A Dictionary of the Burman Language―With Explanations in English

This is the 1826 edition of the Burmese–English dictionary compiled from a grammar and other manuscripts written by the American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (1788–1850), with additional content by fellow missionaries Felix Carey and James Coleman. Prepared by the Baptist Mission Press while Judson was imprisoned on suspicion of spying in Ava, it is the fruit of his work towards making the written word an evangelistic tool. He was convinced from the first that the translation and publication of Christian scriptures and a familiarity with indigenous languages and customs was the most effective and enduring form of evangelism, and to this end he published a Burmese New Testament in 1832. Judson finished compiling his groundbreaking and comprehensive bilingual dictionary in 1849, shortly before his death. This earlier work, with headwords in Burmese script followed by English definitions, remains relevant in historical linguistics.