Vol 27 (2021), Monográfico: Dimensión lingüística de la colonización: la lingüística misionero-colonial / Coordinadores:Joaquín Sueiro Justel (U. Vigo), María Rosa Pérez Rodríguez (U. Vigo)
The main goal of this research is to highlight the relevance of the Portuguese language as a lingua franca and a metalanguage for the description of non-European languages, namely Japanese, in the Portuguese colonization context and missionary activities in the East. In order to achieve this purpose, we present three topics: the first is related to the moment when Portuguese became the vehicular language for the first translations of several Amerindian, African, and Asian languages, unknown by Europeans, until the age of expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; in a second topic, we approach the Jesuit epistolography concerning Japan in order to understand the process of acquiring and describing this language; the third is a brief analysis of the Art of the Japanese Language by João Rodrigues, evidencing some innovative aspects.
Palabras chave
Missionary linguistics, Portuguese language, Japanese language, East
ASSUNÇÃO, FERNANDES, FONTES, COELHO, and SOARES: Discoveries, missions and interlinguistic meetings of the Portuguese language in the
East
1. INTRODUCTION
The Portuguese language in the modern period has been studied from the perspective
of the companion language of the Empire. Many of this production has been studied
by prominent researchers, mostly in the two past decades, such as, v.g., , , , , Maruyama (, ), , , , , , , , Cardoso (, ),,, ,. The approach, rooted in the famous sentence la lengua, compañera del Imperio, was introduced by the Gramática de la Lengua Castellana by Antonio de Nebrija, published in 1492. In Portugal, Fernão de Oliveira, in the
first grammar of the Portuguese language, follows the same tone:
E desta feyção nos obrigarão a que ainda agora trabalhemos em aprender e apurar o
seu esqueçendo nos do nosso não façamos assy mas tornemos sobre nos agora que he tempo
e somos senhores porque milhor he que ensinemos a Guine ca que sejamos ensinados de
Roma: ainda que ella agora teuera toda sua valia e preço. E não desconfiemos da nossa
lingua porque os homẽs fazem a lingua e não a lingoa os homẽs. ()
[And that way they will make us learn their language and forget ours; let us not do
it that way but let us teach better here in Guinea than to be taught from Rome: even
now it has its value and price. Let us not mistrust our language because men create
the language / and not the other way around.]
The maxim of Nebrija continued to be appropriated in Portugal by João de Barros. Grammarian
and chronicler, João de Barros gave a preview of the language and its permanence in
Africa and the East in Décadas da Ásia. He wrote, prophetically:
As armas e padrões portugueses, postos em África e na Ásia, e em tantas mil ilhas
fora da repartição das três partes da Terra, materiais são e pode-os o tempo gastar;
pêro não gastará doutrina, costumes, linguagem que os Portugueses nestas terras deixarem.
()
[The Portuguese weapons and standards, brought into Africa and Asia, and on so many
islands outside the division of the three parts of the Earth, and the materials, may
disappear with time; but it will not weaken the doctrine, customs, language that the
Portuguese leave in these lands.]
Also, in the Gramática da Língua Portuguesa [Grammar of the Portuguese Language] published by Barros in 1540 — a work that incorporates
Diálogo em Louvor da nossa Língua (Dialogue in Praise of our Language) — the PL (Língua Portuguesa - Portuguese Language) is celebrated as an instrument of political cohesion for the
empire with the task of spreading Christianity throughout the world. The saying a
língua, companheira do império (language, companion of the Empire) has since been accepted as key to understanding
both linguistic theory and the practices that deal with the Portuguese language at
the beginning of modernity. The widespread influence of this historiographical approach
triggered two essential phenomena: 1) Portuguese became the vehicular language for
the first translations of several Amerindian, African, and Asian languages unknown
to Europeans until the age of expansion; 2) Portuguese has become a lingua franca
used by communities of multilingual European and non-European merchants, travelers,
and missionaries in Asian coasts, well beyond the spatiality and temporality of the
Portuguese imperial presence. The impact of these phenomena is evidenced by the production
of hundreds of reports and descriptions, including lists of words, dictionaries, and
grammars, compiled mainly by missionaries, in particular the Jesuits, and occasionally
by sea captains, merchants, and travelers (). Surprisingly, these sources remain scattered and scarcely studied, although their
relevance has already led to pioneering work carried out by some linguists. says that “(…) pre-modern missionary sources have in the past been largely neglected.
