The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-16
YOU CAN TALK JAP IN A YEAR.
From the New York SUM-.

The Japanese in New York are
amused by the difficulty presented to
English speaking persons in the geo.
The Russian names that bristle in the
dispatches from the seat of war, the
Japs admit, may very properly present
diihculties and may be hard for Eng
lish speaking persons without a cold in
the head to pronounce. But Japanese
they think, ought to present no serious
difficulty to Americans.
Barring the fact that the spoken and
the written forms of the japanese
tongues are very different the Japs
profess to discover a good many re-
semblances between their own lam
gllage and English. The forty-seven
sound elements of the Japanese tongue
are about the same as the number rec
ognized in English. The genders of
japanese nouns are three, and the
numbers two, as in English. There are
also three cases of nouns and three de-
gres of adjectives. Verbs are action,
passive and neuter, and they have five
moods, as i'm English.
If it does take five syllables to say
lis" in Japanese, and if the language
is pretty rich in polysyllables Japanese
numerals seem simple enough to an
English speaking person, and any one
who has learned the numerals finds
the names of the months simplicity
itself In fact, the Japs say that any
industrious American of average abil-
ity ought to acquire a pretty good
knowledge of the spoken japanese
tongue in about a year, and might dc
it in a good deal less time by an in
tensive method of study. To acquire
an easy reading knowledge of the
language, with it's immense vocabulary,
in part borrowed from the Chinese, is
a much more serious matter.
Those puzzling japanese geograph-
ical names become simple enough for
the most part when resolved into their
elements, and translated, as many OF
them can be. Most English speaking
persons do not associate the name
Japan" with the name Nippon"
that of the largest island of the en-
pire. AS a matter of fact, however,
the name Japan" Is an English at
tempt to reproduce the Chinese name
for Nippon, which is 'Jih-paen. The
name means THE Island Of the Ris-
ing Sum-"
Shikoku, or sikoku. as it is some
times spelled, the name of the island
southwest of Nippon, means merely
THE four provinces as "sr' is the
Japanese for the mineral -four"
'Yezzo," the name of the large is
land northeast of Nippon, means the
barbarians of the shrimps." Again,
the group of Japanese islands usually
called the Kuriles bears that name be-
cause the islands are so numerous, for
it means the thousand islands"
Formosa, which the Japanese .ac-
quired from China after the war be-
tween the two countries, is also called
Tai-Wan, which means the gulf of
the tower" Tusima, or Tsushima, as
it is spelled on some maps, an Island
tht may figure in the war news, for 1T
lies in the strait between Kiushiu and
Korea, means "the island that makes
a face"
japanese town and city names are
significant and interesting. Toxic
means 1.-THE capital of the East" Yedo
is merely 1.-The mouth of the river
Nagasaki is 1.-The long cape On the
maps the cape itself on which Maya
sah is situated is called Mono. The
name of the city of Oho-Saka means
"the great dixie or bank" w
Many Japanese geographical names
contain the words for mountain. or
river, or water, or some other natu-
raj feature, sometimes associated with
adjectives of very simple significance,
as great or high, or black, or. little,
or strong. Mountain is 'yama, and
is an element in the most familiar of
Japanese geographical names, as in
the famous sacred mountain Fuziyan1a,
or Fujiyama, as it is oftener spelled
on our maps. The same element oc-
ours in Okayama, and in the plural
form in sother place names.
A very slight study of place names
makes the map of Japan live and in
teresting thing, but the geographical
names of the empire have been OBJ
secured for English-speaking persons by
reason of the fact that the spelling. of
such names has greatly varied upon
maps of English and American origin.
In fact, place names on the popular
maps of Japan are so disguised that
the Japs themselves are often puzzled
to recognize familiar towns, islands,
capes and the like. The Japs of New
York, however, look for marked in
crease of interest in their country and
language as a result of the present
war, and for greater care on the part
of maDmakers.