Shanghai Vernacular Society

The original Shanghai Vernacular Society had a crucial impact on Old Shanghainese. The society was a collective of intellectuals and missionaries that collaborated on transcribing and producing resources for the Shanghainese Vernacular. At the start of the 20th Century, they continued with the work done on the Shanghai dialect of the 1850s; by following the romanization of Shanghainese upon those lines.
This website continues in their tradition by providing their resources in one location to promote the romanization standardization of the Shanghai Vernacular Society. This would preserve older texts and pronunciations in a readable manner. The restoration of this society has two aims; to promote the SHVS written standardisation in conjunction with other methods, and to additionally support the maintenance of the general Shanghai dialect and customs in the context of modern Shanghai and her diaspora.
Contact Us
If you specialize in French or Japanese sources
of the Old Shanghai Vernacular,
or have other English sources.
Please feel free to contact us.
Shanghai Phonetic Script
Title | Author | Date | Text |
New Characters | – | 1854 | Link Link Link Link |
Dialect of Shanghainese | – | – | Link Link |
Phonetic Primer | – | – | Link Link |
The Sources of Good and Evil | Mrs Cabaniss | 1856 | Link Link Link |
Selection of Aesop’s and other Fables | A.B. Cabaniss | 1856 | Link Link Link Link |
Luke’s Gospel | – | 1859 | Link |
Bible Stories Volume 1 | Tarleton Perry Crawford | 1857 | – |
Bible Stories Volume 2 | Tarleton Perry Crawford | 1857 | Link Link |
Bible Stories Volume 3 | Tarleton Perry Crawford | 1858 | Link Link |
Hymns of praise | – | 1859 | Link Link |
Three School Girls | Martha Foster Crawford | 1856 | – |
Scientific Manual | Tarleton Perry Crawford | 1856 | – |
Romanization of the Shanghai Vernacular
Title | Author | Date | Text |
Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect | Gilbert McIntosh | 1908 | Link* |
Lessons in the Shanghai Dialect | Francis Lister Hawks Pott | 1907- 1924 | Link Link Link* Link* |
Lessons in the Shanghai Dialect | R. A. Parker | 1923 | Link Link* |
A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese Shanghainese | Joseph Edkins | 1953- 1868 | Link Link Link* Link* Link* Link* |
First Lessons in Chinese | Mathew Tyson Yates | 1871 | Link Link |
Introduction to the Study of Shanghainese Vernacular | John Alfred Silby | 1911 | Link Link* |
Conversational exercises in the Shanghai dialect | J. W. Crofoot, F. Rawlinson | 1915 | Link* |
Shanghai Dialect in 4 Weeks | Charles Ho | 1940 | Link* |
A Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect | Joseph Edkins | 1869 | Link Link Link* Link* |
Syllabary of the Shanghainese Vernacular | Shanghai Vernacular Society | 1891 | Link Link |
An English-Chinese Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect | Shanghai Vernacular Society | 1901- 1913 | Link Link* Link* |
Romanizations and Chinese Scripts in Shanghainese
Title | Author | Date | Text |
The Three Character Classics | B Jenkins | 1861 | Link |
The Invariable Medium | B Jenkins | 1861 | Link |
Book of Conversations | B Jenkins | 1861 | Link |
The Great Study | B Jenkins | 1861 | Link |
Old Testament History | J B Smith | 1892 | Vol1 Vol2 Vol3 Vol4 Vol5 |
Catechism on Ten Commandments | – | 1899 | Link |
Jesus’s words | – | 1887-1894 | Vol1 Vol2 Vol3 Vol4 |
Acts and Deeds | – | 1890 | Link |
Geography | M. A. Josey | 1896 | Link |
Other Resources
Title | Author | Date | Text |
Diaries of Martha Crawford | Martha Foster Crawford | 1850-1881 | Link |
Memorials of Protestant Missionaries | Alexander Wylie | 1867 | Link Link Link Link* |
The Chinese Recorder | The Methodist Press, The Presbyterian Press, et. al. | 1867-1941 | I V – VI VII IX X XI XII XIII – XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX – XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXVI – XXV XXVIII XXIX – XXX XXXI XXXII – XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXIX XL XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII XLIX L LII LIII |
Virtual Shanghai Project | Christian Henriot | 2003-2016 | Link |
Studies in the Modern Wu-Dialects | Chao Yuen Ren | 1928 | – |
The … Primer? | Tarleton Perry Crawford | ? | Link Link |
*US access only