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A TEXT-BOOK OF COLLOQUIAL JAPANESE BASED ON THE LEHRBUCH DER JAPANISCHEN UMGANGSSPRAGHE BY RUDOLF LANGE Dr. PROFESSOR OF JAPANESE AT THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN REVISED ENGLISH EDITION BY CHRISTOPHER NOSS FORMERLY MISSIONARY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH, SENDAI METHODIST TOKYO 19O7 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT 1903 BY CHRISTOPHER NOSS REPRINTED APRIL IQO? BY THE METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE TOKYO, JAPAN The basis ofthis book is the first volume of the series of Lehrbucher des Seminars far Orientalische Sprachen, publish- ed at Berlin in 1890. Its author, Df. Lange, before his appoint- ment at Berlin, had been for a number of years instructor in the German language at the Daigaku Yobimon (Preparatory School to the University) in Tokyo. Since that time all his energies have been devoted to the task of making his country- men acquainted with the Japanese language and literature. My own experience as a missionary student of the language having proved the value of this work I prepared an English edition which was printed at Sendai, 1901-1903. After I undertook the task Dr. Lange sent me copious notes -ofcorrections and additions gathered during his ten years' experience as a teacher. Justice to him requires me to state that I used the material thus graciously placed at my disposal with .a very free hand, for several reasons. In the first place Dr. Lange had prepared his book with the needs of a German student in view, and while the needs of an English-speaking student are in the main the same, there are many cases in which an explanation intended for the one will not help the other. Secondly, Dr. Lange's notes were in many instances mere suggestions, very fruitful indeed, but not fully developed. And, finally, I felt that I had one advantage over the original author in that I had used his text-book when I first learned my Japanese, and was thus in a position to test it as he could not. My subsequent experience in the use of the language had revealed omissions not so apparent to the author himself. Accordingly it was my aim to recast all the material in such a way as to make it most helpfulto the English-speaking student. This book is not a translation and Dr. Lange is not responsible for any errors that it may contain. 221154 IV PREFACE If I had been permitted to remain in Japan I might have undertaken a complete reconstruction of the work ; but that is A out ofthequestion for the present. call for a second edition having come unexpectedly soon, I have had time only for a superficial revision, with constant reference to the second German edition, which appeared at Berlin in the early part of this year. The new Lchrfyich contains eight hundred pages, of which the last two hundred are devoted to an entirely new German-Japanese vocabulary. Sincestudents now have access to a very satisfactory English-Japanese dictionary it does not seem necessary to include such a feature in the English edition. The improvements in the body of the new German edition were largely anticipated by the former English edition, in the preparation of which, ashasbeen stated, Dr. Lange generously co-operated with me. Accordingly, in the main, the arrange- ment and the paging remain as before. The selections at the end have been somewhat increased. The aim ofthe book is pedagogical rather than scientific ; hence the combination of system and no-system and the num- erous repetitions. The pedagogical principle hasbeen applied, for example, in the study of words. When it seems likely to aid the memory of the student to indicate the origin of a word, this is done; but when the etymology is disputed or apt to be confusing, nothing is said about it and the student must learn the word as a whole. The repetitions in most cases are not accidental but designed. For the student must pass through three stages to become master ofan idiom- First, he needs to be thoroughly convinced that there is such an idiom ; secondly, he must learn how to use it, and, thirdly, after he has entirely forgotten its existence he needs to be reminded that he cannot get along very well without it. A truly scientific grammar of the colloquial is yet to be written. But in one respect this work may claimto be scientific : it has been the constant aim of Dr. Lange, and of myself, to set forth the language as it is actually spoken by the Japan-