Pentaglot Dictionary

The first page of the astronomy section of the Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian. The work contains four terms on each of its pages, arranged in the order of Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, vernacular Chagatai (Modern Uyghur), and Chinese languages. For the Tibetan, it includes both transliteration and a transcription into the Manchu alphabet. For the Uyghur, it includes a line of transcription into the Manchu alphabet.
(Work completed during the Qianlong era of Qing.)

The Pentaglot Dictionary[1][2] (Chinese: 御製五體清文鑑, Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian; the term 清文, Qingwen, "Qing language", was another name for the Manchu language in Chinese), also known as the "Manchu Polyglot Dictionary",[3][4] was a dictionary of major imperial languages compiled in the late Qianlong era of Qing (also said to be compiled in 1794). The work contains Manchu lexemes and their translations into various administrative languages such as Tibetan, Mongolian, post-classical or vernacular Chagatai (Eastern Turki, now known as Modern Uyghur) and Chinese.

Title

The literal meaning of the Chinese title 《御製五體清文鑑》 Yù zhì wǔ tǐ Qīng wén jiàn is "Imperially-Published Five-Script Textual Mirror of Qing", which corresponds to Manchu ᡥᠠᠨ ᡳ ᠠᡵᠠᡥᠠ ᠰᡠᠨᠵᠠ ᡥᠠᠴᡳᠨ ᡳ ᡥᡝᡵᡤᡝᠨ ᡴᠠᠮᠴᡳᡥᠠ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ ᡳ ᠪᡠᠯᡝᡴᡠ ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ han-i araha sunja hacin-i hergen kamciha manju gisun-i buleku bithe "dictionary of Manchu words written by the Emperor (i.e., by imperial order) containing five languages". The translations into the other languages are as follows:

rgyal pos mdzad pa’i skad lnga shan sbyar yi manydzu’i skad gsal ba’i me long
རྒྱལ་པོས་མཛད་པའི་སྐད་ལྔ་ཤན་སྦྱར་གྱི་མཉཛུའི་སྐད་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་།
qaɣan-u bičigsen tabun ǰüil-ün üsüg-iyer qabsuruɣsan manǰu ügen-ü toli bičig
ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠪ ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭᠰᠡᠨ ᠲᠠᠪᠣᠨ ᠵᠦᠢᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠥᠰᠥᠭ ᠵᠢᠡᠷ ᠬᠠᠪᠰᠣᠷᠣᠬᠰᠠᠨ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᠣ ᠥᠭᠡᠨ ᠪ ᠲᠣᠯᠢ ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ[5]
ḫān-nīng fütükän beš qismī qōšqān ḫät mānǧū söz-nīng ayrī mäčīn ḫätī
خان نينک فوتوکن بش قڛمی قوشقان خت مانجو ڛوزنينک ايری مجين ختی

Structure

The Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian is organized into six boxes, containing 36 volumes on 2563 pages. The original work contained 32 volumes, with a four-volume supplement. It is divided into divisions (such as "Heaven Division"), category (such as "Astronomy"), with the categories further separated into types. There are 56 divisions, 318 categories, 616 types, with a total of 18671 terms. Each term has eight rows. From the top, the rows contain Manchu, Tibetan, a mechanical Tibetan transliteration into Manchu, a phonetic Tibetan transcription into Manchu, Mongolian, Chagatai (Modern Uyghur), a transcription of Uyghur into Manchu, and Chinese.

