THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER AND COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1924 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO All Rights Reserved Published August 1924 Composed and Printed By 5-18-25 11856 PREFACE This is a grammar of the modern Japanese written language. It is a revision of the Simplified Japanese Grammar by Basil Hall Chamberlain, published in 1881, and now out of print. During the several years in which I studied Japanese, Chamberlain's book was the only one which gave me any clear idea of the written language. After a thorough study of his work I saw where it could be enlarged and improved so as to be of much more value to the student of today. In this revision, my constant aim has been simplicity and practicability. The most important variation from the original edition is the use of the general rule by which the written verb can be quickly separated into its stem and its inflection (§ 266). Based on this rule an alphabetically arranged list of verb and adjective inflections of the Japanese written language is given in this edition for reference (p. 113). The addition of this list and the index of Japanese words and phrases will make this book a grammatical dictionary for the student's or translator's desk. The student or translator should at once make himself thoroughly familiar with chapter xi, so that the inflected list can be used without delay. A debt of gratitude is due Mr. Chamberlain for permitting the unqualified use and modification of his excellent work. Also, I wish here to express my appreciation of the many helpful suggestions received from Messrs. Edwin L. Neville, Renkei Tsuda, and W. Koseki. J. G. MCILROY |