Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language

This translation brings to life a rare 1632 Latin grammar that sought to explain Japanese to European scholars at a time when contact between the two cultures was just beginning. Written by a Spanish Dominican who spent several years in Japan, the work frames Japanese sounds, word forms and sentence patterns within the grammatical categories familiar to Latin‑trained readers. The introduction sets the stage with a concise history of early Japanese studies and the missionary milieu that produced the original text.

Listeners will be guided through an annotated rendering that covers the phonological system, noun declensions, a full range of verb conjugations, and the many classes of adverbs and particles that shape meaning. Detailed notes compare Collado’s approach with the earlier Portuguese grammar, highlighting both its strengths and its limitations. Indexes to grammatical categories and elements make the volume a handy reference for anyone interested in the evolution of linguistic description or the early modern encounter between Europe and Japan.