnie, commence par des “Instructions pour la grammaire grecque vulgaire [volgare]” que Germano rassemble en soixante-dix pages.31 L’auteur choisit d’enseigner la langue vernaculaire de son époque, et plus particulièrement l’idiome de Chios,32 en donnant beaucoup d’exemples. Son choix quant au modèle de langue à enseigner est clair : l’œuvre ne contient pas d’éléments archaïques comme le datif ou les conjugaisons anciennes des verbes. Il n’utilise de mots anciens que lorsque la langue moderne n’en possède pas d’équivalents.33 Il présente tous les niveaux d’analyse, considérant la phonétique comme essentielle: on peut y voir présentée, par exemple, l’assimilation du /n/ final avant /p/, comme dans τὸν πατέρα, tom batera, il padre [le père].34 Dans les pages de cette grammaire, on peut aussi suivre l’évolution de certains phénomènes morphosyntaxiques, comme la grammaticalisation du verbe vouloir + subjonctif, de /θelo ina/ – /θelo na/ [je veux que] jusqu’au /θa/, marqueur du futur en grec moderne. Le dictionnaire de Germano a exercé une influence importante sur les méthodes qui ont suivi ; il a constitué une base pour la grammaire de Simon Portius et a été republié par le néo-helléniste Hubert Pernot, à Paris, en 1907.35 En 1638, le théologien Simon Portius36 publie sa Grammatica linguæ græcæ vulgaris (Grammaire de la langue grecque vulgaire), qui s’adresse 30 Relation de l’establissement des PP. de la Compagnie de Jésus en Levan[t]…, 9. 31 Germano, Vocabolario Italiano et [sic] Greco, 11–82. 32 Ibidem, 5. 33 Ibidem. 34 Ibidem, 9. 35 Voir Manolessou et Théophanopoulou-Kontou, Les Grammaires du grec moderne de N. Sophianos (environ 1550) jusqu’à Dimitrios Venieris (1799), 119. La préface de Pernot comprend une bibliographie raisonnée des grammaires et dictionnaires de néogrec parus au seizième, dix-septième et dix-huitième siècle. 36 À ne pas confondre avec l’érudit italien du seizième siècle qui porte le même nom.

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elle aussi à des missionnaires catholiques. Jean Psichari, linguiste et démoticiste fervent, qui succède en 1903 à Émile Legrand dans la chaire de néogrec de l’École des Langues Orientales, né à Odessa mais originaire de Chios, écrit dans son introduction à l’édition de Meyer que Simon Portius devait être un Grec, puisqu’il considérait que le destin commun des Grecs, privés de leur liberté, était aussi le sien.37 Parmi les objectifs évidents de ce livre, l’apprentissage de la langue vernaculaire par les Occidentaux est en effet donné comme un moyen de soutenir l’émancipation de la Grèce de la domination ottomane. Le livre s’ouvre sur une épître dédicatoire adressée au Cardinal de Richelieu, texte qui lui sert de prologue, conformément à l’habitude de cette époque. Dans son manuel, Simon Portius enseigne le néogrec avec, comme métalangue, le latin. Il s’occupe surtout de morphosyntaxe, présente aussi des règles de dérivation (par ex. τιμή-τιμητικός, honor-honorificus [honneur-honorable], mais ne s’intéresse qu’assez peu à la phonologie et au lexique, probablement parce qu’il avait déjà composé, en 1635, un dictionnaire gréco-latin. Sa grammaire aura, à son tour, une influence importante: en 1688, elle sera intégrée au dictionnaire de Charles Du Cange et, en 1889, republiée par Wilhelm Meyer. Ouvrages du dix-huitième siècle : vers les méthodes C’est un livre du dix-huitième siècle qui sera le premier à comporter dans son titre le mot méthode. En 1709, le capucin Tomasus Parisinus (Thomas de Paris), missionnaire apostolique à Constantinople, qui avait déjà édité un peu plus tôt le dictionnaire bilingue grec vulgaire-italien de Sommevoire,38 publie sa Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre les principes de la langue greque-vulgaire. Ce livre, une Ratio discendi (c’est-à-dire un cursus d’apprentissage) d’après son sous-titre, connait une large diffusion et des imitations pendant plus d’un siècle.39 Minás, pourtant, le considère comme “un objet de spéculation, puisque son auteur a négligé qu’en Grèce on apprenait la langue dans la grammaire ancienne, et n’a pas cherché à quel dialecte ancien chaque mot appartenait dans les locutions du peuple grec”.40 En fait, l’œuvre de Parisinus—lequel, d’après le puriste Minás, “avait parcouru quelques îles 37 Portius, Grammatica linguæ græcæ vulgaris, xxi. 38 Tesoro della lingua greca-volgare ed italiana, cise ricchissimo dizionario greco-volgare ed italiano… opera postuma dal padre Alessio da Somavera,… e posta in luce dal P. Tomaso da Parigi, 1707. 39 Voir Delveroudi, “Modern Greek Grammars Written by or for Foreigners”, 11. 40 Minás, Théorie de la grammaire et de la langue grecque, 1827, xliv.

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de la Grèce”41—est une méthode d’enseignement du grec comme langue étrangère, une méthode rédigée en trois langues: le français, le latin et l’italien.42 Parisinus donne des conseils détaillés sur la prononciation,43 en expliquant par exemple celle du /θ/ (‘thita’) dont il écrit qu’il “est très difficile à prononcer, et sans un grand usage, difficilement le prononce-t-on comme il faut, puisqu’il est nécessaire que la langue se trouve entre les dents, ce qui ne s’acquiert qu’avec la pratique”.44 Il présente aussi les systèmes du nom et du verbe avec des tableaux de désinences, ainsi que des règles de dérivation. Son dernier chapitre, la douzième heure, est consacré à la syntaxe et donne des informations utiles de nature diachronique pour les apprenants du grec moderne, comme le remplacement de l’infinitif par le subjonctif (information importante pour ceux qui connaissaient déjà le grec ancien) ou du génitif par l’accusatif qui exprime le contenu (par ex. ένα ποτήρι κρασί, ena potiri krassi [littéralement : “un verre vin”].45 Ses exemples sont, pour la plupart, empruntés au domaine religieux, comme on le voit à travers les textes présentés à la fin de l’ouvrage: des prières, “les dix commandemen[t]s” et d’autres instructions de piété.46 Un autre cas intéressant est celui de la Gramatica vulgar griego-española du père franciscain Pedro Antonio Fuentes, publiée en 1775.47 Fuentes avait enseigné le grec moderne aux missionnaires qui suivaient les cours du Collège de Santa Cruz de Nicosie, à Chypre. Dans la préface (Prologo) de l’ouvrage, il explique l’avoir écrit afin d’aider les religieux “qui se destinent à la Terre Sainte” (Gramatica…, iii) à convertir les schismatiques (comprendre : les orthodoxes principalement), les hérétiques et infidèles (comprendre : les musulmans principalement), et de conserver la pureté de la foi des catholiques qui étaient “plantés comme la rose entre des épines”.48 Il défend son choix du grec vulgaire qui, à son avis, aura un impact plus important, comme l’espagnol l’avait eu face au latin.49 Fuentes insiste sur les aspects phonétiques de l’apprentissage et explique qu’une mauvaise 41 Ibidem. 42 Parisinus, Nouvelle methode, 1709, 66. 43 Ibidem, 10–21. 44 Ibidem, 15. 45 Ibidem, 314–319. 46 Ibidem, 339–353. 47 Fuentes publie l’année suivante une Gramática griego-literal para el uso de los estudios de España y seminario de Tierra Santa. 48 Fuentes, Gramática vulgar griego-española, iv. 49 Ibidem.

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prononciation peut créer des ambiguïtés, troublant ainsi la communication. Par exemple, on pourrait confondre le mot ὦμος [épaule], avec le mot ὠμός [cru]—or, “non seulement le missionnaire doit parler avec toutes sortes de gens, mais il doit aussi prêcher et confesser dans cette langue”.50 La langue vernaculaire enseignée par Fuentes a les propriétés du dialecte chypriote : par exemple, certaines consonnes sont géminées, comme dans ἀλλά, /alla/ [mais], au lieu de /ala/ en langue commune.51 Une grande partie de son vocabulaire appartient aussi au chypriote (par ex. σαρίζω, sarizo au lieu de σκουπίζω, skoupizo [balayer] ;52 on doit signaler pourtant que les exemples donnés par Fuentes ne sont pas toujours exempts d’erreurs (d’orthographe et de genre principalement). La première partie du livre est consacrée à la phonétique, les deux suivantes à la morphologie—respectivement du nom et du verbe—et la dernière à la syntaxe. Fuentes présente la grammaire avec originalité, remplaçant par exemple les types archaïques du datif par ceux du génitif, comme dans les échanges quotidiens de son temps. Cependant, suivant en cela la structure de la grammaire latine, il traduit l’ablatif par une périphrase (par ex. ἀπό τὸν πατέραν, apo ton pateran [du père]), au lieu d’utiliser le génitif comme il fallait le faire dans d’autres dialectes à cette époque.53 Dans les dernières pages de son manuel, il ajoute des dialogues à contenu religieux, des prières et un glossaire de la langue grecque vulgaire contenant les mots fréquemment en usage dans la vie quotidienne et à l’église.

Manuels du dix-neuvième siècle : prise en compte de l’interaction Au siècle suivant, on rencontre parmi les auteurs davantage de philhellènes et d’hellénistes que de missionnaires. Il en va ainsi, par exemple, du Neugriechische Sprachlehre (1808)54 de Johann-Adolph E. Schmidt, de la Grammaire grecque contenant les dialectes et la différence avec le grec vulgaire (1828) de Konstantînos Minoidis Minás, de la Grammaire élémentaire

50 Ibidem, v. 51 Ibidem, 1. 52 Ibidem, 3. 53 Ibidem, 14. 54 Johann-Adolph Erdmann Schmidt est notamment l’auteur d’un autre manuel de néogrec, Hilfsbuch zur Erlernung der neugriechischen Sprache, et d’un dictionnaire bilingue allemand-grec et grec-allemand: Neugriechisch-deutsches und deutsch-griechisches Wörterbuch zum Gebrauch der Deutschen und Griechen.

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du grec moderne (…), à l’usage des commençans de Michel Schinas.55 Ces ouvrages portent sur un modèle de langue archaïque, considérée par ces érudits comme une garantie de liberté pour les Grecs : le peuple grec ne mériterait son indépendance qu’en se réappropriant son passé glorieux. D’où la préconisation, comme langue officielle du pays et comme modèle à enseigner, d’une langue plus proche du grec ancien. Dans le cas de Minoidis Minás, l’approche se veut clairement contrastive, mettant en regard, à la fois, grec ancien et grec moderne, langue écrite et langue orale, langue attique et dialectes. Elle aboutit à récuser la possibilité même de rédiger une grammaire du néogrec : Comme parmi les étudiants il en est qui désirent connaître le langage du peuple grec, j’ai indiqué en quoi il diffère de la langue écrite. J’avais déjà avancé, dans mon Orthophonie, ainsi que dans la préface de ma Calliope, que le langage du peuple de la Grèce n’est pas moderne. Avant la formation de la grammaire qui a réglé l’hellénisme ou la langue attique, le vulgaire en Grèce parlait, comme aujourd’hui, un idiome qui n’est qu’un mélange irrégulier de divers dialectes; aussi est-il inutile d’en donner une grammaire particulière, puisqu’elle n’existe pas même en Grèce, et plus inutile encore de s’en occuper.56

Le cas de Jules David et de ses deux livres montre pourtant que les études classiques ne sont pas toujours marquées de conservatisme en ce qui concerne le choix du modèle de langue à enseigner et de la méthodologie à suivre. Mais qui était Jules David ? J.-A. Caravolas nous apprend que cet helléniste français, fils du peintre Louis David, avait fait ses études en Allemagne, puis appris le grec moderne à l’École des Langues Orientales de Paris, auprès de Villoison. Il fait à Paris la connaissance d’Adamantios Korais, Smyrniote originaire de Chios, représentant principal du Siècle des Lumières grec, qui l’engage dans la préparation de la révolution grecque. Ainsi, il accepte une position de professeur de français au collège de Chios, aimé de ses élèves comme en témoigne la dédicace des Odes de Panagiotis Soutsos à son ancien maître.57 En 1818, Jules David se trouve à Smyrne, marié à la jeune et belle Smyrniote Marigo Capinakis.58 En 1820, il publie son Parallèle sommaire 55 L’ouvrage comprend, en annexe, une adaptation en grec moderne d’un dialogue de Platon, L’Apologie de Socrate. 56 Minás, Grammaire grecque contenant les dialectes, vii. 57 Soutsos, Odes d’un jeune Grec, 1–5. 58 Voir Caravolas, L’helléniste Jules David (1783–1854).

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du grec ancien et du grec vulgaire (Συνοπτικός παραλληλισμὸς τῆς ἑλληνικῆς καὶ γραικικῆς ἤ ἁπλοελληνικῆς γλώσσης), à l’aide duquel il enseigne le grec à ceux qui connaissent le grec ancien, les guidant vers la langue moderne à travers une langue plutôt puriste, mais sans archaïsmes exagérés. La réception de ce livre qui relève lui aussi—on le voit d’après le titre—d’une approche contrastive grec ancien/grec moderne, est très favorable dans l’ensemble, comme l’atteste l’accueil enthousiaste qui lui est fait dans la revue Ἑρμῆς ὁ Λόγιος [Hermès érudit].59 Plus tard, Manolis Triantaphyllidis, un démoticiste convaincu, le citera comme œuvre intéressante dans l’“Introduction historique” à sa Grammaire (1938).60 Dans son Parallèle sommaire…, David présente la langue grecque synchroniquement et diachroniquement61 et, bien qu’il s’adresse à un public particulier d’hellénistes, il n’exprime aucune visée de purification de la langue. Il appelle les archaïstes des “correcteurs de la langue”62 et insiste sur le parler.63 Il cite des textes—surtout poétiques—pour enseigner l’intonation (par ex. “Ας χαρούμε όσο ζούμε/Soyons heureux tant que l’on vit”)64 mais n’inclut pas de dialogues, comme dans son livre suivant, la Méthode pour étudier la langue grecque moderne (1821). Le Parallèle sommaire sera traduit en anglais par John Mitchell, en 1824. La Méthode pour étudier la langue grecque moderne, publiée au commencement de la révolution grecque, a connu une diffusion importante, avec deux rééditions en 1827 et 1828, une traduction en anglais par George Winnock (1825) qui fait à son tour l’objet de plusieurs éditions, un plagiat même d’après Jules David,65 de la part de Wilhelm von Ludemann en 1826.66 L’ouvrage a exercé une influence importante sur les auteurs d’autres méthodes.67 Émile Legrand le qualifie d’excellent.68 Avec sa Méthode, David s’adresse à la jeunesse francophone de l’Europe pour lui enseigner la langue vernaculaire, enrichie d’éléments de l’idiome de Smyrne et de quelques mots érudits de style plus formel. Dans son introduction, il critique le purisme du manuel de Schmidt (1808) qui ne répond, indique-t-il, à aucun des besoins de la 59 Ν-Θ., Συνοπτικός παραλληλισμὸς τῆς ἑλληνικῆς καὶ γραικικῆς ἤ ἁπλοελληνικῆς γλώσσης ὑπὸ Ἰουλίου Δαβὶδ, 161, 163. 60 Triantaphyllidis, Grammaire du grec moderne, 617. 61 Comme il le fait plus tard dans son Dictionnaire. Voir Provata, Un témoignage tardif des Lumières en Grèce, 85–86. 62 David, Parallèle sommaire des langues hellénique et grecque, 22, 24, 28, 34. 63 Ibidem, 1–3. 64 Ibidem, 129–38. 65 Voir David, Méthode pour étudier la langue grecque moderne, 2e édition, vi-vii. 66 Voir von Ludemann, Lehrbuch der neugriechischen Sprache. 67 Voir Delveroudi, “Modern Greek Grammars Written by or for Foreigners”. 68 Legrand, Grammaire grecque moderne, x.