Scholars have often confined themselves to pointing out the shortcomings of the Latin-based
model and the inappropriateness of imposing Eurocentric concepts onto other languages.”
These sources use Portuguese as a vehicular language to describe and translate languages
of all these peoples of the Portuguese Empire, from Brazil to the African and Asian
territories, at the beginning of modernity.
2. HISTORIOGRAPHIC AND EPISTOLOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE
This civilizing enterprise, at its beginning, was overseen by the Portuguese Crown.
Cláudio Pinheiro mentions that in the first conquests of North Africa there were highly
trained professionals, with “cartógrafos, navegadores, pilotos, além de 17 especialistas
em línguas – quatro africanos peritos em idiomas da costa ocidental africana, três
portugueses falantes de línguas Banto e árabe, e outros dez degredados, usados como
intérpretes.” () […cartographers, navigators, pilots, as well as 17 language specialists for the
communication: four African language experts from the West African coast, three Portuguese
speakers of Bantu and Arabic languages, and ten other exiled, used as interpreters.]
Later, Vasco da Gama's armada to India assumed, in addition to all nautical and war
material, that “houve ainda o investimento pesado que se fez em técnicas de comunicação,
sem as quais, toda a ação expansionista e a montagem de um aparato colonialista não
seriam possíveis.” () [a heavy investment in communication techniques, without which all expansionist
action and the assembly of a colonialist state would not have been possible.] The
issue of communication with the local population was vital “para a exploração, o comércio
e, mais tarde, as atividades de missionação que acompanharam o processo de expansão
imperial dos Estados modernos europeus” () [for exploration, trade, and, later, the mission activities that accompanied the
process of imperial expansion of modern European states.]
However, the Portuguese Crown soon declined much of its responsibility in this civilizing
enterprise. This intercultural phenomenon was only possible through the missionaries.
The importance of missions in the dissemination/learning of languages and in the creation
of interlinguistic texts is mainly due to the need for dissemination of the Christian
faith, or, as mentions, “their main purpose was to communicate with the local people and to teach
them the Christian faith." Their dictionaries and glossaries attest the efforts of
missionaries in the interpretation of native languages and retain memories and gestures
of those intercultural encounters.
From the efforts of learning languages and their teaching to novices, the first grammars
were born, and the literacy or transcription of their writing in the Latin alphabet.
Some of these languages were known only through orality. The arrival of typography,
first to Goa (1556) and then to Macau (1584-1588) and Japan (1591), stimulated the
publication and proliferation of teaching manuals, booklets, dictionaries, catechisms,
grammars, dictionaries, letters, etc. The arrival of typography to these people was
not the initiative of the Portuguese royal power: it was driven by the dynamic generated
by missions in the dissemination of the Christian faith ().
And it was in this way that the Portuguese discoveries in the East provided a true
meeting of civilizations and cultures, helped by the Portuguese language. As Silva
says,
Como se sabe, houve duas condições fundamentais para que esse encontro se pudesse
realizar: primeiro foi que as terras e nações, onde as várias culturas floresciam,
se conhecessem e isso fizeram os navegantes descobridores desde a Africa meridional,
à índia, ao Vietnam, à China, ao Japão, às Molucas. Mas depois, para que houvesse
diálogo frutuoso e perene, começou outro empreendimento menos espectacular mas também
difícil e complementar: o estudo e aprofundamento científico e literário das diversas
ou diversíssimas línguas desses povos. Sem o conhecimento das línguas desses povos
não se podia dialogar. Constituiu um aspecto indeclinável, no qual os portugueses
se evidenciaram como verdadeiros pioneiros. ()
[As is well-known, there were two fundamental conditions for this meeting to be held:
first was that the lands and nations, where the various cultures flourished, knew
each other and this made the discoverers from South Africa, India, Vietnam, China,
Japan, the Moluccas. But then, in the event of fruitful and perennial dialogue, another
less spectacular but also difficult and complementary undertaking began: the study
and scientific and literary deepening of the various or diverse languages of these
people. Without the knowledge of the languages of these people, one could not dialogue.
It was an inevitable aspect, in which the Portuguese were shown as true pioneers.]
This was one of the most relevant aspects of the work of missionaries, especially
the Jesuit missionaries, but also those of other religious orders: that of learning
the languages of the people found by the Portuguese and teaching Portuguese to these
new people. This achievement is the greatest internationalization ever of the Portuguese
language (PL).
