Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/571

Rh form, always precede the noun and the verb which they qualify.—The verb has no inflection to express either number or person; but in polite language, by the use of certain particles or auxiliary words prefixed or joined to the root form, the personal relations of the verb may be distinguished, as well as by the form and kind of verb used. The verb has transitive, intransitive, causative, passive, potential, negative, and desiderative forms; for example: transitive, age, to raise or lift up; intransitive, agari, to rise of itself or go up (contraction of the root age and substantive verb ari); causative, agesaseru, to cause another to raise (by joining saseru, the causative form of suru, to do, to the root age); passive or potential, agerareru, to be raised, or can be raised (from root age and passive of substantive verb areru, which is also a contraction of ari, to be, and yeru, to get, thus literally meaning, get-to be-raised); negative, agenu, not raise (from age and nu, a contraction of naku, not to be); desiderative, agetai, wish to raise (from age and tai, desirous). The verbs are divided into three conjugations, have past, present, and future tenses, and indicative, imperative, conditional, conjunctive, and concessive moods, and present participles. The action of the verb becomes reciprocal by joining the verb au, to meet, join, to the root; as uchi, to strike, uchi-au, to strike each other. In compound verbs, which are numerous, the first element takes the root form and is subordinate to the last, expressing the manner in which its action is performed; as nusumi-toru, to take by stealth; tobi-odsuro, to jump down. In a sentence the subject as well as the object of the verb always precedes it.—Besides the adverbial form of the adjective, there is a large class of adverbs formed from nouns by the use of the postpositions ni and de, or by duplicating the word; as nichi, day, nichi-nichi, daily; toki, hour, toki-doki, hourly or often. The present participle is frequently used adverbially; as hajimete, at first; kesshite, positively. The adverb and an adverbial clause precede the verb which they qualify. What are called prepositions in English should in the Japanese be classed as postpositions, since they always follow the word to which they are related; as Yedo ye yukita, has gone to Yedo. This relation is also frequently expressed in Japanese by a compound verb; as ido ni tobi-komu, to jump into a well. Copulative and disjunctive conjunctions are numerous, but they are mostly expressed by the conjunctive, conditional, or concessive moods of the verb. There are a few verbs, such as soro, keri, shiku, and sari, the moods and tenses of which are used only as conjunctions. The colloquial especially abounds with interjectional, emotional, and onomatopoetic words, which, though impossible to define or translate, are very expressive and add grace and life to the language.—The most accessible Japanese grammar is that of J. J. Hoffmann (English ed., Leyden, 1868).— No means exist for determining the precise age of the most ancient monuments of Japanese literature, but there is little doubt that both prose and poetical compositions existed previous to the introduction of the Chinese method of writing. This is asserted to have taken place in the 15th year of the mikado Ojin (A. D. 284) through the medium of a Corean named Ajiki, who gave some instruction to the heir apparent. The statement occurs in the Nihongi, one of the earliest historical works extant, which was composed about the year 720. The Nihongi contains so much that is evidently fabulous, especially in relation to the ages of the personages mentioned in it, that it cannot be relied on for the accuracy of its dates; and there is very good reason to believe that the introduction of the Chinese language took place considerably later than is usually supposed. It is stated, on the other hand, that the Japanese possessed from ancient times an alphabet of their own, which they abandoned for the Chinese ideographic writing; but this assertion, absurd enough by itself, is denied by the best authorities. It follows therefore that the most ancient compositions, namely, the verses of poetry given in the Kojiki and Nihongi, and the norito or liturgies read at the festivals of the native Shinto gods, were handed down orally. It happens unfortunately that at the period when they came to be written down the Chinese character was preferred to the kana, only recently introduced, and the real text is often difficult to ascertain. Japanese bibliographers make history the first division of their literature. The most ancient historical work, which is at the same time the earliest written document extant, is the Kojiki, in three volumes, composed at the command of the mikado in A. D. 711–'12, by Yasumaro. It is said to have been preceded by two similar works which were composed respectively in 620 and 681, but neither of these has been preserved. The book called Kujiki, which purports to be the former of these, and the work therefore of the celebrated Shotoku Taishi and Soga no Umako, is a forgery of later date, as is shown by the fact that it contains passages from the Kogoshiui, a book composed in 808, and mentions the mikado Saga (809–842). The Kojiki begins by relating the foundation of the heavens and earth, and the first volume is entirely occupied by the events of the mythological period. The second and third volumes contain the history of the mikados from Jimmu Tenno down to the empress Suiko Tenno, whose reign ended in 628. It is written with Chinese characters, some of which represent whole Japanese words (mana), and others merely separate sounds of the syllabary (kana), and in general conformity with Japanese idiom. Old manuscripts of this work are extremely rare, and the earliest printed copy is dated Kuanyei (1624–'42). A most valuable