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communication réelle.69 L’opinion de David sur la langue est claire: les accents sont des parasites conservés pour des raisons historiques ;70 le datif (absorbé par le génitif ou l’accusatif en grec moderne), n’apparaît que dans les expressions figées, il appartient au vocabulaire et non à la morphologie ;71 les désinences anciennes des noms et des verbes ne sont pas à enseigner.72 L’auteur montre un intérêt important pour la prononciation et il s’occupe de tous les niveaux d’analyse de la langue. Mais ce qui est vraiment exceptionnel dans ce livre, ce sont les dialogues du quotidien, des dialogues bilingues, remplis d’indications d’ordre culturel et social, qui montrent que David a été intégré à la vie sociale de Smyrne.73 Un exemple : - Avez-vous été hier à la promenade ? - J’ai été promener [sic] à cet endroit qu’on appelle la pointe. C’était dimanche, et j’ai vu beaucoup de monde. - Vous avez vu tout Smyrne. Comment trouvez-vous nos demoiselles ? - Elles sont bien, mais leur costume ne me plaît pas ; ce feretgé est tout à fait dépourvu de grâce.74

Plus loin, un autre dialogue où un personnage met en garde son interlocuteur en rapportant une légende sur la dangerosité de l’eau qui sort de la fameuse fontaine du Fasoula : Avez-vous vu, du côté des teintureries, ce petit robinet d’où sort un filet d’eau clair et limpide ? les habitan[t]s de Smyrne l’appellent la fontaine du Fasoula. Gardez-vous de boire de son eau ; car, ainsi que le célèbre lotos d’Homère, elle a une vertu magique, et quiconque y goûte, s’amourache incontinent de quelqu’une de nos jeunes beautés, l’épouse, oublie son pays, et ne peut plus se détacher d’ici. Et cela est arrivé à beaucoup d’étrangers.75

Ce type de références culturelles s’étend aussi à des vers de chansons. Par exemple, pour enseigner l’accusatif, David choisit une chanson des îles : “την μάννα σου την μάγισσα ρακί θα την ποτίσω/à ta mère la magicienne je 69 David, Méthode pour étudier la langue grecque moderne, iv. 70 Ibidem, 7–8, 11. 71 “Le datif n’est en usage que dans quelques hellénismes, que l’on trouve dans les dictionnaires” (ibidem, 12). 72 Ibidem, 67. 73 Ibidem, 104–22. 74 Ibidem, 116. 75 Ibidem, 117.

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donnerai à boire de l’eau-de-vie”. Un autre point intéressant est l’omission de la part de George Winnock, dans sa traduction anglaise, des dialogues de David qui critiquaient la politique anglaise et russe en ce qui concerne la libération des Grecs. David suit cet exemple dans les nouvelles éditions de son livre—bien sûr la situation politique a changé entre temps. Dans les deuxième et troisième éditions, David ajoute des textes littéraires écrits en démotique (par ex. des poèmes de Athanasios Christopoulos), qui ne sont pas traduits mais accompagnés d’un apparatus criticus. À la fin du livre, on trouve un glossaire organisé thématiquement (“Οnomasticon, ou liste des mots les plus usuels, par ordre de matières”),76 qui donne une image des contacts de langues dans la région où il a été composé. Jules David note d’une croix les emprunts (au turc, à l’italien, au français, aux langues slaves), et d’un astérisque les archaïsmes (par ex. la lampe, +ἡ λουτζέρνα, *ὁ λύχνος).77 Le glossaire est organisé par champs sémantiques : “Pour boire et manger”, “Pour se coucher ou se lever”, “Actions d’amour et de haine”, etc. La Méthode de David présente une originalité importante. Le regard averti de son auteur sur la langue et sa connaissance de la vie des populations hellénophones d’Asie Mineure la rendent singulière. La personnalité de son auteur est tout aussi singulière: David n’hésite pas à publier, en 1821, son Appel aux nations en faveur des Grecs par un citoyen français, ce qui lui coûtera cher. Obligé de quitter Smyrne avec sa famille et après une période de quatre ans pendant laquelle il mène une vie d’exilé remplie d’aventures, à Trieste, puis à Rome auprès de Jérôme Bonaparte, il s’installe à Paris. Jules David enseignera le grec ancien et moderne à la Sorbonne comme assistant de Boissonade. Il continuera à écrire, mais l’œuvre ultime de sa vie, un dictionnaire du grec ancien avec des références au grec moderne, ne sera jamais publiée.78 Dans le champ de l’enseignement du grec, les choix langagiers de Jules David n’ont pas été unanimement acceptés. Pourtant, les attaques des puristes79 contre la Méthode nous assurent de sa résonance, et aussi du transfert de la “question de la langue” (γλωσσικό ζήτημα) du domaine du

76 Ibidem, 123–150. 77 Ibidem, 126. 78 Voir Provata, Un témoignage tardif des Lumières en Grèce. 79 Voir Schinas, Grammaire élémentaire du grec moderne, xi. Michel Schinas est un homme politique, qui avait été attaché à la section d’archéologie de l’expédition scientifique de Morée, de 1829 à 1831 (Legrand, Grammaire grecque moderne, xiv; Delveroudi, “Modern Greek grammars”, 4).

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grec langue maternelle à celui de l’enseignement du grec langue étrangère ou seconde.80 Après la fondation de l’État grec et l’installation du roi Otto de Bavière en Grèce (1832), le besoin d’un enseignement du grec à des étrangers avec, comme langue de médiation, l’allemand se fait plus pressant. Ce n’est pourtant que soixante ans plus tard, en 1891, que Johannis K. Mitsotakis publie sa Praktische Grammatik der neugriechischen Schrift- und Umgangssprache, inspirée des leçons de grec moderne qu’il a données au prince de Saxe-Meiningen. Mitsotakis a aussi enseigné le néogrec au Département des Langues Orientales de l’Université Royale Friedrich-Wilhelm de Berlin.81 Voici un court extrait de son adresse au Prince : Prince ! (…) Votre Altesse sait qu’en grec moderne la différence entre la langue écrite et la langue parlée est plus grande que dans toute autre langue européenne, et que les Grecs (…) utilisent dans leurs conversations, autant à Athènes qu’à Constantinople et Smyrne, seulement la langue du peuple, qui (…) est en usage du palais royal jusqu’à la moindre épicerie.82

Ainsi, Mitsotakis crée un manuel qui enseigne parallèlement la langue écrite et la langue orale, en composant chaque texte dans les deux formes—excepté les dialogues, qu’il décide d’écrire seulement en démotique. Il intègre dans ses textes le fait grammatical qu’il enseigne chaque fois (par exemple les noms féminins en -/a/ et -/i/),83 une technique qui préfigure certaines méthodes contemporaines d’enseignement. Tous les textes sont traduits en allemand. En ce qui concerne la morphologie, Mitsotakis enseigne des formes issues de la katharévusa, la langue purifiée, comme le datif. Il présente la syntaxe et le lexique, mais moins en détail la prononciation. À la fin du livre, il ajoute des exemples de lettres formelles et informelles, des invitations, des correspondances commerciales, c’està-dire des types de textes assez divers, en enseignant des formules de politesse et des expressions plus familières.84 Du point de vue didactique, Mitsotakis est le seul des auteurs ici présentés qui décrit explicitement sa méthodologie. Il considère que l’apprentissage du grec moderne présente 80 Pantéloglou, L’orthographe dans la description et la didactique du grec comme langue seconde, 450. 81 Qui porte le nom de Humboldt-Universität depuis 1946. 82 Mitsotakis, Praktische Grammatik der neugriechischen Schrift- und Umgangssprache, viii. 83 Ibidem, 14–18. 84 Ibidem, 248–257.

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de l’intérêt, puisque la langue grecque moderne est parlée au-delà du royaume grec, dans les ports de Turquie et de l’Asie Mineure, en tant que lingua franca.85 Le dernier ouvrage dont il est question ici porte exclusivement sur la langue démotique. Il s’agit du Handbuch der neugriechischen Volkssprache du linguiste Albert Thumb, publié en allemand en 1895, réédité en 1910 et traduit en anglais en 1912 sous le titre Handbook of the Modern Greek Vernacular. Thumb écrit un manuel pour débutants qu’il destine au public universitaire et qu’il dédie à son ami Georgios Chatzidakis, professeur à l’Université d’Athènes. Il s’agit d’un livre plus scientifique que proprement didactique, qui présente tous les niveaux d’analyse de la langue. À la fin de l’ouvrage, Thumb adjoint des textes, des chansons populaires, souvent empruntées à des dialectes, des contes populaires (par. ex. “Ὁ βασιλέας Ὕπνος” [Le Roi Sommeil], dans la variante de l’île d’Egine), des proverbes, des extraits de textes littéraires en démotique (par ex. “Thourios” [le Chant de Guerre] de Rigas Ferraios [Φεραίος] également nommé Rigas Velestinlis), un glossaire et une bibliographie.86 On pourrait dire que ce manuel préfigure par certains côtés le Manual of Modern Greek d’un autre universitaire et démoticiste, George Thomson, publié beaucoup plus tard, en 1966. Thumb apprécie l’ouvrage de Mitsotakis, mais il ne le considère pas assez fondé scientifiquement.87 Son propre manuel décrit la langue à la lumière du développement de la linguistique de la fin du dix-neuvième siècle. Thumb inclut dans le titre le mot Manuel, tandis que Mitsotakis avait préféré celui de Grammaire. Je dirais pourtant que d’un point de vue pédagogique et avec des critères contemporains, l’inversion des titres correspondrait davantage à la réalité.

Conclusion On constate ainsi que l’enseignement du grec moderne comme langue étrangère n’est pas d’histoire récente. Des conditions socioculturelles en ont créé le besoin au moins depuis le début du dix-septième siècle, surtout dans les îles de la mer Égée (spécialement à Chios) et en Asie Mineure. À certaines périodes, le rythme de production des manuels était plus dense

85 Ibidem, ix. 86 Thumb, Handbook of the Modern Greek Vernacular. 87 Ibidem, xii.

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que de nos jours. On en trouve également de nombreuses rééditions et des traductions. La langue des ouvrages présentés est la langue vernaculaire, souvent l’idiome de la région où vit leur auteur. Les auteurs européens, missionnaires ou hellénistes, se sont intéressés à la communication avec les populations grécophones de l’époque, chacun pour parvenir à ses f ins, notamment au tout début du dix-neuvième siècle, sous l’influence du Siècle des Lumières et de son intérêt pour les langues sous leurs formes parlées par les peuples. C’est comme si on redécouvrait une réponse très vieille à la question existentielle d’identité qui se posait aux Grecs à l’aube d’une ère nouvelle. En ce qui concerne leur structure, les ouvrages étudiés ont souvent des prologues ou des introductions dans lesquels l’auteur déf init son public et annonce ses objectifs. Cela montre que l’effort pour enseigner le grec moderne comme langue étrangère ou seconde est délibéré. Dans la plupart de ces livres, tous les niveaux d’analyse de la langue sont étudiés, mais les auteurs insistent plus particulièrement sur la morphologie et le vocabulaire, et moins sur la phonologie et la syntaxe, avec des exceptions comme Girolamo Germano ou Jules David. Tous les auteurs utilisent le métalangage, la terminologie traditionnelle de la grammaire, empruntée à la théorie des parties du discours, et tous les manuels contiennent des exemples, quelques-uns issus de textes de piété ou de textes littéraires, mais ce n’est que dans celles de Jules David et de Johannis K. Mitsotakis qu’on trouve des dialogues destinés à enseigner les échanges de tous les jours. À travers les manuels d’enseignement du grec comme langue étrangère, plusieurs changements linguistiques peuvent être étudiés, ainsi que la langue vernaculaire de chaque époque avec certaines de ses variantes dialectales, la culture des lieux où leurs auteurs vivaient, les différentes opinions qu’ils ont exprimées sur la question linguistique grecque. Mais pour ceux qui enseignent le grec comme langue étrangère ou seconde, cette étude prend aussi un autre sens, celui de la recherche de leurs prédécesseurs et de la reconstitution de l’histoire de leur champ scientif ique.

Lieu et date d’édition

Titre

‘griego vulgar’ (in titre); principalement chypriote

espagnol

grammaire d’après les Institutiones linguæ græcæ -vulgaris de Mercado (1732)

méthode (grammaire) tous domaines ; insistance sur la morphosyntaxe

tous domaines ; insistance sur la prononciation. Inclut des dialogues

dictionnaire

lexique

dictionnaire et grammaire

grammaire

tous domaines ; insistance sur la prononciation dans le volet grammaire

italien

Type d’outil

insistance sur morphosyntaxe et la dérivation lexicale

Domaines d’analyse linguistique. Genre discursif des exemples

Méta-­ langue

latin démotique ; éléments des dialectes chiote, chypriote et crétois (Pernot) latin ‘scriptores mediae et infimae graecitatis’ (glossaire du grec médiéval) (in titre) grec ‘vulgaire’ (in titre) trilingue: français, latin, italien

‘greco volgare’ (préface); éléments de chiote

Missionnaires jésuites

Missionnaires catholiques

Langue objet

Public visé principalement

Missionnaires Glossarium ad Ch. Du Cange, avocat, Lyon, 1688 catholiques historien (1610–1688). (comprend scriptores mediae et Langue maternelle : Portius 1638) infimae graecitatis français Missionnaires Paris, 1709 Nouvelle methode Th. Parisinus, catholiques pour apprendre capucin, missionnaire les principes de la apostolique à langue greque-vulConstantinople. gaire [sic] Langue maternelle : français Missionnaires P.A. Fuentes, francis- Madrid, 1775 Gramatica vulgar griego-española catholiques (en cain, missionnaire à particulier à Chypre. Chypre et en Terre Langue maternelle : Sainte) espagnol

Rome,1622 Vocabolario italiano G. Germano, jésuite, et [sic] greco, missionnaire à Chios (rééd. Pernot précédé d’une 1907) (1568–1632). grammaire Langue maternelle : italien S. Portius, théologien, Paris, 1638 Grammatica linguæ græcæ vulgaris (rééd. Meyer médecin, † ap.1667 1889) Langue maternelle : grec

Auteur

Tableau 8.  L’enseignement/apprentissage du grec moderne (dix-septième–dix-neuvième siècle)

470  Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou

Lieu et date d’édition

Titre

Minás Minoïde (1788–1859), Prof. de rhétorique (Salonique), puis de grec (Paris) Langue maternelle : grec

Paris, 1828

Grammaire grecque contenant les dialectes et la différence avec le grec vulgaire

Neugriechische Leipzig, 1808 J. A. E. Schmidt, SprachlehreHilfsLeipzig lexicographe, prof. de buch zur Erlernung 1824 philologie, univ. de der neugriechischen Leipzig (1769–1851). Sprache Langue maternelle : allemand Parallèle sommaire Paris, 1820 J. David (1783–1854). du grec ancien et du (trad. Diplomate, puis prof.. grec vulgaire anglaise: à Chios et à Smyrne, 1824) puis prof. suppléant de grec à la Sorbonne Méthode pour J. David Paris, 1821, rééd: 1827 et étudier la langue grecque moderne 1828 (trad. angl: 1825)