To illustrate all this intercultural meeting in which the PL served as a metalanguage
for the description of many of the languages of the East; PL was as well the lingua
franca in the East by seeing the impressive set of dictionaries, vocabularies, and
glossaries elaborated based on the texts of David Lopes and Luís de Matos, Barbosa
Machado, Inocêncio Silva, Simão Cardoso, Cunha Rivara, Céu Fonseca, Toru Maruyama,
Verdelho, and Zwartjes ().
The learning of Japanese assumes a privileged place in the strategies of evangelization
by allowing an effective dialogue with the people to be conquered. The desire to attract
an ever-growing population led missionaries to create schools for the education of
children while transmitting the rudiments of the Christian doctrine.
According to ,
A aprendizagem da língua japonesa, na perspectiva das suas múltiplas utilizações (a
comunicação, o ensino, a tradução), conduz a uma atenta observação do sistema complexo
que ela constitui, além de que a visão de fora (estrangeiros provenientes de uma diferente
família linguística) permitirá uma abordagem contrastiva que terá poucas hipóteses
de se repetir.
É assim que encontramos muitas observações sobre as diferenças entre escrita e fala
no japonês, ou as distintas formas de falar de homens e mulheres, ainda que escrevam
da mesma maneira, ou o modo como o japonês falado na capital e nos palácios divergia
do seu uso nas províncias onde vivia a generalidade da população. A compreensão destes
fenómenos enforma as obras linguísticas elaboradas pelos missionários, a que se junta
a reflexão sobre as dificuldades de transcrever o material linguístico de um alfabeto
para outro, isto é, de um sistema de escrita ideográfica para um sistema alfabético.
[Learning Japanese, from the perspective of its multiple uses (communication, teaching,
translation), leads to careful observation of its complex system, and the outside
view (foreigners from a different linguistic family) allows a contrasting approach
that will have little chance of repeating itself.
This is how we find many observations of the differences between the oral and written
aspects of the Japanese language; the different ways of speaking among men and women,
although they wrote in the same way; or the way Japanese is spoken in the capital
and in the palaces, that diverged from its use in the provinces, where the generality
of the population lived. The understanding of these phenomena forms the linguistic
works elaborated by the missionaries, which is added to reflection on the difficulties
of transcribing the linguistic material from one alphabet to another ― that is, from
an ideographic writing system to an alphabetic system.]
The letters sent to Portugal and Spain, especially by Jesuit missionaries, are very
important historical documents to understand the knowledge that missionaries had of
the languages found in the East, among other important events. In fact, in the prologue
to the edition of the Letters that came out in 1562, Father Manuel Álvares, on the value of publishing some of
these letters in the press, states that:
De entre estas cartas, a zona mais privilegiada pela imprensa era o Japão e, por esta
razão, passaram a ser conhecidas como cartas do Japão, com tiragens muito significativas
para a época. As edições de 1570 tiveram uma tiragem de mil exemplares cada, número
que nos pode levar a pensar que as tiragens nem sempre seriam tão pequenas quanto
poderíamos supor. (Garcia 1997: 13)
[Among these letters, the area most privileged by the press was Japan and, for this
reason, they came to be known as letters from Japan, with significant printings for
the time. The editions of 1570 had a circulation of a thousand copies each, a number
that may lead us to think that the printings would not always be as small as we might
assume.]
Among these letters, there is a set that presents information about the Japanese language.
Father Baltasar Gago describes the origin of Japanese letters:
Neste tempo não tinhão letras: este princípio avera dous mil e duzentos annos. Dahi
a muito tempo vierão as letras da China, que com dificuldade se aprendem, e o primeiro
livro veo da China. Daqui tomarão huns caracteres e maneira de letra, com que se entendem
muito mais facilmente que com as letras da China ().
[During that period, they did not have letters: we would have to wait around two thousand
two hundred years. Then, the Chinese letters, being very hard to learn, appeared,
as well as the first book, which was also Chinese. From that moment on, the Chinese
started using some characters and handwriting with which they understood each other
much easier than with the former letters.]
Father Lourenço Mexia, in 1584, offers a detailed description of the Japanese language:
A lingoa he a mais grave, e copiosa que creo ha, porque em muitas cousas excede a
grega, e latina, tem infinidade de vocabulos, e modos pera declarar a mesma cousa,
e tem tanto que fazer em se aprender, que não somente os nossos que ha mais de vinte
anos que la andão, mas os naturaes aprendem cousas novas. Tem outra cousa (que creo
que se não acha em nenhuma lingoa) que se aprende a Reithorica e boa criação cõ ella.
