Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 222

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Notices of Japan, No. Vlll.

APRIL,

Books intended for the instruction of either children or the lower orders are invariably printed in hira-kana letters; but we are told that, in those designed for

These characters are frequently mixed up with those of the two other syllabaries; it has the same order, and is composed of complete Chinese characters, written both in the common and in the running hand, and many characters are frequently employed to represent the same syllable. The following list contains the proto- types, but others are as frequently used as these; and it should be observed that the Chinese characters which compose this syllabary, as likewise of all the others, do not always represent the Chinese sound of the words that they designate. Thus, the Chinese character keang I a river represents the syllable ye, which in Japanese has the same signification; also neu a female is called me, mean- ing the same thing."

THE SYLLABARY CALLED

MANYO-KANA.

惠

ye

sa

EL ke

hwuy

tso

ke

佐 計 爲 津

tsu

和

vei isin Falling Di

wa

ho

豋

to

tăng

ki ke

飛ˊˊ幾 ㄏㄨㄩㄝˊ 不 乃補

不乃?

ne

ne

迦知呂

chi

ro

che

loo

mo

maou yew

由

ko

ke

yu

毛已於奈與利ㄐㄩㄥˊ 波

na

yo

ha

nae

yu

le

po

se

me

she

neu

世女江久良

ra

ta

tae

太奴仁鑒

nu

ni

jin

寸美

mi

te

tsun

me

teën

天也武

ya

mu

re

yay

le

禮留保hoto

ru

fo

lew

po

che

之安

si, shi

a gan

萬字

ma

man

yu

會

SO

遠

0, Wo

Úll he, fe

tsängyuen

heuě

This syllabary commences on the right, and reads in the Chinese manner. The syllables in italic are the sounds of the characters according to the court dialect of China, as given in Morrison's Dictionary; the others are their Japanese sounds, written as they are expressed in a table given in the VIIth volume of the Repository, page 496.

"There is still another syllabary, made of Chinese characters considerably

contracted, which is call Yamato-kana 倭假名 or Japanese writing.” One

of the modes of employing Chinese characters in Japanese is here exhibited.

Yamato-kana is formed of three characters; the first one 倭 is an old name for Japan, and is read Yamato, though its sound is i; of the other two 假名,the

first is called according to its sound ka, the other according to its meaning in Japanese na, i. e. a name, and by the combination of the two is derived kana, a syllable or a character. The Chinese characters for hira-kana, kata-kana, and manyo-kana are all used in the same manner.

It may be added, that with the exception of the kata-kana, these various sylla baries are seldom used alone. Ordinarily, the characters of two or three are mixed together, without any rule, which renders the decyphering of the whole much more troublesome. And as if it was not already sufficiently difficult, Chinese characters are interspersed here and there, sometimes with and sometimes without the meaning or sound given on the side, just according to the whim of the writer. So that if we take into consideration the number of signs in each of the five sylla-