Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary
Encyclopedia
Since its first publication in 1918, has been the largest and most authoritative Japanese-English dictionary ever published. Translators, scholars, and specialists who use the Japanese language
affectionately refer to this dictionary as the "Green Goddess" or ("GG") because of its distinctive dark-green cover.
The fifth edition of Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, published in 2003 (colloquially "GG5"), is a volume with almost 3000 pages, and contains about 480,000 entries (including 130,000 Japanese headwords, 100,000 compound words, and 250,000 example phrases and sentences), nearly all of which are accompanied by English translations. Despite its enormous size, like all other Japanese dictionaries, verbs only appear in dictionary form – thus while "suru" may be found, conjugated forms (with subtle differences in meaning) such as "shite", "shimasu", and "shinai", will be absent in this text. The editors in chief of the fifth edition are Watanabe Toshiro, Edmund R. Skrzypczak, and Paul Snowden.
Besides the print
edition, the dictionary is also available on CD-ROM
(EPWING format), online, in electronic dictionary
and iPhone versions. Electronic dictionaries that contain the fifth edition are generally flagship models (top models), and include the Canon Wordtank
G70, the Seiko
SR-E10000 (first electronic dictionary with GG) and SR-G10000, and the Casio
"University Student" series (XD-B9800 in 2011)Casio model numbers change every year; models in the same "University Student" line, which contained the Kenkyūsha, are XD-GP9600 (2007), XD-GP9700 (2008), XD-GF9800 (2009), XD-A9800 (2010), and XD-B9800 (2011). and "Professional" series (XD-B10000 in 2011).Casio model numbers change every year; models in the same "Professional" line, which contained the Kenkyūsha, are XD-GF10000 (2009), XD-A10000 (2010), and XD-B10000 (2011).
in Japan. Completed in under five years with the assistance and support of leading scholars in the field, and published when was still a minor academic publishing company, the Takenobu, as the most authoritative Japanese–English dictionary of the time, cemented Kenkyūsha's reputation in the field of academic publishing
.
In 1931, Kenkyūsha undertook a major revision in the dictionary by expanding upon former entries and adding newer ones. The British diplomat
George Sansom, who later became a renowned historian
of Japan, was a major contributor and editor of this edition. Aside from the ever-evolving nature of the Japanese and English languages, competition from two other major dictionaries released in the 1920s, Takehara's Japanese–English Dictionary and Saitō's Japanese–English Dictionary, both of which were larger than the first edition of Kenkyūsha's, was probably a major driving force behind these revisions (it is important to note that new editions of these dictionaries were never released, thus allowing Kenkyūsha's to assert and maintain its dominance among Japanese–English dictionaries). From this second edition onward, the dictionary became known as the Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary. During World War II, reputable institutions in the United States and Great Britain, including Harvard University
's Department of Far Eastern Languages, produced pirated versions of this dictionary for the war effort http://www.gally.net/leavings/01/0128.html.
Because of the Pacific War
, Kenkyūsha did not revise the dictionary for almost twenty years until 1949, when it decided to revise the dictionary to incorporate all of the new English-language words due to the social and cultural influence of the American occupation of Japan. After five years of revision, Kenkyūsha published its third edition in 1954. Beginning with this edition and continuing until the 1974 fourth edition, the editors attempted to make the dictionary into a more scholarly work by pulling English language expressions from English texts, particularly from literature; this, however, resulted in clumsy, artificial-sounding Japanese and English. The editors abandoned this practice for the fifth edition, which has entries that sound more natural to both native-Japanese and native-English speakers.
-based system (「かな見出し」方式) that is commonly used in most Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias. This change reflects the fact that most users of the dictionary are native speakers of Japanese, who are more comfortable with the kana-based lookup system.
Other new features are:
The definitions themselves are also more expansive and detailed, as they often now include sample sentences.
Furthermore, there are also accompanying pictures and diagrams for words such as 馬 (horse) and サッカー (soccer).
