Nogeoldae

The Nogeoldae is an old foreign language textbook published in Korea. At first it dealt only with the Chinese language, but later various tongues from elsewhere. This book has a weighty status in Chinese historical linguistics for its abundant, valuable data.

Text

The book mainly consists of dialogues. A merchant from Goryeo and his relatives travel from Wanggyeong to Dadu , and on their way they happen to get Chinese companions. In Dadu, they sell Korean commodities and purchase goods to sell in their country. They eventually depart from Dadu, and their route comes to an end,

After the first Chinese edition, two major revisions have been issued; Some were translated into other languages, while others made into guidebooks in Hangul.

The first Chinese edition seems to have been written in the late Goryeo Dynasty. A copy discovered in Daegu in 1998 is considered the closest to the original version. It includes valuable information on the colloquial Northern Chinese language around the 14th century.

Since the original version became obsolete from the , a revised edition was produced in 1480s. A Korean scholar Choi Sejin wrote a guidebook based on it, called ''Beonyeok Nogeoldae'' . This contains the pronunciation of the Chinese language as well as its meaning in , both recorded in Hangul. In 1670 he put out another book called ''Nogeoldae Eonhae'' .

During the period, the text was revised again to adjust contemporary Chinese. the ''Nogeoldae Sinseok'' was published in 1761, and the ''Junggan Nogeoldae'' appeared in 1795. The commentaries corresponding to them are called ''Nogeoldae Sinseok Eonhae'' and the ''Junggan Nogeoldae Eonhae'' .

The ''Nogeoldae'' was translated into other languages.
The ''Cheong-eo Nogeoldae'' includes the text along with Hangul pronunciation and Korean translations. It was written by Choe Hutaek and others and published in 1680.
I Choedae made a edition called the ''Mong-eo Nogeoldae'' that was published in 1741.