Residence Xiamen, China Name Elihu Doty Nationality American Role Missionary | Occupation Missionary Years active 1836–1864 | |
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Alma mater Rutgers CollegeNew Brunswick Theological Seminary Known for Anglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect Died November 20, 1864, New York, United States Education Rutgers University, New Brunswick Theological Seminary | ||
Resting place Parsippany-Troy Hills | ||
Elihu Doty (20 September 1809 – 30 November 1864) was an American missionary to China. He was responsible for the first textbook of Southern Min in English. Along with John Van Nest Talmage he is credited with the invention of Peh-oe-ji, the most common orthography used to write Southern Min, although some doubt remains as to the exact origins of this system.
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Early mission
Doty arrived in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies in 1836 and spent his first three years as a missionary there. His next station was Borneo, from 1839 to 1844, at which point he relocated to Amoy (now Xiamen) in Fujian, China.
Mission in Amoy
It was while stationed in Amoy that Doty produced the Anglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect (1853), which was "the earliest existing textbook for a Southern Min dialect".