The Historiography of Missionary Linguistics

There is no need to repeat earlier complaints that the historiography of missionary linguistics was being neglected, since the situation has changed considerably sine the last decades of the past century. The first decade of the 21st century in particular has witnessed a veritable explosion of research activities. This article surveys the state of the art in the field of recent work in the historiographical subfield called ‘Missionary linguistics’, covering the period 2002–2012. It represents an update of Zimmermann (2004) and provides separate sections devoted to earlier studies of missionary linguistics, international conferences, published volumes, journals, reprints and editions of primary sources, exhibitions and other activities related to the subject. The reference list is divided in two sections, (1) primary sources, with some 140 entries, and (2) secondary sources, including more than 300 titles. It is hoped that this account will suggest several additional research topics and inspire scholars to make further advances in this fascinating field of research.