Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/416

 // • « 386 THE COBEAN LANGUAGE. the negative to the verb, and incorporates it in it ; the Corean prefixes the negative to the verb, also incorporating it in the verb, while the Mongol prefixes, but causes the negative to stand an independent word. Thus all three differ, while it is Mongol and Corean, and not Manchu and Corean, that approach nearest each other. But they all, with Japanese, agree in placing the object between the subject and the verb. There is no distinction of gender in any of the four Turanian languages; and in this respect Chinese keeps them company. But all, including Chinese, though destitue of a regular plural termination, have words possessing a plural number. In Manchu the names of all human relationship have a plural, and Corean follows suit. But the plurals of Qreek and Latin are much more alike than those of Manchu and Corean. I am indebted to Brown's '' Coll oquial Japan ese^ for the opportunity of comparing this language with Corean. From it is culled the list of Japanese words in the " Comparative Table," but a thorough search over all the book has still left several blanks in common word& The original spelling is retained, as I find it corresponds with my own, — except that the u of Brown is changed to oo for the sake of uniformity ; and the further liberty is taken of marking the sign of the lengthened vowel (6) instead of repeating it (oo). Nor is it clear to me what the author means by saying that dz, &c., &a, have no vowel sound, unless it be that those finals are pronouced as 8U of Chinese, often written 8z' ; but neither this nor any consonantal sound can be enunciated without the aid of some voweL The Japanese alphabet differs from the Corean, chiefly in that it is not an alphabet properly speaking, but, like Manchu, a table of syllables; and it possesses a z sound of which Corean is destituta The Japanese softens the hard g of Corean, Chinese, &c., into ng; it has no I sound, so that London becomes Rondon, dollar, dora ; and it wants the sound as jwell as the letter % Victoria becoming Bidoria, Japanese could borrow the Corean alphabet with very great advantage and profit, for radically, tha syllabaries are the same.