ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: JAPAN THE PHONETICS OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE THE PHONETICS OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE With reference to Japanese Script P.M.SUSKI Volume 59 LONDON AND NEW YORK First published in 1931 This edition first published in 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1931 P.M.Suski All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-84180-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 13:978-0-415-56498-4 (Set) eISBN 13:978-0-203-84317-8 (Set) ISBN 13:978-0-415-59413-4 (Volume 59) eISBN 13:978-0-203-84180-8 (Volume 59) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. THE PHONETICS OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE With Reference to Japanese Script By P.M.SUSKI, Author of the Dictionary of Kanji COPYRIGHT 1931 By P.M.SUSKI All rights reserved South Pasadena P.D. and IONE PERKINS 1942 PHONETICS OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE With Reference to Japanese Script CONTENTS Introduction CHAPTER I How Japan Acquired the Writing 1 CHAPTER II Sounds of Kanji 3 Characters Sounded Alike in Japan and China 8 CHAPTER III Japanese Sounds of Kanji 10 Homophonous Characters 11 Characters Used in Sense Peculiar to Japanese 12 CHAPTER IV Japan-made Characters & Japan-created Sounds 15 Kanji Created in Japan 15 Some Unusual Sounds Peculiar to Japanese 17 Some Difficult Geographical & Personal Names 17 Variation in Characters 19 CHAPTER V Calligraphy 21 CHAPTER VI Japanese Compositions 23 CHAPTER VII Japanese Compounds 27 Japanese Compounds Not Understood by Chinese 27 Meiji Compounds 27 Examples of Meiji Words 28 Summary 28 CHAPTER VIII Phonetic Use of Kanji 30 CHAPTER IX Kana 32 I-ro-ha and Gojuin 36 CHAPTER X ounds of Japanese Speech 39 Japanese Vowels 39 Variation in Japanese Vowels 42 Length of Japanese Vowels 42 vi Contents CHAPTER XI Japanese Consonants 45 T and D 46 Relation of Z Line to D Line 46 Y is Shorter and Weaker 46 Japanese R 47 Japanese Final N 47 Contracted or Doubled Consonants 48 Combined Consonants 50 Variation in Sounds 50 Variation According to Time 50 Individualism and Provincialism 51 Circumstantial Variations 51 CHAPTER XII Romaji 52 Romanized Kana 53 Japanese System of Romaji 54 CHAPTER XIII Accents and tresses 57 Accents on Syllables 57 Accents on European Languages 58 Importance of Accents 58 Peculiarity of Japanese Accents 59 Elision of Vowels 60 CHAPTER XIV Japanese Orthography 61 Difficulties of Japanese Orthography 70 CHAPTER XV Early Japanese Sounds 71 In fluence of Romaji on ounds 72 General Remarks 73 Errata 74 Glossary 75 INTRODUCTION The object of this little book is to give true characters of Japanese speech sounds of today in reference to European sounds. So far as I know, there have been no attempts ever made in this direction, that is, to record the exact manner in which Japanese sounds are produced. No standard set for sounds, it is to be presumed that the quality of sounds is from time to time drifting from one shade to another. As the writer once wished to learn how Japanese people used to pronounce when carrying on a conversation 500, 1000, or 1500 years ago, he was utterly disappointed to find nothing giving records of sounds heard in those remote ages. Phonographs, which may have served these purposes fittingly are but an invention of a contemporary. Japanese vowel elements are only 5 in number against—English 18, French 13 and German 8. Japanese consonants are 15, English 26, French 22, and German 23. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows of necessity that the wider range in vowels and to some extent in consonants is heard and tolerated by Japanese ears. This little volume attempts to give average sounds uttered by Japanese of the present age, in relation to the English sounds of today, as the latter language is rich in works of phonetics and furthermore is the most widely distributed language of the world. The English sounds will of course undergo changes in course of time, as it had in past, as any other living language. But still there will always be means to ascertain what are the sounds prevalent in 19th or 20th century, in case our descendants in 30th century, for instance, would try to study them. As I take English as a standard of measure for Japanese sounds, and I live in America where English is spoken, and as there are more students of Japanese language among English speaking people than any other, and finally there are thousands of American born Japanese who are in need of instruction on true Japanese sounds, this book is written in English language. Japan studies English perhaps more than any one nation studies any one foreign language. Therefore this book can easily find place among records in Japanese libraries. With the recent perfection of phonographs synchronized with moving pictures, known under various names as Vitaphone, phonocinematography etc., noted speeches of Japanese would become perpetualized. These would corroberate and contribute to the objects of this volume to a great extent. But still a systematized treatise in this subject is a necessity. When a bigger and better text-book on this subject would be written by some future scholars, I would be pleased and satisfied to think this little volume had served as a harbinger. —P.M.SUSKI. Los Angeles, June, 1931. CHAPTER I