P. S. Popov and his Russian-Chinese dictionaries

The pioneers of Chinese studies in Russia were the Orthodox missionaries in Beijing from 1715 (Kangxi 54). From 1807 (Jiaqing 12) Russian missionaries in Beijing devoted themselves to studying Chinese as a linguistic subject. There are two interesting Russian-Chinese dictionaries §²§å§ã§ã§Ü§à- §¬§Ú§ä§Ñ§Û§ã§Üi§Û §³§Ý§à§Ó§Ñ§â§î¡¶¶íºººÏèµ×ֻ㡷(É H¨¤n H¨¦b¨¬ Z¨¬hu¨¬, Russian-Chinese Dictionaries) and §²§å§ã§ã§Ü§à-§¬§Ú§ä§Ñ§Û§ã§Üi§Û §³§Ý§à§Ó§Ñ§â§î¡¶¶íºººÏèµÔö²¹×ֻ㡷(É H¨¤n H¨¦b¨¬ Z¨¥ngb¨³ Z¨¬hu¨¬, Russian-Chinese Dictionaries), edited by the authoritative Russian sinologist P. S. Popov, published first in 1879 with a second edition in 1900. These Dictionaries are new materials for studying Chinese language from 1879 to 1900. I will therefore narrow my research to these two Popov¡¯s Dictionaries. The hypothesis of this research is that the phonetic record of Popov¡¯s two Dictionaries (1879, 1900) are correct and can be used as reliable and valuable historical documents suitable for further research in the field of phonetics study of Pekingese of the late 19th century. In order to determine if the hypothesis of the research is correct, I need to explain and answer the issues and questions as list below: •Determine the accuracy of the phonetic records of these two editions. This is the main thrust of my research, and the point upon which the entire thesis rests. •Determine the relative stability or instability of Pekingese phonetics from 1879 to 1900. If the phonetics of Pekingese of that period based on the phonetic recordings of the two Dictionaries did not change, we can say that Pekingese was ¡°stable¡± at that time; if it is an opposite case, this phenomenon must be explained. The purposes of this research are: •To introduce Popov, P. S., and his two Russian-Chinese Dictionaries edited in 1879 and 1900 •To determine the accuracy of the phonetic records in the Russian-Chinese Dictionaries edited by Popov, P. S. in 1879 and 1900, in order to test that they are reliable historical documents suitable for further research in the field of phonetics study of Pekingese of the last century •To determine why the number of pronunciations of some characters during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries has decreased in present Pekingese, in order to illustrate the historical development of the phonetics of Pekinges