명치 초기의 서양 지명 표기 연구－『米欧回覧実記』의 미국 지역 표기를 중심으로－

Abstract

This study reviewed writing of American places shown in 「 Beioukairanzittki」 to review status of writing of American places in Meiji period in depth inclusively. In 「 Beioukairanzittki」 total 207 places are shown in 2034 different marking cases. Writing method can be divided into Translation using Chinese characters as media and Transliteration making original sound using Katakana. Western places written in Katakana account for 64.5% which shows predominantly higher ratio comparing to Chinese character marks. Therefore, it seems the delegation used Katakana to write original pronunciation in the location when they write names of small size villages and towns and natural places, although they can translate some places such as large cities and major regions using Chinese characters when they keep records their observations in USA. At that time, USA was the place that Japan has paid much intention to pursue modernization of Japan, and they recorded considerable number of places while they looked around for 200 days. In the course of keeping records, various methods were used to mark western places. While keeping the tradition to use Chinese characters, they also used Katakana characters when they could not get proper translation for the place. As a result, two methods came to coexist.