Page:和英英和語林集成.pdf/19

x These are divided by the Japanese into 47 pure (Seion 淸音) and 20 impure (Daku-on 濁音) syllables, not including the final ン. To express these syllables they employ 48 characters, represented in the following diagram, where the syllables are arranged in their proper order, beginning at the left and reading across the page:&mdash;

The impure syllables are formed from the pure, by softening the initial consonant for the sake of easy pronunciation, or in writing Chinese sounds. In writing them they use the same characters, with two dots or a circle over the right shoulder, as seen in the following diagram:&mdash;

In books these marks to designate the impure sounds are often omitted; it being taken for granted that the reader knows for himself when a syllable is to take this sound.

Another arrangement of their syllables, which is more ancient than the i, ro, ha method, and to which the Japanese are very partial, is that according to the five vowels, called the Go-jū-on, or I-tsura no on, or the fifty sounds, as follows:&mdash;

To complete this table the syllables イ, ヲウ [sic], and エ have to be repeated.