The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1871-06-29
The Chinese Language.

| IN learning the English child begins
| with letters, but in Chinese he begins with
! syLables, because there are no letters for
| what we should call letters are words.
Instead of our twenty six letters the
| Chinese have about five hundred syllables,
and these are combined together in an at
most Infinite formation, to make their f .ty
or sixty thousand words, each of wL.ch is
| represented by separate character From
| the paucity of their syllables, they have to
| give them great many meanings, as, for
| lnstancy. Rev. s. r. Brown informs us that
the sy able ctae has two hundred and
Twelve slgnlncatiOns, ching one hundred
| ana thirteen, etc. Hence, if one China
man says to another simply chae, he may
mean any one of two hundred and twelve
thlngs, which is practically nothing, and
he has, therefore, in order to limit it some
where, TO speak another syllable of
Kindred meaning, either before or after il.
These two syllables sometimes three) he
! utters so quickly together that they form
one word as much as in English, which
| lact makes 1t inaccurate to call the Chinese
| q monosyllable language. In other words
the arrangement of syllables in English is
inevitable, so that in case of the word
"lncomprehensibility," for instance, we
cannot write any two of the sylables to-
gether to make another word, while the
Chinese (supposing it had so long word,
though 1t has none longer than three syl-
aoles), can pick it to pieces and make
perhaps dozen, perhaps two dozen, new
words.
Let me use homely illustration. Sup
pose two Cinnamon sit down on opposite
sides of table, one of them with five
hundred little blocks, each of which is
furnished with glue on both ends. He
might pick up and show to the other any
OF them, and he would call out any one of
Its dozen or hundred meanings, each of
which has its own symbol or character:
but II order to communicate any extended
or precise information, his friend must
glue them together in couples or threes.
This is why the Chinese is not, as it is
usually called, a monosyllabic language.
We can say in English, q went to town
last night and found my friend, and went
with him to see the play" all in monosyl-
lables; but 1t is impossible to express in
Chinese anything but the very shortest
sentences in words of one syllable, as Il
say" (ng0 shno), or "Who are you?' me size
hue?) A rapid speaker in English does
not separate his syllables by greater inter
walls than he does his words; neither do
the Chinese. The error of calling the
IiicIOS lldUIC las dTlSSu from Tile
fact that, in writing, the Chinaman makes
one cumbrous and complicated but solid
character for every word, but that word
may, nevertheless, be spoken in two or
three syllables.
But will skip over these less interest
ing mechanical details, and come to gene
raj facts. One advantage the Chinese has,
amid It's appalling difficulties is the sim
pliclty and English naturalness with which
the words are arranged in sentences. 1t
has no strained and cumbersome invOlu-
hons, by which one word qualifying an
other is found two or three lines distant,
as in German or Greek, and especic., in
Japanese; but the words are built up one
upon the other in the simple, easy success
sion OF nature, in what Max Mueller calls
the architectonic order" Thus to trans
late as literally as possible the sentence
t'en gan hed-gu, tSlng ne-aG tste no yel-
so, rs, . Heaven Will rain, please YOU
find nrnhrei,a ,. Then, to omit the Chinese,
we have this; "Plcas. you tomorrow
come my house est rice"
easier sc snm IN it al in word, if Chinese we're
English itself. 1t is delightful for It's !
childish simplicity in that respect, for the |
absence of propositions, conjunctions, ad- |
verbs and others of those dreadful "parts |
of speech" which were the nightmare Of
our school days. No declensions, no con-
jugations, no moods, no lenses, no first,
second and third person singular and plu-
raj, no gender except by the addition of
few particles IN certain cases); nothing
but these little naked, innocent bits of
words strung along together. If you lind
a verb it never has but one form, instead
of the seven hundred or more of those re-
morseless Greek verbs in mi: if you have
a noun, it always remains in the same
shape.