Huayi yiyu

The Huáyí yìyǔ (Chinese: 華はな夷えびす譯語やくご; lit. 'Sino-Foreign vocabularies') refers to a series of vocabularies produced by Ming and Qing dynasty Chinese administration for the study of foreign languages. They are a precious source of phonological information, both for the study of Chinese pronunciation and for the study of the languages in question.

Categorization

The relevant works of the huáyí yìyǔ fall into four categories: A Sino-Mongolian vocabulary compiled by Huo Yuanjie (火ひ源みなもと潔きよし), 2. Vocabularies that were compiled and re-edited in the Siyiguan (四よん夷えびす館かん). 3. Vocabularies prepared by the Huitongguan (會同かいどう館かん). 4. Qing dynasty vocabularies.

Languages covered in the Siyiguan

The languages covered by works in the second class include:

• 韃靼だったん Mongolian
• 女おんな直じき Jurchen
• 西番にしのばん “Western Barbarians” (Khams Tibetan)
• 西にし天たかし "India" (Middle Indo-Aryan languages)
• 回かい回かい Early New Persian,
• 高こう昌あきら Uighur
• 百ひゃく夷えびす Daic languages
• 緬はる甸 Burmese
• 八はち百ひゃく Babai (Lanna)
• and 暹羅しゃむ Siamese.

Tatsuo Nishida published a book studying each, the Tibetan, Burmese, Tosu and Lolo languages as recorded in the Hua-yi yiu.

Languages covered in the Huitongguan

The languages covered by works in the third class covered:

• 朝鮮ちょうせん Korean
• 琉球りゅうきゅう Ryukyuan
• 日本にっぽん Japanese
• 安やす南みなみ (Annan) northern Vietnam
• 暹羅しゃむ Siamese
• 韃靼だったん Khitan (the Eastern Mongols)
• 畏かしこ兀兒/委い兀兒 Uighur
• 滿まん剌加 Malaccan Malay
• 占うらない城じょう Champa of southern Vietnam
• 西番にしのばん “Western Barbarians” (Tibetans of the Kham region)
• 回かい回かい Persian
• 女おんな直ちょく Jurchen
• 百ひゃく夷えびす Baiyi

See also

• Pearl in the Palm
• Pentaglot Dictionary