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How the Japanese made science their own
It was in 1867 that the Japanese Government decided to open
their country to foreigners.
.Batches after batches of young men rallied forth to Europe and
America.
res and returned home.ght and instruction. ,ords. .of mere
academic interest or of commercial value.
To whatever the Japanese set their hand, to whatever they set
their mind, it was through the medium of their own tongue.
The Japanese made a discovery. It should be no less a discovery
to us that thosewho had gone to foreign countries did not form the
best workers.
f pure science, they remained sealed knowledge for the outside
world for severalyears.world.
One might wonder as to how the average Japanese could keep in
touch with the scientific developments in the rest of the world.as
made available to him without much delay. The system was not
complicated. Itwas simple and effective.
On account of the forced education through English in our
country, we have lost the feeling for our own language. We have
lived too long under the heel
of others to feel the value of being ourselves. But feeling
apart, in itself itis an educational problem and has to be tackled
from the purely utilitarian point of view. Almost a thousand
English words have become so current in this country, that it would
be called blasphemy to make any effort to translate them. But the
Japanese people were free when they took to European civilization.
They werenot burdened by any foreign language and they could not
think of burdening themselves and their future generations also
with a foreign language. They simply could not think in any terms
but of their own language.
Hereinunder are a few common English words with their Japanese
equivalents.
Asbestos in Japanese is represented by two symbols which are
pronouncedas seki-men, meaning "stone-cotton". Autogyro is
fu-sha-shiki-hi-ko-ki These s
ix characters mean "wind-vehicle-model-flight-machinery". The
Japanese do not consider it a long word.In a word like
Bangalore-torpedo the Japanese have got ridof the proper name
Bangalore. They call it baku-yaku-to meaning "explosion-med
icine-tube". Barometer is "sunshine-rain-calculator", in
Japanese sei-u-kei. Battery is den-chi "electricity-pond". Bicycle
is ji-ten-sha "self-revolve-vehicle". Hospital is byo-in
"disease-building". Photograph is called "reflected-reality",
sha-shin . Railway is translated from the German and French name
and not from the English word. It is tetsu-do meaning "iron-path".
Switch is denro-kai-hei-ki
"electricity-opening-shutting-instrument". Traslation of tank is
rather prosaic, sen-sha "battle-vehicle".
These words are not always significant in the same sense in
whichthe Sanskrit words are. Still they are expressive, even
poetic, above all servi
ceable. Without them the Japanese could not have mastered
science. They could no
t have spread education among the masses and they could not have
come to the top.
To make science our own we must have our own words. Borrowing
the technical words from English shall ever keep us slaves to the
English. It is true that we have to build up our own scientific
literature. With the coming of our own language
this literature will be built sooner than it could ever be done
otherwise. Withour own language as the medium of thought and with
our own technical words, sci
ence will truly become our own. It shall not remain foreign.
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---- from "India's National Language" (1965) by Dr Raghu
Vir.
Remarks:
(1) The original initial line "It is nearly a century ago, in
1867, that" hasbeen replaced with "It was in 1867 that" in this
posted message.
(2) The original text contains the Japanese characters just to
the right sideof the corresponding Roman transliterations. But
these are compiled separately for easy reference in this
message.
(3) It is to be noted that the Japanese have borrowed the
traditional Chinesecharacters for the technical terms. But the
pronunciation in Chinese is different and is being given herewith
side by side. Meanings of the characters used in this message
appear to be more or less same in both the languages. All these
points have not been mentioned in the original article.
(4) The numbers after the Chinese pronunciation indicate the
tones: high tone=1; rising tone = 2; falling and rising tone = 3;
falling tone = 4.
(5) The pronunciation of Chinese characters in Roman &
Devanagari, and that ofJapanese characters in Devanagari is
supplied by me.
----- Narayan Prasad
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Asbestos = seki-men ( - ) = stone-cotton
shi2-mian2 2 - 2
Autogyro = fu-sha-shiki-hi-ko-ki ( - - - - - ) =
wind-vehicle-model-flight-row-ma
feng1- che1- shi4 - fei1 - fang2 - ji1
1- 1- 4- 1-
Bangalore-torpedo = baku-yaku-to ( - - )=
explosion-medicine-tube
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bao4 - yao4 - tong3 4 - 4 3
Barometer = sei-u-kei ( - - )= sunshine-rain-calculator
qing2 - yu3 - ji4 2 - 3 4
Battery = den-chi ( - ) = electricity-pond
dian4 - chi2 4 2
Bicycle = ji-ten-sha ( - - ) = self-revolve-vehicle
zi 4 zhuan 3 che 1 4 - 3 1
Hospital = byo-in ( - )= disease-building (courtyard)
bing4 - yuan4 4 4
Photograph = sha-shin ( ) = reflected (written)-reality
xie3 - zhen1 3 1
Railway = tetsu-do ( - ) = iron-path
tie3 - dao4 3 4
