Gembun-Itchi

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Gembun-Itchi ( Japanese 言文一致 , "unification of colloquial and written language") was a reform movement of the Meiji and Taishō times , which had the goal of using the Japanese written language ( 文 語 , bungo ) used up to then in literature to be replaced and replaced by the contemporary colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ). The term Gembun-Itchi was first used by Mozume Takami (1847–1928) as the title of a font from 1886.

overview

Since the Heian period , the Japanese language was determined by the adoption of Chinese script by two different styles of language, which were expressed in the general difference between spoken ( 音 声 言語 , onsei gengo ) and written language ( 文字 言語 , moji gengo ). The Japanese written language, Bungo , was largely influenced by Chinese. In addition to the purely Chinese writing style Kanbun , a Japanese writing style, Wabun ( 和文 ), which was used alongside the Kanbun , developed in particular through the courtly poetry of women and the development of the Kana . Two special forms of the writing style that resulted from the two mentioned were the Senmyōtai ( 宣 命 体 ), an abstract writing style for imperial edicts , and the Wakan konkō bun (tai) ( 和 漢 混交 文 (体) / 和 漢 混淆 文 (体) ) , a mixed style of Kanbun and Wabun.

In the colloquial language, which was valued less in relation to the written language, two centers had developed in the Edo period , whose linguistic forms competed with one another. On the one hand, it was the Kamigata area, which focused on the dialects of the cities of Osaka and Kyoto , and on the other hand, the dialect of the capital region Tōkyō. In 1886, Mozume Takami pleaded in his work "Gembun-Itchi", which was written in the colloquial style, for a strengthening of the spoken language. At the same time, a "normal style" ( 普通 文 ) was used in offices, in the press and in science of the Meiji period , a standardized Sino-Japanese mixed language in that it is comparable to the conversion of a Chinese text into Japanese using kakikudashibun ( 書 き 下 し 文 ) was regulated.

With the beginning of the Meiji Restoration and the adoption of Western knowledge, Japanese politicians and intellectuals quickly realized that the Chinese-influenced script style was unsuitable for expressing the new knowledge and too bulky to spread the knowledge quickly. Almost the entire western scientific vocabulary, countless words for which there was no lexical 1: 1 relation in Japanese, had to be newly created and invented as neologisms in the course of the modernization of Japan . Even though the colloquial language seemed suitable for this, it was just as little standardized and unified in order to simply serve as a substitute for the written language. In this situation, the first efforts to break away from the written language Bungo towards a simplification and an alignment to the colloquial language in the environment of the Meirokusha , an influential association of intellectuals that had been founded in 1874, developed.

Its members, including in particular Maejima Hisoka , Nishi Amane , Katō Hiroyuki , Shimizu Usaburō and Ueki Emori , initially considered simplifying writing in pursuit of language reforms and a greater practical use of language . Nishi and Maejima suggested abolishing the Kanji and writing Japanese only with Kana or even just with Rōmaji (Latin letters) ( 漢字 御 廃 止 之 議 kanji onhaishi no gi ). Sakaya Rōro advocated the use of an international auxiliary language, Mori Arinori even pleaded for Japanese to be replaced entirely by English. The practical implementation of such suggestions also led to the first attempts to change the language, such as the Da-dearu style at the end of a sentence, which is established in contemporary Japanese today. Ueki first used the Desu-masu style .

At the turn of the century, 1900, the “Society for the Unification of Colloquial and Written Language ” ( 言文一致 会 ) was officially founded. The considerations from the circle of the Meirokusha also fell on fertile ground in Japanese literature, in which naturalism began its triumphant advance. The colloquial language served here Futabatei Shimei , Yamada Bimyō and Ozaki Kōyō as an adequate means of realistic representation. In the field of literature, one speaks in this context of the "movement to standardize colloquial and written language" ( 言文一致 運動 ).

In 1902, at the instigation of the linguist Ueda Kazutoshi (1867-1937), the first Japanese who had studied linguistics in Germany, the Ministry of Education established a "Commission for the investigation of the national language" ( 国語 調査 委員会 , kokugo chōsa iinkai ), which itself to submit hard-working solutions until 1913. It was followed in 1921 by another "Extraordinary Commission for the Study of the National Language" ( 臨時 国語 調査 会 , rinji kokugo chōsakai ), which already carried out preparatory work for the general-use Tōyō- and the Jōyō-Kanji ( 常用 漢字 表 ) resulting from it . In 1923, in the year of the Kantō earthquake , the major magazine publishers in Osaka and Tōkyō decided to limit the number of Kanji used. The original efforts to standardize the written and colloquial language turned into comprehensive reform efforts, which were continued by the “Committee of Inquiry into the National Language” ( 国語 審議 会 , kokugo shingikai ), through which the work of the “Extraordinary Commission” was reorganized in 1934 has been. This committee prepared the basis for the implementation of reform policy measures, which were implemented in a far-reaching reform of the writing system after the Second World War in 1946 . This standardization of the common Japanese language ( 標準 語 , hyōjungo ) was achieved. As a colloquial basis, the idiom Tōkyō prevailed against that of the Kamigata area. The reform had multiple effects on pronunciation, accent, grammar, politeness, and the vocabulary of the Japanese language.

To this day, language reforms in the effort to use the Japanese lingua franca ( 共通 語 , kyōtsūgo ) have been continued and since 1948 they have been scientifically developed by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics ( 国立 国語研究所 , kokuritsu kokugo kenkyūjo ) in close contact with the language department of the Ministry of Culture .

literature

  • Bruno Lewin (ed.): Small dictionary of Japanese studies . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981, pp. 98-99, ISBN 3-447-00530-0
  • Bruno Lewin: Sprachreform , In: Horst Hammitzsch (ed.): Japan Handbuch , Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, Sp. 1553–1555.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 漢字 廃 止 論 . In: デ ジ タ ル 大 辞 泉 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 31, 2014 (Japanese).
  2. ^ A b c Bruno Lewin: Sprachreform , Sp. 1553–55.
  3. ↑ Arizawa Keiichi: New Requirements after the Age of Literary Translation . In: Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit (ed.) A certain color of foreignness , Munich, Iudicium, 2001, pp. 154–155.
  4. ↑ 言文一致 会 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 31, 2014 (Japanese).
  5. ↑ 国語 調査 委員会 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 31, 2014 (Japanese).
  6. ↑ 臨時 国語 調査 会 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 31, 2014 (Japanese).