452 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 172 



When it is remembered that for a Japanese who 

 wishes to keep abreast of the world, and to be- 

 come acquainted with modern learning, the 

 additional knowledge of at least one, or, if pos- 

 sible, of two or three, European languages is 

 absolutely essential, thoughtful persons may well 

 pause, and ask what time there is left for us for 

 mastering many arts and sciences which go to 

 make up modern life. In this world of keen 

 struggle for existence, shall we not necessarily 

 lag behind all other nations, if we are so occupied 

 with mere symbols, and not with ideas them- 

 selves? That this state of things is most un- 

 desirable is admitted on all sides. In former lei- 

 surely days, when learning was a luxury in the 

 hands of a privileged few, the harder it was 

 made, the better. But we are now in the days of 

 universal education, and what can we possibly 

 accomplish with this clumsy and ponderous ma- 

 chine of bygone days ? Clearly, something must 

 be done, and this quickly. That such is the 

 opinion held by all intelligent persons, there can 

 be no doubt. The question is, what is to be 

 done ? 



Some years ago a movement was started by 

 which it was proposed to dispense with Chinese 

 ideographs altogether, and to use the Japanese 

 Kana syllabary only. The Kana-no-kai (the Kana 

 association) was formed. The association has 

 some three or four thousand members, and has 

 done very good and earnest work, although, of 

 late, eclipsed to some extent by its younger sister, 

 the Roman alphabet association. 



If the Kana alphabet alone should be used, it 

 would certainly be a great improvement on the 

 present method of writing Japanese with Chinese 

 ideographs ; but, in the opinion of many, the 

 Kana is not equal to the demands of modem life. 

 Springing originally from Chinese ideographs, it 

 partakes somewhat of their clumsiness. A printed 

 page of Kana is frightfully monotonous ; there 

 are no strokes that project out above or below the 

 average width of letters ; and taking in a word at 

 a glance, without going over its component letters, 

 is rather difficult. Again : although phonetic to 

 some extent, spelling in it is really as bad as that 

 of English words. There are many ways of 

 writing down the same sound, and to know how 

 a given word should be spelled becomes very 

 difficult. For instance : there are eight different 

 ways of writing the sound Ko, the same number of 

 ways in writing », four ways of putting down the 

 sound mo, five ways of writing r<~>, etc., and these 

 are by no means exceptional cases. Think of the 

 word chd-cho being written tcfii-tcfu. It is very 

 difficult to write a scientific treatise in Japanese, 

 anyway ; but it is doubtful if it is possible to do so 



in Kana at all. The few attempts that have been 

 made so far must be pronounced failures. The 

 Kana alphabet has no doubt the merit of being 

 known almost universally, and it is certainly at 

 the present day the best vehicle of propounding 

 simple ideas to the masses. But unless radical re- 

 forms are carried out in the method of writing in 

 it, and several more symbols are newly added, it 

 is not, in my opinion, equal to the demands of 

 modern civilization. 



The Roman alphabet has, on the contrary, all 

 the facilities of the Kana, and possesses several 

 additional advantages besides. Its twenty-six 

 letters are very easy to learn, and its adoption will 

 make reading and writing a very simple task ; in 

 fact, almost nothing compared with the present 

 method of using Chinese ideographs. It will, of 

 course, cause education to spread wider. It will 

 save several years in every schoolboy's life. Those 

 which he has to spend in the drudgery of learning 

 how to read and write, he will be able to give to 

 acquiring solid ideas of modern knowledge. The 

 adoption of the Roman alphabet will also make 

 the introduction of scientific terms and symbols 

 into our language very easy. They have simply 

 to be transferred bodily, with only such changes 

 as the nature of our language makes imperative. 

 Think what this means in mathematics, physics, 

 and chemistry, or in writing down the scientific 

 nomenclature of zoology, botany, and mineralogy. 

 Geographical names and other proper nouns can 

 be put down accurately, and not in imperfect ap- 

 proximations. Last but not least, the Roman 

 alphabet being the one in which the literature of 

 the civilized world is written, familiarity with it 

 will make the acquisition of European languages 

 comparatively easy ; and, if Japanese be written 

 in it, foreigners will have no difficulty in master- 

 ing reading and writing our language, — a task 

 which they find now so utterly impossible. Thus 

 the adoption of the Roman alphabet will help us 

 to know others, and help others to know us. In 

 short, it will make us kin with the rest of the 

 world. 



All this has been reasoned out time and again 

 by persons who gave thought to the subject. But 

 the stupendousness of the task of revolutionizing 

 the whole written language of a nation deterred 

 any from taking practical steps, and it is a matter 

 of doubt whether any such attempt made before 

 its own time would not have been laughed down. 

 But when the period of reaction referred to in the 

 beginning was over, and the march of reforms 

 was resumed with as much eagerness as ever, 

 the time seemed to many to have come for starting 

 the movement of introducing the Roman alphabet 

 as the means of writing our language. Every 



