| This study investigates the principles and practice of language reform in late Meiji-era Japan. The Japanese language, as we know it today, took shape in the years between 1885 and 1910. In this process, the grammar and orthography of the dialect of upper-class Tokyo residents was codified, standardized and made suitable to act as the written language. In particular, this work reveals the important second step in the development of the Japanese language, the process through which it became a national language. It analyzes the pioneering efforts of early language reform advocates, the steps taken to gain official government sanction for the reform of Japanese, the ways in which the language was transformed to take its present shape and how educators, Education Ministry officials and textbook authors used the nascent education system to spread the new language to students all over the nation. Perhaps more importantly, this study delineates the ideological foundations of the "nationalizing" movements that shaped modern Japan, situating language reform in the context of identity development, education policy and national consciousness.; One of the most prominent leaders in the movement to nationalize the language was Ueda Kazutoshi, Professor of Linguistics at Tokyo Imperial University, Education Ministry official, textbook author and "the father of modern kokugo" (national language). Following the progression of his ideas and actions regarding language reform and language policy, this study demonstrates the deliberate steps he and his colleagues took both to remake the Japanese language based on systematic linguistics and to make it a national entity. My study concludes, among other things, that the social engineering which produced modern Japanese could not have succeeded without the intervention of the state, particularly the Ministry of Education. In addition, this work discloses the role played by members of the Imperial Society for Education and the Genbun'itchi Society in the creation of modern Japanese. |
