K?jien

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K?jien (Japanese: ???, lit. "Wide garden of words") is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it had sold 11 million copies.

Video K?jien

Izuru Shinmura

K?jien was the magnum opus of Shinmura Izuru, 1876-1967, a professor of linguistics and Japanese at Kyoto University. He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture and graduated from the prestigious Tokyo University, where he was a student of Kazutoshi Ueda (????, Ueda Kazutoshi, 1867-1937). After studying in Germany, Ueda taught comparative linguistics and edited foreign-language dictionaries in the latter part of the Meiji era. Through his tutelage, Shinmura became involved in Japanese language lexicography. Even K?jien editions published after his death credit Shinmura as the chief editor.

Maps K?jien

History

Jien

The predecessor of K?jien originated during the Great Depression in East Asia. In 1930, the publisher Shigeo Oka (???, Oka Shigeo, 1894-1989) wanted to create a Japanese dictionary for high school students. He asked his friend Shinmura to be chief editor, and they chose the title Jien (?? "Garden of words") in a classical allusion to the Ziyuan (??, "Garden of characters") Chinese dictionary. Shinmura appointed his son Takeshi Shinmura (???, Shinmura Takeshi, 1905-1992) as an editor, and in 1935, Hakubunkan (???) published the Jien dictionary. It contained some 160,000 headword entries of old and new Japanese vocabulary, as well as encyclopedic content, and quickly became a bestseller.

1st edition

The editors began working on a revised edition, but the 1945 Firebombing of Tokyo destroyed their work. After the war, Shinmura and his lexicographers began anew in September 1948. Iwanami Shoten published the first K?jien in 1955. It included approximately 200,000 headwords, about 40,000 more than the Jien.

2nd edition

The 2nd edition (1969) deleted about 20,000 old entries and added about 20,000 new ones, especially scientific terms.

On December 1, 1976, a hoteiban (??? "revised expanded edition") of the 2nd was published.

3rd edition

The 3rd edition (1983) added 12,000 entries, and was published in CD-ROM format in 1987.

4th edition

Three major Japanese publishers released new dictionaries specifically designed to compete with the Iwanami's popular and profitable K?jien: Sanseid?'s Daijirin (??? "Great forest of words", 1988), Sh?gakukan's Daijisen (??? "Great fountainhead of words", 1995), and K?dansha's Nihongo Daijiten (?????? "Great dictionary of Japanese" 1989). In response, the 4th edition K?jien (1991) was a major revision that added some 15,000 entry words, bringing the total to over 220,000. The CD-ROM version was published in 1993 and revised with color illustrations (like the Nihongo daijiten) in 1996.

In 1992, Iwanami published both an e-book format 4th edition and a useful Gyakubiki K?jien (?????? "Reverse dictionary K?jien").

5th edition

The 5th edition (1998) includes over 230,000 headwords, and its 2996 pages contain an estimated total of 14 million characters. Iwanami Shoten currently publishes K?jien in several printed and digital formats, and also sells dictionary subscription services for cell phone and Internet access. Various manufacturers of Japanese electronic dictionaries have licensed the digital K?jien, and it is the core dictionary in many models.

Shinmura's preface to the 1st edition stated his hope that the K?jien would become regarded as the standard by which other dictionaries would be measured. This has largely been fulfilled; many people regard the K?jien as the most authoritative Japanese language dictionary on the market. It remains a bestseller in Japan. According to Iwanami, the 1st edition K?jien sold over one million copies, and the 5th edition brought cumulative total sales to over eleven million in 2000.

6th edition

The sixth edition was released on January 11, 2008, includes more than 10,000 new entries, bringing the total to approximately 240,000. It also contains an additional 1,500 quotations.

7th edition

The seventh edition will be released on January 12, 2018.

