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Schreuder, Hans Paludan Smith : Grammatik for Zulu-sproget, forfattet af H.P.S. Schreuder, ordineret Præst og norsk Missionær I Sydafrika

(Christiania: Trykt hos W.C. Fabritius, 1850)

Med Fortale og Anmærkninger af C.A. Holmboe, Professor I de österlandske Sprog ved Norges Universitet. Universitets-Program for 1ste Halyaar 1850. Demy 8vo; cloth-backed marbled boards; pp. viii + 86 (PLEASE NOTE: the final text leaf, pp. 87-8, has been replaced with a facsimile). Cover a little rubbed and sunned; earlier owner's name signed on first blank; browned and foxed throughout. Fair to good, but please note the absence of the final leaf in original form. Born Norway 1817, died Untunjambile (Natal) 1882, Schreuder was the founder of the first Christian mission in Zululand proper. He was sent to Natal in 1843 by the Norwegian mission society as its first overseas missionary. Initially, Mpande, the Zulu king, refused him entry into Zululand, at which time Schreuder sailed to China to enter the mission field there. He was rejected in China and returned to Natal where he embarked upon a programme of gaining the confidence of Mpande, and was finally granted permission to establish a mission in Zulu territory. His first Zulu publication was ABC-Laesebog i Zulusproget (Cape Town, 1848), which was followed by a Zulu hymnal. The present work, Grammatik for Zulu sproget... was his major contribution as a Zulu linguist. This has been described as the 'first published grammar of the Zulu language.' (Bleek, Philology ... South Africa, page 93.) Bleek gives the English translation of the title-page, as follows: 'Grammar of the Zulu language, composed by H.P.S. Schreuder, ordained priest and Norwegian missionary in South Africa. - With a preface and notes by C.A. Holmboe, Professor in the Oriental languages at Norway's University. - A university-program for the first half-year 1850. - Christiania, printed at W.C. Fabritius.' In 1854, an English translation of most of Schreuder's grammar was prepared in manuscript by Miss Grote and was used by Bishop Colenso for his Elementary grammar of the Zulu language (1855). (Dictionary of South African biography, Vol. I, pp. 700 - 701) Doke and Cole say that Schreuder's "phonetic analysis is as good as any for the next fifty years", and that "his whole handling of the various phenomena, as for instance of the relative construction, is masterful." (Doke & Cole: Contributions to the History of Bantu Linguistics, p. 43)

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