ABSTRACT

This book gives true characters of Japanese speech sounds in reference to European speech sounds. When it was first published in 1931, it was the first book of its kind. There are only 5 Japanese vowel elements as opposed to 18 in English, 13 in French and 8 in German. There are 15 Japanese consonants, 26 in English, 22 in French & 23 in German. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows that the wider range in vowels and consonants is heard by Japanese ears, so this volume gives average sounds uttered by Japanese in the twentieth century in relation to the English sounds.

 

chapter I|5 pages

How Japan Acquired the Writing

chapter II|9 pages

The Sounds of Kanji

chapter III|8 pages

Japanese Sounds of Kanji

chapter IV|6 pages

Japan-Made Kanji and Japan-Created Sounds

chapter V|3 pages

Calligraphy

chapter VI|6 pages

Japanese Compositions

chapter VII|5 pages

Japanese Compounds

chapter VIII|1 pages

Phonetic Use of Kanji

chapter IX|10 pages

Kana

chapter X|11 pages

Sounds of Japanese Speech

chapter XI|14 pages

Japanese Consonants

chapter XII|9 pages

Romaji

chapter XIII|8 pages

Accents and Stresses

chapter XIV|13 pages

Japanese Orthography

chapter XV|6 pages

Early Japanese Sounds