Carstairs Douglas (1830-1877) and his Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (1873)

Abstract

This paper traces the life and achievements of the Scottish missionary Carstairs Douglas (1830–1877), especially his contributions to the mission in Amoy (Xiamen廈門). It also includes a contextualized description and evaluation of his dictionary of the spoken language of Amoy (1873), a reference work that may still be used with some benefit by students of the Southern Hokkien (Minnanhua) language