query re mary

[David D. Robertson]

I'm very interested in the question of how well Christian missionaries
learned any languages of the Pacific Northwest, which would have governed
their success in translating.  Some learned Jargon well, like Demers &
company, but even in those cases I wonder whether their view of CJ was
jaundiced by a well-attested prejudice against pidgins and creoles!

And as we know, a number of missionaries, of whom Myron Eells is a good
example, were notably unaccomplished at learning the region's languages.
In these latter cases, one wonders what factors came into play.  The poor
fit between the procrustean bed of Latin & Greek on the one hand, and the
NW languages on the other, is the start of a list of reasons often
preventing Euro-Americans from learning others' languages well.

The concomitant damage to the intended transmission of Euro-American
religion was inestimable.  Cf. the work of even the most successful
missionaries in the region, virtually none of whom produced a full
translation of the Bible into an indigenous language; how much of a
religious doctrine can you teach to people when you've got to try choosing
only the pithiest parts?

You might suspect that the rapid spread of English among the Native people
was the most effective tool of Christianization.  Before the entrenchment
of anglophony, indigenous communities may have enjoyed a somewhat effective
buffer against outside influence, in the form of the language barrier.


On Thu, 22 Aug 2002 06:05:53 -0700, Jeffrey Kopp <jeffkopp at ATTBI.COM> wrote:

>I don't know much about religion (especially the Catholic), but I do
understand the missionaries had a very difficult time making what they felt
would be adequate translation of prayers, sermons and instruction into the
limited, transaction-oriented Jargon (which they unhappily resorted to
using, as most were unable to master the complex and numerous full Native
tongues--despite having a multilingual education and earnest desire).  I
expect what was transmitted in Jargon was therefore necessarily a bit
sketchy, or at least highly abbreviated.