The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary - Hardcover

by Andrew N. Nelson (Author), John H. Haig (Revised by)

"Unexcelled as a dictionary of basic Sino-Japanese characters. Extremely easy to use."--Japan Society

This is the utmost classic and well regarded standard Japanese Kanji Dictionary available today.
The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary is a complete revision of The Original Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1962. Long the foremost Japanese-English character dictionary, adopted by Japanese-study programs around the world and used at all levels of Japanese language study, the Nelson, as it is familiarly called, has been enhanced in this edition with several fundamental changes.

• The Universal Radical Index, an significant advance on the traditional character indices, has been created as a handy appendix that enables users to search for any main-entry character's reference number in Morohashi's Dai Kanwa Jiten.
• Over 1,200 characters have been added and more than 2,000 new on-kun entries included.
• Definitions have been modernized to reflect current usage and translation.

This revised edition is updated with additional characters, contemporary definitions, and an innovative radical index system and sets new standards of excellence, easy-of-use, and reliability for Japanese language reference tools. This edition keeps pace with the evolution of the Japanese language and remains an indispensable tool for students and scholars of Japanese

Back Jacket

The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary is a major revision of Dr. Andrew N. Nelson's award-winning classic The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary. Most importantly, the task of looking up a main-entry kanji has been simplified with the introduction of the Universal Radical Index (URI). Character entries now can be readily found through not only the primary radical, but any radical in the character. The URI, as a result, contains over 32,000 entries, making it the most thorough and reliable index available. Though created for the novice user, the URI system is beneficial to anyone frustrated by obscure radicals and difficult-to-remember "radical priorities". Another enhancement of The New Nelson is the expanded cross-referencing system. Each main-character entry is accompanied by the sequential position of the character in The New Nelson itself as well as a cross-reference number for the character in the Japan Industrial Standard (JIS) code and Morohashi's Dai Kanwa Jiten.

Author Biography

Andrew Nathaniel Nelson was born in Great Falls, Montana, in 1893. He received his B.A. from Walla Walla College and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. As a Seventh-Day Adventist missionary in Asia between 1918 and 1961, Dr. Nelson played a prominent role in the fields of education and language training. Throughout his life, Dr. Nelson remained devoted to the study of the Japanese language and the fundamentals of Chinese.

John H. Haig is an associate professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, one of the largest departments of its kind in the U.S.