Japanese Reading for Beginners

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/japanesereadingf04rose n JAPANESE EEADING FOR BEGINNERS AUTHUR ROSE-INNES. \P^ Vol. I. Kana Vol. n. A Few Chinese Characters. Vol. ni. More Chinese Characters. Vol. IV. The Literary Style. Vol. V. The Epistolary Style. VOLUBIE IV. THE LITERARY STYLE. KYO-BUN-KAN. 1, Shi-ehome, Ginza, Tokyo. (All rights reserved.) All the pieces in tliis volume, have been taken from some oltl Ele- mentary Scliool Rejidei-s, vol. "VI—XI, by kind permission of the dlomhishd, Altliough the text itself lias not been changed, we have used kanji instead of Jcana or vice-vei-sa as suited our purpose. The paraplirases of tlie text' in tlie spoken language, are the work of our Japanese assistant. The idea of making a list of terminations in alphabetical order was due to the suggestion of a friend. A tentative list was published in March 192o ; the present list is, we believe, an improvement and is sufficient foi most purposes. The synoptical chart is copied with certain modifications from that founc in Verbeck-Peeke's A Synopsis of the Conjugations of the Japanese Verb Dr. Peeke has kindly allowed us to print it, and he has raised no ob jection to our modifications ; though, of coiu-se, we alone are responsible fo a few unorthodox statements contained therein. We have also consulted and used Aston's Geammar OF THE JapaneS] Written Language ; Qiamberlain's A Simplifted Grammar of the Japanes] Language ; and Millman's The Verb of the J.\panese Written Language. Indeed, little of the book is our o^vn except the mistakes, and for thes we crave the Reader's indulgence. The Student of this volume is supposed to have a fair knowledge c the Spoken Language. JAPANESE READING FOR BEGINNERS. VOLUME rv. THE LITERATIY STYLE. The Literary Language cliffers considerably from the Spoken. Not only are many words, plarases, and modes of speech different, but the verbs and adjectives are conjugated differently ; so that even he who knows colloquial Japanese cannot understand something written in the Literary Style. Words and phrases can, of course, he looked up in a dictionary, but no dictionary will solve the difficulties arising out of the conjagatiou. That is •why we have concentrated our efforts on trying to make this subject clear. Be it understood, however, that we endeavom- only to assist the beginner to read Japanese ; we do not pretend to teach him how to write in the Literary Style. Ways of Studying. Roughly speaking there are three methods by wiiich we might study the Literary Style verbs and adjectives. (a) Tlie first method of study is, paradoxically, that in which there is no method, and, so to speak, no study. It is the way the Japanese children learn, at least in the stages corresponding to the pieces in this volume. They know nothing of grammar, conjugations, bases, etc. They are simply told this is the way high-class Japanese is written, and they are given a translation in their own tongue, i. e. the colloquial, of what they don't understand. Thus, to take our first lesson, they are told that Tcasanarite is kasanatte, that to naric is ni nam, that aru becomes ari at the end of a sentence, etc. By dint of repetition, the little children begin to recog- nize some of the new words and modes of speech, and the commoner verbal jjiflexions begin to have some meaning. If a foreign student wishes to try this method he can do so wdth this book, as We give a complete paraphrase in the spoken language of all the original text. He can then leave out all this grammatical introduction and start immediately on tlie reading lessons. We advise him, however, to read the paragraph, Useful Hints, p. XXII. (b) Tlie second method is the exact opposite. The student begins by thoroughly studying and memorizing the conjugations, bases, terminations, and the syntax of the verb, so that when he begins his reading and comes a- JV JAPANESE READING FOR BEGINNERS. cross ;i verbal form, ho at once kuows what it is, what it means, why it is used iu tiiat case, why it is followed by so and so, and everything else about it. [c) The third method is something iu between tlie other two, and it will probably appeal to tlie majority of foreign students. You study the verb so as to get a general idea of how it is conjugated, and how it is used ; and without memorizing the details or understanding all the examples, you get sufficient knowledge of the subject to enable you to find the solution of your difficulties when you want to. We have followed in our study of the verb two systems of