『英和対訳袖珍辞書』に見られる先行諸辞書の影響

抄録

It is well known that '英和対訳袖珍辞書', compiled by Tatsunoske Hori and published in 1862, is the oldest printed English-Japanese dictionary. The editors are widely believed to have followed the translations of the previous Dutch-Japanese dictionaries, mainly those of '和蘭字彙'. But by a careful reexamination of the previous research on this subject, the writer found that about 20% of the translated words in '英和対訳袖珍辞書' were significantly different from those of '和蘭字彙'. Did the editors of '英和対訳袖珍辞書' translate the 20 percent words completely on their own ?
Incidentally, a story is handed down among the members of the Hori family that Tatsunoske always kept an English-Chinese Dictionary at hand to refer to. But unfortunately this dictionary has disappeared over the years. The writer made a comparative investigation concerning the influence of English-Chinese dictionaries on the above English-Japanese dictionary.
The writer's conclusion is that there is some trace of the influence, though very little. The writer will attempt to make further research on a larger scale. Whether the editors of the first printed English-Japanese dictionary borrowed Chinese translations or not is an absolutely essential question in determining how Modern Japanese was formed. This paper is based on my paper read at the regular monthly meeting in November, 1993.