Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, we show the relationship and similarities between the words of Iroha-Jiruishō (色葉字類抄), one of the old Japanese dictionaries from the Heian period, and the words of the ancient diary "Meigetsuki" (明月記) written by a male noble of the same era.

Paper long abstract:

Iroha-Jiruishō (色葉字類抄) is one of the old Japanese dictionaries from the Heian period. This dictionary is considered to have been compiled mainly to assist in writing native Japanese words with Chinese characters. In other words, it was designed for people writing Hentai-Kanbun (変体漢文 pseudo-kanbun).

In this presentation, we examine the relationship and similarities between the words of Iroha-Jiruishō and the words contained in "Meigetsuki" (明月記), a diary by Fujiwara-no-Teika (藤原定家). In the present Japanese, we write both in Kanji (ideograms) and Kana (phonograms), but in Meigetsuki (and also in other diaries by educated people in that era) the use of Kana was very limited and Kanji was mainly used. This makes it difficult for us to know how people really pronounced these characters at that time.

In such cases, we researchers often use old Japanese dictionaries like Iroha-Jiruishō. For example, the sentence of Meigetsuki is: 九日未時許参内,―which means that he went to the imperial court around the hour of the sheep (about 2 p.m.) on the 9th (of February). Iroha-Jiruishō includes over 30,000 words and "未 ヒツシ hituji," "時 トキ toki," and "許 ハカリhakari" are all listed. However, "九日"and "参内"are not listed despite the similar words "五十日" and "参仕" are listed.

Therefore, we compare the vocabulary used in Meigetsuki with that of Iroha-Jiruishō, report the research results, and verify how useful Iroha-Jiruishō use to be to write diaries at the time, while taking the composition of this dictionary into consideration. The words in this dictionary are classified in the iroha order and sub-classified into 21 categories according to their meanings or their forms (cf. "未" is categorized into the group of directions (方角部)，and "時" is categorized into the group of natural phenomena (天象部)).