南山俗語考 巻五 / Minnanyu（閩南語） textbook written by Nanzan, vol. 5

“Minnanyu textbook written by Nanzan” is a textbook of the Southern Min dialect, to train Chinese interpreters. Published in 1814. It is composed of 5 volumes and 1 appendix. Written by Shimazu Shigehide, the lord of the Satsuma domain (Nanzan is his pen name [go]). Sohan, one of his vassals, translated the texts to Japanese language and Ishizuka Saikō added Chinese phonetic readings. It contains 8,277 words of the dialect which was used in the region of Zhangzhou and Fuzhou in the era of Qing. The words are divided into categories. Alongside a word, there is a Chinese sound which was written in Katakana and below the word, there is a Japanese translation. It was essential for the Satsuma domain to train Chinese interpreters because they had to deal with foreigners whose disabled ships drifted ashore in the Satsuma domain. This is very important material for phonological research into the language spoken in south China in the era of Qing. The fifth volume should contain sections on "Food", "Seafood", "Insects", "Four-footed animals", "Birds", "Plants", "Saddle and Bit to control a horse" and "Clothing". However, there are some missing pages and pages out of sequence. The sections on "Insects", "Four-footed animals" and "Birds" are missing entirely. And, the section on "Plants" is incomplete. Only the sections on "Food", "Seafood", "Saddle and bit to control a horse", and "Clothing" are complete in the book that we have.(Updated on November 4, 2022)