LETTER-CHANGES. 93
N. B. Though the difficulty of making these letter-changes cor- rectly will strike the beginner chiefly in the case of numeral combina- tions, the same euphonic rules apply to all other Chinese compounds, thus:
ket-chaku from ketsu chaku, "decision," "final resolve."
tem-po ,, ten ho, (See vocabulary.)
Nip-pon ,, nitsu hon, "Japan."
ak-ko aku ko, " bad language."
ant-ma an ma, " a shampooer."
mes-so metsu so, " extravagant."
zas-shi zatsu shi, " a magazine," " a review."
bet-to betsu to, " a groom."
(In practice the hyphen is generally omitted in such words.)
1 154. The Japanese numerals, as far as they go, are mostly employed with Japanese nouns, and the Chinese numerals with Chinese nouns. But there are numerous exceptions to this rule, for instance :
it-toki (but also hlto-toki), " one hour." fiita-fiifu, " two married couples."
mi-ban^ " three nights."
yo-nen, " four years."
After " ten," beyond which the Japanese numerals do not run, the Chinese numerals are of course employed with Japanese as well as with Chinese words, thus :
jil-ni hako, " twelve boxfuls." hyakii ktimi, a hundred sets.
IT 155. Usage plays various freaks with the numerals. Thus the Chinese numeral shi, "four," which is considered unlucky because homonymous with shi, " death," is in many connections replaced by the equivalent Japanese numeral yo, thus :
