edition began with y, in this begin with e, excepting the words yen (dollar), and ye, (to, towards). The y is also omitted in the body of purely Japanese words; and such words as were formerly written hayeru, miyeru, iye, yuye, are now written haeru, mieru, ie, yue. But in words derived from the Chinese, where the second syllable commences with エ or ヱ, the y is still retained, as being preferable to the hyphen; thus ri-en, san-etsu, sho-en, are written riyen, sanyetsu, shoyen.
Dzu is now written zu; and Chinese words formerly written kiya, kiyo, kiu, kuwa, kuwai, are now written kya, kyo, kyū, kwa, kwai.
The syllable tsu (ツ), when preceding the strong consonants k, s, p, and t, is elided, and the consonant of the syllable following it doubled: as, batsu-kun becomes bakkun; matsu-sugu becomes massugu; tetsu pō, teppō, matsu-taku, mattaku.
Ku (ク), when followed by a syllable beginning with k, loses its vowel; as bakuka becomes bakka; bikuko, bikko; koku-ka, kokka.
The vowels i and u are often feebly sounded; as, hito is pronounced h'to; shichi, sh'chi; shita, sh'ta; shite, sh'te; futatsu, f'tatsu, futo, f'to, etc.
Dialects.
The language of Kyōto, the ancient capital of the country, and until the restoration the residence of the Imperial Court and of literary men, has been considered the standard and of highest authority; but since the restoration and the removal of the capital to Tōkyō, the dialect of the latter has the precedence. Dialectical differences are numerous, and provincialisms and vulgarisms abound. The dialect of Satsuma is said to be so different as not to be intelligible in other parts of the country, This subject, however, has not yet been fully investigated. A few of these differences may here be mentioned.
In Tōkyō kwa is pronounced ka, kwan, kan; gwai, gai, as, gun-kwan is pronounced gunkan; kenkwa, kenka; kwaji, kaji; gwai-koku, gaikoku. Yui is frequently changed to i, as, yuku into iku, yuki into iki, yugamu into igamu, juku into jiku, isshu into isshi, shuku into shiku.
Hi is pronounced shi: as, hibachi is pronounced shibachi, hi-no-ki, shi-no-ki, etc.
Na is changed into ne: as, nai into nei, shiranai into shiranei, sō de nai into sō de nei.
The hard g sound is softened into ng: as, kago is pronounced ka-ngo; megane, me-ngane; sugiru, su-ngiru, ne ga takai, ne nga takai, etc.
In the province of Echigo hi is pronounced fu, and i is changed into e: as, for hibachi, they say fubachi; for hiku, fuku, for hikari, fukari; for itazura, etazura.
In Izumo the syllables ha, hi, fu, he, ho, are pronounced fuwa, fui, fū, fuo; thus, ham-bun is pronounced fuambun.
In Kazusa, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, are changed into wa, i, u, e, o.
