JAPANESE GRAMMAR. SEC. 1. CHAPTER I. THE PHONETIC SYSTEM. ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION. JAPANESE, when written with the Roman alphabet, requires the same letters as English, with the exception of l, q, v and x. The letter c occurs only in the combination ch, which is sounded nearly like English ch in "church." The vowels are sounded as in Italian; but are always short unless marked with the sign of long quantity, when care must be taken to pronounce them long, thus: The only long vowels of common occurrence are ō and ū. They are found chiefly in words of Chinese origin, where they represent such Chinese diphthongs and nasal sounds as ao, ou, ang, ung, etc. When preceded by another vowel or by n, e sounds very nearly like ye, i like yi, and o like wo. Thus ue, kon-in and shio are respectively pronounced uye, kon-yin, and shiwo. The vowels and u are sometimes inaudible or nearly so in the mouths of Tokyo speakers, as shite, "having done," pronounced shte; jinrikisha, pronounced jinriksha; tsuki, "the moon," pronounced tski; takusan, "much," pronounced taxan; watakushi, "I," pronounced watakshi. Initial u is silent, and uma, the following m doubled in the pronunciation of the four words “horse”; umaki, "tasty"; umaruru, "to be born"; ume, "plum-tree," pronounced mma, mmaki, mmaruru, mme. But these, deviations are slight and unimportant. All the above words will be understood if pronounced as written. The diphthongs, such as ao, au, ei, ii, ou, call for no special comment, as each vowel retains its own proper sound. The consonants are pronounced approximately as in English, subject to the following remarks: f is a true labial ƒ, not the English labio-dental. g never has the sound of j. At the beginning of a word it is pronounced hard, like the g in give. In the middle of a word it has the sound of English ng in "longing." Thus Kiga, the name of a place, rhymes almost exactly with "singer" (not with "finger"). The words ga, "of," and gotoki, “like," also take the ng sound. h before i sounds nearly like the German ch in "mich," and sometimes passes almost into sh. n at the end of a word is pronounced half-way between a true n and the French nasal n. mostly of Chinese origin. Nouns having a final n are y is always a consonant. Thus the syllable mya in myaku, "the pulse," is pronounced as one syllable, like mia in the English word "amiable." Care must be taken not to confound it with the dissyllable in such words as miyako, “a capital city." z has almost the sound of de when preceding the vowel u; thus mizu, "water," is pronounced almost midzu. Double consonants must be distinctly sounded, as in Italian, thus: kite, "having come"; kitte, "a ticket." koka, "an ancient poem "; kokka, "hearth and home." Generally speaking, the Japanese pronunciation both of vowels and of consonants is less broad and heavy than that current in most European languages, and especially in English. This remark applies more particularly to the letters ch, j, r, sh, and ts. Tones, such as those of the Chinese, are entirely absent. There is little or no tonic accent, and only a very slight rhetorical accent; that is to say, that all the syllables of a word and all the words of a sentence are pronounced equally, or nearly so. Students must beware of importing into Japanese the strong and constantly recurring stress by which we in English single out one syllable in every word, and the chief words in every sentence. All Japanese words end either in a vowel or in the consonant n. There are no combinations of consonants excepting ts and the double consonants already mentioned, among which must be counted ssh and tch, standing for double sh and double ch, as in kesshin, "resolve"; zetchō, "peak." By some very careful speakers a w is pronounced after k in many words taken from the Chinese. Thus kwannin, “an official"; Kan;. Gwaimushō, "the Foreign Office." But the pronunciation current in Tōkyō and in most parts of the country is simply kannin, Gaimushō, etc. 1.-"Nigori," i.e. "muddling," is the name given by the Japanese to the substitution of sonants for surds.* The In contradistinction to the sonant letters, the surd letters are said to be sumi, i.e. "clear." The two categories together are termed sei-daku, sei being the Chinese equivalent for "clear," and daku for "muddled," N.B.-F and h also often change into p, especially in Chinese compounds. This is called "han-nigori," i.e. “half muddling." The rule regarding the nigori, stated broadly, is that the initial surd of an independent word changes into the corresponding sonant when the word is used as the second member of a compound, thus: kuni-ju, 66 throughout the land," from kuni and chū. waru-jare, "a practical joke," Ship fune-bune, "all sorts of vessels," mushiba, 66 a carious tooth,' hongoku, "native country," ronzuru, "to discuss," kanzume, "tinned," waruki and share. fune repeated. mushi and ha. The above rule is by no means an absolute one, euphony, and sometimes the varying caprice of individuals, deciding in each case whether the change shall or shall not take place. F and h, however, always change either into b or into p if the first member of the compound ends in the consonant n, thus: патри, "the south wind," from nan and fu. san and hen. 2. As shown in the preceding examples, n changes into m before a labial, |