Nippo Jisho - Examples

Examples

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"