The Third International Conference on Missionary Linguistics will be held from 12 - 15 March 2005 in Hong Kong.

Meeting Description: The Third International Conference on Missionary Linguistics concentrates on early-modern descriptions of non-Indo-European languages. European expansion, colonisation and christianisation was accompanied by the study and recording of the native languages.

Latest information: After the discovery of the New World the Europeans began to establish their hegemony in a new continent. European expansion, colonisation and christianization of a large number and variety of Amerindian tribes was accompanied by the study and recording of the native languages of the Americas. In the same period, Christian missionary activities escalated in Asia, especially the Far East, and in Russia, and a little later in Africa. In the early 19th century, the Pacific became a new "America" for missionary linguistics. This congress aims to outline the state of research done in the field. The subjects are to some extent limited in time (focusing primarily on the period 1492-1850) but not in space. This conference aims particularly at inter-relating grammars written in different languages (Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, etc.), by missionaries of different orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, etc.), and in different continents. We wish to 'globalise' the discipline, crossing national and linguistic frontiers in order to create new views and to open new horizons.

Organizers: Professor Gregory James

Prof. Otto Zwartjes
Email: O.J.Zwartjes@uva.nl