Ueda Kazutoshi

Ueda Kazutoshi ( Japanese 上 田 萬年 ; born February 11, 1867 in Edo ; † October 26, 1937 ) was a Japanese linguist and first professor of the newly founded literary and linguistic faculty of the Imperial University of Tokyo . He studied linguistics in Leipzig and Berlin with Herrmann Paul. After his return to Japan, he influenced the reform movement for the "standardization of colloquial and written language" ( Gembun-Itchi ) through the establishment of a "Commission for the investigation of the national language" ( 国語 調査 委員会 , kokugo chōsa iinkai ), which he suggested . He was the father of the writer Enchi Fumiko . His students included the linguist and essayist Shinmura Izuru (1876-1967), and the linguists Hashimoto Shinkichi (1882-1945), Kindaichi Kyōsuke (1882-1971) and Kameda Jirō (1876-1944).

Life

Ueda graduated from the Faculty of Literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1888. During his studies he had attended lectures on philology at Basil Hall Chamberlain . From 1890 on, Ueda studied in Leipzig and Berlin. During his time in Germany, he attended lectures by Georg von der Gabelentz and made the acquaintance of the young grammarians Karl Brugmann , Eduard Sievers and Wilhelm Wundts . After a brief stay in Paris, he returned to Japan in 1894. He received a professorship in philology at the University of Tokyo and taught comparative linguistics and phonology. In 1895 he married Murakami Tsuruko. From 1919 to 1926 he was also head of the Kōgakkan University .

As a member of the Science Committee of the House of Lords of Japan ( 貴族 院 帝国 学士 ​​院 会員 議員 ), he became increasingly important as a consultant for questions of language and writing reform. In 1900, at his instigation, the Ministry of Education set up the “Commission for the investigation of the national language”. In the same year the subject of philology was renamed linguistics ( gengogaku ). Together with his student Shinmura, Ueda founded the "Japanese Society for Phonetics" ( 日本 音 声 学会 , Nihon oseigaku kyōkai ) in 1926 . Ueda introduced the term "standard language" ( hyōjungo ) as a translation for Paul Herrmann's "common language" in Japan.

Works (selection)

• 1895 Kokugo-ron ( 国語 論 , about "treatise on the national language")
• 1895 Shin kokuji-ron ( 新 国 字 論 , for example "Treatise on a new script")
• 1895 Nihongogaku no hongen ( 日本語学 の 本源 , roughly "Origin of Japanese Linguistics")
• 1905 Fūtsūkyōiku no kiki ( 普通教育 の 危機 , about "The Crisis of General Education ")
• 1915 Rōmaji-biki kokugo jiten ( ロ ー マ 字 び き 國語 辭典 , something like "Japanese dictionaries arranged according to Latin letters")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Eschbach-Szabo: The foundation of modern Japanese linguistics , pp. 255–56

Web links

• Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo: The foundation of modern Japanese linguistics. (PDF) In: What does “foreign” mean here? - Studies on language and foreignness. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, 1997, pp. 253-265 , accessed on April 1, 2014 . 
• Roland Schneider: The translation dispute between Karl Florenz and Ueda Kazutoshi . In: News of the Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia EV Volume 137 . Hamburg 1985 ( PDF [accessed March 31, 2014]).

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ueda is the family name, Kazutoshi the first name.