実存的危機

夜間,世界の都市とてもきれいですね。昼間,世界の都市きれいじゃありません。どうして？わかりません。夜はとても美しく見えますね。

私はねこがにひきいます。ボストンにいます。ねこはとても黒いです。夜間から、ねこをみません。それから、わたしのねこは目に見えないです。 

皆さん：

夜を知っている

僕は夜を知っているのだ。
僕は雨の中出かけ、雨の中戻って来た。
僕は町の光が届かない所まで歩いた。

僕はわびしい町の道を見下ろした。
僕は訳を話すのも面倒なので、目を伏せて
当番の夜警をやり過ごした。

一本筋向こうの住処から
突然叫び声が聞こえたので
僕は立ち止まり、足音をたてないようにした。

呼び戻すとか、別れを告げるわけではない。
さらに途方もなく高い所から静かに
空に光る時計が一つ

時間を間違えているとも言わなかった。
僕は夜を知っているのだ。

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

 私は夜が好きです。どうして？　たぶんじんせいのいぎと人生のもんだいはかくれます。

Katakana Analysis Final Copy

I am constantly struck by the beauty and utility of the Japanese writing systems. For today's class we compiled several interesting cases of Katakana and brought them here. The first is アイヌ, the name of the ethnic group located in Hokkaido. Their name and language is written in Katakana. Yet, groups such as Korean-Japanese peoples are written in Hiragana or Kanji (ちょうせんじ 朝鮮人). Is this an historical accident or a reflection on conceptions of self and other within Japanese society? The Ryukyuan people's name is also written in Kanji and Hiragana (琉球民族). It might be possible that the Ainu were ethnically classified later than the other groups and hence had their name written in Katakana. Another important note is that the Ainu have greatly mixed with Japanese peoples and the number of native Ainu speakers is today very low (less than 1,000) - therefore "Ainu" has a somewhat abstract, academic connotation similar to "Iroquois" in English.

The second interesting set of Katakana is でんわ vs. テレビ, スパー vs. 図書館, 電報 (telegram) - they are interesting because they reflect the experience of modernization and the Industrial Revolution in Japan. These are examples of an interesting historical-linguistic phenomenon. Why did Japan adopt some western words and why did they invent some Japanese words? One possible thesis is that 19th century Post-Meiji Restoration Japan sought actively to "indigenize" new technological and "modernizing" terms. Post World War Two Japan appears to have been more inclined to absorb words directly from the West. This is very significant because the process of making words "indigenous" to a culture directly relates to how that culture relates to foreign ideas. For instance, the word "Zen" in English is originally a Japanese word deriving from the Chinese word "Chan" to denote a type of Buddhist practice. While English has "indigenized" the word (eg. "She's really zen today"), it remains to a certain extent consciously a non-English word. The word "messiah," referring to the Jewish figure appearing at the end of Apocalyptic Age according to the Bible derives from the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ, meaning "Anointed one" or "king." Yet unlike "Zen," few English speakers would be able to identify "messiah" as originally a foreign word. Since all language is fundamental a social construct which culturally conditions us with ideas of "gender" "normality" and the "profane," it would be interesting to study whether Japanese people also had a different relationship to words which entered the language in the Post-Meiji period and were thus written in Hiragana versus words that were adopted later, with Katakana. 

I feel somewhat disheartened however to analyze katakana, because I am not very knowledgeable on Japanese history or literature, though I really wish I were. I grew up in a dual language household, speaking English and Arabic (my mother's maiden name is Mahfouz). I studied Hebrew, Latin, French, and Greek growing up from middle school to the end of high school. At college, I studied formal, Classical Arabic as well as some Biblical Hebrew as well as many years of Chinese. In the summer, I studied Manchu (満州語) and some Mongolian. Now, for the first time basically I am studying Japanese and I find it very different from all the previous languages I have studied. This is partially because so many of the languages I have studied are now extinct - they can be only studied as historical/"dead" languages. Japanese is such a special language because its writing system is designed for self-preservation: emotions experienced internally can be expressed differently in written form - which adds a new layer of meaning to language. Furthermore, katakana serves to differentiate between indigenously Japanese words and foreign loan words. Unfortunately, for languages such as English - we have so many loan words that bear no trace to their origins. This gives me a profound respect and love of Japanese - whose writing system is conscious of the reality of the spoken language to a much higher degree than most Western or Middle Eastern languages are.


As to why textbooks explain katakana in different ways, I think it is simply because the concept is so abstract and ambiguous and the kana has so many different utilities. I conceive of it like this, how could you explain to a person who never learned how to read and write any letters or numbers why we have different systems of writing to express the same thing: "one, two, three" "1,2,3" "I,II,III". All three of those systems are used in the English language. Why? Historical accident and cultural "irrationality" - English speakers and westerners in general tend to believe that Roman numerals "I,II,III" are more civilized and professional than the Arabic numerals. Hence, on monuments we use Roman Numerals "Built in XDCIII" even though it would be much easier to write "Built in 18..." The answers as to "why" is kind of like "why do we still tie our shoes with laces even though we now have velcro, zippers, and various other improved technologies?" The bottom line is that human beings have emotional relationships with the languages they speak and the languages they write. Conservatives who seek to avoid change or reform of any writing system act as such because they are in touch with the human emotional need and desire for meaning in life. Language gives people meaning and is one of the greatest sources of meaning in our life - languages are conscious of this : the Christian conception of the deity proclaims him to be "the logos" - the word (Greek: logos λόγος). The Chinese word for culture is "wenhua" 文化, "wen" meaning "writing" and "hua" meaning transformation or change - "culture" is fundamentally defined as being "transformed through the human activity of writing." The Arabic word for "literature" adab (أدب) is the same word for "politeness." When you say in Arabic, "that person has adab", you're saying that person is polite, refined but also literally, that person is "literature." Once you get into the psychology, the emotion, the "religion" that is human language, understanding what "Katakana" is - with all of its ambiguities and shades of meaning - becomes possible. The Japanese today use katakana to express cases of onomatopoeia, emphasis, loanwords, among others things because of a combination of historical accidents and trends, culturally elite tastes, culturally conservative forces, and to differentiate"self" and "other" on the linguistic level. Why does it exist? The same reason Roman Numerals are imprinted on the Supreme Court building - this is, after all a very human language. 


Citations:
Japanese Wikipedia was used for the "Ainu" and "television" examples.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8C
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%93


Ainu Museum Japan:
http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/
Information for terms such as "Library" was found on the website of the National Diet Library:
http://www.ndl.go.jp/
国立国会図書館

山田さんへ

こにちは！私はコロンビア大学の大学院せいの一年生です。私は毎日あさしちじにおきます。コーヒーをのみます。それから、朝ごはんを食べます。 


私学校にいきます。私はよく図書館でべんきようします。ときどきひるごはんを食べます。私はよく友達にご飯を作ります。私はお金がありません。私は古代中国語と中央アジアの歴史と中国の清の時代の歴史をべんきようします。


私はにほんごのクラス大好きです。日本語の先生はとても優しいです。


私は日本六月五日につきます。


よろしくお願いします！
Tristan