Earliest English-Thai Dictionary
May 30th, 2014 by bachmann
Eliza Grew Jones, a member of a Baptist missionary to Burma, compiled one of the first known Thai-English dictionaries, completing it in December of 1833. She was incredibly talented with languages, having even taught herself Greek. She desperately wanted to preach the Gospels, but being a woman, was prohibited. She married missionary Rev. Dr. John T. Jones in 1830, and soon after, sailed for Burma and Siam with the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. While there, she studied the Thai language, carefully making journal entries of the words, terms, and phrases she learned. In spite of her dedication to this work, it appears that her original dictionary was never published and the whereabouts of her original manuscript is unknown. It is theorized that the difficulty of printing Thai characters prevented this dictionary from being published. Years later, she created a Romanized script of Thai characters to facilitate printing, eventually publishing portions of the Bible in the Thai language. Not long after this accomplishment, Eliza Grew Jones succumbed to Cholera in 1838. All that remains from Jones’ original dictionary is this hand-copied version by Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, completed in May of 1839. This bound manuscript, held by Widener Library, contains more than 8,000 Thai words with English translations, as well as several interesting illustrations. The volume is a unique resource for comparative and historical linguistic research and East-Asian scholarship.
“You will rejoice with me when I tell you
that I have at last finished the Siamese dictionary,
the arrangement and copying of which has been my
chief business in that language, for nearly a year past.
It contains many thousand words, and though it is imperfect,
and will require much correction hereafter, I hope it may be useful”
-Excerpt from Memoir of Mrs. Eliza G. Jones :missionary to Burmah and Siam. Philadelphia : American Baptist Publication Society, 1853.
Eliza Grew Jones entry for the sacred Mount Meru and its surrounding peaks that act like a pair of stairs. According to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology, Mt. Meru is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.
- Description:
- Dictionary of the Siamese language containing more than 8000 words : copied from Jones’ latest dictionary : manuscript, 1839.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:4506879
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University