48357
> 学校は創立一年目にして、なんと天文部が存在していたんですよ

in the first year the school was established, (なんと?) the astronomy club
existed.

what purpose is it serving here?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T00:04:59.700
48316
2017-07-06T00:49:10.027
2017-07-06T00:49:10.027
9831
22187
question
grammar interjections
Use of なんと to begin a phrase, but not as a question
The following information I found in _A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese
Grammar_ by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tstsui (2008). All credit for this
answer goes to them if I have understood its contents correctly.

The grammar なんと (and its colloquial version なんて) means: What; How ~! What a(n)
~!; so.

Usage of this grammar is a little advanced, as you may need a little bit of
experience with a native speaker of the language to adequately learn the
nuances of the structure.

There are three ways to form a sentence using なんと。They are as follows:

  * なん｛と/て｝+ Verb (Where the verb is a form of communication, like 言う or 書く)
  * なん｛と/て｝+ いう + Noun
  * なん｛と/て｝+ {Adj(i) infinitive /Adj(na) inf./Noun な}んだろう。

Here are a few example sentences using the なんと grammar:

**なん｛と/て｝ + Verb**

> うちにホームステイしている留学生がテレビを観ていると「今なんと言った？」「英語だとなんと言いますか？」と質問の連続だ。
>
> When the foreign student staying with us watches TV, he keeps asking
> questions like "What did he say?" or "What is that in English?"

**なん｛と/て｝+ いう + Noun**

> なんという人か名前を忘れたけれど、なかなか魅力的な女性に出会った。(I met a very charming lady, although I've
> forgotten her name.)

**なんて + {Adj(i) infinitive /Adj(na) inf./Noun な}んだろう。**

> なんと親切なんだろう。(How Kind he/she is!)
>
> なん｛と/て｝ひどい話なんだ！(What a horrible story!)

**The Result?**

So if I were to take a whack at translating your sentence above, I would
translate it as something like this:

> Considering that the school is in its first year since foundation, **what
> an** astronomy [department](http://jisho.org/search/%E9%83%A8) they have!

The bold part represents what なんと would be translated into in English.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-12T23:57:31.890
48348
2017-06-13T05:07:47.870
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
22352
48316
answer
According to 明鏡国語辞典:

> なんと【何と】  
>  〘感〙強い驚きや感動の気持ちを表すときに発する語。「なんと、できたではないか。」

The なんと in your sentence is a 感動詞(interjection), not a 副詞(adverb). It is
uttered to express one's surprise or amazement. This なんと cannot be rephrased
as なんて, and can mean "Believe it or not", "To my surprise", "Surprisingly
enough", etc.

Examples from Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary:

> その時部屋に入ってきたのは、 **なんと** 私の妻であった。  
>  The woman who then entered the room was -- why! -- my own wife! / Who
> should then enter the room but my own wife!  
>  借金が積もり積もって、 **なんと** １０万円になった。  
>  The debt went on increasing, reaching at last a surprising amount of
> 100,000 yen.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T05:47:26.893
48357
2017-06-13T05:47:26.893
9831
48316
answer