KURENAI : Kyoto University Researc

The Japanese studies of Andreas MOller ( 1630-1694)
merely a source of specimens of kana and Chinese characters. It also served as Muller's
main source to establish the sound values of the syllabograms, on the basis of which he
discovered one major problem in Claude Duret's (ca. 1570- 1611) iroha as found in his
posthumously published Thresor de l'histoire des langves de cest vnivers (The treasury
of the history of the languages of this universe; 1613 and 1619; see pp. 913-915 herein): 25
While the original in hiragana follows the usual order of the iroha, the Romanizations
are almost entirely misplaced, reducing its practical value to zero? 6
The following table provides a comparison between Muller's "Roman order", rearranged
into iroha order here, the Romanizations found in the Meakensian manuscripe 7 and those
found in Duret. The latter two are given in two versions: the first (with prefixed "M")
following "SJ" and its table "The Japanese Syllabary" (cf. plate [2]), the second as in the
original manuscripts and in Duret (1613/1619) respectively.
... ~ .,.: ~ t) .... ~ .,.: ~
t)
(!) 0 o:l E .... (!)
(i5 0 o:l E ... ....
6 ... ::8 .,.:
,_
Cl E .... ::8 .,.: ....
;:::1 Cl
::::;
::I 0 ro
0 0 ro
(l)
::I (!)
0
t:
:.iS
~
t:
:.iS :E
::;s ~
~
~
.D "0
(!) ::l .D "0
(!) ::l (!)
1 y y y I I 25 I I j I y I I
2 Po Po po I po > ro Bo BO 26 No No no Xo NO
3 Fa Fa fa Fa FA 27 Wo Wo wo u YO
4 Ni Ni ni Ni N1 28 Lu Lu lu 1 leU Qu QV
5 Pho Pho pho I pho > fo Fo FO 29 Ja Ja ja l ya La IA
6 Phe Phe phe I phe > fe Fe F E 30 Ma Ma rna Ma MA
7 To To to Lo LO 31 Ke Qve ke Ke QVE
8 ' tSy •tsy 'tsy Ci CI 32 Fu Fu fU Fu FV
9 Ri Ri n Bi BI 33 Co Co co I ko Co co
moti > nu I
10 Mou Mou
Nu NV 34 E Je e!ye E IE
mou > nu
l1 Pou Pou poti > ru Bu BV 35 Te Le te Te LE
12 0 0 0 Vo vo 36 A A a A A
13 Wa We wa Va VA 37 - Ca sa Sa CA
14 Ka Ka ka Ca CA 38 Ky Qi ky l ki Ky QI
25
Despite numerous claims to the contrary, Duret was not the first to publish this. Instead his materials
on Japanese originate from Blaise de Vigen ere ( 1523-1596) - whose cousin Duret was - and his Traicte des
chiffres (Treatise on ciphers). This work was published in 1586 with the page reserved for the Japanese
script left blank, but it was supplemented with what is later found in Duret's work in the following year.
See especially Maillard (1982) and Fukushima (1983).
26
The syllabary is arranged in six columns consisting of seven syllables and a final ·one of five. These
columns have to be read in the order 3-4-5-6-1-2-7 however to produce the iroha correctly. Kana and
sound values therefore never match apart from the fmal column.
27
Whenever the two manuscripts do not coincide, the Romanizations of both are provided (separated
by a slash, with "Manuel" being given first).
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