A Dictionary of the Hok-keen Dialect of the Chinese Language ... Accompanied by a Short Historical and Statistical Account of Hokkeen (etc.)

Published in 1832 in Macao by the East India Company Press, this volume was compiled by Walter Henry Medhurst, a prominent British missionary with the London Missionary Society. Medhurst created the dictionary to facilitate communication with the Hokkien-speaking populations of Southeast Asia, particularly those involved in the maritime trade networks of the region, where the language served as a primary lingua franca. It reflects the colonial and evangelical motivations of the era, aiming to bridge linguistic gaps for European traders and proselytizers operating within the Chinese diaspora.

The work is recognized for its ambition in documenting a complex dialect that had received little formal study by Westerners at the time. Medhurst utilized his extensive travels and interactions in coastal China and the Straits Settlements to compile the definitions and phonetic transcriptions. The book is lauded by scholars of linguistics and sinology for its role in preserving an early nineteenth-century record of Hokkien, serving as a critical primary source for historical linguistic research despite the inevitable limitations of contemporary phonetic documentation tools.