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T, ts, and ch are correlated, t standing only before a, e, and o; ts only before u; and ch only before a, i, o, and u, thus:

Indef.

Attrib.

Negative.

Causative.

tachi, tatsu, tatazu, tatashimuru,

"to stand."

5.-W is inserted before a in verbal terminations when another vowel precedes, thus:

warai, warau, warawazu, warawashimuru, "to laugh." 6. Y disappears before e and i, thus:—

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7. A few monosyllables and dissyllables of pure native origin ending in e change the e into a when used as the first member of a compound, thus:

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The words of which the Japanese language is composed fall into two great groups, the uninflected and the inflected. The uninflected words are: I the noun, which, besides the substantive properly so-called, includes the pronoun, the numeral, and many words corresponding to English adjectives; II the postposition, corresponding for the most part to the English preposition.

In reality kana, ta, etc., are the original forms, which have become softened into kane, te, etc., except in compounds.

The inflected words are: I the adjective; II the verb

(including participles).

This division is not an artificial one made for the sake of convenience, but has its foundation in the nature and history of the language. In the following chapters the two groups of words are treated of in the order here indicated.

What we term adverbs in English are replaced partly by nouns, partly by one of the inflections of the adjective. Conjunctions are partly included under the heading of postpositions, and partly expressed by certain inflections of the verb. Interjections exist, as in other languages; but, being mere isolated words without grammatical connection with the sentence, they call for no remark. The Japanese language has no article.

From one part of speech another may often be formed by adding certain terminations. Thus, rashiki serves to form adjectives expressive of similarity, and mahoshiki adjectives expressive of desire, while more rarely nau forms verbs expressive of action, as :

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UNINFLECTED WORDS.

SEC. 1.

CHAPTER III.

THE NOUN.

THE SUBSTANTIVE PROPERLY SO-CALLED.

1. The substantive is indeclinable, distinctions of number and gender being left to be gathered from the context, and case relations being, as in English, indicated by independent words. Thus, the substantive ushi signifies "bull," "ox," "cow," "bulls," "oxen," "cows," "cattle," according to circumstances. In such a phrase as ushi wo kau it generally signifies to keep cattle." In ushi ni noru it signifies "to ride on a bull if one rider is alluded to, and "to ride on bulls" if several persons are spoken of. In ushi wo kuu it signifies "to eat beef." In ushi no chichi it signifies "Cows' milk."

In the extremely rare cases in which it is absolutely indispensable to mention the sex of an animal, this can be done by prefixing some independent word, such as o, "male"; me, "female." Thus:-o-ushi" a bull"; me-ushi, ́"a cow."

What we call the singular number is occasionally indicated by the use of the word ichi or hitotsu, "one." Thus ichi-nen, one year"; tama hitotsu, " one ball."

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Plurality is occasionally indicated by doubling the word (the second half of the compound thus obtained usually taking the "nigori," see page 3), thus:

hōbō, "all sides," "everywhere," from hō, "side." kuni-guni, "various countries," from kuni, "country."

Or by prefixing or suffixing some word conveying the idea of number. Thus:

ban-koku, "all countries," "international"; from ban, "myriad," and koku, "country."

sho-kun, "gentlemen"; from sho, “all,” and kun, “gentleman."

su-nen, "many years"; from su, "number," and nen, "year."

deshi-tachi, "disciples"; from deshi, "a disciple," and tachi, a word expressive of plurality.

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onna-domo, "women"; from onna, woman," and tomo, companion."

shin-ra, "subjects," "we"; from shin, "subject," and ra, a word expressive of vagueness.

But such locutions are somewhat exceptional, distinctions of number not being dwelt upon at every turn by the Japanese as they are by the Aryan mind.

2.-Compounds are very common, and can be formed at will. As in English, the first member of the compound generally defines the second, as will be seen by the numerous examples throughout this grammar. Occasionally the two members are co-ordinated, as kin-gin, "gold and silver." This co-ordination sometimes (in imitation of Chinese idiom) assumes a peculiar form, which has been termed the "synthesis of contradictories," e.g. chō-tan, “long or short," i.e. "length"; kan-dan, "hot or cold," i.e. " temperature"; nan-nyo, "man or woman,” i.e. "sex"; yoshi-ashi, "good or bad," i.e. “the moral character" of an action; aru-nashi, "there being or not being," i.e. "the question of the existence of a thing." Two contraries thus combined do duty for a single English abstract word, thus :-bun no ato-saki, "the context (lit. the after-before) of a passage."

When one member of the compound is a verb governing the other, it comes second if the word is of Japanese origin, and first if it is of Chinese origin. Thus funa-oroshi, "a launch "; kami-hasami, "hair-cutting" (Jap.); but ki-kyō, "returning to the capital"; zō-sen, “building a ship," "shipbuilding' (Chinese).

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Hyphens are used in Romanized Japanese for the sake of clearness in very long compounds, and in those whose first member ends in n while the second commences with a vowel or with y, as gen-an, "the draft" of a document, not to be confounded with genan,

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a common man." In the present work they are used a little more freely to illustrate the sense and derivation of many words.

SEC. 2.

NOUNS USED AS ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS.

1.—Japanese has comparatively few true adjectives, and in a great number of cases uses nouns instead, just as in English we say "a gold watch," "a Turkey carpet." A noun may do duty for an adjective in three ways, viz. :—

I. As member of a compound, thus:

Butsu-ji," a Buddhist temple"; from Butsu, "Buddha or "Buddhism"; and ji, "a temple."

Ei-koku-jin, "an Englishman"; from Ei, Eng; koku, "land"; and jin, "person."

tei-koku, "an imperial country," "an empire"; from tei, "emperor"; and koku, "country."

u-ten, "rainy weather"; from u, "rain"; and ten, "sky." yoko-moji, “European writing"; from yoko, "crosswise "; and moji, 65 a written character.'

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II. Followed by the Postposition no," of," thus:

gaikoku no kōsai, "foreign intercourse "; lit. "intercourse" of foreign countries."

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