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French Journal of Japanese Studies, 2 | 2013 Language, Script and Modernity 2 Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies English Selection 2 | 2013 Language and Literature Language, script and modernity Pascal Griolet Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/cjs/288 DOI: 10.4000/cjs.288 ISSN: 2268-1744 Publisher INALCO Electronic reference Pascal Griolet, “Language, script and modernity ”, Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies [Online], 2 | 2013, Online since 02 June 2013, connection on 08 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ cjs/288 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/cjs.288 This text was automatically generated on 8 July 2021. Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Language, script and modernity 1 Language, script and modernity Pascal Griolet EDITOR'S NOTE Original release: Pascal Griolet, « Langue, écriture et modernité », Cipango — Cahiers d’études japonaises, special issue « Mutations de la conscience dans le Japon moderne », 2002, p. 121-192. In remembrance of Mori Arimasa and Mori Toshiko 1 Both vehicle and evidence of a long and tumultuous history, the Japanese writing system found itself suddenly the target of criticism and reform during the latter half of the nineteenth century as it took a battering from the demands of “modernisation” (kindaika 近代化), which in this case consisted of the sudden emergence of western culture in Asia.1 2 In a country which, since the founding of the State in the seventh century, and as in China, had consistently attached great importance to the written word,2 teaching traditions – and in particular the teaching of reading and writing – were based on different principles to those developed within the modern education systems of the West. Whereas in France dictation became popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century, establishing itself as the main method of teaching French orthography and syntax, in Japan correspondence had long predominated, with models of letters used for reading or copying, in addition to vocabulary lists.3 3 Japan’s elite, under pressure and keen to adopt the modus operandi of western societies, struggled to implement a coherent education and language policy as well as define a “national language” (kokugo 国語) capable of ensuring Japan’s independence, unity and identity. This ideal was expressed in 1895 by Ueda Kazutoshi 上田万年, the great promoter of kokugo, in the famous slogan:4 Kokugo is the protective fence of the Imperial Household; the nurturing mother of the nation. Kokugo wa teishitsu no hanpei nari, kokugo wa kokumin no jibo nari. 国語は帝室の藩屏なり、国語は国民の慈母なり。5 Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies, 2 | 2013 Language, script and modernity 2 4 This period of change and cultural upheaval during the latter half of the nineteenth century was one of radical debate. Thus during bursts of enthusiasm in which fantasy was given free rein, the Japanese language, its script and the relationship between the spoken and written language all came under scrutiny. This coincided with the appearance of a variety of new forms of graphic communication in the alphabet-using world: telegraphy, printing, shorthand, stenotypy, typewriting, Braille and sign language, for example, new tools which all tended to “rationalise” writing, in other words to organise language – and thus the world – in a phonetic or, to use the term coined by Jacques Derrida, logocentric manner.6 Language under the spotlight: Mori Arinori and Baba Tatsui 5 The government that took the helm of Japan’s modernisation in 1868 decided to establish a new education system. Its aim was for every citizen – irrespective of class and sex – to acquire the scientific knowledge and technical expertise that were the keys to Japan’s independence and power. The government thus abandoned the model of the former education system, which was deemed to be unproductive and a pure waste of time. 6 It was just as this new education system was being implemented, in 1872, that Mori Arinori 森有礼 (1847-1889), a young chargé d’affaires within Japan’s diplomatic mission to Washington – Japan’s highest-level representative in the United States at that time – suggested adopting English as the future language of education. Much ink has been spilt over this proposal. Though admittedly utopian, it nonetheless continues to be topical today: on the one hand there is currently talk of making English Japan’s official second language;7 and on the other globalisation has meant that certain major companies, both in Japan and elsewhere, are adopting English as their working language, not only for written documents but also, to a certain extent, for oral communication; finally, the growth of the internet has established English as a global standard and introduced bilingualism for all major Japanese websites. 