IO INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
write as they speak, but use an antiquated and indeed partly artificial dialect whenever they put pen to paper. This is the so called "Written Language." Of the few books published in the Colloquial, the best are the novels of a living author named Encho. The student, who does not wish to trouble about the characters, cannot do better than write out one of these books from his teacher's dic- tation. It should be added that they contain passages to which lady students would take exception. This is the case with all Japanese fiction. It is not that the Ja- panese novelists revel, Zola-like, in vice. On the con- trary, their sentiments mostly leave nothing to be desired. But they have a startlingly realistic way of calling a spade a spade. Here are the titles of Encho's two best works :
" Botan-Doro' the story of a last century vendetta.
" Ezo-NisJiiki Kokyo no lezuto," a clever adaptation to modern Japanese social conditions of Wilkie Collins' " New Magdalen." It appeared as a fcuilleton to the 11 Yamnto Shhnbnn " newspaper in 1886-7.
Another amusing novel in Colloquial is the "Ansei Mifsu-guttti Snkasiiki," by Hakuen. It deals with middle and lower class life during the last days of the Shogunate.
- 9. A word as to the parts of speech in Japanese. Strictly
speaking, there are but two, the verb and the noun. The particles, or " postpositions" and suffixes, which take the place of our prepositions, conjunctions and conjugational terminations, were themselves originally fragments of nouns and verbs. The pronoun and numeral are simply nouns. The true adjective (including the adverb) is a sort of neuter verb. But many words answering to our adjectives and adverbs are nouns' in Japanese. There is