Não pode ninguem saber Japão que não saiba logo como ha de falar aos grandes, e aos
pequenos, altos e baixos e o decoro que se ha de guardar com todos, e tem particulares
verbos e nomes e modos de falar pera huns, e outros. Ja os nossos têm feito arte da
Gramática e Calepino, ou Vocabulário, e começarão o Nisolio, ou tesauro. A lingoagem
da escritura he mui diferente da pratica e assi huma, como a outra he mui varia, e
abundante e cõ ser tão abundante em poucas palavras cõprendem muito. A letra he cousa
infinita, nem se acha pessoa que a saiba toda, porque tem duas maneiras de A b c,
e cada hum de mais de corenta letras, e cada letra tem muitas figuras: e alem disto
tem letra de figuras como os Chins, que he cousa que nunca se acaba de aprender. E
afora estas figuras tem outras proprias pera as mesmas cousas. Tem no escrever muito
engenho, e artifício porque o que se não pode explicar na lingoa se declara na letra.
()
[This language is the greatest and most abundant I believe to exist because, in many
aspects, it exceeds the Greek and Latin ones for it has a never-ending number of words
and ways to refer the same things; plus, it implies such huge effort in learning that
not only our brothers who have been living there for over twenty years, but even the
native speakers are continuously learning new things. Moreover, this language has
one other characteristic (which I find unique and exclusive and cannot be found in
any other) which is that one can learn rhetoric and politeness through its structures.
There is no soul who knows how to speak Japanese and does not immediately know how
to address themselves both to the rich and the poor, and to high society and low society.
Furthermore, the speakers are also aware of the decorum to be used with every one
of those members of the society, since this is accomplished thanks to the fact that
there are specific verbs, nouns, and ways of speaking for each of those social classes.
Bearing such things in mind, our people (the priests) have been working on the art
of grammar and vocabulary (or Calepino) and have also started arranging the Nisolio
(or thesaurus). The language used in writing is very different from the one used in
everyday speech; however, the first and the second are so rich and abundant that a
few words can express a great number of meanings. As to alphabet letters, they are
never-ending and one cannot find any single native speaker who knows them all because
for every letter ― a, b, c ― there are over forty versions, and each letter has a
lot of symbols or figures. For instance, the symbols referring to the Chins are infinite.
And moreover, the variety of symbols, one can be speaking about the same things and
choose different symbols that are synonyms. This way of writing must be ingenious
and artful because what cannot be explained through the semantics of language must
be shown by means of alphabetical letters.]
Language learning was of particular importance in achieving the desired objective,
the conversion of Japanese people. In this regard, Luís Dalmeida said in November
1559: "We are all well, praise the Lord, and we practice learning the language to
help these Christians" (.
Brother João Fernandez de Bungo corroborates this intention:
Tambem ensina as letras de Japaõ aos filhos dos Christãos, porque antes as aprendião
nos mosteiros dos seus Bonzos, onde depois de aprenderem ficavão filhos do demonio,
polos muitos maos costumes e vicios que os Bõzos ensinão aos moços que tem em seus
mosteiros: e por impedir este mal ordenou o padre que todos os filhos dos christãos
viessem aqui a casa aprender suas mesmas letras, pera que juntamente com ellas bebessem
a Doutrina Christã. ()
[He also teaches Japanese lettering to the children of these Christians, because they
used to first learn them in the bonzes’ monasteries, which turned these young men
into children of the devil due to the bad moral behavior, customs, and habits that
the bonzes taught the novices they raised in their monasteries: and so to prevent
such evil, he ordered the priest that all children of the Christians would come there
to learn the already mentioned lettering and through it they would receive the Christian
faith.]
There are reports of priests who were completely fluent in Japanese:
Antre os irmãos que vieram a Japão, da lingoa nenhum chegou ao irmão João Frz, nem
me parece que o haverá por muitos que venhão. Mas este mancebo que anda comigo tem
tanta graça no que diz, que rouba os corações daqueles com quem fala: tera agora vinte
e dous anos, tem muita parte da sagrada escritura na memória. ()
[Among the brothers who came to Japan, no one has (or will) excelled Brother John
Frz. Nevertheless, this young man who accompanies me has such grace in what he says
that he steals the hearts of those he speaks to: he must now be twenty-two years old
and bears in his memory a great amount of the Holy Scripture.]
