Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese LanguageCollado, Diego
History
Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language
Collado, Diego
Japanese language -- Grammar
In the enumeration of ships _sô_ is placed after the _coie_ numeral; e.g.,
_nanzo_ [_nanzô_] 'how many ships,' to which one answers _issô_ 'one ship,'
_niso_ [_nisô_] 'two,' _sanzô_ 'three,' _fassô_ 'eight,' _jússô_ [_jissô_]
'ten.'
_Ichiren_ 'one string,' _niren_ 'two,' _saren_ 'three,' as in figs or
pearls.
When enumerating sermons, homilies (_tractatus_), or repetitions of things,
_fen_ is placed after the numeral; e.g., _ippen_ 'one sermon,' _nifen_
'two,' _sanben_ 'three,' _ave maria fiacu gojippen_ 'one hundred and fifty
Hail Mary's.'
In counting gold currency _momme_ is placed after the numeral; e.g., _ichi
momme_ 'one _momme_,' _ni momme_ 'two,' _san mome_ [_san momme_] 'three.'
When a _momme_ is divided into tenths it is called an _ippun_ [_fun_].
Thus, _ippun_ means one tenth part of a _momme_, _nifun_ means 'two
tenths,' _gofun_ means half the basic unit (_media dragma_), _roppun_ means
'six tenths of a _momme_.'
When the tenth part of a _momme_ is divided again into ten parts it is
counted as _ichirin_, _nirin_, _sarin_, _iorin_, _gorin_, _rocurin_,
_xichirin_, _fachirin_, and _curin_. Then comes _ippun_, which is one tenth
of a _momme_. _Fiacu me_ means 'one hundred _momme_,' _fiacu ichi momme_
'one hundred and one,' _icquan me_ means 'one thousand _momme_,'
_jicquanme_ means 'ten thousand.' There are other coins of silver which are
counted by placing _mai_ or _mon_ after the numeral; e.g., _ichi mon_ means
one of {178} that unit, _ni mon_ is 'two,' _San mai_ is three hundred
_mon_. They no longer produce a coin which is one half of the gold coin,
but one thousand of these coins make _icquan_, while _jicquan_ is 'ten (70
thousand _quan_.'[196]
_Core va ica fodo ni suru_ 'how much is this worth?' or _ica fodo ni uru_
'at what price will you sell this?' _Ni momme suru_ 'I consider it worth
two _momme_,' or _ni momme ni iasui_ 'I can sell this for more than two
_momme_, or at two _momme_ this is cheap.'
The enumeration of liquid measurements is done by placing the particle _xô_
in front of the liquid quantity; e.g., _ixxo_ [_ixxô_] 'one _xô_,' _nixo_
[_nixô_] 'two,' _sango_ [_sanjô_] 'three.' Ten _xô_ are _itto_ which is the
particle _to_ placed after the numeral; _nito_ means 'twenty _xô_,' _sando_
'thirty.' For one tenth of a _xô_ one places the particle _go_ after the
numeral; e.g., _Ichigo_ 'one _go_,' _nigo_ 'two,' _sango_ 'three,' _ixxô
gogo_ 'one and one half _xô_.' _Fatto_ is eighty _xô_. One hundred _xô_
make _ichi cocu_. By placing the _cocu_ after numerals one obtains _ni
cocu_ 'two hundred _xô_,' _sangocu_ 'three hundred,' _jiccocu_ 'one
thousand,' _xencocu_ 'ten thousand,' _ichi mangocu_ 'one hundred thousand.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account