算盤

算盤

1. (mathematics) abacus
2. (figurative) plan; plan of action; master plan

• (abacus):

• → Bouyei: suansbaanz, suansbeanz
• → English: suanpan
• → Hlai: duixbhuas
• → Japanese: 算盤(そろばん) (soroban)
• → Malay: sempoa, sepua, cepua, suipoa
• → Mongolian: ᠰᠤᠸᠠᠨᠫᠠᠨ (suwanpan) / сампин (sampin)
• → Zhuang: suenqbuenz

Japanese sources consistently describe the abacus itself as being imported to Japan from China some time during the Muromachi period (1336–1573), although there is some disagreement as to whether this happened early in the period,[1] or late.[2][3][4][5]

First attested with the reading soroban in the 1595 trilingual Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, Ac Iaponicum, also 羅葡日対訳辞書 (Ra-Ho-Nichi Taiyaku Jisho, “Latin-Portuguese-Japanese Translation Dictionary”) based on work originally by Ambrogio Calepino,[6] corroborated in the Nippo Jisho of 1603.[2][7]

Japanese sources generally describe the soroban reading as a shift or corruption from the reading swanpan, the 唐音 (tōon, literally "Tang sound", referring to the Chinese-derived kanji readings that were borrowed into Japanese during the Tang dynasty or later) for the kanji spelling.[2][5] However, this is problematic on phonological grounds:

• There is no known phonological process whereby swan would become soro in Japanese.
• Middle Chinese swan consistently became Japanese san in all other known instances of the Chinese reading swan for any kanji character.
• The character 算 appearing as the first character in 算盤 (soroban) is also read as san, and san is similarly listed as a synonym for soroban in the 1595 dictionary entry.[6]

An alternative, albeit speculative, explanation is that this soro- is some other morpheme unrelated to the Chinese. If so, this might be native root soro-, as seen in adverb そろそろ (sorosoro, “quietly and calmly”), そろり (sorori) and そろっと (sorotto, “quietly and smoothly; slidingly, glidingly”), verb 揃う (sorou, “to be in alignment; to be in order; to match, to go together”).

Notably, this term appears historically with the alternative kanji spelling 三羅盤. Given the expected Japanese readings of these characters, this may have been read as saraban. Root sara- -- and also root suru- -- also appear in various terms related to senses of smooth, gliding, sliding.

• (Tokyo) そろばん [sòróbáń] (Heiban – [0])[5][8][9]
• IPA^(key): [so̞ɾo̞bã̠ɴ]

算(そろ)盤(ばん) • (soroban) 

1. 　[from 1595] (mathematics) an abacus

   手(て)を算盤(そろばん)として六進法(ろくしんほう)で計算(けいさん)する

   te o soroban to shite roku-shinhō de keisan suru

   calculate in base-6 using one's hands as an abacus

算盤 (sanban): a calculation grid as used in traditional Japanese mathematics.

Ultimately from Middle Chinese 算盤 (MC swanX ban, “abacus”, literally “calculation + board, grid”). Compare modern Min Nan reading sǹg-pôaⁿ, Mandarin suànpán.

Japanese sources consistently describe the abacus itself as being imported to Japan from China some time during the Muromachi period (1336–1573), although there is some disagreement as to whether this happened early in the period,[1] or late.[2][3][4][5]

First attested with the reading sanban to a text from 1688.[2]

• (Tokyo) さんばん [sàńbáń] (Heiban – [0])[5]
• IPA^(key): [sã̠mbã̠ɴ]

算(さん)盤(ばん) • (sanban) ^{←さんばん (sanban)?}

1. [from 1688] (mathematics) a kind of grid used in 和算 (wasan, “traditional Japanese mathematics”) to calculate higher-order functions
2. [from 1717] (mathematics) an abacus