The Huáyí yìyǔ (Chinese: 華夷譯語; lit. 'Sino-Foreign vocabularies') refers to a series of vocabularies produced by Ming and Qing dynasty Chinese administration for the study of foreign languages. They are a precious source of phonological information, both for the study of Chinese pronunciation and for the study of the languages in question.
Categorization
The relevant works of the huáyí yìyǔ fall into four categories: A Sino-Mongolian vocabulary compiled by Huo Yuanjie (火源潔), 2. Vocabularies that were compiled and re-edited in the Siyiguan (四夷館). 3. Vocabularies prepared by the Huitongguan (會同館). 4. Qing dynasty vocabularies.[1]
Languages covered in the Siyiguan
The languages covered by works in the second class include:
- 韃靼 Mongolian
- 女直 Jurchen
- 西番 “Western Barbarians” (Khams Tibetan)
- 西天 "India" (Middle Indo-Aryan languages)
- 回回 Early New Persian,[2][3]
- 高昌 Uighur
- 百夷 Daic languages
- 緬甸 Burmese
- 八百 Babai (Lanna)
- and 暹羅 Siamese.
Tatsuo Nishida published a book studying each, the Tibetan,[4] Burmese,[5] Tosu[6] and Lolo [7] languages as recorded in the Hua-yi yiu.
Languages covered in the Huitongguan
The languages covered by works in the third class covered:
- 朝鮮 Korean
- 琉球 Ryukyuan
- 日本 Japanese
- 安南 (Annan) northern Vietnam
- 暹羅 Siamese
- 韃靼 Khitan (the Eastern Mongols)
- 畏兀兒/委兀兒 Uighur
- 滿剌加 Malaccan Malay
- 占城 Champa of southern Vietnam
- 西番 “Western Barbarians” (Tibetans of the Kham region)
- 回回 Persian
- 女直 Jurchen
- 百夷 Baiyi