Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-12
JAPAN'S LANGUAGE.
O"sIacAes TO its Requirement by
European Travellers.

Inc Japanese alphabet, or, more pro-
perry, slllabaries, consists of about forty
eight characters, and these, by certain
SIDE marks, may have the consonant
sound of the syllable changed, as era ,,
becomes ia or " d." Thus, within
certain limits, the characters NAV be
made to represent quite a variety of
sounds, the base or vowel always remain
ing the same. This inevitably leads to
the repetition of words having different
slgnlficahons, so long as the svllabaries
are OF such limited number. In short
the pure japanese is midway between
the phonlc method, more or less perfectly
developed In the alphabet of western
nations, and the Geographic system
prevalent in China. The word fwa
represents five or six different nouns in
IISelf and many more in its compounds
Inc word n" represents a dozen or
more objects, and the word ku " nearly
as many. Thus difficulty sometimes
arises IN trying to represent ones ideas.
especially II he has a limited vocabulary
On the morning of my arrival at Yoke
mama heard man speak to a Chinese
servant In English, German, Japanese
and Chinese all in the same breath.
mus arises mongrel language, which
dehes all rules of grammar, rhetoric or
logic. There are several causes at work
to prevent the foreigner acquiring the
language of the land. First, there are
many styles of speech depending for
their application upon the rank or condi-
ton OF the person speaking or the one ad-
dressed. To start with there is a chill
dren's language. This is not the mere
"ootsey-tootsey" of the fond American
mother, but is a real variation of the
vernacular. Second, there is a house
hold language, as distinguished from
that of the street or the rostrum. There
is form of expression appropriate in adj
dressing superiors, and another in speak
ing to interiors. The changes in the
forms of address are not always accom-
plished by prefixes and suffixes, but by
the use of an entirely different express
sion.
This is particularly exasperating to the
learner, for when he, by patient labor,
imagines himself the master of thought
in the proper language, he may insult a
high rank parsonage by using coole Ian
guage. In speaking to high-rank per-
son it becomes necessary to use many
honorfc particles, sometimes almost
hiding the main word, which in itself is
very familiar. Thus one always feels
degree of uncertainty in attacking a
purely vernacular expression. The STAN
dard test is probably the language of
upper classes in the capital. am told
that in some of the provinces the spoken
language differs considerably from this
standard. Hence travellers in remote
country districts find a little difficulty in
making their wants known. This differ
ence seems almost entirely one of articu-
lation, the written words being the
same.
When 1 first arrived in the country I
stopped at an English hotel, where l sup
posed we would have servants who could |
speak English. Early in the morning, as
is the custom of the country, the servant |
comes gently to the room, bringing toast |
and tea. The partner of my joys and sor-
rows, who was en- deshabille, plunged be- |
meath the bed clothes with a smothered |
scream. l turned to my saffron friend |
and asked him the time of day He |
looked puzzled, and, Selling my shoes, |
carried them below for polishing. When |
he returned repeated my question, when |
he lodged out and soon returned with |
some glasses of water. l was about to in
terrogate further concerning the flight of |
time when large clock in the vicinity |
struck the hour of z, thus relieving both |
parties.
Yes, the Japanese spoken colloquially |
is difficult, but the written language is |
Supplying. There are some several |
hands" varying from the rigid mathe- |
matical square hand all the way to the |
grass hand, which looks like tangled |
skein of yarn done in ink The strokes |
follow certain order, but it is very diff
cult to detect it. The writing is done |
with very small brush instead of pen, |
and the syllables are connected in per-
fectly bewildering, continuous strokes. !
The ordinary character on tea box are |
very clear and Ineligible compared with |
this. There are very few foreigners who |
ever thoroughly master this written Ian
guage, even though they become good |
students in the colloquial.
With all its disadvantages the pure |
Japanese may be fairly mastered, but |
there are brought into the account a large
number of Chinese ideographs. 1t is
said that the Chinese characters have
been used here to greater or less extent !
for 800 years. Certain it is that these |
characters are the very bane of a for
eigner's existence. They are as arbitrary
as anything can well be. Some distin- |
guished scholars have tried to discover |
some basis of analysis-some key to I'M
lock the mystery-but after arduous
study it has turned out that the key is
about as intricate as the lock itself. Every
page of the daily newspaper contains
these stumbling blocks to civilization. 1t
requires the mastery of from 5000 to
Q 0O0 characters in order to read current
affairs, and to delve in the hidden mines
of ancient history, philosophy and myth
ology requires about $4,000 to 10000
characters. Bear in mind that each one
is arbitrary and has no relation in sight,
sound or sense with the idea for which it
stands, and you have before you some
notion of the task set before the thorough
Oriental scholar. The Japanese and
Chinese have been obliged to learn those
senseless characters for the past 1900
wears. Is it any wonder that Japanese
bows should be found deficient in reason
ing powers?