At the end of the dictionary, there are some useful resources such as the entire Japanese Constitution; a chronological list of dates in Japanese history
dating all the way back to the stone age
; a chronological list of dates in world history dating all the way back to the early civilizations that developed in Mesopotamia
, the Nile
valley, the Indus valley, and the Yellow River
valley; charts on the proper formats of notices, envelopes, application letters, resumes, etc.; a section on email lingo and abbreviations; a section on the proper format of business cards; a section the proper format of help-wanted ads; a section on Japanese government
titles; a section on American government titles; a chart on pronouncing Japanese kanji
in Chinese
; charts on the hierarchical organization of the Self-Defense Forces, the old Japanese military, the American military, and the English military; a chart on the names of all the countries in the world (along with currencies and measurement
systems); and finally, a conversion chart between U.S. systems of measurement and the metric system
.
The online version of the dictionary, available for a fee, is being updated on a monthly basis with new words and expanded entries.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
affectionately refer to this dictionary as the "Green Goddess" or ("GG") because of its distinctive dark-green cover.
The fifth edition of Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, published in 2003 (colloquially "GG5"), is a volume with almost 3000 pages, and contains about 480,000 entries (including 130,000 Japanese headwords, 100,000 compound words, and 250,000 example phrases and sentences), nearly all of which are accompanied by English translations. Despite its enormous size, like all other Japanese dictionaries, verbs only appear in dictionary form – thus while "suru" may be found, conjugated forms (with subtle differences in meaning) such as "shite", "shimasu", and "shinai", will be absent in this text. The editors in chief of the fifth edition are Watanabe Toshiro, Edmund R. Skrzypczak, and Paul Snowden.
Besides the print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
edition, the dictionary is also available on CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
(EPWING format), online, in electronic dictionary
Electronic dictionary
An electronic dictionary is a dictionary whose data exists in digital form and can be accessed through a number of different media. Electronic dictionaries can be found in several forms, including:*as dedicated handheld devices...
and iPhone versions. Electronic dictionaries that contain the fifth edition are generally flagship models (top models), and include the Canon Wordtank
Wordtank
The Wordtank series is a line of Japanese electronic dictionaries manufactured by Canon. Although officially only sold in Japan, several of the multi-language models are popular among students of the Japanese language around the world. The ability to change menu display options to English on many...
G70, the Seiko
Seiko
, more commonly known simply as Seiko , is a Japanese watch company.-History and ongoing developments:The company was founded in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the...
SR-E10000 (first electronic dictionary with GG) and SR-G10000, and the Casio
Casio
is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...
"University Student" series (XD-B9800 in 2011)Casio model numbers change every year; models in the same "University Student" line, which contained the Kenkyūsha, are XD-GP9600 (2007), XD-GP9700 (2008), XD-GF9800 (2009), XD-A9800 (2010), and XD-B9800 (2011). and "Professional" series (XD-B10000 in 2011).Casio model numbers change every year; models in the same "Professional" line, which contained the Kenkyūsha, are XD-GF10000 (2009), XD-A10000 (2010), and XD-B10000 (2011).
History
In 1918, the publication of the first edition of the Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, the , named after the editor-in-chief, , was a landmark event in the field of lexicographyLexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
in Japan. Completed in under five years with the assistance and support of leading scholars in the field, and published when was still a minor academic publishing company, the Takenobu, as the most authoritative Japanese–English dictionary of the time, cemented Kenkyūsha's reputation in the field of academic publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
.
