Nippo Jisho

The Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書) or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It explains about 32,000 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist. Facsimile reprints were made in Japan in 1960 by the publishing company Iwanami shoten and again in 1973 and [1975]] by the publishing company Benseisha. The Benseisha edition is generally considered the clearer and more legible reproduction. 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 are no translations into English.

Compilation

The Society of Jesus (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 Nihongo Bunten and Nihongo Kobunten explaining the Japanese language for missionaries, he was known among the Portuguese community as having the highest ability in Japanese.

Structure

The approximately 32,000 entries are arranged alphabetically. Each word is displayed in the Latin alphabet according to Portuguese conventions of the late 1500's, 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, 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. One example is the 14 volume Nihon kokugo daijiten (日本国語大辞典), known in English as "Shogakukan's Japanese Dictionary," perhaps the largest and most comprehensive Japanese dictionary ever published.

Examples

• The name of the country, 日本, had the pronunciations nihon (which would have been pronounced nifon), nippon, and jippon
• The capital city, 京都 (present-day Kyoto), was kami while Kyushu was shimo
• The word 侍 (samurai) referred to a noble, whereas the word 武士 (bushi) referred to a warrior
• The word 進退 (pronounced shintai in present-day Japanese) was listed as shindai; 抜群 (batsugun) was bakkun
• The word rorirori meant "unsettled from fright"

See also

• Japanese words from Portuguese