O irmão João Fernandez, porque sabe bem a língua de Japão se occupa em ensinar aos
baptizados. ()
[Brother João Fernandez, as he knows the Japanese language so well, has been spending
his time teaching the baptized ones.]
Also, some grammar compendiums and vocabulary books appear in the Letters. Father Luís Fróis, in a letter of 3 October 1564, refers:
Por em Japão até agora não aver arte conforme a ordem que tem a latina por onde se
padecia detrimento no aprender da lingoa, determinou o irmão João Fernandez (por então
ter algum vagar, e desposição pera se ocupar nisso) de a fazer com suas conjugações,
praeteritos, sintaxi e mais regras necessárias cõ dous vocabulos por ordem do alfabeto
hum que começa em Portugues, e outro na mesma lingoa. Gastou em compor isto seis ou
sete meses, até que pela bondade de Deos lhe deu fim, não perdendo nada de suas pregações
e exercícios costumados, que foi huma das mais necessárias cousas que cá se avião
mister, pera com a língoa se poder fazer fruito nas almas. (
[Because in Japan, so far, there seems to have been no art like the Latin one, which
has led us to have great difficulty learning Japanese, Brother João Fernandez has
decided (having always been free and willing to do so) to learn the art of this language
as follows: he has taken the conjugations, verb tenses, syntax and further linguistic
rules and has analyzed them in bilingual terms of comparison. In other words, the
grammar rules have been applied to the Portuguese word / Japanese correspondent word
pair. It took him six or seven months to do it until the moment God’s will put an
end to it. Having achieved such purpose, our brother did not forget his religious
mission since he maintained his preaching and usual tasks, which were the things these
people were in most need of so the language would have its fruits in these people’s
souls.]
In addition to mentioning this problem in the Letters, Father Luís Fróis, in the work History of Japan, again alluded to texts of a linguistic nature for the study of the Japanese language.
In this regard, he refers to a Japanese doctor, converted in 1560: being an “illustrious
speaker of the Japanese language […] his research was the foundation to study and
create Art in Japanese language and its very copious vocabulary.” ()
Luís Fróis himself, in collaboration with João Fernandes, also began in 1563:
(...) huma traça da primeira arte que se fez em Japão, ordenando suas conjugações
e sintaxis, e hum pedaço de vocabulario, mas como ainda era novo na terra e tinha
tão pouca noticia da lingua, não foi mais que huma previa despozissão, que depois
podesse dar luz à Arte e vocabulario, que se fez dahi a perto de vinte anos. ()
[... a draft of the first art documents ever made in Japan, by organizing all the
conjugations, and syntax, and a short list of vocabulary. However, because I had recently
arrived in that land and had little information about the language, that draft was
no more than a primary raw material that could eventually give birth to Art and vocabulary,
which were to be achieved only about twenty years later.]
Father Gaspar Coelho, in his annual letter of 1582, refers to books of the same genre
but does not specify his authorship: “The Art of Japanese has been improved this year,
and we hold lists of vocabulary and some treatises in Japanese.” ()
According to Barbosa Machado, of all the authors mentioned in the letters, there is
only an indication of books in Japanese by three authors: Father Balthazar Gago, Duarte
da Silva, and Gaspar Vilela. Father Balthazar Gago declared to have written “in Japanese
the treatise which clearly shows the great difference that there is between the law
of Christ and that of Japan" (); Father Duarte da Silva mentioned the "Art of the Japanese language. Ms." and the
vocabulary of the Japanese language, while Father Gaspar Vilela referred the "controversies
against all the sects of Japan” ().
3. THE JAPANESE BOOKS
Among the best-known works of this interculturality, three stand out: Dictionarum latinum-lusitanum ac Iaponicum ex Anbrosii Calepini, Vocabulario da lingoa
de Iapam with the declaration in Portuguese, and Arte da Lingoa de Japam.
If the dictionary and vocabulary are major works of Eurasian lexicography, the best-known
of all works published in Japan by Portuguese missionaries is the Arte da lingoa de Iapam by Father João Rodrigues, which was published in Nagasaki between 1604 and 1608,
of which a brief version was published in Macau in the year 1620. Rodrigues' grammar
is a remarkable work that remains a valuable instrument of reference for Japanese
scholars today, with a great abundance of quotes and examples. This is a monumental
work that has not yet been surpassed.