7 Mori Arinori formulated his proposal on 21 May 1872 in a letter addressed to a Yale University linguistics professor named William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894), a specialist in Sanskrit and comparative philology, in order to request his opinion on the subject.8 In it Mori drew an extremely bleak picture of the Japanese language, which led him to advocate adopting English. He also wanted to see English simplified in order to facilitate its acquisition in schools. In practical terms, he envisaged simplifying its orthography and syntax, in particular for irregular verbs.9 8 The first part of the letter dealing with the Japanese language (the second part focuses on English) reads as follows: Dear Sir, The fact that a high rank is awarded to you in the fields of Science and Literature has induced me respectfully to request your opinion on a project I have in contemplation, connected with the introduction of the English language into the Japanese Empire. The spoken language of Japan being inadequate to the growing necessities of the people of that Empire, and too poor to be made, by a phonetic alphabet, sufficiently useful as a written language, the idea prevails among us that, if we would keep pace Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies, 2 | 2013 Language, script and modernity 3 with the age, we must adopt a copious and expanding European language. The necessity for this arises mainly out of the fact that Japan is a commercial nation; and also that, if we do not adopt a language like that of the English, which is quite predominant in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the commercial world, the progress of Japanese civilization is evidently impossible. Indeed a new language is demanded by the whole Empire. It having been found that the Japanese language is insufficient even for the wants of the Japanese themselves, the demand for the new language is irresistibly imperative, in view of our rapidly increasing intercourse with the world at large. All the schools the Empire has had, for many centuries, have been Chinese; and, strange to state, we have had no schools nor books, in our own language for education purposes. These Chinese schools, being now regarded not only as useless, but as a great drawback to our progress, are in the steady progress of extinction. Schools for the Japanese language are found to be greatly needed, and yet there are neither teachers nor books for them. The only course to be taken, to secure the desired end, is to start anew, by first turning the spoken language into a properly written form, based on a pure phonetic principle. It is contemplated that Roman letters should be adopted. Under such circumstances, it is very important that the alphabets of the two languages under consideration–Japanese and English–be as nearly alike as possible, in sound and powers of the letters. It may be well to add, in this connection, that the written language now in use in Japan, has little or no relation to the spoken language, but is mainly hieroglyphic–a deranged Chinese, blended in Japanese, all the proportion of the letters of which are themselves of Chinese origin. […] 9 Such was Mori’s proposal to adopt English as the language of Japan’s new education system in order to replace the Chinese of old. The term “Chinese” used by Mori is as ambiguous as its Japanese equivalent kanbun 漢文, a term that refers both to the classical Chinese texts studied in Japan since antiquity and to the texts produced by Japanese in imitation of them, but whose syntax at times differed considerably from Chinese (furthermore, the pronunciation of the characters had become completely different and the Japanese read this “Chinese” by translating it into Japanese, a language with an entirely different word order). This written language lost its raison d’être when Japan embarked upon the studying and mastering of Western learning, whereas China, Japan’s defeated foe, seemed no longer to hold any secrets. The main medium of modern learning was English. In Mori’s eyes it seemed both complicated and futile to go to the effort of translating this learning into Chinese and impossible to translate it into “Japanese”. 10 The term “Japanese language” is also misleading since it refers here to both the vernacular purged of all Chinese borrowings – that aristocratic language referred to as Yamato kotoba 大和言葉 (the language of Yamato)10 – and the Japanese language in its entirety and diversity, including vocabulary borrowed from or modelled on Chinese. However, there was no word at the time to refer to this linguistic entity. Admittedly the term Nihongo 日本語 (Japanese) was already attested but it was not part of everyday language: this term reflected an outside view of Japanese as it was a translation of the words used by Westerners to refer to the Japanese language.11 There was also the word wago 和語, used in Japan’s neighbouring countries to refer to the language of its inhabitants.12 Finally, I must point out the existence of an extremely common word that knows nothing of borders or nations: kotoba 言葉, which depending on the context can be translated as either “language” or “word”.13 11 Be that as it may, in Mori’s eyes the “Chinese” lexicon was not only useless but also a barrier to modernity.
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