Auteur

français

langue archaïque et dialectes. Perspective contrastive grec ancien/grec moderne

voyageurs et étudiants francophones

tous domaines ; insistance sur la prononciation; inclut des dialogues de la vie quotidienne bilingues avec alternance codique tous domaines

français

étudiants francophones

tous domaines

néogrec + dialecte smyrniote + quelques éléments archaïques (lexique)

grec ancien vs néogrec

hellénistes

allemand

Domaines d’analyse linguistique. Genre discursif des exemples

comprend des exemples

langue archaïque

voyageurs philhellènes

Méta-­ langue

français

Langue objet

Public visé principalement

grammaire

méthode (grammaire)

grammaire

‘enseignement de la langue’ (1808) ‘manuel’(1824)

Type d’outil

L’enseignement du grec moderne comme l angue é tr angère

471

étudiants germanophones débutants

démotique: ‘a grammar of the vernacular Greek Κοινή’ (Préface de la trad. angl., xiv–xv)

Strasbourg, 1895 (rééd.1910, trad. angl. 1912)

A. Thumb (1875–1915) Helléniste, prof. à l’univ. de Strasbourg

Handbuch der neugriechischen Volkssprache

oral + écrit

étudiants germanophones

Stuttgart/ Berlin,1891

J. Mitsotakis (1839–1905) Helléniste, précepteur puis lecteur de néogrec (univ. de Berlin)

Domaines d’analyse linguistique. Genre discursif des exemples

tous domaines (moindre insistance sur la prononciation). Morphologie issue de la katharévousa; textes en langue écrite et langue orale, dialogues en démotique + exemples d’écrits quotidiens allemand tous domaines

français

langue archaïque Perspective contrastive grec ancien/grec moderne

voyageurs philhellènes débutants

Grammaire élémentaire du grec moderne, divisée en deux parties, à l’usage des commençans Praktische Grammatik der neugriechischen Shrift- und Umgangssprache

Paris, 1829

M. Schinas (1792–1870) Homme politique grec

allemand

Méta-­ langue

Langue objet

Public visé principalement

Titre

Lieu et date d’édition

Auteur

manuel

grammaire ‘pratique’

grammaire ‘élémentaire’

Type d’outil

472  Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou

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Masson, Paul, Grammaire du grec moderne (Corfou : Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1822). Minoïde, Minás [= Mynas] C., Théorie de la grammaire et de la langue grecque (Paris/Londres : Bossange, 1827). Minoïde, Minás [= Mynas] C.[= Konstantínos], Grammaire grecque, contenant les dialectes et la différence avec le grec vulgaire (Paris : Bossange, Treutell et Würst & De Courtière, 1828). Mitsotakis, Johannis K., Praktische Grammatik der neugriechischen Schrift- und Umgangssprache: mit Ubungsstücken und Gesprächen (Stuttgart/Berlin : W. Spemann, 1891). Münnich, Karl Heinrich Wilhelm, Gedrängter eine und angewandte neugriechische Sprachlehre zum Selbstunterricht für Studierende: nebst einer Übersicht der neugriechischen Literatur und prosaischen und poetischen Bruchstücken, Übersetzungen und Originale enthaltend (Dresden/Leipzig : Arnolddischen Buchhandlung, 1826). Negris, Alexander, A Grammar of the Modern Greek Language: With an Appendix Containing Original Specimens of Prose and Verse/Συνοπτική τῆς Ἁπλοελληνικῆς διαλέκτου γραμματική (Boston : Milliard, Gray, Little & Wilkins, 1828). Ν-Θ., ‘Συνοπτικός παραλληλισμὸς τῆς ἑλληνικῆς καὶ γραικικῆς ἤ ἁπλοελληνικῆς γλώσσης ὑπὸ Ἰουλίου Δαβὶδ [Parallèle sommaire du grec ancien et du grec vulgaire de Jules David], Ἑρμῆς ὁ Λόγιος [Hermès érudit] 5 (1821), 155–165. Orient de Bellegarde, Jean-Samuel d’, et Delgay, Jean-Blaise, L’Interprète du français en Grèce… ou Méthode pour parler la langue grecque moderne sans l’avoir apprise (s.l., 1829). Parisinus, Τhomas (P. F., capucin), Nouvelle Methode pour apprendre les Principes de la Langue Greque-vulgaire [sic] Divisée & partagée en XII. Heures. Nova Methodus seu ratio discendi Elementa Linguæ Græcæ Distributa & divisa in XII. Horas. Nuovo Metodo per imparar i Principi della Lingua Greca-volgare Distribuito e spartito in XII. Hore (Paris : Michel Guignard, 1709). Pernot, Hubert, Girolamo Germano, grammaire et vocabulaire du grec vulgaire publiés d’après l’édition de 1622 (Paris : Champion, 1907). Portius, Simon [= Simone Porzio], Grammatica linguæ græcæ vulgaris, reproduction de l’édition de 1638 suivie d’un commentaire grammatical et historique par Wilhelm Meyer, avec une introduction de Jean Psichari (Paris : E. Bouillon et F. Vieweg, 1889 [1638]). Relation de l’establissement des PP. de la Compagnie de Jésus, en Levant. Édition conforme au manuscrit de la Bibliothèque nationale ; publiée par Émile Legrand (Paris : Maisonneuve, 1869 [1643]). Robertson, Henry, A Concise Grammar of the Modern Greek Language, Chiefly Composed from the ‘Nova Methodus’, & c., of Father Thomas; to Which are Annexed, Phrases and Dialogues on the Most Familiar Topics, with Extract from Romaic Authors, (London : James Black & son, 1818).

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comme langue seconde], Μελέτες για την ελληνική γλώσσα [Études sur la langue grecque] 35 (2015), 450–462. Pantéloglou, Lélia, “Διδάσκοντας την ελληνική ως δεύτερη ή ξένη γλώσσα στη Μικρασία του 19ου και του 20ού αιώνα” [L’enseignement du grec comme langue seconde ou étrangère en Asie Mineure au dix-neuvième et vingtième siècle], in Christos Tzitzilis et Giorgos Papanastasiou (eds.), Γλωσσικές Επαφές στα Βαλκάνια και στη Μικρά Ασία/Language Contact in the Balkans and Asia Minor (Θεσσαλονίκη: Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών/Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη [Thessalonique : Institut d’études néo-helléniques/Fondation Manolis Triantaphyllidis], 2019), 428–439. Pantélidis, Nikolaos, “Στα ίχνη της νεοελληνικής κοινής: η μαρτυρία των γραμματικών του 19ου αι” [Sur les traces de la langue grecque moderne commune: le témoignage des grammairiens du 19ème siècle], 1ο Διεθνές Συνέδριο για την Κοινή, τις κοινές και τη διαμόρφωση της κοινής νεοελληνικής, 3–4 Νοεμβρίου 2017 [1er Colloque pour la langue commune (koinè), les langues communes et la formation de la langue grecque moderne commune, 3–4 novembre 2017] (Θεσσαλονίκη: Ινστιτούτου Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών/Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη [Thessalonique : Institut d’études néo-helléniques/Fondation Manolis Triantaphyllidis], à paraître). Provata, Despina, “Un témoignage tardif des Lumières en Grèce : le dictionnaire inédit de Jules David”, Σύγκριση [Comparaison] 12 (2001), 82–87. Rotolο, Vincenzo, “Το νεοελληνικό λεξικό του Girolamo Germano” [Le dictionnaire grec moderne de Girolamo Germano], in Επιστημονική Επετηρίς της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών [Annuaire Scientifique de la Faculté des Lettres (Université d’Athènes)], vol. 30 (1995), 37–51. Tonnet, Henri. 2003 [1993]. Histoire du grec moderne. La formation d’une langue. 2e éd., Paris : L’Asiathèque. Triantaphyllidis, Manolis, Nεοελληνική γραμματική [Grammaire du grec moderne] (Θεσσαλονίκη: Ινστιτούτου Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών [Thessalonique : Institut d’Études Néo-helléniques], 1993 [1938]). Zwartjes, Otto, Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550–1800, (Amsterdam : John Benjamins, 2011).

À propos de l’auteure Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou enseigne le grec langue seconde (G2) à l’Université nationale et capodistrienne d’Athènes et la linguistique à l’Université ouverte hellénique. Elle a aussi enseigné la langue et la civilisation grecques modernes à l’université d’Aix-Marseille pendant l’année 2020–2021. Sa thèse de doctorat (2017) portait sur l’enseignement de la compréhension orale en G2. Elle a travaillé en tant que formatrice en méthodologie du G2

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Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou

avec les universités d’Athènes et de Salonique, ainsi qu’avec l’UNICEF. Elle est également créatrice de matériel pédagogique pour l’enseignement du G2. Elle a une longue expérience de l’enseignement du grec moderne aux immigrants, réfugiés, Grecs expatriés et étudiants d’université. Site web personnel : https://independent.academia.edu/LeliaPanteloglou

About the author Lélia (Evangélia) Pantéloglou teaches Greek as a Second Language (G2) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Linguistics at the Hellenic Open University. She has also taught Modern Greek language and civilization at Aix-Marseille Université in 2020–21. Her PhD thesis (2017) was on teaching listening comprehension in G2. She has worked as a G2 methodology trainer with the University of Athens and the University of Salonica, as well as with UNICEF. She has also written educational materials for G2 teaching. She has extensive experience in teaching Modern Greek to immigrants, refugees, expatriate Greeks, and university students. Personal website: https://independent.academia.edu/LeliaPanteloglou



List of abbreviations (Index)

[= …]: also rendered as… or also called…; pseudonym → / ↔: translator or translation from… into… or multilingual dictionary adm.: administrator or administrative alph. / alph.: alphabet / alphabetum Amer. / Amer. lang.: America / Amerindian language(s) anthrop.: anthropologist AEF: Afrique Équatoriale Française [French Equatorial Africa] AOF: Afrique Occidentale Française [French Western Africa] apost.: apostolic Arab.: Arabic language archeol.: archeologist Aug.: Augustinian Br.: British or Britain Cath.: Catholic cartogr.: cartographer Cast. / Cast.: Castilian or Castile / Castilian language c.: century Chin. / Chin.: Chinese / Chinese language(s) Christ.: Christian class.: classical Coch.: Cochinchinese or Cochinchina col.: colonial or colony(ies) Col. / Coll.: Colegio / College / Collège colloq.: colloquial comp.: comparative cult.: culture curr.: currently Damas. / Damas. Arab.: Damascus / Damascus Arabic dial.: dialect or dialectal dipl.: diplomat dir.: director of… Dom.: Dominican educ.: educator Egypt. / Egypt. Arab.: Egyptian, Egyptologist or Egyptology / Egyptian Arabic emp.: emperor or empire Eng. / Eng.: English or England / English language epigr.: epigraphist ethn.: ethnographer fl.: floruit (the date / period or the field of activity) FL: Foreign Language Flor.: Florentine or Florence folk.: folklorist found.: founder of… Fr. / Fr.: French or France / French language Franc.: Franciscan

gen.: general geogr.: geographer Germ. / Germ.: German or Germany / German language Gr. / Gr.: Greek or Greece / Greek language gov.: governor of… gram.: grammarian or grammar Heb.: Hebrew language Hieron.: Hieronymite hist.: historian Ian. ling.: Ianua linguarum (author of a –) Ind.: Indian Indo-Europ.: Indo-European languages Indol.: Indologist Indon. / Indon.: Indonesian or Indonesia / Indonesian language insp.: inspector (of…) It. / It.: Italian or Italy / Italian language Jap. / Jap.: Japanese or Japan / Japanese language Jes.: Jesuit journ.: journalist lang.: languages / langues Lat. / Lat.: Latin / Latin language lect.: lecturer lexic.: lexicographer ling.: linguist or linguistics ling. franc.: lingua franca (= vehicular language) lit.: literary or Literature math.: mathematician memb.: member(s) of… MEP: Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris [Paris Foreign Missions Soc.] Mex.: Mexican or Mexico miss.: missionary Med.: Medieval Mod.: Modern Netherl.: The Netherlands North.: Northern Orient. / orient.: Orientalist / orientale(s) off.: military officer palaeogr.: palaeographist part.: in particular ped.: pedagogue phys.: physician Philip.: The Philippines philol.: philologist or philology philos.: philosopher or philosophy poet(.): poet or poetry polit.: politician Port. / Port.: Portuguese or Portugal / Portuguese language prel.: prelate pres.: president of…

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prim.: primary print.: printer prof.: professor Protest.: Protestant Rom.: Romance languages schol.: scholar Sinol.: Sinologist Soc.: Society sociol.: sociologist South.: Southern Sp: Spanish, Spaniard or Spain Stand.: Standard stud.: studies sup.: superior

theol.: theologian theor.: theorist of… transl.: translator travel.: traveler Tusc. / Tusc.: Tuscan or Tuscany / Tuscan language US: American or United States of America Viet. / Viet.: Vietnamese / Vietnamese language univ.: universidad, universidade, université or university West.: Western writ. / writer or writing WW I: First World War WW II: Second World War



Index of names1

Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre (1788–1832), Fr. Sinol., ling. (Chin., Manchu), prof. Coll. de France 39, 49, 232 Abū Bakr, Yūsuf al-Ḫalīfa (20th c.), Sudanese ling., ped.; fl. South. Sudan 292, 296-304 A[c]carisio [= Accarisi, Accarigi], Alberto (1497–1544), It. gram. (Tusc.); fl. Siena 410, 412, 416, 419 Acland, Arthur Dyke (1847–1926), Br. liberal polit., writ. 237 Acosta, José de (1540–1600), Sp. Jes. miss., prof., theol.; fl. Peru (Lima, Cuzco), New Sp. 172 Acquaviva, Claudio (1543–1615), It. priest, ped., sup. gen. Soc. of Jesus; fl. Naples, Rome 176 Adam, Biblical figure 189, 230 Aesop (6th c. BC), Gr. fabulist 94, 102 Alberti, Leon Battista (1406–1472), It. architect, Humanist polymath; fl. Flor., Rome 146, 148, 152, 154 Alberti di Villanova, Francesco (1737–1801), It. dipl., ped., lexic. (It.), transl. (Fr., Eng. → It.); fl. Nice, Tuscany 438-39 Alcalà, Pedro de (ca. 1455–1505), Sp. Hieron. friar, gram. (Andalusi Arab.); fl. Granada 56, 61-62, 333-39, 341-43 Aldrete, Bernardo José de (1560–1641), Sp. Jes., hist., gram. (Cast.); fl. Andalusia 100 Alessandri [d’Urbino], Giovanni Mario (1507?–1585), It. gram. (Cast.), fl. Urbino, Sp. 145, 413 Alexander, Robert (?–1879), Br. off., wr.; fl. India, China? 222 Algarotti, Francesco (1712–1764), It. polymath, philos., poet; fl. Naples, Berlin, Venice, Pisa 430 Alighieri, Dante [= Dante] (1265–1321), It. poet. (Tusc.) 43, 184-85, 408-09, 415-16, 419-20, 426, 432, 438 Alunno [= Del Bailo], Francesco (ca. 1485–1556), It. gram. (Tusc.); fl. North. It. 410, 412-13, 416, 419, 438 Álvares, Manuel (1526–1582), Port. Jes., gram. (Lat.); fl. Lisbon, Coimbra 35, 106 Amaral, Gaspardo (1592–1646), Port. Jes. miss., gram., lexic. (Viet.); fl. Tonkin 371-72, 383 Amherst, William Pitt [Lord of –] (1773–1857), Br. dipl., col. adm., gov. India 224 Anawati, Georges Chehata (1905–1994), Egypt. Dom., philos., theol.; fl. Algiers, Cairo 339