João Rodrigues still has the merit of clarifying many problems about the Japanese
language, being the only source to know the pronunciation of Japanese words at that
time, due to ignoring the phonetic correspondence of Chinese characters that Japanese
uses and that have since evolved and whose pronunciation has been changed ().
In volume I of this work, João Rodrigues deals with nouns, pronouns, and verbs. In
the chapter on verbs, Rodrigues presents a work that can be considered unprecedented,
not only at that time but also in the modern grammars of the Japanese language. The
fact that Rodrigues defined the various tenses of a verb, applying to them the complicated
system of conjugation of Portuguese verbs, deserves great admiration from the Japanese
reader. An essentially anti-grammatical language, Japanese is now spoken, written,
and read by about 130 million people, with no one, with rare exceptions, being able
to structure a grammar as did Father João Rodrigues almost four centuries ago, as
Doi (1976) mentions in the introduction of the facsimile edition.
In the context of conjugations, from the personal infinitive to the present imperative,
Rodrigues attributes to the Japanese language the appropriate use of each conjugated
verb, distinguishing them only by means of suffixes. Doi draws the reader's attention
to the variations in meaning resulting from the classification, sometimes in the present
of the indicative, sometimes in the imperfect future of the conjunctive, or even in
the conditional, in which the grammatical deficiency imposes on the spoken language
a differentiation of sound, therefore distinct from the written language.
In the second part of his Art, João Rodrigues indicates the mistakes that are usually made by foreigners in translation
into Japanese and warns the reader of the need to translate the meaning of the sentence
instead of producing a word-to-word version. It also includes a treatise on Japanese
poetry, divided into Chinese poetry translated into Japanese and pure Japanese poetry,
which is undoubtedly the first Japanese poetry explained in a Western language.
In the chapter on the practical application of the rules, the explanations offered
by João Rodrigues are even more detailed. Here, several etymological problems are
raised, referencing the history of Japan's relations with China and Mongolia. This
chapter refers to the Chinese characters integrated into the Japanese language, perfected
with the invention of kana characters.
Regarding auxiliary particles, whose variety and abundance are perhaps unique in the
history of human civilization, Rodrigues reveals a deep knowledge, with examples based
on the literary archives that were scarce at that time.
The author also dedicates a long chapter to the proper names of emperors, feudal lords,
and high dignitaries of the shogunate and to localities related to Western activities
in Japan. He also cites the designations of the imperial era, comparing them with
the years of the Christian calendar. This exhaustive work has the value of acting
as an introduction to the geography and history of Japan.
In the third part, Rodrigues goes beyond the objectives of grammar and discusses about
style, using more than twelve pages with rules and etiquette on writing letters. He
also adds a brief but detailed treatise on weights, measures, and number systems,
as well as a table of conversions.
Na parte final, envereda pela História e apresenta uma longa lista dos imperadores
japoneses, expondo ainda a origem do budismo, confucionismo e taoísmo na China e sugerindo
que os chineses seriam descendentes das tribos de Israel, teoria que desenvolverá
na sua História. Nesta longa exposição, nomeia ainda os lendários deuses e deusas
que aparecem nas antigas crónicas japonesas como Nihongi e Kojiki e, por fim, inclui
uma cronologia comparativa, com início em Adão e termo no nascimento de Cristo. ()
[In the final part, he goes through history and presents a long list of Japanese emperors,
also exposing the origin of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism in China and suggesting
that the Chinese would be descendants of the tribes of Israel, a theory that will
develop in its history. In this long exhibition, he also names the legendary gods
and goddesses that appear in ancient Japanese chronicles such as Nihongi and Kojiki
and, finally, includes a comparative chronology, beginning with Adam and ending with
the birth of Christ.]
In linguistic and communication terms, we cannot fail to mention Rodrigues'treatment
of "particles" in his Arte, which, in our view, represents an innovation in comparison to the European tradition.
