The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1851-12-19

pa.m.isr,. Japanese and English Diet onary.
have lust received from Vienna. through the German
and foreign book importing house OF @. b. Wssier.
mann Brothers, OF New York The first number OF August
Pfzmaers TessaIaglost Dictionary OF tia Japanese Ian
guage, IN Chinese German, and English.
II is large quarto OF eighty pages printed on beauli'
full paper by Mechtharisten OF Vienna and has only
made It's appearance within the last few weeks
Each page is divided into two columns. Every alter
nate leaf contains the Chinese character answering 10 The
japanese VOID 10 be explained which latter Is printed IN
The Japanese Ka-sa kama characters, separated from
each other by small space, and ranged from top TO bot
tom on the right Of and al little distance from, the Chi.
nese characters
Both the Chinese and the Japanese characters the for
mer OF which is necessarily large and the latter small,
are beautifully and clearly Autographed.
Each Japanese word, with its Chinese correspondent is
numbered l. 9 g. &c. and to each number the opposite
page Of every alternate leaf affixed the spoken sound OF
The Japanese word in English capital letters, which
sounded after the OF the Latin the continent
of Europe and then follows the explanations in German
and English: so that the words explained and the expla
nations are displayed before the student at view on
opposite pages.
The origin of each word is given. whether Chinese or
Japanese and lis is frequently shown by short Japa-
nese sentences in English letters, which duly trans
lated.
There are O4G Japanese words in this number, each
of which begins with the Japanese character sound
corresponding that exhibited TO the eye by our letter
|, which is sounded as &c in the word feet
In preparing this great work. Phzmaier informs us thai
his materials drawn from several original japanese
dictionaries, and limited number OF Japanese text
books.
| Among the former are
Won Siebolds lithograph edition OF the Va kan
sekt siko, under the title oil the "lreasury Of
the Japanese Language"
q The Zi.rn- gioku-ben, dictionary entirely in Chi
nese characters, with explanations in Japanese
g. The Fdya-biki-se yo-Su, collection OF the most
used Japanese words, with explanations in Chinese
L. The New Japanese and Dutch Dictionary, printed al
Jedo in IS TO- small Japanese and Chinese Lexicon with
explanations in Dutch, published by the Prince of Ma
kats. .... ......
s. A Dutch Dictionary, with explanations almost en-
rely in Chinese published in Japan, but without date OF
place, designed for the use OF interpreters
OF all these works, il seems the SiO. gen Ike is The
most valuable but il is still very poor reliance die
onay for does contain half the words that tc
be found even in the few Japanese books TO which The
European world has II is full of errors, in III,
syllable writing which Pfzmaer had opportunity o
correcting by comparison OF it with the original copy
which was in Holland. However, he succeeded in de
tecting great many of its by his own knowledge
of the Japanese.
The Zrin- gioku-bsn and the Faya biki fall immeas
urably behind the Sio- gei-iko in the number OF the
words though they contain good many not 10 be founc
in the latter The same may be said of the Prince oil
Nakatss Dictionary which, however, supplied many o.
the more recent words introduced into ordinary
saton.
From the Dutch Dictionary No. 5, large number Of
the names of plants and minerals obtained.
Friar Didaco ColladoS " Treasury of the japanese
Language" published at Rome in l632a small Latin
and Japanese exiconenabed the author OF the present
work TO fix with more certainty the Specifications oil
many words and to increase his vocabulary in numbers
The extract given by Abel Remusat from the great
Japanese Encyclopedia in the tenth volume Of the "Ex
traits des Livres," sc, supplied some useful additional
words but il is disfgured by errors in the syllable
writing of the Ia character that could on
be used with the greatest and then only after
the text was corrected
The order of the words in this dictionary follows that
of the original Japanese that OF the
forty four japanese initial sounds arbitrarily arranged-J
Ro, Fa, &c, corresponding 10 our A, b I, &c.
The whole work, when finished will be voluminous
owing the large space occupied by the Chinese char
acter. which cannot be omitted in consequence OF the
existence OF the mixed tongue in vogue in Japan made
up OF japanese and Chinese words sounds and modes
writing.
propose al convenient opportunity, 10 translate in
full the authors learned preface to this number so tina
The people of this country may what DR. Phzmaie
is doing 10 bring the Japanese language TO our know
edge through the medium OF the EDgsh-a labor which
will immor,aze his name, because the time Is not fa
distant when our intercourse with Japan will become a
close and as intimate as that which have with
England and when for Americans TO speak and WRITE
Japanese, and Japanese to speak and write English vii
be necessary than II now for us TO know French
w. G. SNETHEN,
! 5Carroll Place, Capitol Hill, Washington D. C.
DECEMBER 4, 1851.