Anchieta, José / Joseph de [= San José de –] (1534–1597), Sp. Jes. miss., gram. (Tupi), fl. Brazil 34, 42, 146, 157-58, 160-61 Angoulême, Marguerite d’ [de Valois –] (1492–1549), Fr. writ. 411 Anneau [= Aneau], Barthélémy (1505/10–1561), Fr. poet 64 Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham-Hyacinthe (1731–1805), Fr. Indol., writ., transl. (Avestan → Lat., Fr.), lexic. (Malayalam, Sanskrit, Telugu); fl. India, Paris 49 Antonini, Annibale (1702–1755), It. gram., lexic. (Lat., It., Fr.); fl. Naples, Paris 428, 432-33, 436, 439-40 Arenas, Pedro de (early 17th c.), Sp. lexic. (Cast. ↔ Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. (Mex.) 95-96 Arévalo, Sebastián de (1727–1772), print.; fl. New Sp. (Guatemala) 128 Ariosto, Ludovico [L’–] / L’Arioste, (1474–1533), It. poet 411, 413, 420 Aristotle (384–322 BC), Gr. philos. 189, 432 Arnauld, Antoine (1612–1694), Fr. theol., philos., gram.; fl. Paris 418 ʿAsākir, Ḫalīl Maḥmūd (1906–1993), Egypt. ling., ped. (Arab. as FL); fl. Cairo, South. Sudan 291-92, 298-99, 300, 305 Augier, Abel (early 20th c.), Fr. school dir. in Beirut 349 Augustine [= Saint Augustine] (354–430), Father of the Church, bishop Hippo 189-90, 199 Augustinians, Cath. mendicant order (13th. c.–) 34, 105, 157 Ávila, Francisco de (1672–ca. 1738), Franc. miss., lecturer, gram. (class. Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. (Mex.) 107-08 Aymonier, Étienne (1844–1929), Fr. off., col. adm., ling. (Cham), archeol. (Cham & Khmer cult.) 379 Backhouse, (Sir) Edmund Trelawny (1873–1944), Br. Orient., Sinol.; fl. China 218 Bacon, (Lord) Francis (1561–1626), Eng. philos., statesman 171 Badawi, El-saʿīd Muḥammad (1929–2014), Egypt. scholar, ling. (Arab. as FL), prof. Amer. univ. Cairo; fl. Egypt, Sudan 293, 334 Baïf, Jean-Antoine de (1532–1589), Fr. poet 411 Baldinotti, Giuliano (1591–1631), It. Jes. miss.; fl. Tonkin 371

1 Language or dialect names, names of languages families, and script names are in italics. Arabic

(diacritics ignored), Greek and Russian names are reported in transliteration and ordered alphabetically. Chinese names are written in pīnyīn. Among the names of authors, only those that appear in the primary sources of the bibliographic references or those that not appear in the sources are indexed.

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Bally, Charles (1865–1947), Swiss ling. (Fr., gen. ling.) 86-87 Baptists, memb. of a Protest. Church (orig.: Netherl., early 17th c.) 227 Barbeau, Marius (1883–1969), Canadian ethn., folkl. (Amer. lang. & cult.); fl. Ottawa, Québec 34 Barbier, Jean (early 17th c.), gram. (Fr.), ped. (Ian. ling.); fl. Eng. 106 Barros, João de (1496–1570), Port. hist., gram. (Port.); fl. Brazil, Port. 34, 146, 153-57 Barton, Johan / John (early 15th c.), Eng. gram. (Fr.) 62, 145, 148, 155 Basalenque, Diego (1577–1651), Sp. Aug. miss., hist., gram. (Matlatzinca, Purépecha); fl. New Sp. (Toluca, Michoacan) 103, 130 Basset, Jean (1662–1707), Fr. miss. (MEP), transl. (Lat. → Chin.); fl. China (Sichuān) 221 al-Batal, Mahmoud (ca. 1955–), ling., prof. univ. Austin (Texas) & Amer. univ. Beirut (Arab. as FL) 335 Bathe, William (1564–1614), Irish Jes., musician, gram. (Ian. ling.), teacher; fl. Eng., Sp. 106 Bautista [= Baptista], Juan (1555–ca. 1613), Franc. theol.; fl. New Sp. 109 al-Baylī, Aḥmad Ismāʿīl (20th c.), Sudanese ling., ped.; fl. South. Sudan 298 Beaurecueil, Serge de (1917–2005), Fr. Dom., Islamologist; fl. Cairo, Afghanistan 339 Bembo, Carlo (1472–1503), It. (Venitian) schol., print. 427; fl. Venice Bembo, Pietro (1470–1547), It. (Venitian) prel., schol., poet, lit. theor., fl. Rome 44, 146, 152, 154, 407, 409, 411-12, 416-17, 419, 427, 440 Bentivoglio, Guido (1579–1644), It. (Ferrarese) prel., dipl., hist.; fl. Rome 419 Benveniste, Émile (1902–1976), Fr. ling. (gen. ling., comp. gram. Indo-Europ.), prof. Coll. de France 22, 68, 86-87 Bernard, Paul (early 20th c.), Fr. ped.; fl. Algeria 357-58 Béroalde de Verville [= Vatable Brouard], François (1556–1626), Fr. poet 64 Bertonio, Ludovico (1557–1625), It. Jes. miss., gram. (Aymara); fl. Peru 35, 114 Beschi, Constanzo [= Vīramāmunivar] (1680–1742), It. Jes. miss., schol., transl., gram. (Tamil), fl. South. India 41, 103 Binger, Louis-Gustave (1856–1936), Fr. off., gram. (Bamanankan); fl. AOF 248 Black (Alexander), Parbury (Charles) & Allen (William Houghton), Br. print. (early 19th c. –); fl. London 224 Blaeu, Jo(h)an(nes) (1596–1673), Dutch cartogr., print.; fl. Bloemgracht 102 [Blancas de] San José, Francisco (ca. 1556–1614), Sp. Dom. miss., gram. (Tagalog); fl. Philip. 115

Bland, John Otway Percy (1863–1945), Br. journ., wr.; fl. China 218 Bloomfield, Leonard (1887–1949), US linguist (gen. ling., Algonquin, Austronesian lang.) 22, 68 Boas, Franz (1858–1942), Germ.–born US anthrop., fl. Canada (Baffin Land), US 22, 68, 94, 104 Boccace / Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313–1375), It. writ. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 408-09, 415-16, 419-20 Bogue, David (1750–1825), Br. Nonconformist Protest. miss., educ.; fl. Eng., Penang [in curr. Malaysia] 216, 218-21, 224-27, 235, 238 Boisseau, Georges (early 20th c.), Fr. ped., prim. school insp.; fl. Fr. 351, 355 Bonard, Louis-Adolphe (1805–1867), Fr. off., gov. Coch. 374-75 Bonnet, (Colonel) Gabriel (1908–1988), Fr. off., writ., polit.; fl. AOF, Fr. 256 Borghesi, Diomede (1540–1598), It. gram. (Tusc.), writ.; fl. Siena 417 Bosquet, Jean (late 16th c.), Fr-speaking poet, ped., gram. (Fr.); fl. Sp. Netherl. (Mons) 146, 155 Bottai, Giuseppe (1895–1959), It. polit., gov. Addis Ababa 319 Boudjedra, Rachid (1941–), Algerian writ. 60 Bresnier, Louis-Jacques (1814–1869), Fr. gram., teacher (Maghrebi Arab.); fl. Algeria 342 Bridgeman, Elijah Coleman (1801–1851), US miss., Sinol., transl. (Eng.→ Chin.); fl. Shànghăi, Guǎngdōng 236 Buommattei, Benedetto (1581–1648), It. priest, gram. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 419, 432 Buoninsegni, Girolamo (early 17th c.), It. gram. (Tusc.); fl. Tusc. 417-18 Caballero, Lucas (?–1719), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Damas. Arab.); fl. Damas. 101, 114 Cáceres, Pedro de (late 17th c.), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Otomi), fl. New Sp. (Central Mex.) 146, 159-60 Caesar, Iulius (100–44 BC), Roman statesman, writ., gram. 176 Calepino, Ambrogio (ca. 1440–1510), It. Aug. friar, lexic. (Lat., Heb. Gr., It.); fl. Lombardy 37, 106 Calmeta, Vincenzo Colli [Il –] (1460–1508), It. poet; fl. Milan, Rome 427 Camillo, Giulio [Delminio] (ca.1580–1544), It. (Friulian) philos.; fl. Rome 189 Capponi, Gino (1792–1876), It. polit., hist., writ.; fl. Florence 431 Caressa, Ferruccio (1877–post 1947), It. off., lexic. (It.↔ Tigrinya ↔ Arab. ↔ Amharic), fl. Gr., Tripolitania, Horn of Africa 322 Carey, William (1861–1834), Br. Baptist miss., Orient.; fl. Bengal 224

Index of names

Caro, Annibal(e) [= Agresto da Ficaruola] (1507–1566), It. poet, transl. (Lat → Tusc.); fl. Parma, Rome 420 Carochi, Horacio (1579–1662), It. Jes. miss, gram. (Nahuatl, Otomi); fl. New Sp. (Mex.) 119 Carré, Irénée (1829–1909), Fr. ped., prim. school insp.; fl. Fr. 65, 282, 331, 354-55 Castelvetro, Lodovico (1505–1571), It. writ. lit. theor., transl. (Gr., Lat. → Tusc.); fl. Modena 146, 152, 154, 419 Cauchie, Antoine [= Antonius Caucius] (1535?–1600?), Fr. gram. (Fr.); fl. Germ. 145, 155 Caussin de Perceval, Armand-Pierre (1795–1871), Fr. Orient., lexic. (Arab.), prof. École lang. orient. (Paris); fl. Lebanon, Aleppo 49 Cavalca, Domenico (1270–1342), Dom. friar, schol., theol., transl. (Lat. → Tusc.); fl. Pisa 441 Cavalcanti, Guido (1259–1300), It. poet; fl. Flor. 417 Cerda, [Juan] Luis de la (1560–1643), Sp. gram. (Lat.); fl. Toledo 106 Césaire, Aimé (1913–2008), Fr. (Martiniquan) poet, writ., polit. 314 Cesarotti, Melchiorre (1730–1808), It. poet, transl., lit. theor.; fl. Veneto 434 Charisius, Flavius Sosipater (4th c.), Lat. gram., pol.; fl. Rome 106 Charles Quint / Charles V of Habsburg (1500–1558), Holy Roman emp., king Sp. 411 Charner, Léonard (1797–1869), Fr. off., gov. Coch. 374 Charpentier, Antoine (early 16th c.), Fr. gram. (Cast.) 145, 155-56 Chateaubriand, François-René de (1768–1848), Fr. writ., polit., dipl. 352 Cherbonneau, Auguste (1813–1882), Fr. gram, lexic. (Arab.); fl. Algeria 94 Chirino, Pedro (1557–1635), Sp. Jes. miss., hist., lexic. (Chin.); fl. Philip. 103 Chollet, Florimond (late 19th c.), Fr. ped. 351 Chomé, Ignace / Ignacio (1696–1768), Fr. Jes.; fl. Flanders, South. Amer. 115 Chomsky, Noam (1928–), US linguist 49 Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BC), Roman statesman, philos., lawyer 190, 199, 206, 371 Cicognini, Giacinto Andrea (1606–ca. 1650), It. writ.; fl. Tusc., Venice 420 Cimabue [= Cenni di Pepo] (1240–1302), It. painter; fl. Siena 408 Cittadini, Celso (1553–1627), It. ped., gram. (Tusc., Gr., Lat.); fl. Siena, Rome 417 Clavius, Christophorus (1538–1612), Germ. Jes., math., astronomer; fl. Coimbra, Rome 181 Clemenceau, Georges (1841–1929), Fr. statesman 258-59, 261

483 Cocchi, Ángel / Angelo [= Tommaso] (1597–1633) [= Ange Coqui, Cao], It. Dom. miss.; fl. Philip., Formosa [curr. Taiwan], Fú’ān (China) 105 Cohen, Marcel (1884–1974), Fr. ling., socioling. (Fr., Hamito-Semitic lang.) 58, 69, 340-41 Collie, David, (1789–post 1843), Scottish miss., ped., principal Anglo-Chin. Coll. (Malacca) 228 Colomb, Georges (late 19th c.), Fr. ped. (arithmetic) 351 Combes, Émile (1835–1921), Fr. statesman 348 Comenius [= Komenskỳ], Jo(h)an Amos, Moravian philos., theol., ped. (Ian. ling.); fl. Moravia, Poland, Eng., Sweden, Netherl. 65, 106 Confucius [= Kŏng Zĭ] (551–479 BC), Chin. philos. 179-80, 236 Congregationalists, memb. of a Protest. Church (orig.: Br., 17th c.) 227-28 Contini, Fulvio (1913–post 1950), It. ped., educ., admin.; fl. Tripolitania 325 Córdova, Juan de (1503–1595), Sp. Dom. miss., gram., lexic. (Zapotec), fl. New Sp. (Oaxaca) 118, 146, 160 Corro [= Corrano, de Corran, Corranus], Antonio del (1527–1591), Sp. Hieron., then Protest., theol., gram. (Cast.); fl. Andalusia, Geneva, Fr., Eng. 145, 155-56 Corso, Rinaldo (1525–1580/82), It. schol., magistrate, bishop Strongoli, writ., transl. (Lat. → Tusc.), gram. (Tusc.); fl. Correggio 146, 419 Cortés y Zedeño [= Sedeño], Jerónimo Tomás de Aquino (1724–?), Mex. priest, gram. (Jalisco Nahuatl, class. Nahuatl), lexic. (Nahuatl ↔ Cast.); fl. New Sp. (Guadalajara) 101 Cousturier, Lucie (1876–1925), Fr. painter, writ., travel., ped.; fl. Fr., AOF 263 Curioni, Antonio (late 18th c.), It. abbot, ped., gram. (It.); fl. Paris, London 428, 432, 435-36, 439-40, 442 Cyril (826–869), Byzantine Christ. theol., miss., transl. (Gr. → Old Church Slavonic); fl. Constantinople, Slavic world 14 Damourette, Jacques (1873–1943), Fr. ling. (Fr.) 86-87 Ðặng, Nguyên Cẩn (1867–1923), Viet. modernist nationalist, ped.; fl. Huế, Nghệ An 381 Dard, Jean (1789–1833), Fr. ped., gram. (Wolof ), lexic. (Fr. ↔ Wolof, Fr. → Bambankan); fl. Senegal 248 Davesne, André (1898–1978), Fr. ped., prim. school insp.; fl. Dahomey 280-82 David, Jules (1808–1892), Fr. gram. (Mod. Gr.), prof. (Gr.) Sorbonne; fl. Chios, Smyrna, Paris 451, 454-57, 463-66, 469, 471

