The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-07
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.
Facts that Inspire One With Respect
for the Man Who Can Read 1t.

From the NeD YORK World.
Gsographers in Washington have been
making studies In the languages of various
peoples with whom we come in contact,
with a view to formulating rules for the
uniform spelling of place names They
have found Chinese names a rather hard
nut to crack, and in their report they have
made some observations on the Chinese
language which are calculated to excite
surprise that the Chinese can read their
language at all.
The report says that Of all existing Ian
guages Chinese is spoken by the greatest
number OF people, ana In consequence of
the political domination and influence OF
China over neighborlng states, it has be-
come the medium of intercourse among the
educated Eastern Asiatic nationsige
or the many dialects prevailing in China
the most important one is the X wanhwa,
or Mnnd lrin dialect, which is the official
and literary language Of the whole
empire, and Of the educated Chinese
in any part OF it. or the other
eastern provinces, the more prominent ones
are the Canton. Swatau, Annoy and
Fuchau, and some minor varieties, all so
different from one another that the use of
any one of them will render the speaker
quite unintelligible to dwellers in other
parts Of the empire. The language is mono
syllable, every syllable being a root and
every root a word; it is without infection,
and the words are employed indifferently
as one and another part of speech; that is
to say, the same word may form sub
stantive, adjective, verb, or adverb; and
the relation OF gender, case, number, and
person Is determined by the position OF the
word in the sentence, and by the use Of GER
tain auxiliary words.
AS the language possesses no alphabet the
Chinese require different symbol for each
meaning. All Chinese symbols can be d.
vided into two main classes, namely, radi-
Gals and combinations, the latter being
formed by the addition of strokes to the
radical. Native philologists, however, di-
vide the symbols into six Glasses, of which
the first represents the forms OF objects
numb ering 800 or more and includes the pa
radicals which form the vasis Of every sym
Dol in the language
The second class indicates things that rep
resent ideas by their relative positions.
The third class of symbols, OF which there
are said to be about 700. represents the COM
bination of ideas, and they are formed by
uniting two or more significant characters
to give the idea of third.
The fourth class numbers about 372, and
comprises symbols which. being inverted
either in form or sound, assume different
meanings.
The fifth class consists Of about 600 sym
bols which represent borrowed meanings;
that is TO say. they are applied in double
sense, and hence they have been called met
aphorical
The sixth class embraces over 10000
characters, each being composed OF two
parts-namely, the primitive or phonetic
element, which represents a certain sound
and which also gives the sound to the
whole character, and one of the 2l4 radicals
from the first class. According to some
writer's the whole number OF symbols is
over 10000, Of which, after deducting the
obsolete ones, about 25 900 are said TO be In
modern use.
This vast number OF symbols Is expressed
by only 400 or 500 syllable sounds, which
by way of different information, are increased
to about l 800, or. according to the same
authorities, to only about 1000. This
peculiar state Of affairs makes the language
the richest In the number of written SYM
bols, but the poorest in the number of differ
ent sounds by which these symbols are ex-
pressed in the living speech; and since the
same sound may represent sixty or more
different words. the Chinese. to overcome
this difficulty, fix the proper meaning by
combining the word which it is desirable 70
make understood with another bearing
similar or supplementary meaning, and by
placing. in the case Of nouns, classifying
words between them and the numerals
which precede them.