As to which of the first two methods of pronunciation had chronological precedence, the weight of opinion is that the kan came later than the _go_. Evidently this triplication of sounds had many disadvantages, but, on the other hand, the whole Chinese language may be said to have been grafted on the Japanese. Chinese has the widest capacity of any tongue ever invented. It consists of thousands of monosyllabic roots, each having a definite meaning. These monosyllables may be used singly or combined, two, three or four at a time, so that the resulting combinations convey almost any conceivable shades of meaning. Take, for example, the word "electricity." The very idea conveyed was wholly novel in Japan. But scholars were immediately able to construct the following:-- Lightning. _Den._ Exhalation. _Ki._ Electricity. _Denki._ Telegram. _Dempo._ _Ho_ = tidings. Electric light. _Dento._ _To_ = lamp. Negative electricity. _Indenki._ _In_ = the negative principle. Positive electricity. _Yodenki._ _Yo_ = the positive principle. Thermo-electricity. _Netsudenki._ _Netsu_ = heat. Dynamic-electricity. _Ryudo-denki._ _Ryudo_ = fluid. Telephone. _Denwa._ _Wa_= conversation. Every branch of learning can thus be equipped with a vocabulary. Potent, however, as such a vehicle is for expressing thought, its ideographic script constitutes a great obstacle to general acquisition, and the Japanese soon applied themselves to minimizing the difficulty by substituting a phonetic system. Analysis showed that all the required sounds could be conveyed with 47 syllables, and having selected the ideographs that corresponded to those sounds, they reduced them, first, to forms called _hiragana_, and, secondly, to still more simplified forms called _katakana_. Such, in brief, is the story of the Japanese language. When we come to dissect it, we find several striking characteristics. First, the construction is unlike that of any European tongue: all qualifiers precede the words they qualify, except prepositions which become postpositions. Thus instead of saying "the house of Mr Smith is in that street," a Japanese says "Smith Mr of house that street in is." Then there is no relative pronoun, and the resulting complication seems great to an English-speaking person, as the following illustration will show:-- JAPANESE. ENGLISH. _Zenaku wo saiban suru tame no_ The unique standard which is used Virtue vice-judging sake of for judging virtue or vice is _mochiitaru yuitsu no hyojun wa_ benevolent conduct solely. used unique standard _jiai no koi tada_ benevolence of conduct only _kore nomi._ this alone.