The Literature, History, and Civilization of the Japanese [pp. 306-329]

1872.] OF THE JAPANESE. 313
produces only alterations of languages, and not radical transformations; but these alterations are so frequent, that it
soon becomes difficult to distinguish the remains of the
primitive in these greatly modified idioms. The study of
the Japanese will, I hope, clear up these obscure linguistic
problems, and consequently open the way for the defluite
direction of earnest study of the philology of central Asia.
The ancient language of Japan, alone, remains pure from
all foreign mixture, and preserves in its roots the primitive
elements of the language of the Tartars.
For a long time Orientalists found in the idiom of the
~iphonese islanders nothing but a collection of words,
for the most part long and complicated, having no apparent
affinity with the words of other known languages. Linguistics made of the Japanese a nation absolutely separated from
the rest of the world; the tyre protested, and the truth did
not appear.
Several analytical attempts have indeed been lately made
upon the Japanese vocabulary, in the hope of unravelling
this inextricable confusion, but through the insufficiency and
imperfection of the materials employed, the hoped-for results
have not been obtained. The minute researches necessary
for the classification of words in my Japanese Dictionary,
and the examination of several ancient texts, which I have
been fortunate enough to undertake with the aid of scholars
of the embassy of the Tycoon, have led me to discover in
the composition of Japanese words, essentively primitive
elements, which seem to have escaped grammarians, and
with which we ought to solve the problem that so vainly
puzAe~ and engrossed linguists in the early part of the
present century.
I have sent to Jeddo for several works upon the Yamato
language, spoken by the ancestors of the present race of Japanese, and still used at the court of the sovereign pontiff of
Miako. I have the firm conviction that, with this new help,
tAc voca~u1ary of the ~1ander~ of the extre~ne Last w~ll no longer
re~na~mforeig~~ to all the ~Jioms s~'oken nfon the Asiat~ continent.
Those of you who will devote yourselves to these investiga