Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-11-26
The Chinese Lanffuage.
Oregon Democrat.

ShAASoO uuACs
|
Oregon Democrat.
Mrs. Mary H. de Graffenreid has
given us dissertation on Chinese
writing that might be of value in
Oregon, and especially to some of
our own Albany readers. She says
that mans imagination has invented
two systems of writing entirely dis
tinct. The one employed among
the Chinese is the hieroglyphic sys-
TEN; the other, in actual use among
the enlightened nutions OF the globe,
bears the name of the alphabetic or
phonetic system.
The characters which the Chinese
employ in writing are not letters,
properly called, but they are verit-
able hieroglyphics; they do not rep
resent sounds nor articulation, bnt
ideas. Thus house" is expressed
by the aid of single and special
character, which never varies. The
Chinese of past generation may
have designed house," in spoken
language, by word totally different
in pronunciation from that which
the " Nation of the Sun" to-day
uses, yet the character representing
house" remains identical. The
pronunciation is subject to the laws
of change, but the heiroglyphic nev-
er. Is the result surprising? Think
of our figures, which are hierogly-
phics. The idea of unity added sew
en- times to Itself is expressed in
France, England, Spain Germany,
ETC., by the aid of two circles super
posed vertically and touching each
other at single point; but, in see.
ing this ideosraphic character, "8, "
the French pronounce it huit; the
English, eight; tho Spanish, oclsO,
and the Germans acht. All how
ever, agree in assigning to it the
same value.
If the Chinese Geographic char
acters were generally adopted, as
the Arabic figures are, every nation
could read in its own language the
grand productions of the master
minds of every country without
knowing single word of the spoken
language employed by the authors
who wrote them. Were this the
case, English-speaking people could
peruse with delight the burning
thoughts of Goethe, the beauties OF
"Jerusalemme Liberata," the bril-
liant wit of Don Quixote, the glow
ing eloquence of the " Exposition de
Ia Doctrine Catholique," by rAigle
de Meaux, and yet not be subjected
to the Inconvenience of learning new
dialects and hauling over musty die
tionaries. But considerable num-
Der of alphabetic languages, with all
their peculiarities and idioms, may
be thoroughly mastered by the same
time and labor spent upon one ideo-
graphic langua1e.
Then, too, how infinite the su-
periority of the alphsbetic system for
expressing delicate shades of poetic
thought and abstruse sophistries OF
logical reasonings. This ingenious
art paints the word and speaks ia
the eve.
All the words of an alphabetic
language of the most extended vo-
cabulary of elementary sounds OF
gesticulations, which require only
TIVE nty.four OF thirty letters to rep.
resent them. By the aid of thess
characters, variously combined, ev'
cry word which strikes upon the ear
can be written, even without know
ing it's meaning.
But the greatest defeat of this
writing is, that it has no means ol
expressing new names.
! A reporter once wished to send Q
written communication from Cantor
to Pekin containing the information
that a memorable battle fought the
14th of June, 1900, saved the French
from impending ruin; but he did
not know how to inform his cores
pendent, in characters purely hero
glyphic, that the name of the plain
which witnessed the glorious achieve
ment, was near the town OF Maren'
90, and that the victorious General
was Bonaparte. A nation in which
proper names can only be communi'
Gated from one city to another by
envoys, would seem to be in the ru
diments of Intellectual culture, and
such, doubtless, is the case with the
masses. There are few oracles ol
wisdom among them, and but few.
The hieroglyphic characters con
stitute by far the greater mass ol
their writings, but now, when 1t be-
comes necessary to write proper