a century ago, many characteristics of the language discussed in it have been analyzed in a new light in recent years, and the book remains pertinent in current linguistic theories. This is an indication of how insightful Kindaichi was. I hope those who read The Japanese Language for the first time and those who are reading it again find this book as illuminating and insightful as I have found it to be.
—MINEHARU NAKAYAMA
Professor, Japanese Linguistics
The Ohio State University
Editor, Journal of Japanese Linguistics
References
Haraguchi, S. (1977) The Tone Pattern of Japanese: An Autosegmental Theory of Tonology. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.
Kubozono, H. (2002) Shingo-wa kooshite tsukurareru. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Mutsukawa, M. (2009) Japanese Loanword Phonology. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.
Nakayama, M. (1999) Sentence processing. In N. Tsujimura (ed.), The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. 398–424. Boston: Blackwell.
Nakayama, M. R. Mazuka, and Y. Shirai (eds.) (2006) Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics Vol. 2: Japanese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osterhout, L. and K. Inoue (2007) What the Brain’s Electrical Activity Can Tell Us about Language Processing and Language Learning. In T. Sakamoto (ed.) Communicating Skills of Intention. 293–309. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.
Shibatani, M. (1990) The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tsujimura, N. (2007) An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics. 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Unger, J. M. (2009) The Role of Contact in the Origins of the Japanese and Korean Languages. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Vovin, A. (2009) Koreo-Japonica: A Re-evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin. Center for Korean Studies Monograph. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Author’s Preface
Nippongo (The Japanese Language), my earlier book, has been translated and is about to make its appearance before the English-reading public, thanks to the endeavor of Miss Umeyo Hirano. I feel happy about this, perhaps to the point of mild embarrassment, but at the same time I have a vague apprehension as I look back through my original Nippongo and find points that I should have revised or wonder if there may be other defects here and there which escaped my notice.
I have looked over Miss Hirano’s translation and found that it is a painstaking work, for in my original, especially, there are several places that could easily have been misinterpreted. Up to the present, the Japanese people have not been so strict about errors in their own literary works, but with translations of Western writings into Japanese there has been a disposition that does not allow even a tiny error. I can see now that we should be more broadminded in the future, for not all translators can possibly bring to their works the care and tenacity that is exhibited in this volume.
What Miss Hirano has taken special pains about is the clarification of the notes for each of the sources of material I quoted from other people’s works. In my original Nippongo, notes were removed one after another at the request of the publisher, who said they made the book hard to read. Some of these notes involved quotations from the lesser magazines, and I cannot begin to imagine how troublesome the search for their exact sources must have been. Indeed, without such diligent labor this translation would perhaps have been completed earlier.
One thing I noticed when I saw this translation was the system of roman letters used to transcribe Japanese words. It is the romanization developed by James Hepburn, who came to Japan in the early Meiji period, and has been used in this book because it is the system most generally used in Japan and abroad. Of course, since it cannot conform exactly to the phonemics of Japanese, there are in Part III, which deals with pronunciation, some descriptions that inevitably deviate somewhat from what I call the orthodox pronunciation. It should be pointed out, too, that though passages from Japanese classics have been romanized according to the same Hepburn system, these readings represent those used by contemporary Japanese when reading such works. The pronunciation prevailing at the time the various classical works were actually written was, of course, different.
There are also places in my original which, if translated simply as they are, would not be easily understood by people unfamiliar with Japanese. At Miss Hirano’s request I have either rewritten such places or given fuller explanations.
I would finally like to express my heartfelt thanks to Miss Hirano, who has exerted untiring efforts in translating my book, and also to the people of the Charles E. Tuttle Company, who made it possible for this book to see the light of day.
—HARUHIKO KINDAICHI
Tokyo, Japan
Translator’s Note
This is an English translation of Nippongo (The Japanese Language) by Kindaichi Haruhiko, published by Iwanami Shoten in 1957.
When I first read it some years ago, I thought it very interesting and stimulating, for it explains the different aspects of the Japanese language which are intimately connected to the nature of the Japanese people and the country in which they live. For a foreign student of Japanese, it will serve as a wonderful guide for solving some of thedifficult problems and as a good introduction to Japanese studies. Several years later, when I was at Columbia University teaching Japanese and Japanese literature, I realized the value of this book even more keenly, and it was then that I decided to translate it into English.
The book abounds in proper names, historical analogies, literary references, classical quotations and, above all, book references. Since the book was originally written mainly for the Japanese reader, footnotes and annotations were not necessary. Foreign readers, however, would not be able to suffciently understand and appreciate the book without them. Hence, the translator has added annotations, mostly in the form of footnotes and supplementary notes at the back, totaling several hundred items.
By its very nature as a work dealing mainly with words and characters, this book contains frequent insertions of romanized Japanese words and phrases. In such cases their English translations appear along with the words and phrases and after the quotations. All sources referred to in the text are listed by publisher and date of publication at the back of the book.
One of the interesting features of the book is the author’s use of comparative examples from various languages of the world in discussing the characteristics of Japanese. I sincerely hope that this book will be of interest not only to the student of Japanese language and literature, but also to the general reader with an interest in Japan and the Japanese people.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to Father E. R. Skrzypczak of Sophia University for his valuable advice and to Professor David A. Dilworth of New York State University and Miss Sharon Woods for their assistance in the preparation of this book.
—UMEYO HIRANO
Note: Throughout the main text, all Japanese proper names are written in the traditional style: family name first, given name last.
the JAPANESE LANGUAGE
Introduction
The life of the Japanese language
Soon after World War II, Shiga Naoya wrote an article entitled “Japanese Language Problems” for the magazine Kaiz that shocked the Japanese people. The article began with the following words: “Japan has never experienced such hard times as the present. We are ceaselessly bueted by an angry sea ofdifficulties.” Shiga went on to argue that the Japanese language was the cause of the terrible war and of Japan’s present sufferings. He concluded