Nichi-Ran jiten

Nichi-Ran jiten (in Kyūjitai: 日蘭辭典) is a Japanese–Dutch dictionary compiled by Peter Adriaan van de Stadt and originally published by the Taiwanese branch of Nan'yō Kyōkai in 1934.

According to the preface, the compiler, Peter Adriaan van de Stadt, was approached in 1922 by the then Japanese consulate general Matsumoto in Batavia (of the then Dutch East Indies, today Jakarta, Indonesia).

However, when he offered the manuscript to the Nan'yō Kyōkai (the South Sea Association), they told him that the publication was too big a financial risk.

However, a facsimile edition was printed in 1989 by the current Nan'yō Kyōkai (in Shinjitai: 南洋協会) based in Tokyo.

Despite almost uninterrupted relations between Japan and the Netherlands dating back to 1640 and earlier, the Nichi-Ran jiten has been the only Japanese–Dutch Dictionary of at least medium size till 2006.

[2] Both publications were based on François Halma's Woordenboek der Nederduitsche en Fransche Taalen [dictionary of the Dutch and French languages] (1729).

However, when Japan was opened to other countries from 1854 on (with the Treaty of Peace and Amity), Rangaku became obsolete, and the attention of Japanese scholars switched form Dutch to English.

Van de Stadt deviated from current usage of modified Hepburn by not using the apostrophe to indicate the long n (ん) before a vowel.

Sometimes he ignored the special case of ん, other times he used a hyphen (for example, he spelled kon'ya for 今夜 but kon-yaku for 婚約).

Van de Stadt also compiled the Chinese dictionary Hakka woordenboek, Batavia landsdrukkerij, The Hague, 1912 (ibid.