430 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



class of nobles, are entitled to wear two swords, and number eighty-eight thousand. 

 Man-ki-chi belongs to this class, as he assured me. 5. Farmers. 6. Artisans, as 

 goldsmiths, carpenters, blacksmiths, &c. &c. 7. Shopkeepers. 8. Common people. 



The Japanese language is syllabical, of the Turanian type, but apparently in an 

 advanced stage of development. Its verbs are regularly inflected, and its nouns 

 appear to have a systematic declension. 1 It is entirely free from guttural and nasal 

 tones if the ordinary vocabulary words are sufficient to determine that question. 

 In speaking the lips rarely close, but they have most, if not all, the labial letters. 

 The Lew Chewans speak a dialect of the Japanese. 2 



When related the Japanese address each other by the term of relationship, and 

 when not related, by the personal name. Their system of relationship is classific, 

 and embraces all collateral consanguinei as far as the connection can be traced. It 

 is an interesting form for the reason especially that it has passed under the power- 

 ful influences arising from the possession of fixed property, and the establishment 

 of laws for its transmission by inheritance. Property rights alone appear to pos- 

 sess sufficient power to overthrow the classificatory system. 



In the lineal line there are terms for grandfather and grandmother, o-jee'-sang 

 and o^bd'-san ; for great-grandfather and mother, 7ie-jee'-je and slie-ba'-bti ; for 

 grandson and granddaughter, ma' -go and ma'-ee ; for great-grandchild, zhe'-ko ; 

 and for grandchild's grandchild, ya-shang' -o. There are also separate terms for 

 elder and younger brother and for elder and younger sister, but no term for brother 

 or sister in the abstract. The plural is formed, as before stated, by adding do'-mo, 

 e. g., a'-nee, elder brother; a' -nee do'-mo elder brothers. These terms are used 

 both by the males and females. 



My brother's son and daughter are my nephew and niece, e-to-ko and o-nd 

 e-to'-ko ; their children are my grandsons and granddaughters ; and the children 

 of the latter are my grandchildren. My sister's children, and their descendants, 

 stand to me in the same relationships ; and these are the same whether Ego is a 

 male or a female. 



The wife of this nephew is my daughter-in-law, yo'-md ; and the husband of this 

 niece is my son-in-law, moo'-ko. 



My father's brother is my uncle, o'-j'ee. This term was rendered by the late Mr. 

 H. J. S. Heusken, TJ. S. Secretary of Legation at Yedo, from whom I received an 

 imperfectly filled schedule, " my little father." The son of this uncle, if older 

 than myself, is my elder brother, a'-nee ; if younger, my younger brother, o-to'-to ; 

 his daughter, in like manner, is my elder or younger sister, a'-nilt, or e-mo'-to. Each 

 of the Borland daughters of this collateral brother and sister is my nephew, e-to'-ko, 

 or my niece, o'-nd e-to'-lco; each of their children is my grandson or granddaughter, 

 md'-go or md'-ee ; and each of the children of the latter is my great-grandchild, 

 she'-ko. 



1 Oo'-ma. A horse. Oo'-ma. A horse. 



Ma'-mo. Of a horse. Oo'-mii-to. With a horse. 



Mii'-mc. To or for a horse. 

 Japan Expedition, under Commodore Perry, 2, 47. 



