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To an unknown woman
Elderfield, Otterbourne, Winchester.
July 9th 1874

MS Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, MA 4500

Dear Madam,

No one can fail to thank you for your kindness, but I am afraid the work is impossible1 All the vocabulary &c are in the most inchoate state; besides that they are only in MS, and in Norfolk island  nor are they more than guides to those who learn the language by intercourse with the natives.  I should think there was not even part of a Bible or Prayer book here unless in the hands of the Bishop of Lichfield and Professor Max Muller2.  I am afraid translation is impossible except with a native beside one

yours truly

C M Yonge

 

1 Evidently CMY’s correspondent had offered to work with Bishop Patteson’s notes on Melanesian languages.
2 Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) was a German-born scholar of comparative language, religion, and mythology who worked for most of his life in England.
Cite this letter


The Letters of Charlotte Mary Yonge(1823-1901) edited by Charlotte Mitchell, Ellen Jordan and Helen Schinske.

URL to this Letter is: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/yonge/20030/to-an-unknown-woman-82

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