CALLAWAY, John

CALLAWAY, John. 17?? — 18??. Rev. British Wesleyan Missionary in Sri Lanka. Arrived in 1815 and worked there about ten years (1816 in Matara, 1817 and 1821-24 Principal of Galle School), then retired to England, apparently lived in London.

Publications: A Vocabulary, with Useful Phrases and Familiar Dialogues, in the English, Portuguese and Cingalese Languages. 8+151 p. Colombo 1818, new ed. as A Vocabulary in Cingalese and English. Colombo 1820; A Vocabulary in the Ceylon Portuguese, and English Languages. 62 p. Colombo 1820; a collection of sermons in local Portuguese. 1823.

Oriental Observations and Occasional Criticisms, more or less illustrating several hundred Passages of Scripture. 4+92 p. L. 1827.

Translated: Yakkun Nattannawa. A Cingalese Poem, descriptive of the Ceylon system of Demonology; to which is appended, the practices of a Capua or a devil priest, and Kolan Nattannawa, a Cingalese Poem descriptive of the Characters assumed by natives of Ceylon in a Masquerade. 12+64 p. Or. Tr. Fund. L. 1829.

Sources: Stray notes and Google scans of his books in Internet; *C.H.B. Reynolds, ”J.C. in Ceylon”, Senarat Paranavitana Comm. Vol. Ld. 1978, 181-190; the vocabularies analyzed in Ian Smith, “The Earliest Grammars of Sri Lanka Portuguese”, PAPIA 26, São Paulo 2016, 237-281.

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