The St. Johns herald., 1891-05-28
Al SINS ENGLISH.
Some Facts as to the Chinese-American
 Dialect.

Some Facts as to the ChineSe-American
 Dialect.
 It is well known that the Chinese can not master the sound of the letter ''r, g but this has proved the rock on which many professed writers of the Chinese dialect have come to grief. They do not recognize the fact, says the San Francisco Chronicle, that while John Chinaman can not make the ''r'' sound, he is fertile in expedients to avoid it. Two illustrations will show how easy it is to blunder on this point. In an early edition of one of Bret Harte's stories altered, we believe, in later editions he makes Q Chinese servant call him. self "Ah Ri," which is manifest i'm possibility. His name would certainly have been ''Ah Iii for the initial ''r'' would not only not come trippingly from his tongue, but not at all. But in the same or another story he makes a Chinanan call Lis employer ''Mr. Fostel," his name being Foster. Now, no "Chinese person." to quote the re- striction act, would ever say ''Fostel." He would soften the last syllable of the name and call it ''Fostah," just as the name Porter in his mouth would be- ''Potah, very like the negro pronuncia- tion Of the same word.
 The author of "A Summer in Can yon" has given 9 very good example of the difficulties of the Chinese with the letter 'sr'' She makes one of her heroines, a mischievous girl, select a reading lesson for the Chinese cook, who wants to learn English. The les son is made up of such sentences as 1.-The grass is green" ''The rose is red'' and the like. Of course they be- came in Hop Sings mouth 1.-The glass is gleen," ''The lose is led'' and so on. The whole scene is an excellent study in broken Chira and is commended to the ambitious Eastern writers who want to try their hands at English as she is spoken by the Chinese in Cali fornia.
 The letter ''j'' is another which pre- sents difficulties to John, which, how ever, he usually resolves by making it into ''ch." It may be slightly exagger- ated to say that Chinese scholars in Sunday-school know the author and founder of the Christian faith as ''Chee Cly," but it is not very far out of the way. An American in this city, an in- terpreter of the Chinese language, whose given name is Jerome" |" is usual ly known among the Chinese as ''Chee Loam," they, perhaps, imagining that that is all the name that belongs to him.
 It should be noted, too, that the Chi nese in California do not use the lingua franca called pigeon English, which is employed in China. Such an expres. sion as ''My bong topside," meaning; ''I live higher up" is never heard here. The Chinese in this State try to talk En- glish, and some of them succeed fairly well, although the ''r'' and ''j" are too much for them.
 This is not an attempt at an exhaust i've study of Chinese English, but rather a note of warning to ambitious dialect writers who have learned the dialect from books. If they will but bear in mind that ''r" does not become '1'' un- less it carries the genuine ''r'' sound, and that such word, for example, as "Berlxley," is not ''Bellzley' in the Chi nese tongue, but something more nearly resembling ''Bahlley," they will be saved from blunders which make their sketches and stories rather ludicrous than humorous to those who are accus- toned to the dialect.