The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-09-30

otoo,n. vbo usurped both civil ana mintAty
rowsr. frequently embraced Buddhisni. Contu-
cius became, however, and remains the tesenoi
Of the lettered class. These three reht,ons
have borrowed from each other ana i've IN y
monv. although shintoism has again become
the State religion. The aristocracy mas passeu
from Confucianism 10 complete skepticism.
The authority Of M. Julien vlnson Is again IN
voked 70 attest tho richness Of Japanese ltera-
ture. In the last 800 years innumerable WORKS
Of poetry, OF mystical philosophy, and even OF
science have been composed In the NIPPON
archipelago. The earliest known works nre the
Kosikl. the sacred book or Bible Of Shintoiem'
which dates from the yenr 7l2, A. d., ana the
Yamato-B oumi, or ancient national annals Inc
literary and artistic development was sensi-
bly, later than the indirect Intervention
of China through Corea In the history OF
japan. This fact has had a marked infu-
ence on the fate Of the national language
Yamato.t the language brought by the invaders
Of the seventh century b.. G. The Intrusion OF
Chinese monosyllabism, and especially of so In
convenient a written character as that OF the
Chinese, paralyzed the evolution OF the Jnpa-
nese tongue. and arrested 1t at the first stage OF
agglutination between dcclension and conjuga-
ton, cut short its tendency toward THE infected
state, and encountered It with a quantity OF
Chinese words. 20 such an extent that the popu-
lace speak a sort of hybrid tongue, and the pure
Yamato remains the appanage OF the aristocracy,
OF the lettcrcd class. and OF the demi-monde.
1t IL NJ. Lefevre's opinion that nothing can be
softer or simpler than the Japanese pronuncla-
ton. In the spoken tongue there are five
novels, a, 4, ou, 4, o; four semi-vowels, v, ., p,t
or h; one liquid, r: three nasals, On. n. m: four
s~ibilants, 4, Oh, Z. J; four palatals, u, ten, 40, az
finally, six explosives and two consonants, X, v,
{, d y, D.; ! is wanting. The pronunciation
clearly shows tendencies toward infiection; Tor
instance. letters are modified by contact, Il and
k become RI. IL and . become ~, Is and y be-
come Pr. ~ and y become d, &c. The final vowel
is almost mute. VI and K fall by contraction he
tween u and &; thus uki Is pronounced al. These
are Indo-European phenomena. kore, this man.
and kdrc. that man: ktmt, Lord, and KANT,
genius, seem to he respectively notifications
OF single roots. The japanese declension Is by
the aid Of sufix particles, which have come TO
signify only n sense OF relation; for Instance,
tau and no imply possession; Nc, CHE. Nc, and G
impart the sense of toward; tO means for; te
and nj signify In and by; Dorf Is the ablative
termination; kdgu. ngd. and ma are partitive.
Let us take, for examples, lrtkf-0d furtL 1t
SHOWS; dmd-tsu kant, genius OF heaven; yedore,
to Yedo; inisirc yori, from antiquity; yedo-
reno missi, road TO Ycdo: vdmdnopc, from the
mountain. Tho nominative and the accusative
cases are marked by a species Of definite article.
IRA. tpo. Gender is undetermined; number
Is indicated in tho Chinese way by
the addition of q word signifying guam
tity. variety. or crowd, and also more
frequently by a reduplication. such as is
found In Malay. 1t Is curious that the personal
pronouns are wanting. unless, indeed, mf-0d
and mi-gomo. I, we, formed by adding n sufix to
the word mi, body, can be considered such; 1t
should also be noted that, in expressing the third
pore,n hv the dopnnnstratiy Namotn copforna
to what is almost universal usage. Still, one
cannot but be struck by the singularity Of the
forms which stand In conversation for l. thou.
we. you. A Japanese does not say I see
thee, we see you: but this man see IL
lustrious. honored, grandeur, lord" or. again.
slave. imbecile, selnshness see height. nobility"
The inference would be that the extreme
politeness inherent in the japanese character
has prevented the formation Of personal pro-
nouns. or. II they once existed, has caused them
TO fall into disuse. For lack Of personal pro-
nouns. there is no conjugation. The verbs have
remained simply substantives, which are de-
clined by the aid Of noun suffixes, that allow
them to be compared to Indo-European infini-
tivcs. Thus we have yutu, movement; y%titu-ipu,
the going, TO go; axe, opening, sight: tdna i0
dkent, flower to open. to see; 20 open a flower, to
see a flower. Mood. tense and voice are all ex-
pressed by the addition of different afixes, Ia,
mu, tara. and by the use of an auxiliary. uru.
signifying existence. to be. The dative c forms
the termination Of the passive; and analogous
methods produce reflective, causative, and mega
tive forms.
japanese, In short, according to our author. Is
a language beautiful in sound. very simple, and
easy to learn, and capable of expressing a great
number OF ideas. He refers, Of course. to the
spoken Language. When written. he would de-
scribe II as an indecipherable medley. The
adoption of the Chinese characters has been de-
structive of all order and reason. Sometimes
the Chinese ideogram Is considered merely as a
sign. and corresponds to a Japanese polysylla-
BILE; sometimes 1t retains its Chinese monosylla-
bic pronunciation, and answers to only one syl-
liable in japanese. In the former case 1t keeps
its meaning and loses its original pronuncia-
ton, needing. therefore, q translation to
render IL Ineligible; in the second case IL
is only a very inconvenient syllable char
acter. In one place, a single monosyllabic sign
may represent a Japanese polysyllable; In an
other, several Chinese signs will be required TO
express one Japanese word: so that the same
sign may be pronounced In several different
ways, and several signs conveying different
meanings may be pronounced alike. IL seems
that this strange use OF Chinese characters Is
more especially the rule when dealing with All
stractions and scientific matter; that is to say,
precisely where they are most Inappropriate.
So persistent an adherence to an absurd custom
shows to what a degree the subtle and brilliant
Children OF the sun were struck at an carly
period by the Chinese power and civilization,
and penetrated with respect for the wisdom OF
the Mandarins. They themselves possessed more
than one syllabary, imperfect, doubtless, but a
thousand times superlo. TO the Chinese mono
syllable script. The Buddhists had even con-
tributcd an alphabet, probably OF Hindu origin.
There are seven syllabaries, OF which the most
used are the lateral, the so-called Kata kama,
and the ~cursive, Hira kama or Fra kama. The first
consists Of explanatory signs written In small
type by the side OF the kilograms: the second
has no relation tn the Chinese script. These
systems consist OF forty-eight signs. Instead Of
recognizing their evident superiority, the Japa-
nese taught, and even still teach, a minimum
OF 5000 kilograms in their schools, which are
even then insufficient. II the scholar would ac-
quire u real cultivation, he must attain not !, 1000,
but 5000, or the literature OF his own country
will remain closed TO him. The modern jana
n Luua Ella ~