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Paper short abstract

The paper analyses how the first travel stories about Japan were mediating Japanese words and phrases in the 19th c Estonian newspapers written by the Estonian seamen. The sample consists of three narratives between 1867-1900 and the language examples are divided according to their type and context.

Paper long abstract

The first travel writings about Japan were published in the Estonian language newspapers during the second half of the 19th century. At the time the Estonian seamen were the only mediators of personal and first-hand accounts of foreign countries in Estonian printed word to the readers.

The paper analyses the Japanese words and phrases used in the narratives by the sample of three travel stories: 1) from 1867-1869 by Jüri Jürison in the newspaper “Eesti Postimees”; 2) from 1888-1889 by the seaman from the warship Dmitry Donskoy in the newspaper “Virmaline” and 3) from 1896 and 1900 by Mihkel Michelson in the newspaper “Olewik”.

The Japanese language examples are divided and examined according to the different word types and phrases according to the usage contexts. For example, nouns (e.g. musume, samurai) and interjections (e.g. ohayō, sayonara) or phrases of everyday life (e.g. eppi yokka) or historical topics (e.g. katakiuchi). One of the central research questions is why the Japanese words were conveyed to the Estonian readers and what were they aimed to communicate.