In fact, as we verified previously (), Rodrigues discontinues the traditional Latin grammar terminology, introducing,
for example, honorific and humble or humiliative particles (). He does not classify these particles amongst the designations of prefixes and suffixes,
but they were added to the nouns or verbs radicals or roots. For him, the most frequent
Japanese “prefixes” were nite-, ni-, de-, and goza‑:
(...) em quanto particula se pospoem às rayzes de todas as particulas que se ajuntão
a os verbos, assi honorativas, como humiliativas, como tambem às que signifycão fazer,
sem alterar nada sua significação. Vt, Naravaresoro, Yumi mŏxisoro, Ague mairaxesoro, Cacaxeraresoro [...] As particulas com que propriamente se compoẽm quanto verbo são quatro conuem
a saber. Nite, Ni, De, Goza, Vt Nitesoro, Nisoro, Desoro, Gozasoro. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 52v)
[As for particles, they add the radicals of all particles, which they connect to verbs.
This is the case for honorific as well as humiliative particles, which means to do
without changing its meaning, as in naravaresoro, yumi mŏxisoro, ague mairaxesoro, cacaxeraresoro. [...] Among particles, which properly compose the verbs, there are four which we
ought to know: nite, ni, de, and goza, as in nitesoro, nisoro, desoro, gozasoro.]
Rodrigues also examines the most usual address forms used by Japanese people in writing
styles, such as in religious texts (naiden) and in secular texts (gueden). He, e.g., states that ‑sama was the most common particle for the nouns:
Sama, id est, Yŏna, id est, semelhante, assim como, modo, et cetera. Esta particula antigamente nam tinha grao de honra,
mas agora he a mais comum, e vsada de quantas ha, e soomente se pospoem a pessoas,
e nam a outras cousas, ut Vyesama, id est, Vyeno Yŏna, id est, O Senhor da Tença. Yacatasama, Tono sama, Padre Sama, et cetera.
Podemos dizer que no vso em que agora anda tem sentido, de Senhor, Senhoria, Alteza, Merce, Reuerencia, et cetera, conforme a pessoa a que se pospõem. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 159v)
[Sama, i.e., Yŏna, i.e., identical, as well as manner, etc. This particle formerly did not have a grade of honor. Now it is the most common
and the most used, and it is only used for people and not things, as in Vyesama, Vyeno Yŏna, Yacatasama, Tono sama, Padre Sama, etc. We can say that in the use that is now common, it means Lord, Lordship, Your Highness, Mercy, Reverence, etc., according to the person to whose name it is joined.]
Rodrigues believed that the most common address forms or honorable degree particles
were ‑dono, ‑tono, ‑cŏ, and ‑quiŏ, which were used only by the nobles who resided at Kyoto king’s palace:
Dono, Tono.
He hũa voz que parece significar como entre nos, senhor, ou fidalgo, e se pospoem aos nomes proprios de pessoas, quando se nomeam, assi nas cartas, como
no falar ordinario mormente em presença, ou diante de seus criados, e pessoas de
obrigaçam. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 160r)
[Dono, Tono. They are words that mean a lord or gentleman, and they were added to the first names when they nominated people in letters in
ordinary speech, especially in the presence of, or in front of their servants and
workers.]
Cŏ, Quoĭ id est Quimi.
Estas duas vozes significam propriamente Senhor, Dominus. Cŏ, se somente aos nomes de pessoas nobres commummente nas cartas [...]
Quiŏ, serue somente entre Cugues. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 160r)
[Cŏ, Quiŏ, i.e., Quimi. These two words mean Sir, Dominus. Cŏ postpones to noble people’s names, especially in the letters [...]
Quiŏ serves only amongst the Cugues.]
However, the main address form, used only to speak to the king, was yei‑:
Yei, id est, Chocu. Estas particulas seruem soomente pera el rey, e significam o mesmo
rey. id est. Vŏ, e se antepoem aos nomes do Coye. Vt, Yeiran, id est, Vio el Rey,
Yeican, id est, Guiocan, Lolucu El Rey, Yeirio, id est, Yeixin, id est, Micocoro,
o coraçam del Rey [...]. (Rodrigues 1604–1608: 160v)
[Yei, i.e., Chocu. These particles serve only for the king and mean the king himself, i.e., Vŏ, and they are placed before the names of the Coye, as in Yeiran and Vio, the King, Yeican, Guiocan, and Lolucu, the King, Yeirio, Yeixin, and Micocoro, the king’s heart.]