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L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Davila, Enrico Caterino (1576–1631), It. hist.; fl. Veneto 419 Delafosse, Maurice (1870–1926), Fr. col. adm., ethn., gram. (Sara, Hausa), fl. AOF 249, 252-55 Delgay, Jean-Blaise (early 19th c.), Fr. gram. (Mod. Gr.) 454, 456 Della Casa, Giovanni (1503–1556), It. prel., writ; fl. Flor., Venice, Rome 420 Denisot, Nicolas (1515–1559), Fr. poet 411 Deschamps, Pierre (1873–1958), Fr. ped., found. Mission laïque française 45, 349, 358 Deydier, François (1634–1693), Fr. miss. (MEP), vicar apost.; fl. Tonkin 373-74 Díaz, Francisco (1606–1646), Sp. Dom. miss., lexic. (Chin. ↔ Cast.), fl. Philip., Fogán [= Fú ān], Nankin [= Nánjīng], Tínghú (China) 105, 113, 123 Diouf, Abdou (1935–), Senegalese statesman, secretary gen. Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie 52 Dolce, Lodovico (1508/10–1568), It. schol., hist., print., theor. painting, gram. (Tusc.), transl. (Gr., Lat. → Tusc.); fl. Venice 146, 152, 419 Dominicans, Cath. mendicant order (1216 –) 40, 105, 110, 112-14, 123, 157, 339 Dominicus (early 17th c.), Chin. literatus, M. Martini’s famulus (= informant) 105 Donatus, Aëlius [= Donat, Donatz] (4th c.), Lat. gram. (Lat.); fl. Rome 148-50, 153 Dorat, Jean [= Daurat, Auratus, Jean Dinemandi] (1508–1588), Fr. poet (Fr., Lat.), hellenist schol. 411 Du Bellay, Joachim (1522–1560), Fr. poet 411 Du Cange, Charles du Fresne (1610–1688), Fr. jurist, hist., gram., lexic. (Lat., Med. Gr.) 456, 460, 470 Du Ponceau, Peter Stephen / Pierre-Étienne (1760–1844), Fr.–born US ling., Sinol. (Amer. lang., Chin.) 233 Duchatenet, A. (early 20th c.), Fr. ped. (reading) 351 Duez, Nathanaël (1609–1669), Fr. ped. (It., Germ., Fr.), gram. (It.), lexic. (Germ. ↔ Fr. ↔ Lat.); fl. Leiden 442 Dumoutier, Gustave (1850–1904), Fr. archeol., folkl., ped.; fl. Tonkin 378 Dupré, Marie-Jules (1813–1881), Fr. off., gov. Coch. 377 Duvau, Louis (1864–1903), Fr. ling. (comp. gram. Indo-Europ.) 69 Eliot, John (1604–1690), Eng. Puritan miss., ped., transl. (Eng. → Massachusett or Algonquin?); fl. Br. North. Amer. col. 124 Encarnación, Juan de la (early 18th c.), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Damas. Arab.), fl. Damas. 101, 114

Erpenius [= van Erpe], Thomas (1584–1624), Dutch gram., teacher (class. Arab., Heb.); fl. Leiden, Paris, Venice 94, 342-43 Estienne, Henri (1531–1598), Fr. print., lexic. (Gr.), poet., gram. (Fr.) 64 Estienne, Robert (1503?–1559), Fr. print., lexic. (Lat. ↔ Fr.), gram. (Fr.) 145, 155 Faidherbe, Louis (1818–1889), Fr. polit., gov. Senegal, folkl., lexic. (Fr. → Wolof, Puular, Soninke); fl. AOF 252, 265 Famin, Pierre (1855–1922), Fr. off., col. adm.; fl. Senegal, Cambodia, Tonkin 258 Fauriel, Claude (1772–1844), Fr. hist., philol. (Mod. Gr., Rom. lang.) 430 Féng, Yīngjīng (1555–1606), Chin. schol., transl. (It. → Chin.) 179-80 Ferraios [= Feraios, Velestinlis, Rigas], Rigas (1757-1798), Gr. patriot, schol., wr. 468 Ferguson, Charles (1921–1998), US socioling.; fl. Ethiopia 57, 334-35, 343, 392 Fergusson, John (1746–?), Br. off., negociant, lexic., gram. (Hindustani); fl. Calcutta [= Kolkata] 96 Fernández Navarrete, Domingo (1618–1686), Sp. Dom. miss., theol., archbishop Santo Domingo; fl. China 114 Ferrage, Marius (early 20th c.), Fr. White Father, ped., interpreter (Fr. ↔ Bamanankan); fl. AOF 249-50 Ferry, Jules (1832–1893), Fr. statesman 348-49, 379 Flores, Ildefonso Ioseph (?–1772), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Cakchiquel, K’iche’, Tz’utuhil); fl. New Sp. (Guatemala) 35, 128-29 Fo da bá tuó (5th. c.), Buddhist monk; fl. India, China 75 Foncin, Pierre (1841–1916), Fr. hist., geogr., prof. (univ. Bordeaux), 1st pres. Alliance française 46 Fontes, António de (1569–1648), Port. Jes. miss., lexic. (Viet.); fl. Coch, Tonkin 371 Fortunio, Giovanni [= Gian] Francesco (1470–1517), It. jurist, humanist, gram. (Tusc.) 146, 154, 409, 412, 419 Foscolo, Ugo (1778–1827), It. poet, writ., teacher; fl. Italy, Britain 431 Franciscans, Cath. mendicant order (1209 –) 34, 36-37, 40, 93-94, 101, 104-05, 108-09, 110-14, 157, 171, 368 Francis(co) Xavier [= Francisco de Jasso, San Francisco Xavier] (1506–1552), Sp. (Navarrese) Jes. miss.; fl. Goa, Malacca, Japan, China 172, 174, 178 Frédéric II / Federico II / Frederick II Hohenstaufen (1194–1250), Holy Roman emp., king Sicily 409 Fregoso, Cesare (1500–1541), It. dipl., writ.; fl. Genoa, Venice 411

Index of names

Fregoso, Ettore (16th), It. schol.; fl. Venice 411 Fregoso, Federigo da Campo (ca. 1480–1541), It. (Genoan) prel., fl. Urbino, Rome, Genoa 427 Fresco, Moïse (1859–1912), Ottoman ped. (Fr., reading), school dir.; fl. Damas., Tangiers, Smyrna, Istanbul 282-83 Friedemann, Friedrich-Traugott (1793–1853), Germ. gram., ped. (Gr., Mod. Gr.); fl. Zwickau, Wittenberg, Braunschweig, Weilburg 456 Fuentes, Antonio (late 18th c.), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Gr., Cypriot Gr.), fl. Sp., Cyprus 101, 451, 456-57, 461-62, 470 Gabriele, Giacomo (16th c.), It. schol., gram. (Tusc.); fl. Venice 146, 152, 154, 419 Gallieni, (Marshal) Joseph (1849–1916), Fr. off., col. adm.; fl. AOF, Indochina, Madagascar, Fr. (WW I) 264 Garnier, Jean (?–1574), Fr. theol., gram. (Fr.); fl. Fr., Hesse 145, 155 Gauthiot, Robert (1876–1916), Fr. ling (comp. gram. Indo-Europ.) 69 Gay, P.-H. (early 20th c.), Fr. ped. (Fr.) 351 George III (1738–1820), king Great Britain & Ireland 218 Germano, Girolamo (1568–1632), Sicilian Jes. miss., gram., lexic. (It. ↔ Mod. Gr., Chios Gr.); fl. Chios 451, 454-59, 469-70 Giambullari, Pier Francesco (1495–1555), It. schol., gram. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 146 Gigli, Girolamo (1660–1722), It. poet, playwright, schol. 423-24 Gilberti / Gilbert / Gilberto, Maturino / Mathurin / Maturinus (1498–1585), Fr. Franc. miss., gram. (Tarascan), fl. New Sp. (Michoacan) 104, 106, 146, 159, 162 Ginzburg, Natalia (1916-1991), It. writ. 423-424 Giotto di Bondone (?–1337), Flor. painter; fl. Flor., Assisi, Rome, Padua 408 Godwin, Francis (1562–1633), Eng. prel., hist., writ. 217 Goldoni, Carlo (1707–1793), Venetian playwright (Venetian, Tusc., Fr.); fl. Venice, Paris 442-43 Gomez Brizeño, Juan (late 18th c.), Sp. miss.; fl. New Sp. (Merida, Yucatan) 98 Gonsales, Domingo, hero Godwin’s novel, The Man in the Moone (1638) 217 González, Bernardino (ca. 1665–ca. 1735), Sp. Franc. miss., lexic. (Cast. ↔ Arab.), gram. (Arab.), lect. (Arab.) Col. Damas., Avila; fl. Sevilla, Syria 101 González Holguίn, Diego (1560–1620), Sp. Jes. miss., gram. (Quechua); fl. Peru 35, 106, 114, 121, 124 Godwin, Francis (1562–1633), Eng. writ., prel.. 217

485 Graillet J.-B. (late 19th c.), Fr. ped., gram. (Fr.) 352 Grammont, Lucien de (19th. c.), Fr. off., col. adm.; fl. Coch. 375 Grammont, Maurice (1866–1946), Fr. ling., phonetician (Rom. lang., Viet.); prof. univ. Montpellier 27, 69 Grandière, Pierre-Paul de la (1807–1876), Fr. off., fl. Coch. 375, 377 Graßmann, Hermann (1809–1877), Germ. math., ling. (comp. gram. Indo-Europ.), fl. Stettin 86-87 Green, Thomas Hill (1836–1882), Br. liberal social philos.; fl. Oxford 237 Grevisse, Maurice (1895–1980), Belgian gram. 56 Grimal, François (1945–), Fr. anthrop. (India), ling. (Sanskrit) 39 Groulleau, Estienne (15?–1563?), Fr. print.; fl. Paris 410-11 Guadagnoli, Philippus / Filippo (1596?–1656), It. Franc. apologist, gram. (Arab.) 100 Guadalajara, Tomás de (1648–1720), Mex. Jes., gram. (Tarahumara), fl. New Sp. (North. Mex.) 100, 117 Guerra, Juan / Joan (?–ca. 1692), Sp. Franc. miss., theol., gram. (North. Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. (Michoacan, Durango, Jalisco) 101 Guicciardini, Francesco (1483–1540), It. (Tusc.) polit., dipl., hist., philos.; fl. Flor. 419 Guillaume, Gustave (1883–1960), Fr. ling. (Fr., gen. ling.) 86-87, 364 Guinizelli, Guido (1225–1276), It. poet; fl. Bologna 417 Habrecht, Isaac (early 17th c.), Germ. gram., ped. (Ian. ling.), fl. Strasbourg 106 Hadley, George (?–1798), Br. off. (East India Company), Orient., gram. (Hindustani), fl. Bengal 96 al-Ḫalīfa, Sirr al-Ḫatim (1919–2006), Sudanese pol. 296 Hàn, Chin. dynasty (206 BC–220) 369 Hardy, Georges (1884–1972), Fr. ped., prim. school insp.; fl. AOF 66, 277-78, 280 Hieronymites (= Jeronymites, order of St Jerome), Cath. Monastic order (late 14th c. –) 336 Holdermann, Jean-Baptiste (1694–1730), Fr. Jes., gram. (Turkish) 96-97 Hernández [= Fernández], Benito (16th c.), Sp. Dom. catechist, transl. (Cast.. →Mixtec); fl. New Sp. (Mixteca) 128 Horace [= Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8 BC), Latin poet 414 Horthy de Nagybánya, Miklós (1868–1957), Hungarian off., statesman 45 Hugo, Victor (1802–1885), Fr. writ. 352 Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1767–1835), Germ. philos., ling., statesman 49

486 

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Ḥusayn / Hussein, Ṭāhā (1889–1973), Egypt. writ., polit. 360 Huỳnh Tịnh Paulus Của (1834–1907), Viet. journ., schol., gram. (Viet.) 375, 381 Huỳnh, Thúc Kháng (1876–1947), Viet. modernist, anti-colonialist schol.; fl. Quảng Ngãi 380-81 Isabella I “the Catholic” (1451–1504), queen Castile 336 Jeanne d’Autriche / Joanna of Austria (1547–1578), Grand Duchess Tusc. 416 Jerome [= Jerome of Stridon, Saint Jerome] (ca. 342-420), Christ. monk, Father of the Church, transl., théol. 336 Jesuits [Company of Jesus], Cath. religious Soc. (1540–1773, 1814–) 19, 36-37, 43, 58, 94, 102, 105, 109, 112-14, 116, 126, 157, 170, 172-75, 178, 180, 187, 209, 350, 353, 367-68, 370-71, 374, 453, 458-59, 470 Jiū mó luó shí [= Kumarājīva] (ca. 344–413), Indian monk, transl. (Sanskrit → Chin.); fl. Kucha (in Xīn jiāng), Cháng ān [= Xī ān] 175 Jomier, Jacques (1914–2008), Fr. Dom., gram. (Egypt. Arab.), fl. Cairo 57, 61-62, 333-35, 339-42 Julien, (Colonel) Émile (1862–1947), Fr. off., geogr.; fl. AOF, AEF, Algeria 249 Ketelaar [= Kettler, Kessler], Jo(h)an(n) Jos(h) ua (1659–1718), Germ. off. ([Dutch] East India Company), dipl., gram. (Hindustani, Persian); fl. India, Persia, Dutch East Indies 41, 96-97 al-Khalīl Ibn Aḥmad (al-Farāhīdī) (718–791), Arab. poet, lexic. (Arab.); fl. curr. Oman [= Umān], Baṣrah 100 Khouzam, Joseph Ibrahim [= father MarieJoseph] (1924–1990), Egypt. Dom., ped.; fl. Egypt, Fr., Canada 57, 339 Kidd, Samuel (1804–1843), Eng. Protest. miss., gram., prof. (Chin.) Univ. Coll. London; fl. Malacca 216, 218, 227-35, 238 Kircher, Athanasius (1602–1680), Germ. Jes. polymath, philos., Orient. (Egypt. part.), gram. (mainly Coptic); fl. Würtzburg, Rome 98 Ko, Joaquín [= Guo Banyong] (early 17th c.), Chin. Jes. literatus, lexic. (Chin.), fl. Macau [= Àomén] (China), Bataan (Philip.) 105 Kutuffá, Giorgio [= Georgios Kutuphas] (early 19th c.), Gr. gram. (Mod. Gr.); fl. Italy 454, 456 L’Hermet, L. (early 20th c.), Fr. ped. (Fr., reading); fl. Algeria 351 Lagrange, Albert [= father Marie-Joseph] (1855–1938), Fr. Dom. hist., theol. (Biblical exegete); fl. Palestine 339

Lancelot, Claude (1615–1695), Fr. ped., gram. (Gen. Gram., Gr., Lat., It.) 44, 418-20, 426-27, Laneau, Louis (1637–1696), Fr. priest (MEP), vicar apost. (Tonkin), fl. Siam, Tonkin, Coch. 373 Lapini, Eufrosino (1520–1571), It. ped., transl., gram. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 416 Larchain, Michel (early 20th c.), Fr. col. adm., fl. AOF 257 Las Casas, Cristóbal de (late 16th c.), Sp. gram., lexic. (Tusc. ↔ Cast.); fl. Sp. 414 Le Cesne, Paul (1879–1952), Fr. businessman, fl. AOF 262 Lê Quang Trình (1883–1945), Viet. ling. (Coch.), phys. ; fl. Fr., Viet. 27 Lee, Samuel (1783–1852), Eng. chaplain (Evangelical movement), Orient., prof. (Arab., Heb.) Queen’s Coll., Cambridge , transl. (Arab., Heb., Persian, Hindustani, Māori…); fl. New Zealand 340 Léger, Jean-Marc (1927–2011), Canadian journ., writ. 46 Legge, James (1815–1897), Scottish Protest. miss. (London Miss. Soc.), Sinol., prof. (Chin.) King’s Coll. (Oxford), transl. (Chin. → Eng.); fl. Malacca, Hong Kong 216, 228-29, 234-38, Legrand, Émile (1841–1903), Fr., ling. (Mod. Gr.), prof. École lang. orient. (Paris) 453-54, 460, 464, 466 Lemaître, Alexis (1864–1939), Fr. miss., vicar apost., archbishop Carthage; fl. South. Algeria, Fr. Sudan, Tunisia 260-61 Lentulo, Scipione (1525–1599), Napoletan Calvinist theol., gram. (Tusc.); fl. Lombardia 416 Leone, Enrico de (1906–1983), It. journ., schol. 320 Leopardi, Giacomo (1798–1837), It. writ. 184-85 Leopold II de Saxe Coburg Gotha (1835–1909), king Belgians 28 Leprince de Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie [= Marie-Barbe Leprince] (1711–1780), Fr. writ., ped. fl. Fr., London 273 Lepsius, Karl Richard (1810–1884), Germ. archeol. (Egypt), philol., epigraphist (Old Egypt.), prof. univ. Leipzig, Göttingen, Berlin 340 Levi, Primo (1919-1987), It. writ. 423-24 Lévi, Sylvain (1863–1935), Fr. Indol., ling. (Tocharian), prof. (Sanskrit) Coll. de France 49 Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien (1857–1939), Fr. philos., sociol., ethn., prof. (mod. philos.) Sorbonne 58-59, 69, 340 Liburnio, Niccolò (1474–1557), It. writ.; fl. Venice, Rome 410, 438

