The Spelling Reform (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893. Excerpt: ... JAPANESE. "Academy of June 6, 1885: The latest news that readies as from the Japanese capital is the establishment of a society for the Romanizatiou of the language. The professors of the University of Tokio started the idea, or rather revived it, for it had heen mooted as long ago as 1873 at an Oriental Congress held in Paris. But at that time it was litl more than the hold hope of a few far-seeing minds. It has now becum a practical necessity for the nation at large.... "Japan has assimilated every branch of European mental culture.... But there is one great exception to the universal adoption of European ways. That exception is the writn system. The Chinese ideografs stil reign supreme. Indeed, the number of them with which it is necessary for an educated man to be acquainted has greatly increast within the last twenty years, for the reason that recourse has been had to them to invent equivalents for scientific and other novel terms, for which the nativ language had no words forthcuming. It is calculated that a knowledge of 4,000 ideografs as a minimum is the indispensabl preliminary to a liberal education. One aspiring to wide scientific or literary attainments must be familiar with dubl that number, and six or seven years--six or seven of the best years of life--ar spent in comitting them to memory. To state such a fact is to condemn the circumstances that cause it. This has now been recognized by the Japanese. "As alredy mentioned, a movement has begun in favor of the simpl Roman alfabet. The Romanization Society, founded in December last, now numbers over a thousand members, including many of the names most noted in science and in politics. The first stop taken was the apoiutment of a Transliteration Comittee, consisting of four Japanese and two Eu...