The Uighur Word Materials in a Manuscript of Huá-yí-yì-yǔ in the Library of Seoul National University-II

Abstract

The Huá-yí-yì-yǔ (華夷譯語) is a general name for the various glossaries betweenthe Chinese language and its neighbor languages compiled on from the beginning ofthe Ming (明) dynasty (1368~1644). It has broadly 4 different classes:1. The Sino-Mongolian glossary compiled by Huo Yuan-Jie (火源潔), Ma-sha-yihei(馬沙亦黑), etc.: In this glossary the Mongolian words were written in Chinesecharacters according to the transliteration rules in the Secret History of the Mongols.2. The glossaries which were compiled, continually reedited and added / reducedin Si-yi-guan: In the glossaries of this class the words of each foreign language werenot only transliterated in Chinese characters but written also in letters native to thelanguage in question.3. The glossaries which were presumably compiled in Hui-tong-guan: In theglossaries of this class the words of each foreign language were transliterated only inChinese characters and the letters native to the language in question were not used.4. The glossaries which were compiled in the Hui-tong-si-yi-guan, which wasformed with the unification of Hui-tong-guan and Si-yi-guan in the 13th year (1748)of the Qian-long (乾隆) Emperor (r. 1735~1795) of the Qing (淸) dynasty.To the third class belongs also the manuscript in the collection of the libraryof Seoul National University. It comprises the following 8 volumes: (1) Korea, (2)Ryukyu, (3) Japan, (4) Annam (North Vietnam), (5) Siam (Thailand), (6) Tatar (= EastMongols), (7) Uighur, (8) Malacca. The volume for Uighur contains 19 categories.The third of them is 'the category of place name' with 28 entries treated in the presentpaper.It was possible to observe that the compiler/transcriber of these materials did nothave a good command of either Chinese or Uighur, for there are many scribal andgrammatical errors. This may be the main reason why the Uighur word materials inthe glossaries of this kind are not well treated up to the present.