Talk:James Dyer Ball

Son of missionary Dyer Ball ?

I have reason to believe that James Dyer Ball was the son of Dyer Ball, who moved to Canton in Agust of 1845. In 1846 he remarried. Left Canton eight years later for England, then returned to Canton in 1857.

Is it accidental that James Dyer Ball was born in 1847, just the second year after Dyer Ball married. James Dyer Ball was born in Canton, exactly where Dyer Ball coupled lived.

Further, Dyer Ball adopted a Chinese name 波乃耶，which is not a phonetic transcription of Dyer Ball(鲍尔）。If James Dyer Ball was not the son of Dyer Ball, he would have no reason to adopt the same Chinese name 波乃耶。

However hard facts are hard to come by, any help will be welcomed--Gisling (talk) 20:28, 26 August 2012 (UTC).

Publications and references

Is there any good reason to list the books he wrote, and then add a reference to some of them? For instance why have

 * ''How to Speak Cantonese: Fifty Conversations in Cantonese Colloquial, with the Chinese Character, Free and Literal English Translations, and [[Romanization|Romanised]] Spelling with Tonic and Diacritical Marks, etc.''<ref>{{cite book|title=How to Speak Cantonese: Fifty Conversations in Cantonese Colloquial, with the Chinese Character, Free and Literal English Translations, and Romanised Spelling with Tonic and Diacritical Marks, etc.|last=Ball|first=James Dyer|place=Hong Kong|publisher=Kelly & Walsh|date=1902}}</ref>

to create

• How to Speak Cantonese: Fifty Conversations in Cantonese Colloquial, with the Chinese Character, Free and Literal English Translations, and Romanised Spelling with Tonic and Diacritical Marks, etc.

References

which merely duplicates the information? Might I suggest that adopting the citation style for all members of the list would halve the work required:

*{{cite book|title=How to Speak Cantonese: Fifty Conversations in Cantonese Colloquial, with the Chinese Character, Free and Literal English Translations, and Romanised Spelling with Tonic and Diacritical Marks, etc.|last=Ball|first=James Dyer|place=Hong Kong|publisher=Kelly & Walsh|date=1902}}

which creates the entry:

• Ball, James Dyer (1902). How to Speak Cantonese: Fifty Conversations in Cantonese Colloquial, with the Chinese Character, Free and Literal English Translations, and Romanised Spelling with Tonic and Diacritical Marks, etc. Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh.

Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:40, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Frankly, I don't like the way the page presents the publications but merely followed its form and wanted to provide fuller publication references. Just thought I'd improve the raw data and then worry about how it's presented later, if I ever get back to it. You are absolutely right.

Very hard to turn up information on Ball. There are documents in the Hong Kong Government archives on him and that's where I may have to go if I really want to contribute. His Cantonese Romanisation was excellent and markedly superior to most later attempts, so that needs to feature on his page, too. Work, work, work. sirlanz 10:47, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Right then, time to be WP:BOLD! since you are doing most of the work on this article I suggest that, unless anyone objects here, in a few day's time I'll blitz the list. That way the references will become as intended: references about him and the publications will be uniform. Do you agree? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:13, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

100 per cent with you on that! sirlanz 11:19, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

I see you didn't wait for me to blitz the list.:-) Well done, the list looks much neater and the redundant footnotes have gone. Keep up the good work. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:37, 8 April 2016 (UTC)