The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1872-01-24
From the courser-Journal.],
%. The Chinese Language.
SOME INTERESTING FAcTs ABOUT II

.-y.Lt-..i g.; iststTi- ~ Ls.4si .lsrpuH
AS the writer has never seen anything
in any newspaper giving, any facts rela-
ting to that most curious of all languages
the Chinese-he thinks the stock Of
public general information may be in
creased by few paragraphs on this SUBJ
ject. The Chinese is not q barren Lam
guage TO the student, either in respect to
its uniqe construction or copiousness' Of
literary treasures. No man, therefore;
can put forth. his claim to he distin-
guished as man of letters If he despises
the language of civilization older than
the flood. Especially does the Chinese
now demand the attention of scholars!
since association with those who use NO
other tongue is fast becoming common
event.
The Chinese differs from all languages
Except the Japanese) in its having. no
have alphabets, but begin their alpha
bets with the letter'a, except the Ethio-
pic, in which d is the thirteenth, and the
Runic. in which it is the tenth .letter.-
The Chinese has in lieu of an alphabet
about 10000 ideographic. characters,
whose pronunciation indicate to the ear
the meaning desired! !l2Dr. Blair, in his
inimitable rhetoric, says that, ON this
account the language requires the labor
Of lifetime for its mastery. The learn
ed doctor, speaking from 'rnmor, tas .ru-
NOR generally misleads}, is wrong. nThe
learner need not bediscouraged by such
an announcement . OF these 4O, 900 char
acters, only about 1880 are in ordinary
use, the rest being obsolete. With a
knowledge Of about 275 characters {radi-
calls, performstives and afformativesl the
student may proceed with delight. The
Chinese may then be regarded as.easy as
the Abyssinian, which has 2O6 letters In
It's alphabet, or ns the Brahlnanic, which
has Nl, These numerous symbols of
the Chinese are made by simple pernlu-
tations Of place upon the dot, or comma,
straight>liDIe,D hook curve and angie.-
These symbols are placed In slender col
umns which are read from top to bottom,
beginning at the right and proceeding
towards tue left. There are no marks OF
punctuation, except a plain circle for the
period and black-faced! symbol for en-
phasis. . 81. :,,,,z 3. f,,-cf. ay.,t fif...,,
That which most distinguishes the
Chinese are its four tones lin some dfa-
lects, five!) While every sound Is per.
fectly free from pharshness; and may be
made with: ease BY occidental, organs,
yet the pitch of the tone determines the
Specification of any given word. The
word peace" (homu,} for instance, by a
different Z vocal infection may mean
war, A word pronounced without the
tone Is unmeaning gibberish. "Ma.''
pronounced "mah," with the same tone
as we should:ordinarily say "man,'' has
no meaning; but pronounced interroga-
lively, s.'mah" means. "a horse."j To
pronounce flung" (wind] and give it a
meaning, We must speak with the same
tone used in calling O person affair off, as
for instance, "Oh, George ~ Another
tone may be exemplified in the, word
''fans' (rice,) which must be pronounced
with strong percussion of voice, as q
soldier pronOuncss "Halt !n to O coming
foe. The fourth tone may be seen in
JIM (man), which must be. pronounced
as one says "yes" in unexcited common
conversation. t' '''"@ ',s'.H''.' t,t'''
The dialects of the Chinese are per-
haps thousand-so that very few who
speak the Pcking or Mandarin dialect
may understand their neighbors. This
Is doubtless owing in great part, to want
of a school system of any Importance,
and to the density of the population. "
The capacity Of the Chinese for COM
pound words surpasses even the German,
iustead Of using an objective or a geni-
tive, they will use compound word.-
Many of these compounds are very sug-
gestive if their separate parts be analysed
aud translated, as, for instances. "wei-
fung," dignity-literally, "blow-wine;;"
"ma-fur," groom-literally, ''horse-fel-
low.n .,r'ir;4. =, ,.rsar.,ni ryl
These remarks might be extended al
but condensation has been
aimed at in order that in brief space
the writer's purpose might be accom-
plished. . F.af ..,s ~ ri, b.
FOREST ACADEMY, Anchorage, KY,
December 20 'i