For some terms, synonyms were included in the target languages (except Chinese). Thus, there are 19503 terms used in Mongolian corresponding to 18145 terms in Chinese (with 526 synonyms noted in Chinese). The Manchu text was largely based on the Beijing dialect of Manchu, using vertical regular script, with sentences terminated with punctuation (᠈), but no subsidiary pronunciation marks. Tibetan used the common written Tibetan usage at the time, in horizontal script in Uchen script (དབུ་མེད་), with terms that could not be written into a single line divided at syllabic boundaries, and terminating punctuation marks (།). Under the Tibetan was the Manchu transliteration, using Manchu phonemes to transliterate Tibetan letters to allow two-way transliteration and using distinctive characters for initial and medial phonemes; further, to transliterate some Tibetan letters, some new written forms for Manchu phonemes were invented (including initial "ng" and terminal vowels). Below the Manchu transliteration was the Manchu transcription to record the pronunciation in the Lhasa/Ü-Tsang dialect, due to the substantial difference between written Tibetan and spoken Tibetan; lower-case Manchu phonemes were used. For Mongolian, the common written Mongolian of that time was used, in horizontal regular script, with punctuation marks at the end (᠈) and no pronunciation marks. The Uyghur used written Chagatai (which was then used as the written literary form of Uyghur) in horizontal script (Nastaʿlīq script) (نستعلیق), with terms that could not be written into a single line divided at syllabic boundaries and no terminal punctuations. Below the Modern Uyghur was Manchu transcription to record the eastern Xinjiang Uyghur pronunciation,[6] due to the substantial difference between Chagatai and spoken Modern Uyghur; the sounds showed characteristics of the pronunciations used in the Hami/Turpan regions;[7] lower-case Manchu phonemes were used. Chinese was spelled in traditional Chinese characters, also in vertical regular script, with the diction showing the influence of common usage in the Beijing Mandarin dialect. No punctuation or pronunciation marks were used.

Below were the renderings of the first term, "Heaven," on the first page of the first section, "Astronomy":

explanation entry Latin transcription
1. Entry in Manchu ᠠᠪᡴᠠ᠈ abka
2. Tibetan translation གནམ། gnam
3. Transliteration of Tibetian into Manchu letters ᡤᠨᠠᠮ gnam
4. Transcription of the Tibetian pronunciation in Manchu script ᠨᠠᠮ nam
5. Translation into Mongolian ᠲᠨᠭᠷᠢ᠈ t[e]ngri
6. Translation into Chagatai آڛمان āsmān
7. Transcription of Chagatai in Manchu script ᠠᠰᠮᠠᠨ asman
8. Translation into Chinese 天 tiān

Manuscripts and editions

The Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian has been transmitted in three known manuscripts, held by the Beijing Palace Museum, the Yonghe Temple, and the British Museum in London. A print edition doesn’t seem to exist. In 1957, the Ethnic Publishing House (Nationalities Publishing House, Minzu Chubanshe, 民族出版社) published a photo-mechanic reproduction of the dictionary, which was reprinted in 1998. In 1967, Japanese scholars recompiled the Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian and added Latin transliteration into a work known as the Interpretation of the Wuti Qing Wenjian. In 1967, an edition was published in Japan that added transliterations of Manchu, the Manchu transcriptions of the other languages and a Japanese translation. In 2013, a critical edition with complete transliterations as well as indices for all five languages was published in Germany.

The Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian is based on the Yuzhi Siti Qing Wenjian 御製四體清文鑑 ("Imperially-Published Four-Script Textual Mirror of Qing"), with Uyghur added as fifth language.[8] The four language version of the dictionary with Tibetan was in turn based on an earlier three language version with Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese called the 御製滿珠蒙古漢字三合切音清文鑑 yuzhi manzhu menggu hanzi sanhe jieyin qingwenjian ("Imperially-Published Manchu Mongol Chinese Three pronunciation explanation mirror of Qing"), which was in turn based on the 御製增訂清文鑑 yuzhi zengding qingwenjian ("Imperially-Published Revised and Enlarged mirror of Qing") in Manchu and Chinese, which used both Manchu script to transcribe Chinese words and Chinese characters to transcribe Manchu words with fanqie.[9] In Mongol the title of 御製滿珠蒙古漢字三合切音清文鑑 is "(Qaɣan-u bicigsen) Manzu Mongɣol Kitad üsüg ɣurban züil-ün ajalɣu nejilegsen toli bicig".[10] In Manchu the title of 御製增訂清文鑑 is "Han-i araha nonggime toktobuha Manju gisun-i buleku bithe".[11][12] It was used in banner schools as a textbook.[13] A tetraglot dictionary (Yuzhi zengding Qingwen jian) in manuscript form exists in the Harvard-Yenching Library, where black ink is used for Chinese and Manchu and red ink for Tibetan and Mongolian.[14] In 1708 the yuzhi qingwenjian 御制清文鉴 "han i araha manju gisun buleku bithe" was published.[15][16]

