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The Japanese initial m corresponds often to the b of other languages. In modern Japanese m becomes n when final.
The Japanese vocabulary if compared with constant reference to these correspondences of letters will be found to have very little of purely native growth.
| Thus | hosoi is petit. |
| hitots is the Turkish bir one and the Engl. first. | |
| hineri is the Chinese pien to plait, twist. | |
| futatsi is the English both. | |
| samui, cold, is the Chinese shwang. | |
| same, to wake, is the Chinese sing. | |
| sama, shape, form, is the Chinese chwang. | |
| sumeru clear is the Chinese ts’ing. | |
| sumi to end is the Chinese chung. |
Enough has been said to shew that if any one undertook to prove that the native Japanese words are of home growth he would have a hopeless task. The examples adduced are most of them beyond cavil.
Such being the state of the Japanese language, there is no reason why the process of enriching the vocabulary should not be allowed to continue. This is only to do what has been before, whether before or after the beginning of Japanese history. They were once a Tartar people who came by way of Corea into the beautiful islands they now inhabit. They drove the Ainos, a people originally, as shewn by their hair, of a much more northerly home, into north Nippon and afterwards into Yesso, and proceeded to develop their legends and their grammar till they reached their present form. When the unassisted progress made by the native mind in the formation of religious myth and of the formulæ of Japanese speech had proceeded to the extent of which they were capable, the Chinese language and system of thought appeared on the scene. The effect was most remarkable. A system of instruction was established which resulted in the introduction into the language of many thousands of foreign words and expressions. This was the work of school training in the hands of Japanese masters and assisted by the government. At the present day we find in the com-