Index of names

Liquier, Roger (late 19th c.), Fr. ped. 65 Llull, Ramón (ca. 1232–1315), Majorcan Franc. philos., theol., gram.; fl. Paris, Montpellier, Aragon, Cyprus 40, 110 Lombardo, Natal (1647–1704), Basque Jes. miss., gram. (Tegüima); fl. New Sp. (Sonora) 125 López, Andrés (late 17th. c.), Sp. miss, gram. (Pangasinán); fl. Philip. 110 Loyola, Ignatius de (1491–1556), Sp. Jes., theol., found. Soc. of Jesus 172, 190 Ludemann, Georg Wilhelm von [= Justus Ironimus Kosmopolita; = Ernst Scherzlieb] (1796–1863), Germ. lawyer, adm. off., travel., gram. (Mod. Gr.), writ.; fl. Fr. (Pyrenees), Gr., 454, 456, 464 Lupercio, Francisco Rodríguez (17th c.), Mex. print.; fl. New Sp. (Mex.) 126 Luqmān the Wise [= Locman] (11th c. BC?), Nubian or Egypt.?, qurʾānic figure 94 Luther, Martin (1483–1546), Germ. Aug. monk, theol., Father Protest. Reformation 41 Machuel, Louis (1848–1922), Fr. ped., gram. (Arab.), dir. prim. schooling (Tunisia) 27677, 282 Maclaud, Charles (1866–1933), Fr. phys., geogr.; fl. AOF 264 Macrobius [– Ambrosius Theodosius] (early 5th c.), gram. (Lat.), writ. 154 Magdalena, Agustín de (?–1689), Sp. miss., gram. (Tagalog); fl. Philip., New Sp. 98, 126 Malinowski, Bronisław (1884–1942), Polish– born Eng. anthrop.; fl. Melanesia 22 Mallet, Albert (1885–1945), Fr. off.; fl. AOF, Fr. (WW I, WW II) 251 Mallison, Françoise (1940–), Fr. Indol. (Gujarati Lit.), ling. (Hindi) 39 Mangeot, Pol Victor (1869–1965), Fr. off., gov. AOF 248, 255 Mangin, (General) Charles (1866–1925), Fr. off., fl. AOF, Morocco, Fr. (WW I) 246, 260-62 Manzoni, Alessandro (1785–1873), It. poet, novelist; fl. Paris, Milan 430-31 Marçais, William (1872–1956), Fr. Orient., ling. (colloq. Maghrebi Arab.); fl. Maghreb 57, 334-35 Marignolli, Giovanni de’ (1290–1360), Flor. Franc. friar, bishop Bisignano, dipl., hist.; fl. China, India 171 Marino, Giambattista [= Marini, Cavalier Marin] (1569–1625), It. poet, fl. Naples, Rome, Paris 420 Marr, Nikolaj Jakovlevič (1864–1934), Soviet ling; fl. Russia, Caucasus 32, 59 Martini, Ferdinando (1840–1928), It. writ., gov. Eritrea 316 Martini, Martino (1614–1661), It. Jes. miss., geogr., hist.; fl. Macau [= Àomén], Háng zhōu (China) 102, 105

487 Mas, Louis (1866–1936), Fr. off., dir. col. troops, fl. Tonkin, Senegal, Madagascar, New Caledonia 258 Mascardi, Agostino (1590–1640), It. writ.; fl. Sarzana, Rome 420 Mascarenhas, Nuno (1552–1637), Port. Jes. provincial in Port., assistant to Jes. sup. gen. 104 Masson, Paul (early 19th c.), Fr. gram. (Mod. Gr.); fl. Corfu 456 Matheson, Jardine & Co, Br. firm. (1832 –); fl. Hong Kong 238 Matos, [Manuel] Maldonado de (late 18th c.), Sp. priest, gram. (Xingka); fl. New Sp. (Guatemala) 106 Mazillier, Émile-Alexis (1862–1937), Fr. off.; fl. Coch., Tonkin, Morocco, AOF, Fr. (WW I) 261 Medicis, Ferdinand de / Ferdinando de’Medici (1549–1609), grand duke Tusc. 416 Medicis, François de / Francesco de’Medici (1541–1587), grand duke Tusc. 416 Medicis, Julien de / Giuliano de’Medici (1479–1516), duke Flor. Republic 427 Medicis, Cosme de / Cosimo de’Medici (1519–1574), duke Flor. Republic 412 Meigret, Louis (1500–1558), Fr. transl. (Gr., Lat. → Fr.), gram. (Fr.) 145, 155 Meillet, Antoine (1866–1936), Fr. ling. (gen. ling., comp. gram. Indo-Europ.), prof. Coll. de France 68-69, 86-87 Melanchton [= Schwarzerdt], Philipp (1497–1560), Germ. reformer, theol., prof. (Gr.) 41 Mencius [= Mèng Zĭ] (372?–289? BC), Chin. philos. 237 Mendieta, Gerónimo de (1525–1604), Sp. Franc. miss., hist.; fl. New Sp. 104 Mendoza, Juan González de (1545–1618), Sp. Aug., dipl., hist. (China); fl. China, New Sp. 177 Mercator, Gerardus [= Geert de Kremer] (1512–1594), Flemish geogr., cosmogr., cartogr. 181 Mesmes, Jean-Pierre [= Pierre] de (1516–1578?), Fr. poet, transl. (It. → Fr.), gram. (It.) 62, 410-13, 415, 419-20 Metastasio [= Trapassi], Pietro (1698–1782), It. priest, poet, librettist; fl. Naples, Rome, Vienna 432 Methodists, memb. of a Protest. Church (orig.: revival movement in Church of Eng., 18th c.) 42 Methodius (815–885), Byzantine Christ. theol., miss., transl. (Gr. → Old Church Slavonic); fl. Constantinople, Slavic world 14 Metternich, Klemens Wenzel von (1773–1859), Austrian statesman 64 Meyer, Wilhelm (1845–1917), Germ. philol., palaeogr. (Med. Lat.), prof. (class. philol.) univ. Göttingen 457, 460, 470

488 

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Milano, Giandomenico da (early 20th c.), It. priest, ped. (It.); fl. Eritrea 325 Milne, William (1785–1822), Br. Protest. miss. (London Miss. Soc.), ped., Biblical exegete, print.; fl. China, Malacca 216, 222, 225-26, 228 Minás, Minoïde [= Minoídis Konstantínos Minás or Mynas] (1790–1860), Gr. gram. (Gr., Mod. Gr.); fl. Gr., Paris 454, 456-57, 460, 462-63, 471 Mίng, Chin. Dynasty (1368–1644) 173, 188 Minsheu, John (1560–1627), Eng. gram., lexic. (Cast ↔ Eng.); fl. London 107, 123 Miranda, Giovanni / Juan de (16th c.), Italo-Sp. dipl., gram. (Cast), transl. (Cast ↔ It.), fl. Venice 145, 152, 155-56, 413 Mironneau, Adolphe (1859–1946), Fr. ped. (lit. stud., reading), prim. school insp.; fl. Lyon 351 Mitchell, John (early 19th c.), Br. gram. (Mod. Gr.), transl. (Fr. → Eng.) 456, 464 Mitsotakis, Johannis (1839–1905), Gr. gram. (Mod. Gr.), transl. (Gr → Germ.), prof. univ. Berlin 457, 467-69, 472 Molina, Alonso de (1513–1579), Sp. Franc. miss., gram., lexic. (Cast. ↔ Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. 42, 56, 104 Molinier, Guilhem (14th c.), Occitan poet; fl. Toulouse 148 Monosini, Agnolo (1568–1626), It. schol., lexic. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 441 Montecorvino, Giovanni da (1247–1328), It. Franc. miss., dipl.; fl. Mongolian emp., India, China 171 Monteiro, José (1646–1720), Port. Jes. miss., ped. (Chin.); fl. China 113-14 Morales, Juan Baptista de (1597–1664), Sp. Dom., theol.; fl. Philip., Formosa [curr. Taiwan], China 105 Mordacq, Henri (1868–1943), Fr. off., fl. Tonkin, Algeria, Fr. (WW I) 260 More, Hannah (1745–1833), Eng. writ., poet. 226 Morrison [= Morison] Legge, Mary Isabella (1816–1852), Br. Protest. miss. (London Miss. Soc.), educ.; fl. China, Malacca, Hong Kong 236 Morrison [= Morison], Robert (1782–1834), Br. Protest. miss. (London Miss. Soc.), educ., Biblical exegete (Chin.), Sinol., transl. (Eng. → Chin.), lexic. (Chin. ↔ Eng.); fl. China, Malacca 216, 218, 220-28, 233, 235-36, 238 Münnich, Karl Heinrich Wilhelm (1788–1867), Germ. ped., gram. (Mod. Gr.); fl. Dresden 456 Muratori, Lodovico Antonio (1672–1750), It. hist., litt. theor. (It. poet.), gram., prof. Modena, Reggio 430, 434

Mussolini, Benito (1883–1945), It. statesman 325 Myard, J. (early 20th c.), Fr. ped., gram. (Fr.) 352 Nágera [= Nájera] Yanguas (1570–1635), Mex. priest, gram. (maçahva = mazahua); fl. New Sp. 96 al-Nāqa, Maḥmūd Kāmil (1939–), Egypt. ling., ped. (Arab.); fl. South. Sudan 303 Nebrija, Antonio de [= Antonio Martínez de Cala y Xarava] (1441/44?–1522), Cast. gram. (Lat., Cast.), prof. univ. Bologna, Salamanca 13, 34-35, 98-99, 106, 110, 114, 116-18, 120, 128, 145, 148, 153-58, 336-39, 343, 414 Negris, Alexander [= Alexandros Negres] (1805–1860/80), Gr. off., gram., lexic., prof. (Mod. Gr.) Harvard univ., Edinburgh univ., Glasgow univ.; fl. Gr., US, Eng. 456-57 Neve y Molina, Luis de (?–1784), Sp. Franc., gram. (Otomi); fl. New Sp. 108, 118-19 Nevius, John Livingston (1829–1893), US Presbyterian miss., fl. China 42 Ngai [= Ai Tian] (early 17th c.), Chin. Jewish literatus, M. Ricci’s famulus (= informant); fl. K’ai-fong fou [= Kāi fēng] (Honan [= Hé nán], China) 171 Ngô, Ðức Kế (1878–1929), Viet. anti-colonialist journ., poet; fl. Hà Nội 381 Nguyễn, Đình Chiểu (1822–1888), Viet. anti-colonialist writ., poet, teacher; fl. Coch. 375 Nguyễn, Văn Vĩnh [= Tân Nam Tử] (1882–1936), Viet. writ., transl., journ.; fl. Hà Nội 382 Nicolas, Louis (1634–ca. 1682), Fr. Canadian. Jes., geogr., gram. (Algonquin); New France 103 Noah, Biblical figure 171 Ohier, Gustave (1814–1870), Fr. off., gov. Coch. 377 Oliveira, Fernão de (1507–1581), Port. Dom., hist., writ., gram. (Port.); fl. Port., Sp. 34, 146, 157 Ollivier, Henri (early 20th c.), Fr. school dir.; fl. Beirut 349 Olmos, Andrés de (1485–1571), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Nahuatl) 23, 34, 42, 146, 158-60 Ophuijsen, Charles van (1854–1917), Dutch ped., ling., prof. (Malay) univ. Leiden; fl. Dutch East Indies 391 Orient de Bellegarde, Jean-Samuel d’ (early 19th c.), Fr. gram. (Mod. Gr.) 454, 456 Ortelius [= Ortell, Ortels], Abraham (1527– 1598), Brabant cartogr.; fl. Antwerp 181 Oudin, Antoine (1595–1653), Fr., ped. (It.), gram., lexic. (It., Cast ↔ Fr.) 437-38

Index of names

Oudin, César (1560–1625), Fr., dipl., gram. (It., Cast), lexic. (It., Cast ↔ Fr), transl. (It., Cast → Fr.) 145, 155-56 Oyanguren de Santa Inés, Melchor (1688–1747), Sp. (Basque) Franc. miss., ped., gram ( Jap., Tagalog, Basque); fl. Philip., Japan, Coch., curr. Cambodia, New Sp. 99-100 Palsgrave, John (1485–1554), Eng. priest, ped., gram. (Fr.) 62, 145, 155 Parisinus, Τhomas[us] [= Thomas de Paris] (early 18th c.), Fr. Capuchin miss. apost., gram. (Mod. Gr.), fl. Constantinople, Gr. Islands 451, 454, 456-57, 460-61, 470 Passionei, Lelio (16th c.), It. Jes.; fl. Rome 188, 203 Paul [= Saul of Tarsus, Saint Paul] (1st c.), Christ. apostle 177 Peano, Giuseppe (1858–1932), It. math., logician, interling. 86-87 Peixoto, Antonio da Costa (1703–1763), Port. layman, gram. (lίngua geral de Mina); fl. Brazil (Minas Gerais) 96 Peltier, Camille (early 20th c.), Fr. ped., gram (Fr.), prim. school insp.; fl. Fr. 351 Pérès, Auguste (early 20th c.), Fr. ped. (reading); fl. AOF 277, 279, 282 Peretti [= Vincent], Vincent (?–1808), It. ped., gram. (It.); fl. Paris, London 429, 432, 435-39 Pérez, Manuel (?–1725), Aug. miss., trans. (Lat → Cast, Nahuatl), gram. (Nahuatl), prof. (Nahuatl) Reale y Pontificia univ., Mexico 98, 101, 107-08 Pernot, Hubert (1870–1946), Fr. ling. (Mod. Gr.), phonetician, prof. Sorbonne 454, 458-59, 470 Petrarc(h)a / Petrarch / Pétrarque, Francesco (1304–1374), It. (Tusc.) poet 408-09, 413-16, 419-20, 432 Phan, Châu Trinh (1872–1926), Viet. modernist nationalist; fl. Coch. 380 Pian del Carpine, Giovanni da (1185–1252), It. Franc. prel., dipl.; fl. Germ., Sp., curr. Russia, Central Asia 171 Piani, Julius [= Julio Koga] (early 17th c.), Jap. Jes. Miss., catechist; fl. Tonkin 371 Pichon, Édouard (1890–1940), Fr. psychiatrist, ling. (Fr.) 86-87 Pietists, memb. of a Protest. movement (orig.: Germ, early 18th c.) 41 Pillot, Jean (1515?–1580?), Fr. gram. (Fr.); fl. Germ. 145 Pina, Francisco de (1585–1625), Port. Jes., miss., gram., lexic. (Viet.); fl. Coch. 370, 383 Pineau, Isidore-Honoré (1855–1936), Fr. off., insp. col. troops, fl. AOF 259

