INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
to us dates, in its present form, from the beginning of the eighth century after Christ. The general structure of the language at that time was the same as at the present day ; but the changes of detail have been so numerous, that a page of eighth century Japanese is unintelligible to a modern native of Tokyo without special study. One of the chief factors in the alteration of the language has been the gradual infiltration of Chinese words and phrases, which naturally accompanied the borrowing of Buddhism, Confucianism, and the various arts and sciences of China. Chinese has, so to speak, been the Latin and Greek of Japan. Even at the present day it supplies names for most of the new implements, sciences and ideas, which are being introduced from Europe and America. Thus we have :
jo-ki-sen, lit. " steam ship," " a steamer."
jp-ki-sha, ,, " steam vehicle," " a railway train."
min-ken, ,, " people authority," "democracy."
ska-shin, ,, " copy truth," " a photograph."
ron-ri-gaku, ,, " argument science," " logic."
tetsu-do, ,, " iron road," " a railway."
ban-koku ko- f " myriad countries) J " international
ho, "i public law," M law."
-treaty revision."
rik-ken sei-ji 1 " set ' u P law ,, 8 OV ' " constitutional ( ernment, j ( government.
yu-sho rep-pai I " su Pf ior conquer, | " the survival of "( inferior lose, " } the fittest."
5. The Japanese do not pronounce Chinese in a manner which would be intelligible to any Chinaman. They have two standards of pronunciation, both of them