In 1931, Kenkyūsha undertook a major revision in the dictionary by expanding upon former entries and adding newer ones. The British diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
George Sansom, who later became a renowned historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
of Japan, was a major contributor and editor of this edition. Aside from the ever-evolving nature of the Japanese and English languages, competition from two other major dictionaries released in the 1920s, Takehara's Japanese–English Dictionary and Saitō's Japanese–English Dictionary, both of which were larger than the first edition of Kenkyūsha's, was probably a major driving force behind these revisions (it is important to note that new editions of these dictionaries were never released, thus allowing Kenkyūsha's to assert and maintain its dominance among Japanese–English dictionaries). From this second edition onward, the dictionary became known as the Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary. During World War II, reputable institutions in the United States and Great Britain, including Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Department of Far Eastern Languages, produced pirated versions of this dictionary for the war effort http://www.gally.net/leavings/01/0128.html.
Because of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, Kenkyūsha did not revise the dictionary for almost twenty years until 1949, when it decided to revise the dictionary to incorporate all of the new English-language words due to the social and cultural influence of the American occupation of Japan. After five years of revision, Kenkyūsha published its third edition in 1954. Beginning with this edition and continuing until the 1974 fourth edition, the editors attempted to make the dictionary into a more scholarly work by pulling English language expressions from English texts, particularly from literature; this, however, resulted in clumsy, artificial-sounding Japanese and English. The editors abandoned this practice for the fifth edition, which has entries that sound more natural to both native-Japanese and native-English speakers.
Previous editions
- 1st Edition, 1918
- 2nd Edition, 1931
- 3rd Edition, 1954
- 4th Edition, 1974
- 5th Edition, 2003
Features
Compared to the 1974 fourth edition, the fifth edition represents a dramatic increase in the number of definitions (from roughly 290,000 terms to 480,000 terms). Furthermore, the organization of the words has changed from an alphabetical romaji-style system (「ローマ字見出し」方式) to the kanaKana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
-based system (「かな見出し」方式) that is commonly used in most Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias. This change reflects the fact that most users of the dictionary are native speakers of Japanese, who are more comfortable with the kana-based lookup system.
Other new features are:
- Larger numbers of katakanaKatakanais a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
words and onomatopoeia words (i.e. ペラペラ、ニコニコ) - More colloquial slang and pop culture words (an interesting definition: 「オブラデ・オブラダ」 「曲名」Ob-LA-Di Ob-La-Da)
- More specialized scientific and technological words (especially related to the recent InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
boom) - More names of famous people, places, works of art, works of literature, etc.
- English translations that are more up-to-date and idiomatic, reflecting the greater participation of native English-speaking editors in the editorial process than for previous editions
The definitions themselves are also more expansive and detailed, as they often now include sample sentences.
- For example, under the definition for オフ・シーズン (off-season), a katakana word borrowed from English:
- オフ・シーズンにはそのホテルはぐっと安くなる。 The off-season rates are much lower at that hotel.
Furthermore, there are also accompanying pictures and diagrams for words such as 馬 (horse) and サッカー (soccer).
At the end of the dictionary, there are some useful resources such as the entire Japanese Constitution; a chronological list of dates in Japanese history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
dating all the way back to the stone age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
; a chronological list of dates in world history dating all the way back to the early civilizations that developed in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
, the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
valley, the Indus valley, and the Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
valley; charts on the proper formats of notices, envelopes, application letters, resumes, etc.; a section on email lingo and abbreviations; a section on the proper format of business cards; a section the proper format of help-wanted ads; a section on Japanese government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
titles; a section on American government titles; a chart on pronouncing Japanese kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
; charts on the hierarchical organization of the Self-Defense Forces, the old Japanese military, the American military, and the English military; a chart on the names of all the countries in the world (along with currencies and measurement
Measurement
Measurement is the process or the result of determining the ratio of a physical quantity, such as a length, time, temperature etc., to a unit of measurement, such as the metre, second or degree Celsius...
systems); and finally, a conversion chart between U.S. systems of measurement and the metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
.
The online version of the dictionary, available for a fee, is being updated on a monthly basis with new words and expanded entries.
Reviews
External links
- Online version
- Kenkyusha website
- Lexical Leavings: Random Notes of a Freelance Lexicographer – the website of Tom Gally, a contributor to the dictionary