Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 220

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Notices of Japan, No. V111.

APRIL,

Fischer says that the sound of Japanese is soft and sweet; Meylan, that some of the letters cannot be articulated, save by native organs "to the manner born:" a matter that seems not unlikely, judging from the difficult contraction of the per- sonal pronoun. The president adds, that in Japanese there are no articles; and that the declension of nouns is by small words following the noun to be declined, like the domo following and attached to watakusi, for the purpose of making it plural. In fact, the name and nature of the preposition are simply reversed, by being made to follow instead of preceding. With respect to verbs, they remain unvaried by person or number, though changing with the tense and voice.*

The Japanese have a syllabary of forty-eight letters, which may be in a man- ner doubled, by affixing marks to the consonants that modify their sound, render- ing it harder or softer. This syllabary dates from the eighth century, and may be written in four different sets of characters. These are, the kata-kana, which is held appropriate to the use of men; the hira-kana, similarly appropriated to wo- men; the manyo-kana and the yamato-kana, the difference between which, in use or nature, is not explained, but they are said to show the original type of every letter. In addition to these four sets of characters, the Chinese is used as a sort of learned character; probably a symptom and consequence of the arts and sciences having been brought from China to Japan. In this Chinese character 'all works of science, or appertaining to the higher departments of literature, as also official papers and public documents, are still written or printed. But even learned men employ their own kata-kana in writing annotations upon books, the the personal pronouns, meny of which convey, in themselves, an intimation of the relative standing of the parties, or in some degree indicate deference to the person spoken to or spoken of, and respect from the person speaking. This feature of the Japanese language is not confined to the pronouns, but extends to many words indicating an action, decrce, a thing, a word, or aught else, of the high per- sonage, be it a divinity, emperor, or honored friend, who forms the subject of the sentence; so that a highly polished and deferential sentence is much longer than one in ordinary conversation. Thus, in speaking to a friend, they say, Konnichi omaiyewa nani no tokoroni yukuka? meaning, where are you going to-day? But to a superior, the phrase would be, Konnichi no kimiwa nani no tokoroni on ide asobasaruka? In the instance given above, wasi is the word for the first person speaking, among equals or to an inferior, while watakusi is used when speaking respectfully to a superior or to a stranger; so with wasidomo and watakusidomo for the plural we. The syllable that is dropped is not a supernumerary one, but is contracted in speaking, as is the case with words generally in conversation. for the Japanese, in rapid enunciation, frequently make an elision of the last vowel, wherever the euphony of sentence requires it, in this respect resembling the French.]

* [The examples of Japanese poetry given in this paper will somewhat illustrate the pronunciation of the language; it is, in truth, an agreeable tongue, and, more- over considerable changes are permitted for the sake of euphony. When it is written in English, almost every other letter is a vowel, and when consonants unite and the vowels are dropped, it is for the most part in words where they readily coalesce; thus shrano for shirano. There are, however, many exceptions to this apparently simple rule, and study is required before the student can read correctly even after he knows the syllables.-Thic contraction of watakfs is probably written by the Dutch to express a kind of aspirated clipping of the word, for there is no f sounded by those whom we have seen from other provinces, nor is it thus written in Rodriguez' Grammar. The language is very copious, for it has not only its own native stores to draw from in expressing ideas, but unlimited use is also made of the Chinese; and the two are combined, and separated, apparently altogether according to the fancy of the writer. The verb especially is very full in moods