analysis. Ac- cording to the one the common terminations are given in alphabetical order so that they are very easy to look up ; another table or chart shows how any termination, no matter how complicated, is built up. The student can use whichever of these tables suits him best. We are inclined to believe that tlie beginner will, at first, prefer the alpliabetical list, as what he wants is the result, the meaning ; but after he has advanced a little he will wish to know more about the process of building up the verbal expressions and complicated terminations, and will turn naturally to the synoptical chart where he will find the answer to his questions. The general CDnstruction of the Verb. In a general way we may say that a verbal form may consist of three parts : FOUNDATION, Base, and Termination {yo-hi-tari) ; however, one or even two of these parts may be missing. The Foundation yyo-) is imchanged throughout the whole conjugation of the verb. In the Beginneks' Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Characters, the Foundation is that part of the verb, as given, which comes before the parsuthesis ; thus, yo(hu). The Bases are always theoretically five (in the verb yobu, the bases hn, hi, the base, bi, is used). The are bu, ha, be ; and in the example, 2nd B.ises of any given verb vary only within narrow limits in tlio ortlinary table of Kana, as the inspection of the Table of Bases (see page VI) will sliow. The TiiRMlNATlONS are very numerous ; but each termination is added to fixed tlio (e. is always ndded to Base no a Base, always same ; g. tari 2, matter what the Conjugation"). Conjugation. Verbs are classified into conjugation-; according to their Bases (see Table . There are four regular conjugations which wo will call A, E, I, O. (/Onjngation A has one base ending in a and is the only conjugation that has a base ending in a. Conjugation E his throe b;i80s ending iu J VOLUME IV. THE LITERARY STYLE. (GrammftticalJEntroductiou). €, Conjugation I has two bases ending in i. Conjugation O (which also means zero) has two bases wanting. A, Or look at it in this way : the 4th Base ends in a in Conjugation in e in Conjugation E, in i in conjugation I, and is wanting in conjugation O. These conjugations are subdivided into different classe s according to the kana column to which the bases belong but there is perfect parallelism in kana between the subdivisions of any one conjugation as the inspection of the Table shows ; i. e. all the bases of Conjugation A, for instance, are formed according to the same pattern, no matter to what column of kana they belong. Irregular Verbs. Tlieie are fortunately only a few irregular verbs in Japanese ; and these few are irregular only as regards Foundation and Bases, but not as regards Terminations. We designate irregular verbs by the vowel U (irregUlarj. Seven are given in tlie Table of Bases. Like aru are conjugated the following : orw, naru, taru, shikaru, haheru, imasukaru and kotonaru. All these mean ' to be ' except kotonaru which means 'to differ'. is Like sliinuru conjugated the verb inuru ^ to go, leave : note, however, that there is another verb muru ^ to sleep, which is regular. Stiru and Zuru. This latter is merely the nigori'ed form of suru. They are used very frequently after the on reading of a character, sometimes after the kun reading. Suru, but not zurzi, is very often used independently. Kuru irregular, has a brother kitaru wLich is regular. They both mean about the same and are readings of the same character ^. The kana which follows the character, and custom, determine which reading is to be used in each particular case. Uric f^ to get, and furu |Jg to pass, are irregular only in that they have no Foundation or unchangeable part ; their Bases are regular and belong to conjugation E. Note that most irregular verbs have alternative Bases ; we will explain the meaning of this later. Other irregularities. We wish to call attention to three irregularities which may puzzle the .student who is conscientiously trying to parse every verb ho comes across. (a) The gerund of tlie colloquial is not infrequently used instead of the corresponding form of the literary style ; e. g. mukatte for mukaite. In our foot-notes, we call attention to most of these cases when they occur. {h) Tlie Base la is sometimes changed into w, e. g. /ft^^OtT-'S tsuka-u (coutiiiued o:i y. VIQ.> , VI JAPANISE READING FOR BEGINNERS s s BASES 2 ^ 3 .0 * Pogiiu Dictioi Notfiti( Conve: Kana 1 2 3 4 5 lientai Attr. Reny Indef Shfishi Concl.

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