早川 勇

18・19世紀に出版された英語辞書の発音表記は2種類に分けることができる。1つは数字を用いて母音の音価を示すものであり、もう1つは区分的発音符によって母音や子音の音価を示すものである。前者はウォーカーによって完成され、19世紀前半のイギリスにおいて最も権威ある表記とされた。後者は主にアメリカにおいて盛んに利用された。ウェブスター系辞書において採用されたが、ウースターがその原型を確立し、グッドリッチとポーターが完成したといえる。19世紀前半におけるウォーカー辞書の圧倒的な優位にもかかわらず、英和辞典においては彼の発音表記は採用されなかった。ウェブスター式の表記が採用された。その理由を考察することは英和辞書史において重要である。1864年版ウェブスター辞書の表記が明治期に利用された最大の理由は、発音表記そのものの優位性というよりも、原典としてのウェブスター辞書の総合的評価の高さによると推測される。The indication of pronunciation in English dictionaries published during the 18th and 19th centuries can be categorised into two types. One is the indication by means of diacritical numerals, which was innovated by W. Kenrick in 1773 and developed by T. Sheridan and J. Walker. The other is the indication by means of diacritical marks, which was first employed by J. Buchanan in 1757 by placing macrons or breves above vowels. This was developed by E. Worcester, N. Webster, C. A. Goodrich and N. Porter, and used especially in the United States. Despite the fact that Walker's pronouncing dictionary gained widespread popularity during the first half of the 19th century, it was not employed at all in English-Japanese lexicography. Instead, Webster's system of indicating pronunciation was adopted by early English-Japanese lexicographers. The reason why it was widely used by them during the Meiji period was its relative completeness or comprehensiveness as a source book for the compilation of English-Japanese dictionaries.

The Cabinet Library, which was founded in Tokyo in 1884 as the central government library, has kept as many as one hundred Webster's dictionaries which are supposed to have been imported before and after the Meiji Restoration and belonged to the government agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture. The close examination of these works would suggest to us how they were accepted and consulted in the Meiji Era. The library has about fifty unabridged Webster's English dictionaries, and eleven abridged dictionaries, which were usually called "Royal Octavo" in Japan. In addition, it keeps some ten small-sized dictionaries and fifteen Webster's dictionaries, large or small, published in London.