João Rodrigues also had already described, e.g., the (postponed) particle ‑vye, which was used only with women’s names, meaning the “highest lady”:
Vye. Esta particula significa superior supremo, et cetera. Como quando dizemos Vye,
id est, Vye sama […] He vsada por particula de honra falando de molheres, e se pospoem
aos nomes das pessoas que honra. Vt, Fauavye, A Senhora mãy. Vovye, a senhora da casa,
ou mulher do Tono. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 159v)
[Vye: This particle means supreme superior, etc., as when we say Vye, Vye sama […] It is used as an honorific particle for speaking of women, and they add it to
people’s names, which they honor, as in Fauavye, Mother Lady, Vovye, the Lady of the House, and Tono’s wife.]
Similarly, -goien, corresponding to the masculine -sama, was used only among women, exhibiting veneration to their noble family:
Goien, Go. A primeira particula destas duas serue soomente pera molheres, e as honra
a modo de, Sama. por respeito das pessoas nobres a quem pertencem as taes molheres.
Vt Fauagoien, Foioquegoienm Toquinagoien. (Rodrigues 1604-1608: 160 v)
[Goien, Go. The first particle of these two is used only for women and to honor them, in the
manner of Sama and out of respect for noble people who own such women, as in Fauagoien, Foioquegoienm Toquinagoien.]
As we had the opportunity to demonstrate, in specific research on the first grammatical
encoding of Japanese Politeness, “Rodrigues describes female particles used only by
the lower to higher status women and not the reverse, as Ide does, and he does not
know how the seventeenth-century younger generation spoke, as Clarke describes for
the contemporary era.” () Indeed, Rodrigues and Clarke analyze different linguistic phenomena in female language,
but it is noteworthy that an early seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary was also
concerned with it and how to use the correct address form — or particle in his terminology
— when addressing women ().
4. CONCLUSION
After an introductory note where we present a non-exhaustive bibliographical review
on the paper’s subject, we have listed in the second chapter a wide range of data
on the Portuguese language and the participation Portuguese had in the description
of the languages of Asia, from a historiographical perspective. We also have highlighted
the efforts done by the crown and its inability to continue this enterprise, with
the religious orders and, in particular, the Jesuits taking the reins of the most
extraordinary civilizational encounter provided by the Portuguese language.
Through some Jesuit epistolography, we have seen the herculean work carried out by
missionaries, especially the Jesuits but also other religious orders, to learn the
languages of the people found by the Portuguese and teach Portuguese to these new
people, as well as describing the Japanese language. We finished the work with some
linguistic reflection on the extraordinary grammar by João Rodrigues, who exerted
a considerable influence on the Japanese language that would have been even greater
had it not been for the prohibition of Christianity and the extinction of typography
in 1614. His work was the first, and for a long time the only, attempt at scientific
study of the Japanese language, and was the main source of the first Euro-Japanese
grammatical works published in the mid-nineteenth century. The work shows an innovative
aspect by including particles in the parts of speech due to the influence of contemporary
philological studies in Japan. Even today, grammarians call particles to the words
that do not integrate into any of the word classes. Rodrigues had already seen the
pragmatic-conversational value in some particles, depending on their “good use”, the
“right”, “correct”, “proper speaking,” and their “misuse”, “informal and improper”
(). These particles, in addition to this pragmatic value, are units of different paradigmatic
status, which combine syntactically with nouns and verbs, or by adding, by way of
fixed particles, or as independent elements, and can then assume the values of adverbs,
conjunctions and nouns. In either case, it is possible to perform simple determinants
or relationship elements.
In effect, Rodrigues was one of the most original grammarians and deserves to be classified
as the father of Japanese linguistics studies, as called him. He was also one of the five best Jesuit grammarians of the whole colonial
period, as stated by . Rodrigues, as we established previously (), “presented many linguistic innovations and created a new metalanguage derived from
his knowledge of Japanese society, mainly from Kyoto, and classical Japanese literature,
paying special attention to how social relationships between the interlocutors worked
in oral and written speech.”
Acknowledgments
This research project was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT), through the Center for Studies in Letters (CEL), reference no. UIDP/00707/2020,
Portugal. A preliminary version of this paper was published in Portuguese () and it incorporates outputs from another concerning explicitly the first grammatical
descriptions of Japanese Politeness (). We would like to gratefully acknowledge the editorial board and the two anonymous
referees whose stimulating comments and recommendations we have tried to implement
in the final version of this paper.
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Assunçao, C., Fernandes, G., Fontes, S., Coelho, S., & Soares, M. L. (2022). Discoveries, missions and interlinguistic meetings of the Portuguese language in the East. Moenia, 27. https://doi.org/10.15304/moenia.id8016
