Elihu Doty

American missionary (1809–1864)

Clarissa D. Ackley
Eleanor Augusta Smith 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]

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

^ ^a ^b Klöter (2002).
^ Bruggink & Baker (2004), p. 92.
^ 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.