ABSTRACT

The encounter between Christianity and the Chinese language largely coincided with the history of the Western world in China. As merchants and missionaries arrived in China during the Yuan Dynasty, they were faced with the problem of learning local languages, thus they produced the first descriptions of the phonological, lexical and grammatical peculiarities of Chinese and its various dialects. These materials encouraged the development of the study of the Chinese language in the West and China’s linguistic past. To examine this issue, this chapter will provide an overview of research on the impact of Christianity on the Chinese language.