Publisher's Synopsis
Ernst Johann Eitel or alternatively Ernest John Eitel (1838-1908) was a German Protestant missionary to China. He has published his Cantonese dictionary, Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect in 1877. It is based on a Cantonese glossary dictionary Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect written in 1856 by Samuel Wells Williams, expanding with the work of James Legge and Kangxi Dictionary. His publication was intended to standardize the pronunciation of Cantonese. His work was criticised by Wong Shik Ling in the book A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton that it inherited the inaccuracy from former works. His other works include: Feng-Shui; or, The Rudiments of Natural Science in China (1873), The Central School: Can it Justify its Raison d'Etre? (1877), Buddhism: Its Historical, Theoretical and Popular Aspects (1884), Chinese School-Books (1893) and Europe in China: The History of Hong Kong from the Beginning to the Year 1882 (1895).