489 Pistoia, Cino de [Guittoncino di ser Francesco dei Sigibuld] (1270–1336), It. (Flor.) jurist, poet, prof. (Law) univ. Bologna 417 Polo, Marco (1254–1324), It. travel.; fl. Venice, Genoa, China 170-71 Polivanov, Evguenij Dmitrievič (1891–1938), Soviet Orient., ling, (Jap., Chin., Uzbek); fl. Russia, Japan, Caucasus 33 Poliziano, Agnolo [= Angelo Ambrogini, Ange Politien] (1464–1495), It. (Tusc.) humanist, poet, transl. (Gr., Lat. → It.); fl. Flor. 419 Pordenone, Oderico da (1286–1331), It. (Friulian) Franc. miss., travel.; fl. China 171 Portius, Simon (?–post 1667), Gr. theol., phys., lexic., gram. (Mod. Gr., Cypriot Gr., Chios Gr., Cretan Gr.), poet (It., Gr.); fl. Rome, Chios 451, 456-57, 459-60, 470 Postel, Guillaume [= Elias Pandocheus, Rorisperge] (1510–1581), Fr. Orient. dipl., cartogr., hist., gram. (Arab., Heb.), transl. (Latin → Arab.), prof. Coll. royal (Paris); fl. It., Fr., Syria, Egypt, Constantinople 343 Potteaux, Ernest (1842–1891), Fr. journ., interpreter (Fr.↔ Viet.); fl. Coch., Tonkin 377 Powell, John Wesley (1824–1902), US explorer, geologist, anthrop. (Amer. lang. & cult.) 22 Presbyterians, memb. of a Protest. Church (orig.: Church of Scotland, 17th c.) 42, 227 Priscian [= Priscianus Caesariensis] (470?–?), Lat. gram. (Lat.); fl. Constantinople 58, 150, 154 Protten, Christian Jacob [= Africanus Protten] (1715–?), Euro-African Moravian miss., ped., transl., gram. (Ga, Fante), fl. Gold Coast [= Ghana] 41 Psichari, Jean (1854–1929), Fr., ling. (Mod. Gr.), prof. École lang. orient. (Paris) 460 Qāsim, ʿAwn al-Šarīf (1933–2006), Sudanese writ. 303 Qiánlóng (1711–1799), Chin. emp. 218 Qīng, Chin. Dynasty (1644–1912) 39, 218 Quintana, Agustín de (ca. 1660–1734), Sp. Dom., theol., gram. (Mixe), transl. (Lat. → Mixe); fl. New Sp. 35, 119-21 Quintilian / Quintilien (ca. 35–ca. 99), Lat. rhetorician, ped.; fl. Rome 100, 190, 204, 206, 415 Rada, Martín de (1533–1578), Sp. (Navarrese) Aug. miss., fl. New Sp., Philip., Fou-Kien [= Fújiàn] (China) 177 Ramus, Petrus / Pierre de La Ramée (1515–1572), Fr. philos., gram (Fr.), prof. (eloquence, philos.) Coll. royal; fl. Paris 145, 147, 151, 153, 155 Renan, Ernest (1823–1892), Fr. writ., philos., philol., hist., prof. (Heb.) Coll. de France 49

490 

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Restaut, Pierre (1696–1764), Fr. jurist, gram. (Fr.) 121 Reyes, Antonio de los (late 16th c.), Sp. Dom. miss., gram. (Mixtec) 146-47, 160 Rhodes, Alexandre de (1593–1660), Fr. Jes. miss., gram., lexic. (Port. ↔ Viet. ↔ Lat.); fl. Tonkin, Coch. 37, 103, 370-72, 383 Ricci, Matteo [= Xītài, Lì Mǎdòu] (1552–1610), It. Jes. miss., philos, lexic. (Chin.), cartogr., fl. China 24, 40, 58, 102, 169-81, 187-208 Richelieu, Armand Du Plessis de (1585–1642), Fr. prel., statesman 460 Rincón, Antonio de (1566–1601), Sp. Jes. miss. gram. (Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. 23, 117, 128 Rivarol Antoine (1753–1801), Fr. writ. 61 Rivet, Paul (1876–1958), Fr. ethn. (Amer. lang. & cult.) 69 Robertson, Henry (early 19th c.), Br. gram. (Mod. Gr.) 454, 456 Roboredo, Amaro de (ca. 1584–post 1653), Port. Jes., gram., ped. (Ian. ling.), transl. (Lat. → Port.), lexic. (Lat. ↔ Sp., Port.); fl. Évora, Salamanca 106 Rodrigues [= Roiz], João [= Joam Rodrigues Giram or Girão] (ca. 1560–ca. 1633), Port. Jes. miss., gram. (Jap.), transl. (Jap. ↔ Port.); fl. Jap., Macao 35, 103-04, 114, 124, 145-46, 160-61 Ronciglione, Angelo da (early 20th c.), It. Capuchin miss., gram., transl. (Amharic ↔ It. ↔ Fr.); fl. Eritrea 223-23 Ronsard, Pierre de (1524–1585), Fr. poet 611 Rosa, Salvator (1615–1673), It. painter, poet; fl. Naples, Flor., Rome 420 Rosidi, Ajip (1938–2020), Indon. poet, writ. (Sundanese, Indon.); prof. (Indon. Lit.) univ. Osaka, Nara, Kyoto 393, 396 Ross, John (1842–1915), Scottish Presbyterian miss., hist., folkl., gram. (Korean), transl. (Eng. → Korean); fl. China, Korea 42 Roth, Heinrich [= Henrique Roa] (1620–1668), Germ. Jes. miss., gram. (Sanskrit), prof. univ. Munich; fl. Goa, Srinagar, Āgrā (India) 102 Roucoules, Émile (late 19th c.), Fr. ped. (Viet. writ.); fl. Coch. 377-78 Ruëll [= Ruel, De Ruel], Joannes (1659/64?–1701), Dutch clergyman, gram. (Singhala); fl. Ceylon [curr. Sri Lanka] 41-87 Ruggieri, Michele [= Pompilio –, Luo Mingjian] (1643–1507), It. Jes. miss.., lexic. (Port. → Chin.), transl. (Chin. → Lat.); fl. Malabar (India), Shiuhing [= Zhàoqìng], Macau [= Àomén], Canton [= Guǎngzhōu] (China) 102 Ruiz de Montoya, Antonio (1585–1652), Sp. Jes. miss., gram. (Guarani); fl. Paraguay, Chile, Peru 35, 103, 114, 177

Ruscelli, Girolamo (ca. 1500–1566), It. schol., writ., gram. (It.); fl. Rome, Naples, Venice 146, 154, 419 Rushdie, Salman (1947–), Ind.–born Br. writ.; fl. India, Br., US. 20 Rustichello da Pisa (late 13th c.), It. writ. (Fr.) 170 Sagard, Gabriel [= Théodat] (early 17th c.), Fr. Recollect miss, geogr., lexic. (Huron ↔ Fr.); fl. New France 97 Said, Edward (1935–2003), Palestinian–born US hist., lit. theor., prof. (Lit.) Columbia univ. 49-50 Saint-Cyran [Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbott of –] (1581–1643), Fr. Jansenist priest 418 Saint Vincent, Charles de [= J. Charles Aroux,] (early 18th c.), Fr. Dom. writ.; fl. Fr., China? 105 Salviati, Leonardo [= Infarinato, Rigogoli] (1540–1589), It. writ., lit. theor., philol. (Tusc.); fl. Flor. 146, 152, 154, 419 Samarin, William John (1926–2020), US ling. (Sango, Gbeya), prof. univ. Toronto; fl. Central Africa 67-68 San Agustín [= Augustin], Gaspar de (1651–1724), Sp. Aug. miss., hist., gram. (Tagalog); fl. Philip. 95, 110 San Buenaventura, Gabriel (late 17th c.), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Yucatec Maya); fl. New Sp. 96 San Concordio, Bartolomeo da (1262–1347), It. Dom. preacher, canonist, schol., poet (Lat., Tusc.), fl. Tusc., Rome 438 Sánchez de la Baquera, Juan (18th c.), Sp. Jes. Miss., gram. (Otomi); fl. New Sp. 35, 108, 115-16, 118, 122-23 Sánchez de las Brozas [= El Brocense, Sanctius], Francisco (1523–1600), Sp. gram., humanist; fl. Salamanca 106 Sannazaro, Jacopo [= Gliommeri; Actius Sincerus] (1458–1530), It. poet, humanist, epigrammist (Lat., Tusc.); fl. Naples 413, 419-20 Sansovino, Francesco Tatti da (1521–1586), schol., humanist, hist; fl. Rome, Padua, Venice 438 Santo Tomás, Domingo (1499–1570), Sp. Dom., bishop La Plata, Charcas, gram. (Quechua as a ling. franc.); fl. Peru 42 Sapeto, Giuseppe (1811–1895), It. Lazarist miss., ped., gram. (Arab.); fl. Eritrea, Abyssinia 320-23 Sapir, Edward (1884–1939), US anthrop., ling. (Gen. Ling., Amer. lang. & cult., Yiddish), prof. univ Chicago, Yale 22, 68

Index of names

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1857–1913), Swiss ling. (gen. ling., comp. gram. Indo-Europ.), fl. Leipzig, Paris, Geneva 69, 86-87, 324 Savary, Claude-Etienne (1750–1788), Orient., Egypt., gram. (colloq. Egypt.), transl. (class. Arab.); fl. Egypt 342-43 Scaliger [= Bordone], Jules César [= Iulius Caesar, Giulio] (1484–1558), It.-Fr. phys., philol., gram. (Lat.) 49 Schlegel, Friedrich von (1772–1829), Germ. philos., writ. 49 Schinas, Michel (1792–1870), Gr. polit., gram. (Mod. Gr.) 456, 463, 466, 472 Schmidt, Johann-Adolph (1769–1851), philol., gram. (Mod. Gr.), prof. univ. Leipzig 454, 456-57, 462, 464, 471 Schmidt, Wilhelm (1868–1954), Germ. miss. (Societas Verbi Divini), ethn., prof. (ethn.) univ. Vienna, Freiburg, 69 Schuchardt, Hugo (1842–1927), Germ. ling. (Basque, Rom. lang., pidgins, creoles); fl. Graz 393 Scopius / Schioppus / Schoppe / Schoppio, Gaspar / Kaspar / Gaspare (1576–1649), Germ. dipl., schol., gram. (Lat., Germ., It.), ped. (Ian. ling.); fl. It. 106 Scott, A. (early 19th c.), Br. gram. (Mod. Gr.) 456 Séché, Alphonse (1876–1964), Fr. writ. 250-51, 257, 264 Sénart, Émile (1847–1928), Fr. Indol., epigr., prof. Coll. de France 49 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4 BC–65), Lat. philos. 179 Senghor, Léopold Sédar (1906–2001), Senegalian poet, writ., statesman 20, 60 Sergius [Grammaticus] (late 5th c.–early 6th c.), Lat. gram. (Lat.), theol.; fl. Antioch? 154 Serreius, Joannes [= Jean Serrier de Badonviller] (1574–1613), Lorrain phys., gram. (Fr.) 145, 155, Seymour, Ann / Anne (ca. 1538–1588), Eng. writ. 411 Seymour, Jane / Jeanne (1541–1560), Eng. writ. 411 Seymour, Margaret / Marguerite (1540–?), Eng. writ. 411 Shakespeare, William (1564–1616), Eng. playwright, poet 207 Silvestre de Sacy, Antoine-Isaac (1758–1838), Fr. Orient., ling. (Syriac, Arab., Persian), prof. (class. Arab.) École lang. orient. (Paris), Coll. de France (Persian) 49, 342-43 Simonides of Ceos (ca. 556–468 BC), Gr. poet 188, 206 Sonolet, Louis (1872–1928), Fr. writ., ped. (reading); fl. AOF 277, 279, 582

491 Sophianos, Nikolaos (1500–1551), Gr. humanist, cartogr., print., gram. (Mod. Gr.); fl. Corfu, It. 454, 459 Sophocles, Evangelinos Apostolides (1807–1883), Gr. ling., lexic., prof. (class. & Mod. Gr.), Harvard univ.; fl. Gr., US 452-57 Sozzini (da Sarzana) [= Zarzana], Antonio (early 17th c.), It. transl. (Lat. → It.); fl. Naples 176 Stalin, Iosif (1878–1953), Soviet statesman 59 Staunton, George Thomas (1781–1859), Br. travel., Orient., hist., off. (East India Company) 218, 221-22, 234 Stendhal [= Henri Beyle] (1783–1842), Fr. writ. 435 Stephens, Thomas [= Tomás Estevão] (ca. 1549–1619), Eng. Jes. miss., writ., gram. (Konkani, Marathi); fl. India 103, 124 Strozzi, Ercole (1473–1508), It. poet.; fl. Ferrara 427 Sukarno [= Soekarno, Koesno Sosrodihardjo] (1901–1970), Indon. Statesman 392-93 Sylvius, Jacobus [= Jacques Dubois] (1478–1555), phys., anatomist, gram. (Fr.) 145, 155 Tabi Manga, Jean (1949–), Cameroonian ling. (Ewondo) 39 Tabourot, Étienne (1545–1590), Fr. poet 64 Tacuino [= Giovanni da Tridino] (ca. 1482––ca. 1541), It. print.; fl. Venice 409 Talavera, Hernando de (1428–1507), Sp. Hieron., archbishop Granada 336-39, 343 Tani, Nicolò (16th c.), It. (Tusc.) gram. (Tusc.) 416 Tapia Zenteno, Carlos de (1698–post 1767), Mex. priest, gram. (Huastec, Nahuatl) 106 Tasso, Torquato (1544–1595], It. poet; fl. Naples, Venice, Rome 420, 432 al-Ṭayyib al-Šayḫ, Ḥusayn (20th c.), Sudanese ling. ped. (Arab.); fl. South. Sudan 298, 303 Thomas Aquinas (= Saint Thomas) (1225–1274), It. Dom. friar, philos. 190 Thomas, William (16th c.), Welsh travel., gram., lexic. (It.), fl. Venice 416 Thoms, Peter Perring (1791–1855), Br. print., transl. (Chin.→ Eng.); fl. Macau [= Àomén], Canton [= Guǎngzhōu] (China) 222 Thumb, Albert (1865–1915), Germ. linguist (Mod. Gr.), prof. Mod. Gr. (univ. Freiburg i. Br.; univ. Marburg), prof. univ. Strasbourg (comp. gram.) 57, 452, 454-55, 457, 468, 472 Totanés, Sebastián de [= Sebastián Gómez de Herrera] (1688–1748), Sp. Franc. miss, gram. (Tagalog); fl. Philip. 95, 100, 110 Trần, Quý Cáp (1871–1908), Viet. poet, schol. 380