HOW JAPAN ACQUIRED THE WRITING Whether Japan possessed the art of writing before the introducion of Chinese characters or ideographic script is a matter of conjecture. Letters said to have been found in certain old copies are much like, if not identical, to modern Chosenese alphabet. But the fact that no scripture text had ever been found leads many to doubt the authenticity of such copies. According to Japanese records, a Korean savant named Wang-in come to Japan during the 16th year of reign of the Emperor Ohjin (285 A.D.) with books of Chinese language and taught the Japanese how to read and write Chinese ideographs. Now this date is believed to be in error by 120 years, which makes it 405 A.D. instead of 285. At first there seems to have been only a few in the Imperial court that took up learning of Chinese language, but as years go by the study of sounds and meaning of Chinese characters gradually gained ground among the populace. Japanese learners attached to the Chinese characters the meaning in Japanese language, so that each Chinese character has been regarded to have, in addition to the proper Chinese sounds, new Japanese sounds corresponding to the meaning in Japanese. To illustrate: If England would introduce into the country a Greek word grapho and read it in various ways as grapho, to write, writing, to inscribe, script, inscription, etc., she would be doing exactly what Japan has been and is now doing to the Chinese ideographic script. The Chinese characters or ideographic writing which were brought to Japan were from the work during the Han dynasty in China. Hence Japanese called them “Kanji” (literally Han characters). They were also known as “Honji” (literally real characters) in contrast to Kana (literally Provisional name). Some Kanji has two or three different sounds as it had been pronounced in one way during one Chinese dynasty and in another way during another. Most Kanji again were used in two or more different senses in China. Japanese had to learn all these, translated into Japanese. Quite a number of characters, as a result, had to have two or three Chinese sounds and a dozen or more Japanese ways of reading. The Chinese sounds are known as “on” or “in” (literally: sound) and the Japanese sounds are known “kun”, “wakun” or “yomi” (meaning or reading). Among the former are “kan-on” (sounds of Han dynasty) which are by far the most prevalent, “go-on” (sounds of Wu dynasty), and later on “Toh-on “(sounds of T‘ang dynasty), “soh-on” (sounds of Sung dynasty), “min-on” (sounds of Ming dynasty) and “shin-on” (sounds of Ts‘ing dynasty). The latter four are acquired by Japanese in later period during the intercourse with China, and are limited to only a few characters. The present day Chinese sounds of characters are widely different from what the Japanese are attaching to the same characters. Moreover, the Chinese sounds vary according to localities in China. The reason why such discrepancies occur are not difficult to understand when we 2 The Phonetics of Japanese Language learn that China has undergone a great many changes in dynasties often revolutionary, since Han period when Japanese had been first taught their sounds. The Han dynasties lasted from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D., then came three kingdoms when Minor Han, Wei and Wu divided the country till 280 A.D., Western Tsin 265–316 A.D., Eastern Tsin 317–420 A.D., the division of the north and south dynasties, each division having four or five courts 386–589 A.D., the reunification of the empire by Sui dynasty 589–618 A.D., T‘ang dynasty 618–907 A.D. Five short dynasties 907–959 A.D., Sung dynasties including north and south 960–1279 A.D., Yüan or Mongol dynasty 1280–1368 A. D., Ming dynasty 1368–1644 A.D., and Ts‘ing dynasty 1644–1911 A.D. followed in succession. As a result of such frequent changes in dominating powers, the vast Chinese dominion contains people of widely various origins, different in customs, idioms and sounds of characters. For example, a character meaning man is pronounced in China today as jan, lan, niang, in, jin or yan by the people of Peking, Hankow, Shanghai, Fuhchau, Amoy or Canton respectively. The sounds of Chinese characters as taught in Japan at the present time and those learned by Japanese 1500 years ago from the continental teachers are supposed to be the same, although we have reasons to suspect that the original Chinese sounds of Han period are largely lost and are substituted by highly Japanized sounds, which would be entirely unintelligible to the Chinese ears, should the people of Han period be given opportunities to hear them. When a language of one people is learned by another in a large scale, the latter is apt to modify and adapt it to suit his tongue. This fact is exemplified by Japanized English produced through the toil of Japanese students under Japanese teachers during the last half a century. Shing or tones of Chinese characters never seem to have been acquired by Japanese, although Japanese poets and a few scholars study a great deal about them. So the characters or ideographs of the original Chinese language, clad with Japan- modified sounds, some with Japan-created sounds, Japan-invented meanings together with a number of Japan-made characters, became now to be known as Japanese characters, the name of “Kanji” (or Han characters) alone remaining to tell the tale.