<論説>宮武正道の「語学道楽」 : 趣味人と帝国日本 (特集 : 民族)

Abstract

奈良の言語研究者宮武正道は、従来マレー語の専門家と考えられていたが、残された旧蔵資料を見ると、彼がマレー語に至るまでに辿った「語学道楽」の跡が明らかになった。中学校時代、切手蒐集の延長として始めたエスペラントに対する熱意は、奈良エスペラント会を発足させ、機関誌『EL NARA』を生み出す。該語を飽くまで社交の道具と見倣す宮武主宰の同会には、パラオよりの留学生エラケツも参加していたが、宮武は彼からパラオ語で多くの民話を聞き取り、『南洋パラオ島の伝説と民謡』を上梓する。この一時期は土俗の研究へと傾いたが、昭和七年七月のインドネシア旅行以降、マレー語を本格的に研究し始める。当初はマレー語の新聞・雑誌を読むことを念頭に置いていたが、日本の南進政策がマレー語圏にも及ぶと、カナの普及やローマ字綴りの日本風改革を提唱するようになる。こうして書斎から出た好事家は、最後タガログ語辞書の完成を待たずに夭逝した。

Miyatake Masamicki, a linguist from Nara, had been considered an expert on Malay, but an examination of the sources owned by Miyatake during his life clearly reveals the following trail of "linguistic amusement" (a dilettantish study of various languages) that he traveled before arriving at the study of Malay. His enthusiasm for Esperanto, which arose as an extension of his interest in stamp collecting during his middle-school years, led to the founding of the Esperanto Society of Nara and the birth of El Nara, the organization's publication. Miyatake consistently viewed Esperanto as simply a social tool, and he recorded many folk tales he heard from Ngiraked, an exchange student from Palau who participated in the society's meetings, and published them as Nan'yo Parao to no densetsu to min'yo (Legends and folk songs of the South Sea Island of Palau) in Japanese. During this period he was inclined toward ethnography, but after his visit to Indonesia in July of 1932 (Showa 7), Miyatake began his full-fledged study of the Malay language. He first set his sights on reading Malay newspaper and magazines, but as the influence of the Japanese government's policy of southward advance began to be felt in the Malay language sphere, he proposed the use of the Japanese kana syllabary and reform of the use of Romanization to conform to Japanese usage. The dilettante Miyatake had thus came out of his study and in to the field, but he died before his final work, a dictionary of Tagalog, could be completed.