Elihu Doty

Elihu Doty (20 September 1809 – 30 November 1864) was an American missionary to China. He was responsible for the first textbook of Southern Min in English. Along with John Van Nest Talmage he is credited with the invention of Pe̍h-ōe-jī, the most common orthography used to write Southern Min, although some doubt remains as to the exact origins of this system.[1]

Elihu Doty
Missionary and linguist
Born(1809-09-20)September 20, 1809
Berne, New York, US
DiedNovember 20, 1864(1864-11-20) (aged 55)
at sea, en route to New York
Resting placeParsippany, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRutgers College
New Brunswick Theological Seminary
OccupationMissionary
Years active1836–1864
Known forAnglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect
Spouses
  • Clarissa D. Ackley
  • Eleanor Augusta Smith Doty

Early mission

Doty arrived in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies in 1836 and spent his first three years as a missionary there;[2] Azubah Caroline Condit was among those who accompanied him on his journey there.[3] His next station was Borneo, from 1839 to 1844, at which point he relocated to Amoy (now Xiamen) in Fujian, China.

Mission in Amoy

It was while stationed in Amoy that Doty produced the Anglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect (1853), which was "the earliest existing textbook for a Southern Min dialect".[1]

Publications
  • Doty, Elihu (1850). Some thoughts on the proper term to be employed to translate Elohim and Theos into Chinese. Shanghae: Mission Press. OCLC 31245161.
  • Doty, Elihu (1853). Anglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect. Guangzhou: Samuel Wells Williams. OCLC 20605114.

Notes
  1. Klöter (2002).
  2. Bruggink & Baker (2004), p. 92.
  3. Gerald H. Anderson (1999). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-8028-4680-8.

References
  • Bruggink, Donald J.; Baker, Kim N. (2004). By Grace Alone: Stories of the Reformed Church in America. Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2691-6.
  • Klöter, Henning (2002). "A History of Peh-oe-ji". Retrieved 3 July 2016.
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