The Mikado's Empire/Buku 1

BOOK I.

HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM 660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D.

THE ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION OF JAPANESE

WORDS.

IT is impossible to represent Japanese words exactly by any foreign alphabet; but a knowledge of the sounds as heard in Japan, and the use of vocables which have each one invariable value, will enable a foreigner to reproduce Japanese names with tolerable accuracy. When the native authors and grammarians do not agree, absolute unanimity among foreign scholars is not to be expected ; but palpable absurdities, impossible combinations of letters, and mistakes arising out of pure ignorance of the language may be avoided. The system given below, and used throughout this work, is, at least, rational, and is based on the structure and laws of combination in the language itself. This system is substantially (the dif- ferences aiming to secure greater simplicity) that of Hepburn's Japanese-English and English-Japanese, and of Satow's English-Japanese dictionary ; the Roman- ized version of the Scriptures, published by the American Bible Society  ; of the "American Cyclopaedia;" the revised editions of Worcester's, and Webster's, dic- tionary; in Brown's, Aston' s, Satow's, Brinckley's, and Hepburn's grammar and works on the Japanese language ; Monteith's, Mitchell's, Cornell's, Warren's, and Harper's (American), and the Student's (English) geography and atlas ; Mitford's " Tales of Old Japan ;" Adams's " History of Japan ;" the official docu- ments of the Japanese Government, Department of Education, schools, and col- leges ; the British and American Legations and Consulates  ; the Anglo-Japanese press, and almost all scholars and writers who make accuracy a matter of con- cern.

The standard language (not the local dialect) of Tokio— now the literary as well as the political capital of the nation— is taken as the basis, and the words are then transliterated from the katagana spelling, as given by the best native scholars. The vowels are sounded as follows  :

a has the sound of a in father, arm ; of has the sound of of in aisle, or f in bite ; f has the sound of f in pique, machine ; u has the sound of u in rale, or oo in boot ;

ita has the sound of ua in quarantine ; e has the sound of e in prey, they ; ei has the sound of ef in deign, feign ; o has the sound of o in bore, so.

Long vowels are marked thus, 6, u ; short vowels, u, i.

The combination uai is sounded as wai; iu as yu; E or ^, as e in prey  ; but e, as in men; g is always hard, and * soft, as in sit, sap.

C before a vowel, g soft ; I, q, s surd ; x, and the digraphs ph and th, are not used.

The map facing page 17 is reduced, and the names transliterated from the large copper-plate map of the empire compiled and published by the Japanese War Department in 1872. The numerals refer to the provinces on page 601.