INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
the fashionable preference for Chinese words. But the fashion exists, and to follow it is considered a mark of culture ; neither is it possible, even were it desirable, for an outsider to set up a standard of his own, different from that acknowledged by the natives. The copious- ness of the Chinese tongue, and the marvellous concision which generally enables it to express in two or three syllables ideas which would require five or six in Japanese and indeed in almost any other language, form an argu- ment in favour of this species of Japanese Johnsonianism. On the other hand, much confusion is caused by the fact that numbers of Chinese words are pronounced alike. The consequence of this is that it is sometimes impossible to know what a term means, without reference to the Chinese characters with which it is written. In any case, whether he speak simply or learnedly, the student should at least avoid speaking vulgarly. Japan- ese, is as full of slang and vulgarisms of all sorts as English is. But what should we say to a young Japan- ese who, having been sent to London to learn our language, should return home with the haccent of ' Ighgate and the diction of the street Arab ? 7. Japanese writing consists of the Chinese characters, ideographs, as they are sometimes styled, mixed with a syllabic writing called the Kana. The meaning of the latter term is " borrowed (kari) names (;m)." It has re- ference to the borrowing, or as we should say adaptation, of characters originally ideographic for the purpose of phone- tic transcription. The Kana syllabary is a native Japan- ese invention, dating back over a thousand years. There are two principal forms of it. These are the Kata-kana, or " Part Kana," so-called because the signs composing it