492 

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Travélé, Moussa (1887–1941), Bamanankan [= Bambara] writ., transl., gram., lexic. (Fr. ↔ Bamanankan) 249 Trenado de Ayllón, Francisco (late 16th c.), Sp. gram. (It.) 62, 413-15 Triantafyllidis, Manolis A. (1883–1959), Gr. ped., gram. (Mod. Gr.), prof. univ. Thessaloniki 464 Trigault, Nicolas (1577–1628), Flemish Jes. Miss., Sinol., gram. (Chin.), fl. China 94, 102, 113, 176 Trissino, Gian Giorgio (1478–1550), It. literary theor., philol., gram. (Tusc.), transl. (Lat. → Tusc.); fl. Veneto, Rome 146, 152-53 Trương, Vĩnh Ký [= (Jean-Baptiste) Petrus Ký] (1837–1898), Viet. (Coch.) journ., writ., educ., gram. (Viet.) 375-76, 381 Turner, Samuel Fearon (1819–1854), Br. admin., Orient., prof. King’s Coll., London (Chin.); fl. Hong Kong 234 Uc Faidit [= Ug de Sant Circ?] (fl. 1217–1253), Occitan troubadour, gram. (Occitan); fl. Quercy, Lombardia, Veneto? 148 Urbano, Alonso de (1529–1608), Sp. Franc. miss., gram. (Otomi); fl. New Sp. 146, 160 Vagnone, Alfonso [= Wáng Fēngsù, = Gāo Yīzhì] (1566–1640), It. Jes. miss., ped., writ. (Chin.); fl. China 181 Valignano, Alessandro [= Fàn Lǐ’ān] (1539–1606), It. Jes. miss., theol., hist., visitor for Orient; fl. Goa, Malacca, Japan, Macau [= Àomén] 172, 174, 179 Vallisneri [= Vallisnieri], Antonio (1661–1730), It. phys., naturalist, terminologist (medicine terms in It.), prof. univ. Padua (medicine) 434 Van Gennep [= Kurr], Arnold (1873–1957), Fr. ethn., folkl. 69 Varo, Francisco [= Wàn Fāngjìgè] (1627–1687), Sp. Dom. miss., gram., lexic. (Chin.); fl. China 35, 99, 109, 116, 126 Varro, Marcus Terentius (116–27 BC), Roman polit., polymath, gram. (Lat.) 49, 159 Vaugelas, Claude Favre de (1585–1650), Fr. gram. (Fr.) 433 Veller, Paul (early 20th c.), Fr. ped. (reading); fl. Algeria 357-58 Veneroni, Giovanni (1642–1708), Fr. transl., gram. (It.), lexic. (Fr. ↔ It.); fl. Paris, Versailles 429, 435-38, 441-42

Vergani, Angelo (fl. 1791–1811), It. gram. (It.); fl. France, London 432-36, 442 Vetancurt, Agustín de (1620–1700), Mex. Franc. miss., hist., gram. (Nahuatl); fl. New Sp. 108, 126 Vidal de Bezaulú [= de Bezaudun], Raimon (1196–1252), Catalan troubadour, gram. (Occitan) 148 Villalón, Cristóbal de [= Cristophoro Gnophoso?] (1510?–1562?), Sp. theol., writ., gram. (Cast.) 145, 155-56 Villani, Giovanni (1275–1348), It. dipl., chronicler, writ.; fl. Flor. 413, 417, 432 Vitoria, Francisco de (1485–1546), Sp. Franc. theol., jurist; fl. Salamanca 177 Voltaire (1694–1778), Fr. writ. 430, 442 Vossius, Gerardus / Gerhardt Johannes (1577–1649), Dutch philos., theol., hist., gram. (Lat., Gr.), prof. univ. Leiden 106 Wadding, Luke (1588–1657), Irish Franc. Friar, prof. theol (Salamanca, Rome), apologist; hist.; philol. (Heb.); fl. Port., Rome 171 Wade, Thomas [= Wēi Tuǒ mǎ] (1818–1895), Br. dipl., Sinol., gram. (Chin., Chin. writ.), prof. (Chin.) Cambridge univ. 216, 223 Welde, William (early 17th c.), Eng. gram., transl. (Latin → Eng.), ped. (Ian. ling.) 106 White Fathers [= the Missionaries of Africa], Roman Cath. Soc. (1868 –) 66, 258, 260, 262 Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1897–1941), US anthrop., ling. (Amer. lang. & cult.) 68 Williams, John (1797–1874), Br. antiquary, astronomer, Egypt., Sinol. 224-225 Willmore, John Selden (1856–1931), Br. magistrate., ling. (Egypt. Arabic) 342 Wilmotte, Maurice (1861–942), Belgian ling., med. studies (Rom.), prof. univ. Liège 46 Winnock, George (early 19th c.), Br. clergyman, transl. (Fr. → Eng.) 456-57, 464, 466 Yacine, Kateb (1929–1989), Algerian writ. 20 Yong, Sam-Tak Róng Sān Dé (early 19th c.), Chin. student, transl. (Eng. → Chin.); fl. London 221 Zhū, Dĭnghàn (early 17th c.), Chin. Jes. catechist, schol., transl. (It. → Chin.) 181 Ziegenbalg, Batholomäus (1682–1719), Germ, Lutherian miss., gram. (Tamil), fl. South. India 41-42



Index of languages and script names

Abkhazian 32 Afro-Asiatic lang. 31 Algic lang. 30 Algonquin 103 Alsatian / alsacien 257, 356 Amerindian lang. 35, 42 Amharic 322-23, 326 – script 98, 127 Annamese. See Vietnamese Anuak 291, 300 Arabic / arabe – alph. / script 34, 55, 98, 127, 171, 291-92, 294, 296-302, 304-05, 338, 340 – as a FL 18, 291-309 – as a ling. franc. 393 Andalusi – (or Granadan –) 56, 336-39 Damascus – 40, 101 “dial.” – (or “vulgar”–, or colloq. –) 17, 114, 293, 320-22, 333-45 Egyptian – 17, 57, 339-43 Juba – or Pidgin –. See South. Sudan – Khartoum – 292 Lebanon – 293 Maghrebi – 57 Stand. – (or class. –, or lit. –) 17, 35, 40, 49, 55, 58, 60, 93-94, 292-94, 100-01, 110-11, 114, 140-41, 296-98, 302, 326, 335, 342-43, 347-48, 351, 353-54, 357-61, 363-64 South. Sudan – 292, 295, 297 Armenian 98, 213-14 – alph. 63, 127 Asian lang. 32, 99, 122, 145 Austronesian lang. 68 Avestan 49 Aymara 35, 114 Bahasa Indonesia. See Indonesian Bamanankan (or Bambara, or Bamana) 24852, 254 – as a ling. franc. 16, 31, 66, 246-51 Bari 17, 290, 295, 300 Beja 17, 295, 304 Breton 355-56 Burmese script 127 Cahita 35, 117 Cakchiquel [= Kaqchikel] 35, 129 Canada (lang. of –) 34 Cantonese (or Guǎng dōng huà) 217, 221, 232, 234 Castilian (or Spanish) 23, 25, 30, 34, 36, 40, 47, 61-62, 91, 93, 95, 98, 105, 107, 120, 122-23, 125, 128, 140-41, 145, 148, 150-51, 153-66, 336-38, 390, 397, 399, 429, 414, 461, 470 – as a FL 413, 415, 418

Caucasian lang. 32 Celtic lang. 184-85 Chaldean 110 Chechen 33 Cherkess [= Adyghe] 33 Chinese (or Mandarin) 39, 58, 94, 99, 102-03, 105, 109, 113-14, 122-23, 169-72, 178, 181, 187-93, 205, 215-42, 381 – characters (or Sinograms) 37, 114, 126, 172, 197-98, 201-04, 207-08, 222-23, 230, 232-33, 268-69, 374-76, 379, 381-84 Roman alph. of – (or Pīnyīn) 178, 216, 223 Chiquitano 115 Coptic alph. 98, 127 Creoles 31, 64 Dutch – (Indon.) 391 Fr. – 52, 253 Port. – 253 Arab. – (or – Arab.) 17, 292, 295 Cypriot / chypriote. See Greek Cyrillic alph. 33 Devanagari script 127 Dinka 291, 296, 298, 300-01 Dutch 18, 30, 97, 123, 157, 399 Flemish 46 English / anglais 48, 53-56, 62, 106-07, 123, 155-57, 184-85, 202, 216-17, 221-22, 225, 228, 232, 236-37, 248, 263, 292, 296-97, 314-15, 326, 341, 390, 393-400, 436, 442 Anglo-American 60 – as a ling. franc. 389-404 broken – 253 global – 60, 393, 396-99 Esperanto 46, 255, 263 Ethiopic script 127 Etruscan alph. 127 Ewondo 39 French / français 15, 20, 30, 43, 45-47, 52-57, 59-67, 122, 145-49, 151, 153, 155-57, 160, 162, 166, 213, 219, 227, 245, 247-49, 251-53, 255-58, 260-65, 269-88, 322-23, 334, 341, 346-64, 377-83, 386, 390, 393, 411, 415, 425, 441-42, 449, 454, 461, 463, 466, 470-72 français tirailleur or forofifon naspa 17, 51-57, 59, 248-257, 262-64 – dialects 257 Fújiàn huà. See Hokkien Fula 252, 258, 261, Fur 295 Galla [= Oromo] 31, 314, 322 Geez [= Ge’ez]. See Ethiopic

494 

L ANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING IN MISSIONARY AND COLONIAL CONTEX TS

Georgian alph. (or “alph. ibericum”) 63, 98, 127 German / allemand 20, 30, 41, 44, 53, 66, 68, 227, 334, 356-57, 390, 412, 438, 454, 462, 467-68, 471-72 Germanic lang. 184-85 Glagolitic alph. 14 Greek / grec – alph. 98, 127, 170, 340 – as a FL 57, 451-78 Attic dialect 18 Chios – 459, 471-72 Cypriot– / – chypriote 101, 110, 462, 470 Old – 36, 63, 94, 100-01, 154, 162, 189-90, 213, 219, 227 Demotic – (or vulgar, – or colloq. –) 18, 111 – dialects 453, 460, 462-63, 468-71 Greco-latin (grammar, tradition or model) 24, 115, 130, 140, 158, 370 Medieval – 456, 470 Modern – (or Romaic, or Neo –) 30, 450-478 Katharevousa (or “purified”–) 18, 57, 457, 467, 472 Smyrna – (or smyrniote / Smyrniot) 464, 471 Guarani 35, 110, 177 Guazapar 100 Hamito-Semitic lang. 31 Hausa 304 Hebrew 47, 101, 110, 219, 227, 233, 334, 340 – alph. 98, 127 Hieroglyphic script 98, 233 Hindi. See Hindustani Hindustani 40-41, 96-97 Hokkien (or quánzhāng piàn of mǐnnányǔ) 217, 228, 232-34 Huastec [= Huasteco, Guasteco] or Teenek 96 Hungarian 30, 45 Huron 97 Indo-European lang. 14, 33, 49, 58, 69, 232, 314 Ingush 33 Indonesian (or bahasa indonesia) as a ling. franc. 389-404 Italian / italien 311-12, 314-15, 318-24, 329, 407, 427 – as a ling. franc. 44 – as a FL 324, 329, 425-49 – dialects 428, 431, 439-40 Florentine / florentin 170, 408-09, 412-13, 415-16, 421, 435, Roman/ romain 435 Tuscanized – (or Tuscan / toscan / tuscane) 148, 152, 323, 408-10, 411-13, 435, 443 Japanese 31, 34-35, 94, 99, 102-04, 114, 124, 146, 160-62, “coye” vs “yomi”registers 102 – script 37, 126, 175, 178 Javanese/javanais 18, 403-04

Kariri lang. 30 Khatarevousa. See Greek K’iche’ [= Kiche, quiche] 35 Kikongo 16 Konkani 31, 103, 124 Korean 42 Latin 23, 36-37, 94, 98-101, 103-04, 117-19, 122, 143-66, 174, 184, 189, 213, 335-37, 367, 370-74, 382, 415-16, 426, 429, 434, 441, 444, 461, 470 – as a metalang. (or lang. of instruction) 30, 40, 108, 144-54, 156-62, 173, 336-39, 368-70 – alph. (or Romanization) 25, 33, 337-38, 340, 367-87, 391 Extended – gram. 22-24, 35 Medieval – 152-53, 159, 161 Lingala 16 Lengua general (in Cast.) / Língua geral (in Port) 17, 96, 178 Lotuko 291, 296-99 Luba 16 Macro-jê lang. 30 Malay (or bahasa melayu) 18, 31, 97, 228, 232-33, 390-91, 397-98, 400 “high” (tinggi) vs “low” (rendah) – 391 Malay dialects 404-05 Malayalam script (or “alph. grandonicum”) 127 Manchu 37, 39, 102, 112 Mandarin (or guān huà). See Chinese Mande (or mandingue, or Mandinka) lang. 248-49, 254, 304 Marathi 103 Massachusett [= wampanoag] 124 Matlatzinca 103 Mayan lang. 30, 96 Mazahua [= maçahva] 96 Mina 96 Mixe lang. 119-21 Mixtec 146-47, 160, 162 Mongolian 170 Morli 291, 300 Moro 300 Muysca [=Mosca, Muysc cubun] (or chibcha) 108 Nahuatl 23, 34, 42, 95, 98, 101, 107-09, 117, 119, 122, 126, 146, 158-60, 162 – as a ling. franc. (or lengua general) 17, 31, 56, 101 class. – (or Huehuetlahtolli) 56, 101 Nêhirawêwin [= Montagnais] 116 Niger-Congo lang. 31, 298 Nilo-Saharan lang. 31 North Indian lang. 39 Nobiin [= Halfawi] 298, 302 Nubian lang. 295 Nuer 291, 296

495

Index of languages and script names 

Oc lang. / lang. d’oc 409 Occitan 148-49, 159, 356 Oil lang. / lang. d’oïl 409 Old Norse / vieux norrois 184-185 Oto-Manguean lang. 30, 96 Otomi (or Othomi) 35, 108-09, 116, 118-19, 122, 146, 160, 162 P’ags-pa script. 170 Pangasinán 110 Persian 97, 170 – alph. (or Arab.-Persian alph. ; or “alph. persicum”) 127, 170 petit-nègre or sabir. See français-tirailleur Pidgin(s) 56 Arab. –. See South. Soudan Arab.) Fr. – (AOF). See français-tirailleur Malay – (or “service Malay”) 31, 391, 393, Portuguese/ portugais 23, 25, 30, 34, 36-37, 47, 54, 99, 102-04, 122, 146, 153-62, 227, 372, 390 Brazilian – 15 Purépecha. See Tarascan Quechua (or Quichua) 30-31, 35, 42, 114, 121 – as a ling. franc. 17, 31 Quechuan lang. 30 Romance (or Romanic, or Neo-Latin) lang. 2324, 33, 100, 141, 143-66 Romanian 32-33 “Moldavian” 32-33 Russian 32-33, 47 Samaritan alph. 127 Sanskrit 39, 49, 102 – as a ling. franc. 393 Semitic lang. 69, 340-41 Serer 252 Shilluk 17, 291, 295-96, 300 Singhala 41, 97 Slavic lang. 14 Soninke 252 Spanish / espagnol. See Castilian

Susu [= Soso] 257 Swahili 304 – as a ling. franc. 16, 22, 31 Syriac alph. 98, 127 Szinca [= Szinka; = Xinka] 107 Tagalog 95, 98-100, 115, 126 Tamil 31, 41, 102-03 Tangutan script (or “alph. tangutanum”) [= Tibetan script] 127 Tarahumara 117 Tarascan 104, 146, 161 Tartar. See Manchu Tegüima [= Ópata] 125 Tigrinya 322, 326 Toucouleur [= Pulaar] 257, 304 Tupi 17, 34, 42, 146, 157-58, 160, 162, 178 Tupi-Guarani lang. 30 Turkish / turc 96, 350, 357, 466 Tz’utujil [= Tzutuhil, Tzutujil] 35 Uiguric 170 Uiguric alph. 170 Urdu. See Hindustani Uto-Aztecan lang. 31 Vietnamese 31, 37, 103, 122, 178, 368-387 “Cocinchinese” dialect 370 [chữ] nôm (or demotic script) 367-69, 373, 376 [chữ] quốc ngữ (or – romanized script) 18, 25, 368-387 “Tonkinese” dialect 370-71, 373 Volapuk 255 Wolof 258, 261 – as a ling. franc. 31, 304 Yoruba 304 Yucatec Maya 98 Zande 291, 296, 298, 300 Zapotec 119, 146, 160, 162