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Publication

By Iwanami Shoten

• Jien (??)
  • ?th printing (1935-??-??)
• K?jien 1st edition (???)
  • ?th printing (1955-05-25)
• K?jien 2nd edition (??? ???) (ASIN B00GD6NHXM)
  • ?th printing (1969-05-16)
• K?jien 2nd revised edition (??? ??????)
  • ?th printing (1976-12-01)
• K?jien 3rd edition (??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080001-3):
  • ?th printing (1983-12-06)
• K?jien 4th edition: Includes 220,000 entries, 2500 illustrations.
  • regular edition (??? ??? ???) (ISBN 4-00-080101-5/ISBN 978-4-00-080101-0):
    • ?th printing (1991-11-15)
  • desktop edition (??? ??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080102-7): B5 page size.
    • ?th printing (1991-11-15)
  • reverse index regular edition (?????? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080106-5)
    • ?th printing (1992-11-17)
  • reverse index desktop edition (?????? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080107-2): B5 page size.
    • ?th printing (1992-11-17)
  • leather edition (??? ??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080103-4)
    • ?th printing (1992-11-17)
  • EPWING CD-ROM edition (??? ??? CD-ROM? EPWING????) (ISBN 978-4-00-130015-4): CD-ROM includes 84 bird sounds, 234 colour samples, search engine.
    • ?th printing (1993-03-01)
  • Electronic K?jien 4th edition (????? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-130017-8): Sold by NEC Home Electronics. Includes CD-ROM dictionary, search software in 3.5 and 5.25-inch floppies. Supports PC-9800 series MS-DOS CD-ROM Extensions Ver. 2.0 and Japanese MS-DOS 3.1.
    • ?th printing (1993-03-20)
  • Macintosh edition (??????) (ISBN 978-4-00-130020-8): Sold by Qualitas Japan. CD-ROM includes index software, KanjiTalk 7.1 compatibility.
    • ?th printing (1994-07-01)
  • EPWING V2 CD-ROM edition (??? ??? CD-ROM(???)? EPWING??(?2?)??) (ISBN 978-4-00-130030-7): CD-ROM includes 84 bird sounds, 234 colour samples, 650 new colour photos, search engine.
    • ?th printing (1995-11-15)
  • CD-ROM colour edition (??? ??? CD-ROM(???)? ?????????) (ISBN 978-4-00-200971-1): Includes Windows/Mac OS CD-ROM.
    • ?th printing (1996-01-25)
  • e-book edition (????? ??? ??? ?????(??)?) (ISBN 978-4-00-130035-2): Includes CD-ROM. CD-ROM includes 40 bird sounds, keyword search engine.
    • ?th printing (1996-12-16)
  • EPWING V3 CD-ROM multimedia edition (??? CD-ROM ???????? EPWING???3???) (ISBN 978-4-00-130051-2): Includes CD-ROM. CD-ROM includes 1800 colour illustrations, 15 animations, 84 bird sounds, 234 colour samples, 542 literature information.
    • ?th printing (1996-12-16)
  • EPWING V3 CD-ROM multimedia edition (??? ??? CD-ROM(???????)??????(?????V2?)? EPWING??(?3?)??) (ISBN 978-4-00-200972-8): Includes 2 CD-ROM. CD-ROM includes 1800 colour illustrations, 15 animations, 84 bird sounds, 234 colour samples, 542 literature information, Kototoi Ver.2 index software.
    • ?th printing (1996-12-16)
• K?jien 5th edition: Includes 230,000 entries.
  • regular edition (??? ???) (ISBN 4-00-080111-2/ISBN 978-4-00-080111-9)
    • ?th printing (1998-11-11)
  • desktop edition (??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080112-6): B5 page size.
    • ?th printing (1998-11-11)
  • EPWING V5 CD-ROM edition (??? ??? CD-ROM? EPWING??(?5?)??) (ISBN 978-4-00-130072-7): Includes CD-ROM.
    • ?th printing (1998-11-11)
  • e-book edition (????? ??? ??? ??????) (ISBN 978-4-00-130074-1): Includes mini CD-ROM.
    • ?th printing (1999-04-26)
  • reverse index (?????? ?????) (ISBN 978-4-00-080116-4)
    • ?th printing (1999-10-15)
  • goat leather edition (??? ??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080113-3)
    • ?th printing (1999-10-15)
• K?jien 6th edition: Includes 240,000 entries, 2800 illustrations.
  • regular edition (??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080121-8): 2 volumes (1+1 index).
    • ?th printing (2008-01-11)
  • desktop edition (??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080122-5): B5 page size. 3 volumes (2+1 index).
    • ?th printing (2008-01-11)
  • EPWING V5 DVD-ROM edition (??? ??? DVD-ROM?) (ISBN 978-4-00-130161-8): B5 page size. Includes Windows Vista/MacOS X 10.3 DVD-ROM. DVD-ROM includes Kototoi Light Ver3.5. Windows Vista support requires an updated Kototoi installer.
    • ?th printing (2008-01-11)
  • goat leather edition (??? ??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080123-2)
    • ?th printing (2009-01-20)
  • goat leather desktop edition (??? ??? ??? ???) (ISBN 978-4-00-080124-9): B5 page size.
    • ?th printing (2009-01-20)
  • Mobile edition: It is a monthly subscription service.
  • Iwanami library 225 K?jien wo 3 bai tanoshimu (?????????? 225 ????3????) (ISBN 4-00-029625-6/ISBN 978-4-00-029625-0): An essay on science of authors active in various fields.
    • ?th printing (2014-04-25)

By Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

• K?jien 5th edition:
  • regular edition (??? ???) (ISBN 7-81-095442-3)
    • ?th printing (2006-10-01)
• K?jien 6th edition:
  • regular edition (??? ???) (ISBN 978-7-54-462109-0)
    • ?th printing (2012-05-??)

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Lexicographical characteristics

The K?jien, like most Japanese dictionaries, writes headwords in hiragana syllabary and collates them in goj?on ("50 sounds") order. Baroni and Bialock (2005) describe the K?jien as "an old standard that gives extensive definitions, etymologies (as always take care with these), and variant usages for words, places, historical and literary figures, and furigana for difficult or old terms."

This dictionary is notable for including current Japanese catchphrases and buzzwords. For instance, the 4th edition added fur?t? (????? "a part-time worker by choice"), which blends two loanwords: fur? (??? "free", from English, as in fur?ransu ?????? "freelance") and arubait? (?????? "part-time worker", from German Arbeiter "worker").

The K?jien dictionary had a censorship policy before it became politically correct (see kotobagari), and omitted taboo words such as sexual slang or offensive terms. It includes encyclopedic information such as 2700 illustrations and maps, and mini-biographies of notable people (both living and dead foreigners, but only deceased Japanese). The appendices include Japanese grammar notes, kanji with difficult readings, Japanese calendar and Gregorian calendar charts, and lists of gairaigo acronyms.

Gally (1999) says, "Koujien is a fine dictionary with a sterling reputation. Because it gives definitions in historical order, it is the best single-volume choice for people interested in how the meanings of words have changed over time." However, he notes, "In my experience as a translator of contemporary Japanese, though, I have found Koujien less useful than Daijirin." This criticism is based on his use of the fourth edition, though, and he concedes that later editions seem to have improved in this regard.

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References

Sources

• Baroni, Helen and David Bialock, (2005), Words: Japanese Dictionaries, Columbia University bibliography.
• Gally, Tom, (1999), Kokugo Dictionaries ????, review article.

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External links

• Official website 2016 (in Japanese)
• Official website 2018 (in Japanese)

Source of article : Wikipedia