Nippo Jisho
Encyclopedia
The Nippo Jisho or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Vocabulário da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese) was a Japanese
to Portuguese
dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan
in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist. Facsimile editions were published in Japan in 1960 by Iwanami Shoten and again in 1973 and 1975 by Bensey Publishing. The Bensey reproduction is generally considered the clearer and more legible. A 1630 translation into Spanish
published in Manila
, an 1869 translation into French
, and a 1980 translation into Japanese
(by Iwanami Shoten) also exist. There is no translation into English.
(commonly known as the Jesuits), with the cooperation of Japanese people, compiled the dictionary
over several years. They intended it to serve the need of missionaries
for language study and research. The Portuguese
priest
João Rodrigues is supposed to have been the main organizer of the project and its editor: having already published works like Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
(Arte da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese) and Arte breue da lingoa Iapoa (Arte breve da Língua Japonesa in modern Portuguese) explaining the Japanese language for missionaries, he was known among the Portuguese community as having the highest proficiency in Japanese.
according to Portuguese
conventions of the late sixteenth century, and explained in Portuguese.
The dictionary's primary purpose was to teach missionaries spoken Japanese. As needed, the authors identify such things as regional dialect, written and spoken forms, women's and children's language, elegant and vulgar words, and Buddhist
vocabulary. Many of these words had never been written in any known text before the Nippo Jisho was published. The system of romanization used by the Nippo Jisho also reflects the phonetics
of 16th century Japanese (Late Middle Japanese), which is not identical to modern Japanese. Both these points provide present-day linguists
valuable insight into the Japanese language of the Sengoku period
of Japanese history
and how it has evolved into its modern form. The dictionary also yields information on rhyming words, individual pronunciation, meaning, usage, names of plants and animals, popular phrases, and customs of the times.
Because this dictionary contains the earliest known written example of many words, Japanese language dictionaries often cite it as a primary source, such as the 14-volume Nihon Kokugo Daijiten
(日本國語大辞典), known in English as "Shogakukan's Japanese Dictionary", published by Shogakukan
.
language that is different from the commonly used Hepburn system of today. This is because the missionaries who created this system were transcribing late 16th century Japanese using late 16th century Portuguese Roman letters. Take the following example from Michael Cooper's review of the Jisho in the journal Monumenta Nipponica
in 1976.
In this example the syllable modernly romanized as ki (き) was transcribed 'qi', ku (く) as 'cu', and the syllable group ha, hi, fu, he and ho (はひふへほ) were written 'fa', 'fi', 'fu', 'fe', and 'fo' respectively. Also the syllable o (を) was written 'vo', tsu (つ) was 'tçu', shi (し) was 'xi', and e (え) was sometimes 'ye'. To what extent these particular idiosyncrasies of spelling reflect how Japanese was actually pronounced in the 16th century is of great interest to scholars of Japanese historical linguistics
.
Other examples:
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...
to Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist. Facsimile editions were published in Japan in 1960 by Iwanami Shoten and again in 1973 and 1975 by Bensey Publishing. The Bensey reproduction is generally considered the clearer and more legible. A 1630 translation into Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
published in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, an 1869 translation into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and a 1980 translation into Japanese
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...
(by Iwanami Shoten) also exist. There is no translation into English.
Compilation
The Society of JesusSociety of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
(commonly known as the Jesuits), with the cooperation of Japanese people, compiled the dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
over several years. They intended it to serve the need of missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
for language study and research. The Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
João Rodrigues is supposed to have been the main organizer of the project and its editor: having already published works like Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
is an early 17th century Portuguese grammar of the Japanese language. It was compiled by João Rodrigues, a Portuguese missionary of the Society of Jesus. It is the oldest complete Japanese grammar, and is a valuable reference for late Late Middle Japanese.-Background:Christian missionary work in...
(Arte da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese) and Arte breue da lingoa Iapoa (Arte breve da Língua Japonesa in modern Portuguese) explaining the Japanese language for missionaries, he was known among the Portuguese community as having the highest proficiency in Japanese.
Structure
The approximately 32,000 entries are arranged alphabetically. Each word is displayed in the Latin alphabetLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
according to Portuguese
History of the Portuguese language
The Portuguese language developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin brought there by Roman soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. It began to diverge from other Romance languages after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions in the 5th century, and...
conventions of the late sixteenth century, and explained in Portuguese.
