488 



NATURE 



\_March 25, 1886 



sounds, was imported gradually into the language of Japan 

 along with the written symbols. It has therefore come 

 to pass that, in Japanese books, one and the same cha- 

 racter is at times used as the equivalent of a Japanese 

 word, and at other times of the synonymous Chinese 

 word. But, besides this source of confusion when the 

 characters are used with their proper ideographic values, 

 there is a further element of doubt and difficulty imported 

 into written Japanese by the circumstance that many of 

 the characters are occasionally employed as merely 

 phonetic signs, irrespective of their meaning ; sometimes 

 to represent the mere sound of a Japanese word, at other 

 times the mere sound of a Chinese word. Thus the 

 difficulty of the ideographs arising from their numerical 

 superabundance is aggravated by ambiguities in the 

 modes of using them. Another disadvantage of the 

 Chinese characters is the complexity of their form and 

 structure. Although some scores of them are written 

 with no more than three or four strokes of the pen 

 each, there are thousands of others requiring each as 

 many as ten, twenty, thirty, and sometimes even more 

 than forty distinct movements of the hand for their 

 formation. To write these complex combinations of 

 lines, curves, and points always at full length was a task 

 too much even for Chinese patience, and at least two 

 distinct varieties of abbreviated handwriting caine into 

 general use both in China and Japan, namely, the 

 " cursive" and the "grass" script. In most cases, how- 

 ever, these contracted forms of the characters are so 

 destitute of any likeness to the oiiginal forms as to afford 

 no aid whatever to the eye or to the mind in detecting 

 their identity. To acquire the quicker modes of writing 

 involves, therefore, a further considerable expenditure of 

 time, and fresh demands upon the already over-burdened 

 memory. 



Nothing can be added to this clear and succinct 

 account of the difficulties which lie at the threshold of 

 knowledge in the Japanese language ; but there is a 

 serious aggravation of these difficulties, not referred to in 

 the statement, when we come to the Western sciences, 

 with the large and special vocabularies attached to most 

 of them. If we take chemistry, for example, the 

 Japanese student of this science is compelled to learn the 

 translations into his own language of technical chemical 

 terms and the Chinese characters which have been 

 invented or adapted to represent these translations. 

 Under the rational system proposed by the Society there 

 is no reason why oxygen should not be written " oxygen " 

 at once in Japanese, instead of by a couple or three 

 fanciful symbols which may either be an attempt at trans- 

 lation or description, or an attempt to reproduce the 

 sound, or arbitrarily selected to represent the word. The 

 Japanese student would begin his work much where the 

 English student does ; he would learn the word " oxygen " 

 once for all, and then learn its properties, combinations, 

 &c., in the Japanese tongue, as the latter does in the 

 English tongue. 



The ivriters of the pamphlet then observe, with much 

 force, that the excessive expenditure of mental power in 

 learning by heart thousands of intricate symbols of 

 sounds and ideas must diminish the stock available for 

 use in other directions. The memory indeed is exercised, 

 but at the expense of some of the other intellectual faculties. 

 To this they are inclined to attribute in a large measure 

 the comparative backwardness of the Chinese mind, and 

 its deficiency in the powers of abstraction and generalisa- 

 tion — a very interesting observation which it would lead 

 us too far to discuss now. Japan partially emancipated 

 herself from the thraldom of the Chinese script when the 

 syllabaries were invented a thousand years ago ; but no 

 complete deliverance is possible, they think, otherwise 

 than by wholly discarding it in favour of a purely alpha- 

 betic system. So long as the literature of China formed 

 the sole staple of education in Japan, little inconvenience 



arose from the multiplicity and intricacy of the Chinese 

 ideographs, but now that European science is being 

 eagerly studied and assimilated by the rising generation, 

 the need of a simpler and easier script for the expression 

 and propagation of the new ideas becomes every day 

 more evident. The most convenient course is, clearly, to 

 adopt the new terms as well as the new ideas bodily into 

 the language, and this cannot properly be done unless the 

 writing used be alphabetical. Amongst the subsidiary 

 advantages of employing the alphabet in which the 

 languages of the leading nations of the world are written 

 is that the acquirement of any other European language 

 will be much facilitated. Europeans, too, will find it 

 much easier to learn the Japanese language when the 

 principal stumbling-block is thus removed, so that, as the 

 writers properly conclude, from both ends at once the 

 channel of communication between Japan and the Western 

 world will be widened and deepened by the employment 

 in common of the Roman alphabet. 



Very few words will suffice to explain the broad features 

 of the scheme of transliteration produced after much con- 

 sideration by a Committee of the Society, and now uni- 

 versally adopted. First, in using the Roman alphabet 

 the consonants have been taken at their usual English 

 values and the vowels at their values in Italian ; secondly, 

 the actual pronunciation of the words regardless of their 

 spelling in the syllabaries, the latter in many cases 

 being so totally different from the pronunciation that 

 even Japanese themselves are frequently at a loss to write 

 words in the syllabaries ; and, thirdly, the standard of 

 pronunciation chosen is that of educated people in the 

 capital at the present day. Of the twenty-six letters of the 

 Roman alphabet, four, viz. /, q, v, and .r, are not used in 

 writing Japanese, and are therefore omitted ; in regard to 

 capitals and punctuation the ordinary English method is 

 followed. Nineteen rules, most of them too technical for 

 special mention here, are laid down : they are all simple 

 enough to those acquainted with the syllabaries, and can 

 be readily applied in practice. Finally, the pamphlet 

 gives examples of the various styles — literary, epistolary, 

 &c. — in the present mode of writing, and under the 

 Roman system according to the rules laid down. 



Such being the objects to be attained and the method 

 of attaining them, it is satisfactory to observe that almost 

 universal assent has been given to the work of the 

 Society. Some of the principal journals of the country 

 set apart a certain portion of their space for articles 

 printed in the Roman letters ; a journal wholly printed in 

 this way is published by the Society itself ; the number 

 of members is increasing by leaps and bounds, and many 

 of the most learned and influential men in the country 

 have already joined the ranks of the reformers. On the 

 other side, of course, there are the rooted habits of a 

 thousand years ; but the Japanese have already succeeded 

 in changing so many of their old habits and modes of 

 thought that they may be trusted ultimately to succeed in 

 this reform also. Moreover, it should not be forgotten 

 that the present method of writing Japanese by means of 

 Chinese ideographs is itself and imputation, a graft on 

 Japanese civilisation, and, it may properly be urged, 

 that what the nation has done once it may do again. 

 The letters of the future may not be so artistic and 

 beautiful as those of the present day ; but this aesthetic 

 objection will be counterbalanced by the fact that several 

 years, at the most sensitive and valuable portion of life, 

 will be added to the work of each generation, and a 

 crushing obstacle will be removed from the gateways of 

 knowledge for the Japanese youth of the future. Those 

 who have technical and local knowledge speak of the 

 perfect feasibility of the reform, and the outer world may 

 accept their verdict with reasonable confidence ; we may 

 all, with a clear conscience, wish Japan success in one of 

 the most arduous and beneficent reformations ever under- 

 taken for a nation. 



