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Manchoo (Also Mantchoo, Mandshou) Version of the Scriptures

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Manchoo (also Mantchoo, Mandshou) Version Of The Scriptures

The Manchoo belongs to Manchooria, an extreme region lying north of Corea and north-east of China proper. It is also the court language of Pekin. An imperfect and very unfaithful translation of part of the Scriptures into Manchoo is said to have been executed by some Jesuit missionaries; and in 1818 an abortive attempt towards the production of a version was made under the sanction of the governor of Irkutsk. The prosecution of this important work ultimately devolved upon Lipoffzoff, a learned member of the Russian Bible Society, who had resided fourteen years at Pekin, by appointment of the Russian government, with the view of studying the Chinese and Manchoo.

The translation was carried on under the superintendence of Dr. Pinkerton, and in 1822 an edition of the gospel of Matthew was printed at St. Petersburg, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The awful flood which occurred in that city in 1824 destroyed the greater part of this edition. The entire New Test. was published by the same society in 1835, the translation of Mr. Lipoffzoff having been revised by Mr. George Borrow, of Norwich. This edition, which is beautifully printed, was forwarded to London, and there it probably still remains, under the custody of the British and Foreign Bible Society, until a proper time comes for the distribution and circulation of the copies. See Bible of Every Land, page 334. The language has been treated by Gabelentz, Elements de la Grammaire Mandchoue (1833); Adam, Grammaire de la Langue Mandchoue (Paris, 1873); Harlez, Manuel de la Langue Mandchoue (ibid. 1884); Klaproth, Chrestomathie Mandchoue (ibid. 1828). (B.P.)