.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
A Dictionary, English and Carnátaca. Madras: printed at the College Press, 1824 [with:] – A Dictionary, Carnátaca And English. Madras: Government Gazette Press, 1832.
Details
REEVE, William (1794-1850)
A Dictionary, English and Carnátaca. Madras: printed at the College Press, 1824 [with:] – A Dictionary, Carnátaca And English. Madras: Government Gazette Press, 1832.
Rare first editions of the earliest English-Kannada (and Kannada-English) dictionaries: RareBookHub records no copy of either work at auction. The official language of the state of Karnataka in southern India, Kannada belongs to the Dravidian family of languages alongside Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, and today has around 44 million speakers. William Reeve was a missionary with the London Missionary Society, whose principal object in travelling to India was to translate the Holy Scriptures into Kannada, though he admits that 'to accomplish this object with a language that had never been brought into general notice, was, as may be easily supposed, rather a formidable task’ (Preface). The present works were therefore the result of an attempt to codify the language as part of his wider missionary ambitions, and they were highly influential, being republished in 1858 and forming the basis for the work of German priest and Indologist Ferdinand Kittel whose 1894 dictionary became the standard for many years.
2 vols, folio (305 x 242mm). (Some browning and light spotting, small repaired tear to title of vol. I, a few other tears.) 19th-century brown half morocco by Hodgson of Liverpool, edges red (lightly rubbed). Provenance: J. B. Jones, Esq (notes tipped into second volume, label on front pastedowns recording gift on 6th May 1890 to:) – Liverpool Athenaeum (ink stamps).
A Dictionary, English and Carnátaca. Madras: printed at the College Press, 1824 [with:] – A Dictionary, Carnátaca And English. Madras: Government Gazette Press, 1832.
Rare first editions of the earliest English-Kannada (and Kannada-English) dictionaries: RareBookHub records no copy of either work at auction. The official language of the state of Karnataka in southern India, Kannada belongs to the Dravidian family of languages alongside Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, and today has around 44 million speakers. William Reeve was a missionary with the London Missionary Society, whose principal object in travelling to India was to translate the Holy Scriptures into Kannada, though he admits that 'to accomplish this object with a language that had never been brought into general notice, was, as may be easily supposed, rather a formidable task’ (Preface). The present works were therefore the result of an attempt to codify the language as part of his wider missionary ambitions, and they were highly influential, being republished in 1858 and forming the basis for the work of German priest and Indologist Ferdinand Kittel whose 1894 dictionary became the standard for many years.
2 vols, folio (305 x 242mm). (Some browning and light spotting, small repaired tear to title of vol. I, a few other tears.) 19th-century brown half morocco by Hodgson of Liverpool, edges red (lightly rubbed). Provenance: J. B. Jones, Esq (notes tipped into second volume, label on front pastedowns recording gift on 6th May 1890 to:) – Liverpool Athenaeum (ink stamps).
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts