Japanese Language. Haruhiko Kindaichi

       Shchakueki ni tchaku no jikoku wa jshichiji sanjippun de arimasu.

      The time of arrival at the terminal station is 5:30 P.M.—This makes one think: “It’s enough to say, ‘We’ll arrive in

saka at 5:30 P.M.,’ isn’t it?”

      Kanamori Tokujir

says that each government offce has an individual character of its own. In the period before the war, when we saw the phrase mune tsugi no yry ni yoru (In general according to the following outline) in an offcial document, we knew it was from military circles. If the phrase was Shokan o motte keij itashisr (We respectfully submit this in writing), it was a diplomatic document under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If it was Koko ni naninani an o setsumei itashimasuru kei o ysuru node arimasu (Here I have the honor to explain the so-and-so draft), one could guess that it was most likely an address of the Minister of Finance at the Diet.⁶

Academic circles

It is often said that the language of scholars is too different from that of the public. It is true that a scholar should use precisely terms related to his special field of study, and for this reason technical terms are necessary. In comparison to Europe, however, scholarly terminology in Japan has gone to extremes.*

      The philosopher Ikegami Kenz

says in an essay that a Japanese, on reading a scholarly German book, noted the part title “Erster Teil” (Part One). He thought that this expression was used only as an abstruse technical term. But when traveling in Germany, he entered a vaudeville theater, and was surprised to be informed of the end of the “Erster Teil” during the intermission. This story reveals something about a Japanese scholar’s attitude toward “technical terms.”⁷

      Among academic circles botanists do not usedifficult Chinese characters but rather such Yamato words as sumire (violet), tampopo (dandelion), and renges (Chinese milk vetch). This practice is well received. However, I cannot quite approve of their using scientific terms understood only among Japanese botanical circles and not internationally.

      The commonly used kimpge (buttercup)—which I think excellent—was replaced by botanists with the bizarre uma no ashigata (literally, a horse’s footprints). It is said that the cyclamen which decorates spring display windows and whose roots are used as pig food has the technical name buta no manj (literally, a pig’s bean bun).

Waga yume wa	My dream
oirans no	Is like the fragrance
ka no gotoshi	Of the phlox—
ame fureba nure	It becomes moist in the rain,
kaze fukeba chiru.	And scatters in the wind.

      —KITAHARA HAKUSH

⁸

      Oirans (phlox; literally, courtesan plant), the plant mentioned in the poem, is not so listed in Makino Tomitar

’s Nippon Shokubutsu Zukan (A Japanese Plant Book),⁹ but is instead entered under some unimaginable name. Furthermore, according to Makino, the yellow flower that blooms on summer evenings and which we call tsukimis (evening primrose; literally, moon-viewing plant) is incorrectly named. The real tsukimis is a white flower.

In the academic world, the medical group is known for its use of the most troublesome words. This was especially true before the war. What ordinary people call mizubs (chicken-pox; literally, water smallpox) was called suit. Since this is short, we can bear it, but for otafuku kaze (mumps; literally, plump-faced cold), the name used in the medical world was kysei jikasen-en (acute parotid gland inflammation), which was very troublesome. The popular term mimikuso (earwax) was called teinei, and mushiba (decayed tooth; literally, worm-eaten tooth) was called ushi. Furthermore, kushami (sneezing) was written

, such unusual characters as

were used for names of diseases. Some of these names read like the Chinese book Senjimon (A Thousand-Character Classic).¹⁰ Some examples are gakan kinky

, kakuky hanch

, shishi ketsurei

, and donsan ss

.* Some looked like Buddhist names for the deceased engraved on gravestones; for example, sentensei gyorinsen’ y khish .¹¹

      Besides the above examples, there were many cases in which a technical term differed from one field to another. Uniformity has been established, but formerly the word meaning “constant” was js

ky

University used wakusei

to University used ysei for the same word—planet.

       Footnotes

* Chinese reading of amiage-gutsu.

      ^†Chinese reading of monohoshiba.

*It is customary to say nori ori (getting on and off) not ori nori (getting off and on). In banks, however, we say dashi ire (withdrawing and depositing), not ire dashi (depositing and withdrawing).

*This was especially true before World War II.

*These