Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-04-09
A New Language Wanted.

"a udtlon oeopP'uS oue oi 0Ouni-OoA va
rism into the civilization of American and
Western Europe. finds great difficulty with
its language. What wonder? 1t as though
Henry Ill. of England should suddenly
arise from his dusty tomb, and ask what
we mean by q railroad,' " electric tele.
graph" and " friction matches" For.
before Henry had come to the throne, or
Saint Louis of France had gone on to his
first crusade, Japan had an ancient history,
language aud literature. Columbus was
not born when Marco Polo, Hospitality en-
treated at the court of Kublai Khan,
caught from the returning and 1--WE regret
to say, lying warriors of the great mon
arch the first reports which Europe ever
heard of the wonderful power, riches and
learning of the kingdom of Zipangu. Be-
fore the reigns of the Doges of Venice
reached their acme of splendor, Japan
boasted line of kings whose origin
stretched away into dim traditions. And
it was while g not DOG might bark with
out Mongol leave, from the borders of Po-
land and the coast of Silecia to the Amoor
and the Yellow Sea-" that the japanese
were organizing armies which preserved
the proud integrity of their rich empire,
and beat back. discounted, the far-swarm.
| ing hosts of the great Khan. This is the
nation-old when our forefathers clad
themselves in the skins of wild beasts
which emerges from its hoary seclusion
and asks US what we mean by &" rail-
roads, - electric telegraphs," and " friction
matches"
What shall be done for people which
has $50 sinograms, four alphabets and at
least one unwritten language, and is desti-
tute of word for " saleratus.? ?" The
plain difficulty is, that Japan has suddenly
come out of the Tenth Century, and has
neither voice nor language for the common
things Of the Nineteenth Century. She
has entered the family of so-called civil
lied nations; shall she give up her OWL
tongue, or invite US to learn hers, as We
take to French and German? This is the
puzzle which is worrying Japan to-day.
1t is out of the question for US to think
of learning japanese. With persistent
industry, it is said, seven years will suffice
wherein to acquire tolerabe fuency il
speaking and writing the language of busi
ness Japan. Scientific Japan has its OWL
graphic system its slnOgrams are known
as TAT and $50 Then there is the Rata
kama alphabet of forty-nine letters, il
which no books are printed, but which i
used for business writing. Love-letter
and novelettes are found executed in tn,
Flrokana alphabet or writing of women
and third, called the Munyokana, o
myriad -eaves-l letters, embams in its be
wildering curves and flourishes the sutlim
thoughts OF the poets of the Sun-sourc
kingdom. We, who find fault with ou
twenty-six letters. and dock the tails of al
words of more than two syllables, vii
r never get on with this complex language
e The Japanese are too proud to adop
any native slang for the technical terms G
the English and French. They have n
native word for '' Steamship and the
blush to combine their signs or sounds fo
smoke and Junk" and so get over tn
difficulty by calling an American frigate
Z" smoke war-junk." This sort of thin
may do for the childish Marquesans Q
simple-minded Kanakas the quick -witteC
naughty japanese will not endure it. Tur
into the new y-awakened antique kingdor
the inventions and discoveries of photogra
ply, ether, nitro-gI ycerine, electricity, il
fammabe gas, printing and steam ma
chinery, with all the jargon and technic;
y terms with which these things have er
riched our own language; you see how th
bewildered Japanese learner literally lack
words to express his wonders in his natiy
tongue. He is the contemporary of Henr
Ill dazed in Birmingham factory or
7r Chicago railway depot.
s. 1t is not surprising, then, that ment;
and material progress in Japan demand
some other vehicle OF expression than tn;
used when Ghengis Khan cast envious eye
on the islands empred The nation ha
somehow, got ahead Of his language. The
are talking of adopting ours : but they {
not like its irregular verbs and arbitral
forms of pronunciation. In the Japane
grammar the verbs are all regular;
fact, the derivative is unmistak kably trac
IN able through all its forms. For exampl,
Us Stat, inferior StatUa, humility stain
en humble statmi, humbly stat-misheru,
humble stat -ninaru, to be humbed, ct
Or, again, como, to read; yonai, readin
(substantlve) yomite, reader, etc. If
japanese attempts our language, he imm
diately desires to make all the verbs reg
lar, and push the derivative through 1
compound forms. he says "speaked
spoke beated ~ for beaten COED
N for went. An umbrella is "roof or sh
he ter to carry in the hand" It is impos
BILE for him to see why it should be called
umbrella; or being called so, why a pal
sol should not be called an um-somethi
else. Thus, many of the difficulties
our dear mother tongue dawn on us wh
these Orientals, in despair, propose CO
promise in some sort of phonetic Englis
They cannot manage " though the tou
cough and hic-cough plough me through
Given the pronunciation of the first wo
and they will construe the like " Thou
the to CO and hcco plo me thro." Alta,
ing the verbs, the student will thus reno
a nursery rhyme:
"John, john the piper's son,
Steaied The pig and away he runned.
The pig was eated and John was heated,
And John runned, believing, down the street
We must leave our new neighbors
work out this problem for themselves.
is pity that we cannot meet them h'
way, and give our language little of t
simple euphony which would make its