"gamma uc̆in nigen boti, orosil nigen boti".[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Clark, Larry V.; Krueger, John Richard; Walravens, Hartmut et al., eds. (2006). Bibliographies of Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus, and Tibetan Dictionaries. Volume 20 of Orientalistik Bibliographien und Dokumentationen. Compiled by Larry V. Clark, John Richard Krueger, Hartmut Walravens, Manfred Taube (annotated ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 39. ISBN 3447052406. ISSN 1436-0195. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  2. ↑ Mimaki, Katsumi. A Tibetan Index to the Pentaglot Dictionary from the Qing Dynasty. JIATS 1988.
  3. ↑ Publication (Field Museum of Natural History : 1909), Publication: Anthropological Series, Field Museum of Natural HistoryLaufer, Berthold (1919). Publication: Anthropological series, Volume 15, Issue 3. Volume 15 (Issue 3 of Fieldiana: Anthropology). Contributor Field Museum of Natural History. The Museum. p. 578. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  4. ↑ Publication (Field Museum of Natural History : 1909), Publication: Anthropological Series, Field Museum of Natural HistoryLaufer, Berthold (1917). Publication: Anthropological series, Volume 15. Contributor Field Museum of Natural History. The Museum. p. 578. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Szende, Tamás, ed. (2000). Approches contrastives en lexicographie bilingue / sous la direction de Thomas Szende. Volume 2 of Bibliothèque de l'INALF. Études de Lexicologie, Lexicographie et Dictionnairique. Contributor Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. Honoré Champion. p. 25. ISBN 2745304119. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  6. ↑ as opposed to Southern Xinjiang (Tarim Basin) and Northern Xinjiang (Dzungaria)
  7. ↑ 《五体清文鉴》编纂过程及维吾尔文辞条研究概述. 《和田师范专科学校学报（汉文综合版）》 (in Chinese). 第25卷第三期总第35期. 7月 2005. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ↑ Yong, Heming; Peng, Jing (2008). Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911. Oxford University Press. p. 398. ISBN 0191561673. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  9. ↑ Yong, Heming; Peng, Jing (2008). Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911. Oxford University Press. p. 397. ISBN 0191561673. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Centre d'études mongoles et sibériennes. Etudes Mongoles et Sibériennes 16. SEMS. p. 67. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Wade Collection Manchu Books
  12. ↑ Central Asiatic Journal, Volume 36. O. Harrassowitz. 1992. p. 108. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  13. ↑ Brokaw, Cynthia J.; Chow, Kai-Wing, eds. (2005). Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China. Volume 27 of Studies on China. University of California Press. p. 315. ISBN 0520927796. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  14. ↑ Harvard-Yenching Library (2003). Hanan, Patrick, ed. Treasures of the Yenching: Seventy-fifth Anniversity of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Exhibition Catalogue (Issue 1 of Harvard-Yenching Library studies). Contributor Mikael S. Adolphson. Chinese University Press. p. 88. ISBN 9629961024. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  15. ↑ Idema, Wilt L., ed. (2007). Books in Numbers: Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard-Yenching Library : Conference Papers (Issue 8 of Harvard-Yenching Library studies). Contributor Lucille Chia. Chinese University Press. p. 200. ISBN 9629963310. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  16. ↑ 您的位置：首页 -> 词典 -> 《五体清文鉴》
  17. ↑ 御製滿珠蒙古漢字三合切音清文鉴: gamma uc̆in nigen boti, orosil nigen boti. 武英殿. 1780. Retrieved 24 April 2014.

External links