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LANGUAGE AND LETTERS. 409
Teutonic and Latin elements have been thoroughly fused, whereas in Sinico-Japa-
nese the Yamato and Chinese lie, so to say, in juxtaposition. The Lu-chu dialect
is regarded as a distinct language, although nearly related to Japanese and written
with the same syllabaries.
It also contains many Chinese words introduced by the
lettered classes. A portion of the Bible has been translated into this dialect by
the missionary Bettelheim.
In Japanese there are two systems of transcription, of which the oldest are the
Chinese ideographs introduced with the germs of the national culture. But these
signs are so numerous that it requires
a whole life to master them all. In the
elementary schools as many as 3,000 are taught, but no one can claim to be educated
if he does not know at least 8,000 or 10,000, which, after all, is scarcely a
third or a fourth of the complete dictionary. Hence, from the earliest times efforts
have been made to simplify the art of
reading. Even before the introduction of
the Chinese ideographs the people were acquainted with the Korean syllabary
without adopting it. But later on they invented various original phonetic systems
commonly spoken of as Sinzi, or " divine writings." At present there are no less
than seven different syllabaries, of which six are of local invention. The Jiata kana,
or " side writing," so called because added to the Chinese signs to determine their
exact value, is in most use amongst the lettered classes. For correspondence,
ballads, plays, and popular literature the him kana, or " united writing," is chiefly
employed. But neither of these adequately replaces the Chinese signs for abstract
ideas and scientific subjects. The Sinico-Japanese words relating to mental con-
ceptions, being monosyllabic, have dozens of homonyms difficult to be distinguished
one from the other without special signs. Thus the curious mixture of an agglu-
tinating and a monosyllabic form of speech known as Sinico-Japanese
is unable to
dispense with the two corresponding systems of writing the Chinese ideographs
and the " lateral " syllabary. The people fully understand how defective is the
instrument used by them to express their thoughts.
Nevertheless, the question has
not yet been raised of rendering English obligatory in the schools for the purpose
of gradually substituting a more convenient language for that at present current in
the archipelago. Most technical and abstract terms are, however, now taken from the
European languages, and more especially from English, instead of from Chinese,
as heretofore. The Latin alphabet is also taught, and various attempts have been
made to render its use more general.
The language itself is by no means deficient in terseness or power of
expression. Its greatest defect is probably the absence of a relative pronoun,
which occasionally produces involved and somewhat awkward constructions. There
is also a great dearth of abstract terms, and of words expressing the more subtle
distinctions of European philosophy. Nevertheless it is the opinion of Captain
lirinkley, who has devoted much attention to the subject, that if only the serious
di'firt. of its complex writing system could be removed, the Japanese language
might, with a little cultivation, soon be rendered a fitting instrument for the
expression of Western science and literature.
Since the eighth century there has been a considerable literary development,
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