The members of the group investigate older texts (colonial, postcolonial, missionary and non-missionary, word lists of travelers and historians) with the following objectives: historical linguistics, the history of linguistics, linguistic documentation, translation studies and sociocultural analysis. The aim of historical linguistics is to describe older stages of languages as well as (processes of) language change, while the history of linguistics studies early thinking on languages, linguistics typologies and structures and linguistics. Linguistic documentation is a crucial part of both branches. These studies are often interrelated with those of the cultural context in which colonial societies developed. Non-Western languages are our main focus.
R. Fernández Rodríguez. El Calepino Ilocano (c.1797) del P. Vivar. Innovaciones lexicográficas y política traductora. Promotors Joaquín García-Medall Villanueva (UVa) and Otto Zwartjes (UvA). Completed in October 2012.
The ROLD group organises annual meetings on older linguistic documentation at the UvA. International conferences on missionary linguistics are organised every other year. Details of the latter can be found in the archive (see pdf).
Xth International Conference on Missionary Linguistics. Sapienza università di Roma. Center of Chinese Studies. March 21-24, 2018.