226
Every Japanese syllable ends with a vowel.
Double consonants are unknown—at least in the older forms of the language.
T becomes ch before i, and ts before u.
D becomes j before i, and dz before u.
Grimm’s law divides the languages of the Aryan family into three classes: 1st, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, etc.: 2nd, Low German, including English: and 3rd, High German. It is a statement of the different forms assumed in these classes of languages by what is substantially the same sound, little or no distinction having probably been recognized in the common original Aryan language. For example, the sound which is aspirated in the first class is the corresponding flat mute in the second, and the corresponding sharp mute in the third. The letters with which Grimm’s law is concerned, are the sharp mutes p, t, k, the flat mutes b, d, g, and the aspirates ph or f, th and gh or ch. It will be useful to examine how these letters are represented in the Japanese alphabet. Of the series p, b, ph or f, p is entirely wanting in the old language and may safely be passed over, and of the other two series the aspirates are absent, so that in each case we have two consonants instead of three viz: b and f, d and t, and k and g. It is unnecessary to say that in Japanese these pairs of sounds are represented each by one letter only. The difference in sound was not marked in writing until a comparatively late period when the diacritic mark known as the nigori came into use for this purpose. Even at present the distinction between k and g, t and d, etc. is somewhat hazy in the mouths of Japanese, and it may be assumed that in ancient times it was entirely disregarded. In other words we may take it that in Japanese k and g, b and f (or h) and t and d are the same letters.
It follows therefore that where in European languages we find p, b, ph or f, Japanese may have either b or f, (practically it is often the corresponding nasal m which as above stated is in Japanese interchangeable with b); where we find k, g, gh or ch, Japanese may have k
