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Arte da Lingoa de
Iapam
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Cite this page (Portuguese: Arte da Lingoa de Iapam and in
Wikidata item
modern Portuguese: Arte da Língua do Japão;
Print/export Japanese: ⽇本⼤⽂典, Nihon Daibunten) is an

Download as PDF early 17th-century Portuguese grammar of the

Printable version Japanese language. It was compiled by João
Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary. It is
Languages
the oldest fully extant Japanese grammar and is a
Français
valuable reference for the late middle period of the
Português
Edit links Japanese language.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Contents
3 Editions
4 References
4.1 Citations
4.2 Bibliography

Background [ edit ]

Christian missionary work in Japan began in the

1540s, necessitating the learning of its language.
Missionaries created dictionaries and grammars.
Early grammars seem to have been written in the
1580s, but are no longer extant.[1] João Rodrigues
arrived in Japan as a teenager and became so
fluent that he was mostly known to locals as "the
Translator" (Tsūji); he served as the translator of
visiting Jesuit overseers, as well as for the
shōguns Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa
Ieyasu. His Arte da Lingoa de Iapam is the oldest
extant complete Japanese grammar. Rodrigues
published it in three volumes at Nagasaki over the
five years between 1604 and 1608. In addition to
vocabulary and grammar, it includes details on the
country's dynasties, currency, measures, and other
commercial information.[2] There are only two
known copies: one at the Bodleian Library at the
University of Oxford and the other in the Crawford
family collection.[1][3]

Following a violent suppression of marauding

Japanese sailors in Macao in 1608 and court
intrigues the next year, however, Tokugawa
resolved to replace Portuguese traders with red
seal ships, the Dutch, and the Spanish in early
1610. After a successful assault on a Portuguese
ship then in Nagasaki Bay, he permitted most of
the missionaries to remain but replaced Rodrigues
with the Englishman William Adams.[2]

Rodrigues then joined the China missions, where

he published a terser revised grammar called The
Short Art of the Japanese Language
(Portuguese: Arte Breue da Lingoa Iapoa;
Japanese: ⽇本⼩⽂典,Nihon Shōbunten) at Macao
in 1620.[2][1] It reformulates the treatment of
grammar in the earlier "Great Art" (Arte Grande),
establishing clear and concise rules regarding the
principal features of the Japanese language.[2]

Contents [ edit ]

The grammar is three volumes in length.

Volume 1 is an outline of fundamental

Japanese grammar. It discusses the declension
of nouns and pronouns with respect to case
particles, the conjugation of verbs with respect
to mood and tense, categorizes the language
into ten parts of speech, discusses honorifics,
as well as romanization orthography.[1][3]
Volume 2 discusses syntax, rhetoric, dialects,
pronunciation, accent, and poetry.[1][3]
Volume 3 describes how to read kanji,
documents, personal names, and how to count
Japanese years and time.[1][3]

Editions [ edit ]

Arte da lingua de Iapam by father João

Rodrigues Originally published in Nagasaki:
Collegio de Iapao da Companhia de Iesv,
1604-1608, first grammar of the Japanese
language, in Portuguese, by the missionary
João Rodrigues
Arte da lingoa de Iapam (1604)
Élémens de la grammaire japonaise [abridged
from Arte da lingoa de Iapam] tr. et collationnés
par C. Landresse. [With] (1825)

The Great Art was translated into Japanese by

Tadao Doi (土井忠生) in 1955.[2]

The Short Art was translated into French by M.C.

Landresse as Elements of Japanese Grammar
(Elémens de la Grammaire Japonaise) in 1825,
with a supplement added the next year.[2]

References [ edit ]

Citations [ edit ]
1. ^ a b c d e f g Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten
Henshū Iinkai (1986:1417-1418)
2. ^ a b c d e f Chan (1976), p. 1146 .
3. ^ a b c d Doi (1955)

Bibliography [ edit ]

Chan, Albert (1976), "João Rodrígues" ,

Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644, Vol.
II: M–Z , New York: Columbia University
Press, pp. 1145–47.
Doi, Tadao (1955) [1604-1608]. Nihon
Daibunten (in Japanese). Sanseidō. ISBN 978-
4-8301-0297-4.
Hino, Hiroshi (1993). Nihon Shōbunten (in
Japanese). Shin-Jinbutsu-Ōrai-Sha.
Ikegami, Mineo (1993) [1620]. Nihongo
Shōbunten (in Japanese). Iwanami Shoten.
ISBN 4-00-336811-8, ISBN 4-00-336812-6.
Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten: Kan'yakuban [A
Comprehensive Dictionary of Classical
Japanese Literature: Concise Edition]. Tōkyō:
Iwanami Shoten. 1986. ISBN 4-00-080067-1.

Categories: Late Middle Japanese texts

Japanese grammar Jesuit publications
Jesuit Asia missions
Japan–Portugal relations
Portuguese-language mass media

This page was last edited on 1 June 2020, at 03:59 (UTC).

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