Shopping-dialogues in Dutch, English and Japanese. [Parallel title in Dutch:] Winkelgesprekken in het Hollandsch, Engelsch en Japansch

Hoffman, Johann Joseph

Edité par Trübner & Co. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, London, 1861

A propos de cet article

Oblong 8vo, pp. xiii, [1], 44; text largely in triple column; the final leaf is a list of works "Illustrative of the Japanese language." Contemporary if not original crimson velvet stamped in blind and gilt on both covers, moiré-patterned endpapers; extremities a little worn with velvet rubbed to the underlying boards, hinges neatly refurbished with Japanese paper, but on the whole, this is a very good, sound, and clean copy. An uncommon phrase book designed for the use of foreign traders and travelers in Japan, and sailors on Dutch and American ships: ".this pocket-volume, which is now published under the title of Shopping-Dialogues has acquired value not only for those who apply more particularly to the study of the Japanese language, but also for the Merchant-Captain who lands at Nagasaki or at Kanagawa, the trader, and the traveller; and why not for the sailor? who occasionally launches about the streets of those places not knowing what to do with himself" (introductory note). The book has an interesting history. It was based on A New Familiar Phrases of the English and Japanese Languages (in) General Use for the Merchant for Both Countries (Nagasaki, 1859), by Motoki Shozo. "Motoki is widely regarded as one of the founders of the Japanese printing industry. In 1848 he had acquired a Dutch press with moveable roman type, and subsequently cast a set of katakana type in order to print [a Dutch-Japanese dictionary] that appeared in 1851-52. A New Familiar Phrases is a publishing hybrid in that the roman and katakana letters were printed from lead fonts, while the kanji characters in the introduction derive from woodblock." In his introduction, Motoki explains that the "prime purpose of the book is to assist with commercial negotiation rather than advanced language study, and he modestly suggests that some of the transcriptions might even make one laugh." And the same may be said of Hoffman's book. As Hoffman would later explain in his introduction to his Japanese Grammar (1867), Motoki's book was "the first specimen of genuine conversational language to reach Europe." Hoffman's Shopping-Dialogues is likely the second such specimen, and the first by a European. Hoffman's text, as he conceives it, reads something like a series of theatrical sketches. Each sketch starts with a kind of overture where two parties exchange greetings and get to know one another: "May I offer you a glass of wine? / No. I thank you. / Why don't you drink? / Don't stand upon ceremony. / May I then offer you a cup of tea? / If you please." At this point, the conversation between the two parties turns to business. The (trilingual) conversations include scenarios where one wants to purchase a gold-lacquered desk; in another, a merchant has a supply of yellow wax that he wants to sell and offers to bleach it for the customer; in a third, a customer is looking to buy some cloth; and in a fourth, a merchant offers a plethora of products and produce from what one assumes to be a general store, such as mushrooms, mussels, and raw silk, but the customer is interested only in sugar and medicine. In each of these cases there is an instructive subtext, so that the user of the Shopping-Dialogues learns something about methods of bargaining, the value of money, the limits of a merchant's time (and patience), delivery times, systems of weight and measurement, and the Japanese calendar. "What is the price of this? / Twenty-five taels. / Can you sell it for eighteen taels? / No, I can not. / I will let you have it for twenty-three taels. / I can't take it at that price. / Make an offer then. / I will take it at nineteen taels. / I can't sell it for that price. / I can't sell it under twenty taels. / Is that the lowest price? / Yes. / Then I will buy it." The binding on this copy is something of an enigma - crimson velvet, extravagant moiré endpapers, an elaborate gilt-stamped lozenge on the upper cover and a gilt-stamped title in Japanese on the lower. Not exactly a pr.

N° de réf. du vendeur 68838

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Shopping-dialogues in Dutch, English and Japanese. [Parallel title in Dutch:] Winkelgesprekken in het Hollandsch, Engelsch en Japansch
• Éditeur: Trübner & Co. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, London
• Date de parution: 1861
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Language
  • Asia
  • Japan