apparent than at the present time, when the study of western science and institutions, necessitating a new and copious nomenclature and technology, has been entered upon with such avidity. The Chinese ideographs have been found equal to the need. With the aid of these, a new nomenclature in all departments of knowledge is rapidly forming, quite as expressive and appropriate as the words which have been introduced into the English language from the Greek and Latin, to which languages, in their influence upon the Anglo-Saxon and English mind and philosophy, the Chinese written language bears a wonderful resemblance.
Only the highest style and smallest part of Japanese literature is written in pure Chinese. The largest part, and that intended for the general reader, is written in a mixture of Chinese and Japanese Kana, called Kana-majiri, in wbich a large proportion of words, the agglutinating particles, and grammatical structure, are purely Japanese. Below this, there is yet a style of literature written in the Hira-kana, without any, or a very slight mixture of Chinese.
The Chinese spoken language has never been current in Japan. But in the language of the learned classes and officials, words derived from the Chinese abound; and from a false affectation of learning the preference is generally given to such words, even when, in their own more beautiful native tongue, synonymous words exist. The native Japanese language seems to be spoken with greater purity by the women than by any other class.
Kan-on.
If the Japanese had confined themselves to one system of phonetics for the Chinese characters, the study of the language would have been much simplified, at least to the foreigner. But, besides the Go-on mentioned above, and after it had been current some 320 years, another system called the Kan-on (漢音) was introduced in the 15th year of the reign of the Emperor Izuiko, about A.D. 605, by some five Japanese students who had spent a year at (Chō-an) (長安), then the seat of government of the Zui dynasty, now Singan, the capital of the province of Shensi. The Kan-on has gradually supplanted the Go-on, being now, for the most part, used by the literary and official classes. The Go-on is still used by the Buddhist, and is the most current pronunciation of Chinese words in the common colloquial. Neither system, however, has been exclusively used to the rejection of the other long custom and usage seems to have settled and restricted their use to particular words. In the formation of new words and scientific terminology, the Kan-on is now exclusively used. There is still another and more recent system of sounds for the Chinese characters, called the Tō-on (唐音), which resembles the present Mandarin sounds; but this is little used.
