Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-20
OUR ALPHABET FOR JAPAN.
The Yankees Of the Orient to Use Ro-
man Script.

man Script.
From the New York Tribune.
Japan seems to be about to take one of
the most remarkable and not least impor-
tant Of all her steps toward harmonizing
herself with the highest civilization Of Eu-
rope and America. That is nothing less
than the adoption Of Roman script-our
own English alphabet-pari passu with. If
not as substitute for. her own ancient
system Of biography. For the last dozen
years a knowledge of Roman script has
been increasing in Japan among the most
highly educated. But now it is proposed by
the most influential educational organiza-
ton in the empire TO make the teaching of
our alphabet and Of our mode of word
formation compulsory and universal in the
public schools. 1t seems probable that the
government will adopt the proposal. in
which case. Of course all private schools
will have to do the same, with tho result
that all the children Of Japan will presently
be learning, not necessarily the English
language, but at least to write and read
their own language in English fashion
That will be great thing for Americans
and Europeans who want to learn the
Japanese language. It will make that Ian
guage little harder to learn than French or
German. and will enable people to learn 1t
In the same way that they learn tho Eu-
ropean tongues. At present the great STUN
bling block in the way Of mastering Jana
nese is the necessity OF learning a multi
tude Of different ideographs. Once Japa-
nese words are expressed in letters like our
own the task of learning will become i'm
measurably easier. 1t will then also be
much easier for the Japanese to learn our
language. for Of course our alphabetically
formed words seem as strange to them as
their ideographs do to us. Moreover 1t will
cause change amounting almost to trans
formation in the Japanese mind or in the
linguistic functions Of that mind. The Ian
anese will for the first time regard words
not as tndfvisible integers Of speech but az
composite things formed Of letters Per-
haps we can partly realize the magnitude
OF that change by ourselves trying to re-
gard words as not formed Of letters but as
indivisible units.
Nor Ia that all. Dual systems of lam
guages are denominations. Wherefore It is
to be expected that, having adopted alpha
betical script by the side of biography the
Japanese Will soon substitute the former
for the latter altogether. It will be greatly
to their advantage so to do, and also to our
advantage to have them do it. But it will
none the less be an extraordinary thing.
For the mother tongue, in all its details. fs
one OF the things to which men cling most
tenaciOusly. We need, to convince ourselves
OF that. to recall only the language contro-
versies in Canada, in Bohemia, in South
Africa. In Malta and elsewhere not to men,
ton the recent clamor about the teaching
of German in New York public schools. We
may also recall Bismarck's memorable on
position to the Introduction of Roman scrint
into Germany in place of the far less legible
German characters. That the Japanese
should voluntarily make this revolutionary
change In their national script indica tes
their possession Of an exceptionally high
ambition to place themselves abreast Of the
best civilization of the world-and all this
emergence from savage seclusion within the
memory Of men not yet grown old!