A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese, as Exhibited in the Shanghai Dialect

"A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese, as Exhibited in the Shanghai Dialect" by J. Edkins is a linguistic study of the Shanghai dialect, written in the mid-19th century. This work serves as a comprehensive grammar guide aimed at elucidating the intricacies of colloquial Chinese in a specific regional context. The book addresses aspects such as phonetics, tones, parts of speech, and syntax, aiming to fill gaps in the academic literature on Chinese linguistics. The opening of the text includes a preface that places Edkins' work within the context of previous studies on Chinese grammar, noting the deficiencies in order and clarity found in the works of earlier grammarians. Edkins asserts his intention to provide a systematic examination of the Shanghai dialect to aid in the understanding and study of colloquial Chinese, particularly as its unique features had been overlooked in broader discussions of the language. He acknowledges the support of contemporary scholars and emphasizes the importance of categorizing sounds and tones specific to Shanghai, thereby laying the groundwork for a detailed and structured exploration of the dialect's grammatical principles. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Joseph Edkins was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a Sinologue, he specialised in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philologist. Writing prolifically, he penned many books about the Chinese language and the Chinese religions especially Buddhism. In his China's Place in Philology (1871), he tries to show that the languages of Europe and Asia have a common origin by comparing the Chinese and Indo-European vocabulary.