Diego Collados Grammar of the Japanese Language | Page 2

was begun with the able assistance of Ms. Roberta Galli whose contribution to my understanding of the Latin text is most gratefully acknowledged. For his continued encouragement in this undertaking I am grateful to Professor Roy Andrew Miller. Thanks are also due to the Graduate School of the University of Kansas for its support in the preparation of the manuscript and to Ms. Sue Schumock whose capable typing turned a scribbled, multi-lingual draft into a legible manuscript. The imperfections are my own.
R.L.S.
Lawrence, Kansas May, 1975
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Introduction
In 1632, as the Christian Century in Japan was drawing swiftly to a close, three works pertaining to the Japanese language were being published at Rome by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. These works were by the Spanish Dominican Father, Diego Collado (d. 1638), who had spent the years from 1619 to 1622 in Japan. Their publication clearly reflects the vitality of the missionary spirit in that age as well as the important place reserved for language study in the propagation of the faith.
The first two works, whose manuscripts had been prepared in Madrid the year before, were a grammar and a dictionary of Japanese. The third, prepared in 1631, while the larger works were being seen through the press, was a guide to the taking of confession written in both Latin and Japanese.[1] The grammar, drafted in Spanish, was published in Latin in 1632 under the title Ars Grammaticae Iaponicae Linguae. It is this work that is translated here. The dictionary, only at the last moment supplied with Latin glosses to supplement those in Spanish, was published in the same year with the title Dictionarium sive Thesauri Linguae Iaponicae Compendium.[2] Taken together these three works by Collado constitute the final extant efforts of those who studied the Japanese language first hand during the Christian Century.[3]
Two other grammatical works must be mentioned here as central to the proper assessment of Collado's Grammar. They are both by the great Jesuit scholar, Father Jo?o Rodnguez (1561-1634);[4] the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam (Nagasaki, 1604-8, hereafter the Arte), and the Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa (Macao, 1620, hereafter Arte Breve). The first {2} is by any standards the greatest grammatical study of Japanese made during the Christian Century. It is further, as we shall see, the primary source for Collado's Grammar. The Arte Breve, on the other hand, is not directly related to Collado's work. Indeed it is clear that Rodriguez' 1620 Macao publication was unknown to Collado. Nevertheless, since the Arte Breve is an abbreviated version of the Arte with a purpose similar to the Ars Grammaticae, a comparison of these two books with respect to the way they systematize the material from the Arte is included in this introduction to contribute some insight into the treatment of the Japanese language at the beginning of the Tokugawa Period.
In presenting this translation two potential audiences are envisioned. The first, and more restricted, group is that having an interest in the history of the Japanese language. It is hoped that an English version of this work will make more readily available this significant material pertaining to the Japanese language as spoken in the early modern period. I use the word significant here to avoid granting excessive value to a work which derives such a large portion of its material and insight from Rodriguez' Arte.
The second, and wider group for whom this translation is intended is that which has a need for an edited edition of an important document in the history of grammatical description. In this area of scholarship Collado's work is of more than moderate significance. It was accepted for publication by the prestigious Propaganda Press; and, even if those more familiar with Japanese than the editorial board of that Press might have had serious reservations concerning the linguistic accuracy of the text, it is reasonable to assume that the Press judged it to be a good example of grammatical description. It thus represents a grammar of a non-European language which suited the requirements of the day for publication at Rome.[5]
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In order to permit this translation of the Ars Grammaticae to be of use in both these areas of scholarship I have made an effort to reduce to a minimum those places where a knowledge of either Japanese or Latin is required for the comprehension of the translation. It is sincerely hoped that the result is not an effort that is satisfying to neither, and thus to no one.
Because of the derivative nature of the text, this translation has put aside a number of important philological problems as better dealt with within the context of Rodriguez' grammars. This decision has its most obvious consequences in the section on the arithmetic, where innumerable data require exposition. However, since a basic purpose of this