Nogeoldae
| Nogeoldae | |
 |
|
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 노걸대 |
| Hanja | 老乞大 |
| Revised Romanization | Nogeoldae |
| McCune–Reischauer | Nogŏltae |
The Nogeoldae (Chinese: 老乞大; pinyin: Lǎo Qǐdà; literally: "Old Cathayan") is a textbook of colloquial northern Chinese published in Korea in several editions from the 14th to 18th centuries. The book is an important source on both Late Middle Korean and the history of Mandarin Chinese. Later editions were translated into Manchu and Mongolian.
The word Geoldae of the title means "Chinese". Like the term Cathay, it is a transcription of the Mongolian form of Khitan, a people who ruled northern China as the Liao dynasty (907–1125). It became a common name throughout Asia for China and all things Chinese.
The book mainly consists of dialogues centred on a journey of a Korean merchant and his relatives to Beijing. It opens with the following lines:
On the way they are joined by Chinese travellers. After arriving in Beijing, they sell Korean commodities and purchase goods to sell back in Korea. The book concludes with their departure from Beijing.
The book focusses on the language used in travel, business, banquets and medicine. It also contains unique insights into life in Beijing, including the first instance of the word hutong (alley).
Later editions are accompanied by explanatory notes (諺解 eonhae) interleaved with the text. Below each Chinese character are written two transcriptions in Hangul: a "left reading" taken from the "popular readings" in Shin Suk-ju's 1455 dictionary, and a "right reading" reflecting contemporary pronunciation. Each Chinese sentence is followed by a colloquial Korean translation.
Five editions of the book exist, as it was revised over the centuries to follow changes in the northern Chinese vernacular.
The original Chinese edition seems have been written around the middle of the 14th century. The Nogeoldae and a similar text, Bak Tongsa (朴通事 "Pak the interpreter"), were very popular, and are mentioned in Korean records of 1426 as required texts for government translators. An early 15th century copy discovered in Daegu in 1998 is believed to be close to the original version. It includes valuable information on the colloquial Northern Chinese language of the Yuan dynasty, called Han'er speech (漢兒言語) in this book.
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