In the 1870s, Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) came to Lianzhou in northern Guangdong to preach. From 1904 to 1905, medical missionary Eleanor Chestnut from PCUSA translated and published the Sanjiang colloquial version of the Gospel Book in Chinese characters. Few scholars have paid attention to this document before, and there have been no relevant research findings so far. Therefore, this article tries to combine the historical facts of PCUSA's early missionary work in Lianzhou and the life story of the translator, Dr. Eleanor Chestnut. It takes the Sanjiang colloquial Gospel Book as an example to briefly introduce the wording and linguistic features of Liannan Hakka in the late Qing Dynasty, and it will give an objective review of its academic application value to facilitate a better use of this precious dialect document among the academic circle and the interested public.
The predecessor of PCUSA was American Presbyterian. The pioneer of American Presbyterian, A. P. Happer, came to Guangzhou to preach and settled down in Guangzhou from Macao in 1847. In 1854, another missionary, C. F. Preston, arrived in Guangzhou. Missionaries preaching in southern China after 1861 were basically affiliated to the PCUSA. In 1872, H. V. Noyes came to Lianzhou from Guangzhou, marking the beginning of PCUSA's missionary activities in Lianzhou, northern Guangdong.
Sanjiang is located more than ten kilometers southwest of Lianzhou. Today, it belongs to Sanjiang Town, the county seat of Liannan Yao Autonomous County. This was once a vital missionary site for the Lianzhou branch of PCUSA. In 1894, PCUSA sent an additional medical missionary, Eleanor Chestnut, to Sanjiang, Lianzhou, to take charge of the women's medical ministry. She should have started learning the Sanjiang colloquial that year. Later, she published the “Sanjiang colloquial” version of the Gospel Book in Chinese characters by the American Bible Society in Shanghai. Among them, Gospel of Matthew was published in 1904, and Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of John were published in 1905.
This article finds that the Sanjiang colloquial Gospel Book has four wording features: 1) Many characters with the component “口” were created to record monosyllabic words in spoken language; 2) Words with similar pronunciation were added with a small circle to indicate that the word is pronounced with different tones; 3) Some words used in the documents written in colloquial Cantonese were borrowed; 4) Some common words often used in Hakka area were adopted.
The Sanjiang colloquial Gospel Book is recorded only in Chinese characters and not in Roman characters, but it records some characteristic words of the Liannan Hakka dialect in the late Qing Dynasty. This document also reflects the grammatical characteristics of the Liannan Hakka dialect. For example: 1) Aspect marker “嚟” were used; 2) The Hakka GIVE “捹” (the original character is “分”) can carry two objects, and the direct object in the front refers to the object, while the indirect object in the back refers to the person who receives the object, which should be related to the influence of Cantonese; 3) The possible negative forms of “唔” and “得” were used, such as “唔V得”, “唔得V”, “唔V得倒”, “唔V得O”, “V唔得倒”, “V唔得O倒”, etc., which might be related to the influence of Cantonese; 4) There are two types of Comparative sentences: One type is “X+比+Y+更+A”, in which the two comparison markers “比” and “更” must appear at the same time; the other is “X+A+过+Y”.
The Sanjiang colloquial Gospel Book, with significant application value, retains the basic vocabulary and grammar of Liannan Hakka dialect in the late Qing Dynasty. Based on the previous work, it is necessary to continue sorting out and excavating this precious document and further fieldwork on Liannan Hakka dialect. It is expected to accurately grasp the development and evolution patterns of Liannan Hakka dialect over more than 100 years through comprehensive and in-depth comparative research.