The dictionary's primary purpose was to teach missionaries spoken Japanese. As needed, the authors identify such things as regional dialect, written and spoken forms, women's and children's language, elegant and vulgar words, and Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
vocabulary. Many of these words had never been written in any known text before the Nippo Jisho was published. The system of romanization used by the Nippo Jisho also reflects the phonetics
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
of 16th century Japanese (Late Middle Japanese), which is not identical to modern Japanese. Both these points provide present-day linguists
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
valuable insight into the Japanese language of the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
of Japanese history
History of Japan
The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...
and how it has evolved into its modern form. The dictionary also yields information on rhyming words, individual pronunciation, meaning, usage, names of plants and animals, popular phrases, and customs of the times.
Because this dictionary contains the earliest known written example of many words, Japanese language dictionaries often cite it as a primary source, such as the 14-volume Nihon Kokugo Daijiten
Nihon Kokugo Daijiten
The , often abbreviated as the and sometimes known in English as Shogakukan's Japanese Dictionary, is the largest Japanese language dictionary published. In the period from 1972 to 1976, Shogakukan published the 20-volume first edition. The 14-volume second edition was published in the period...
(日本國語大辞典), known in English as "Shogakukan's Japanese Dictionary", published by Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
.
Examples
The creators of the Nippo Jisho devised a system of romanizing the JapaneseRomanization of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
language that is different from the commonly used Hepburn system of today. This is because the missionaries who created this system were transcribing late 16th century Japanese using late 16th century Portuguese Roman letters. Take the following example from Michael Cooper's review of the Jisho in the journal Monumenta Nipponica
Monumenta Nipponica
Monumenta Nipponica is a biannual academic journals of Japanese studies. It is affiliated with Sophia University .- Contents :Each issue contains three to four main research articles, and ten to fifteen reviews of recent books in Japanese studies, dealing with Japanese society, culture, history,...
in 1976.
Regional differences between KyūshūKyushuis the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
and KyotoKyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
speech are often noted, with preference given to the latter. "Qinchacu." (modern kinchaku 巾着) A purseCoin purseA coin purse is a small money bag or pouch, similar to a wallet, but typically used by women and include a compartment for coins. In some countries, it is known simply as a purse...
carried in the sashSashA sash is a cloth belt used to hold a robe together, and is usually tied about the waist. The Japanese equivalent of a sash, obi, serves to hold a kimono or yukata together. Decorative sashes may pass from the shoulder to the hip rather than around the waist...
. In Ximo (Shimo, present-day Kyūshū) it is called "Fōzō" (modern hōzō 宝蔵).
In this example the syllable modernly romanized as ki (き) was transcribed 'qi', ku (く) as 'cu', and the syllable group ha, hi, fu, he and ho (はひふへほ) were written 'fa', 'fi', 'fu', 'fe', and 'fo' respectively. Also the syllable o (を) was written 'vo', tsu (つ) was 'tçu', shi (し) was 'xi', and e (え) was sometimes 'ye'. To what extent these particular idiosyncrasies of spelling reflect how Japanese was actually pronounced in the 16th century is of great interest to scholars of Japanese historical linguistics
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
.
Other examples:
- The name of the country, 日本, was written nifon, nippon, and iippon
- The capital city, 京都 (present-day KyotoKyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
), was written cami (probably pronounced "kami") while Kyūshū was written as ximo (probably pronounced "shimo") - The term meaning "the first call of birds in spring" was spelled fatçu coye (modern "hatsu koe" 初声、初音）
- Spring warblerJapanese Bush WarblerThe , Cettia diphone, is a passerine bird more often heard than seen. Its distinctive breeding call can be heard throughout much of Japan from the start of spring....
was spelled faru uguysu (modern "haru uguisu" 春鶯） - The word 侍 (samuraiSamuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
) referred to a nobleNobilityNobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
, whereas the word 武士 (bushiBushiBushi and similar can refer to:*Bushi, a term for samurai seen in the term Bushidō*Bushi , a genre of Japanese folk music*Bushi , a region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo*Bushi language, a language of Madagascar and Mayotte...
) referred to a warriorWarriorA warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:... - The word 進退 was listed as shindai; 抜群 (batsugun) was bakkun
- The word rorirori meant "unsettled from fright"
See also
- RakuyōshūRakuyoshuThe was a 1598 Japanese dictionary of kanji "Chinese characters" and compounds in three parts. The Jesuit Mission Press published it at Nagasaki along with other early Japanese language reference works, such as the 1603 Nippo Jisho Japanese–Portuguese dictionary...
- Japanese dictionariesJapanese dictionariesJapanese dictionaries have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic dictionaries...
- Romanization of Japanese
- Late Middle Japanese