Oreste Vaccari (1886 - 1980) was an Italian Orientalist and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. He was a pupil at the Royal Oriental Institute of Naples during the second decade of the 20th century, where his instructors included Afevork Ghevre Jesus, who taught him Amharic and eventually became the chargé d'affaires of the

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n delegation to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. After his studies, Vaccari obtained a posting in Japan as a correspondent for '' The Japan Times and Mail'', and also taught foreign languages at the Athénée Français of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, being fluent in French and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

besides his native Italian. In 1935, he married a Japanese woman, Enko Elisa Vaccari (1896-1983), who had graduated in English from Jissen Women's College, and would support him in his various linguistic projects during the rest of his career. Vaccari was responsible for translating Blattengeta Heruy Welde Sellase's ''Mahidere Birhan: Hagre Japan'' (''The Document of Japan'') (1934), a seminal work in Japanese-Ethiopian relations, from the original Amharic into English, which was then rendered into

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

by his wife. During the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, Vaccari wrote defenses of Italy's actions. Together with his wife, Vaccari prepared many books to help foreign learners of Japanese, and his most popular works included the ''New Up-to-date English-Japanese Conversation Dictionary'' and ''Vaccari's Concise English-Japanese Japanese-English Dictionary'' (all published by Maruzen). In 1972, the couple began work on ''Vaccari's Standard Japanese-English Dictionary'' (ヴァカーリスタンダード和英辞典 ''Vakāri Sutandādo Wa-Ei Jiten''), considered to be the culmination of their lifetime's study. After Oreste began to suffer deteriorating health in 1975 (dying in 1980), the task of completing the ''Dictionary'' fell to Elisa. The ''Dictionary'' was finished in 1982, before Elisa's death the following year. Elisa's will provided that the dictionary be published with the money she bequeathed, and directed that the royalties be used to fund scholarships for foreign students of Japanese, in cooperation with the Jochi Corporation with which the Vaccaris had been closely associated.

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

of Tokyo finally published the ''Dictionary'' in 1990.

References

* * 1886 births 1980 deaths Linguists from Italy Italian lexicographers Italian orientalists Italian Japanologists Italian male journalists 20th-century linguists 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century lexicographers 20th-century Italian male writers {{Italy-linguist-stub