Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam

The Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書, literally the “Japanese-Portuguese Dictionary”) 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. Was the first translation to a western language. 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.

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 Arte da Lingoa de Japam (Japanese: 日本文典 (Nihon bunten, 日本文典)) and Arte Breve da Lingoa Japoa (Japanese: 日本小文典 (Nihon shōbunten, 日本小文典)) explaining the Japanese language for missionaries, he was known among the Portuguese community as having the highest ability in Japanese.

The approximately 32,000 entries are arranged alphabetically. Each word is displayed in the Latin alphabet according to Portuguese conventions of the late 1500s, 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, 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.

The creators of the Nippo Jisho devised a system of romanizing the Japanese 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.

Regional differences between Kyūshū and Kyoto speech are often noted, with preference given to the latter. "Qinchacu." (modern kinchaku 巾着) A purse carried in the sash. 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.

Other examples:

* The name of the country, 日本, was written nifon, nippon, and iippon
* The capital city, 京都 (present-day Kyoto), 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 warbler was spelled faru uguysu (modern "haru uguisu" 春鶯）
* 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"


References

* Michael Cooper; “The Nippo Jisho” (review of the Vocabulario da Lingoa de Japam com Adeclaracao em Portugues, Feito por Alguns Padres, e Irmaos da Companhia de Jesu) Monumenta Nipponica Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 1976), pp. 417–430

* Doi, Tadao (1980). Hōyaku Nippo Jisho. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-0008-0021-3.