Nippo Jisho

Nippo Jisho
Frontispiece
Original titleVocabulario da lingoa de Iapam
LanguageJapanese and Portuguese
Publication date
1603
Publication placeJapan
Original text
Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam at Gallica

The Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書, literally the "Japanese–Portuguese Dictionary") or Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (Vocabulário da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese; "Vocabulary of the Language of Japan" in English) is a Japanese-to-Portuguese dictionary compiled by Jesuit missionaries and published in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1603. Containing entries for 32,293 Japanese words with explanations in Portuguese, it was the first dictionary of Japanese to a European language. The original publication uses the Latin alphabet exclusively, without Japanese characters (i.e. kanji or kana).

Facsimile editions were published in Japan in 1960 by Iwanami Shoten and again in 1973 and 1975 by Benseisha. The Benseisha reproduction is generally considered the clearer and more legible. A 1630 translation into Spanish published in Manila by the Dominican friars of the University of Santo Tomas,[1] an 1869 translation into French, and a 1980 translation into Japanese (by Iwanami Shoten) also exist.[citation needed] As of 2023, a translation into English by Jeroen Lamers was in the works.[2]

  1. ^ Rodrigues, João, ed. (1630). VOCABULARIO DE IAPON DECLARADO PRIMERO EN PORTUGUES, POR LOS PADRES DE LA Compañia de IESUS de aquel reyno, y agora en Castellano en el Colegio de Santo Thomas de Manila [VOCABULARY OF JAPAN DECLARED FIRST IN PORTUGUESE, BY THE FATHERS OF THE Company of Jesus of that kingdom, and now in Spanish in the College of Sto. Tomas of Manila] (in Japanese and Spanish). Translated by Esquivel y del Rosario, Fr. Jacinto (Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Réserve des livres rares, RES-X-973 ed.). Manila: Tomás Pinpin & Jacinto Magarulao.
  2. ^ Lamers, Jeroen (2023). On the Translation and Adaptation of The Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam.