The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1873-01-24
THE ENGLusu LANGUAGE.

existence.
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
The Charge dAaaircs of japan, with
the Legation Il Japan at Washington
City, recently addressed q communion
ton to Prof Whitney Of Yale College,
in which he sets forth the decidedly
unique and novel idea Of improving the
japanese language by the annexation Of
the English. He asserts that the people
Of the japanese Empire are anxious to
take high position among the most adj
vanccd nations Of the world, but are un-
provided with the chief essential to indi-
vidual and national progress good
language. He proposes the plan:o Of sub
hitting to his people the English Ian
guage simplifed, which, he feels assured,
would be received by them as a boon.
The spoken language of Japan is regard
ed by her learned men as inadequate to
the growing necessities Of the people Of
that Empire; and the idea is prevalent
that IL Japan would keep pace with the
age, she must adopt some copious, ex-
pausible European language, print her
laws and transact her public business in
it as soon as possible, and have it taught
in her schools as the future language Of
the country, TO the gradual exclusion Of
her present tongue, spoken and written.
A preference is expressedfor the English
language for divers reasons; but certain
obstacles are mentioned, Of an intensely
pratical character, which would make
the introduction of the English language
exceedingly difficult. This difficulty
consists in the absence of any claw rule,
or order in its orthography," also the
large number of irregular verbs, the
frequent recurring of which makes the
matter worse; and while simplifed
form of English would meet with but
little difficulty in its introduction, on the
other hand an effort in that direction
would be entirely useless in behalf of the
English language in its present form.
That he does not over-rate the weight Of
this difficulty, the fact is cited that a
very large proportion of those persons
whose vernacular it is, including those
who have been educated, pronounce it uni
formly, speak it ungrammatically, and
write it in stern defiance of all the stand
ards of photography. Hence it is that
the educated men of Japan have en-
braced the plan of preparing and placing
in their public schools, and in the hands
of the people at large, spelling books, die
tionaries, grammars and other text books,
purporting to teach "simplifed English,
and in these works and in all systems Of
teaching it is proposed to Danish the
great body of those exceptions which rem.
der the English so difficult of acquisition
even by those who claim it as the mother
tongue, and which discouragcs most for
eigners from perscvering to success. In
order to indicate the characters Of
the changes to be made, it is proposed
that all plurals be made regular, and
that the commonly received preterits and
participles of such words as see, speak,
bite, teach, bear, think, ETC., etc. . TO be
changed from their present form to the
more regular form of seed, speaked, bited,
teacied, bedred, tsinked, b,iyed, coined, etc.
etc. With such notifications, or altera-
tons as these, japanese scholars have
strong faith that the introduction of the
English language is possible. And in
fact they are not without precedents in
history to certain their belief. When
the Saxons were destroyed by William
the Conquerer at Hastings, the Norman
tongue was introduced into England, land
being the vernacular of a spirited. 70
mantle people, it soon became the Ian
guage of love and chivalry. Likewise
the PRONUNCIATION of an edict, requiring
all proceedings in the Courts Of Justice,
whether written or spoken, to be in Nor.
man-French, had the effect 70 still further
,pgtiRs- aaisde the language of the ma
tives; and though such hardy characters
as Cedric the Saxon" held out against
the innovation, in the course Of time the
Saxon language ceased to be spoken.
fit be true, as the japanese embassa-
dor has calculated, that copiousness and
expansibility of language will have the
effect to hasten the progress of the EN-
pire in her strides toward greatness, it
would not be amiss TO annex the Eng
lish language in preference to any other
tongue. 1t embraces about five thousand
more words than any other known Ian
guage, and Is spoken by the most power
full and enterprising people upon the
earth. Its richness and variety. its
strength, its copiousness and energy are
without rivalry and beyond successful de-
scription. There is no subject it cannot
reach; its capabilities defy comparison.
Well may the Japanese conclude that a
language, so vast and yet so minute, so
subtle and yet so coarse, so rude and yet
30 refined, is not easy of acquisition. 1t
demands years of toll and the most assid-
uous attention.
ACCOUNTS are received from large
sections of the country describing the
disastrous effects of the present freshet.
The rivers in many places are swollen far