Japanese Grammar of Mind and Language (41) Modern Japanese Tripod Theory (1) Japanese Has Been Grafted Twice

(Continued from above)

Language is a living organism.

In my image, it is close to a tree.

It is an existence that supports us, but we rarely notice its value in our daily lives.

However, if we neglect to care for it, or if we break its branches or trample its roots, it will gradually weaken over time and eventually wither away.

And once it has withered, it will never come back to life.

The tree known as the Japanese language is a tree that has undergone two major grafts.

The first time was about 1,500 years ago.

When it was still a sapling, a completely different type of tree called Chinese was grafted onto it.

This was the influx of Chinese vocabulary.

Because of this, even though it is a tree called Japanese, most of its intellectual vocabulary has become the tree known as Chinese.

It became a strange tree in a sense, one where you cannot tell if it is a cherry tree or a pine tree.

It survived within the Japanese archipelago for over a thousand years in that state, but about 200 years ago, it was grafted once more.

The partner was Western languages, which were again completely different and possessed an abnormally strong reproductive power.

Therefore, Japanese was forced to graft the tree of Western languages onto the tree of Chinese.

Western languages were translated into Chinese characters.

This was a rough feat unparalleled in world history, but the tree of the Japanese language still managed to survive.

However, because it survived by undergoing major grafts during two periods of historical upheaval, its appearance has become very strange.

This language, which has become a shape where you cannot tell if it is a cherry, pine, or cedar tree, is modern Japanese.

And the sentiments and thoughts of the Japanese people are the fruits of this tree that has gone through such a strange fate.

(Continued below)

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