Paper short abstract:

The paper aims at surveying the characteristics of lexicographical work undertaken by European missionaries in India. The paper first seeks to offer some approximate quantitative figures and will then concisely present three lexicographical samples.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims at surveying the characteristics of lexicographical work undertaken by European missionaries in India, in a larger geographical sense. Largely relying on valuable work done in the field of missionary linguistics and making use of the database "Diachro-Babel" that is currently built at the University of Leuven, the paper first seeks to offer some approximate quantitative figures, which are lacking in most of today's analyses. Which Indian languages have been given greater lexicographical attention? And which ones did not attract equal consideration among lexicographers? What was the ratio between published and unpublished work? Did the background of the authors (Catholic priests, laymen and Protestant ministers working in the framework of the Dutch and English East Indian Company, Protestant ministers of the Danish-German Tranquebar mission) affect the ways in which dictionaries were composed? The second part of the paper will concisely present three lexicographical samples testifying to the range of dictionaries and word lists composed between the sixteenth and eighteenth century.