The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-09-17
pOLYaIOr ORlNA.

the speech of That Great Empire.
II is true that the Inhabitants of
Pelsin, Canton, Shanghai, Futwa, and
Annoy speak Chinese But as to other
parts of the country, it is also true that
citizen Of the places named cannot
understand the inhabitants any more
easily than can u Berliner an English
man, or Pnrisian Dutchman. Thus
the position of the Chinaman in his
own country, where various so-called
dialects are spoken, Is rather peculiar
The Chinese dialects have nothing in
common with the patois, or CONVERSE
tional forms of language. They are
used by the highest and lowest classes,
the savants and uneducated, the officials
and the coolies The dialect is Ian
guage by itself. The various dialect
forms, 1t is true, are related to one an
other in somewhat the same manner as
the Arabic to the Hebrew, Syrian, and
other Semitic tongues, or German to
English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, etc.
! If it is necessary to classify the nu-
merous dialects they may be divided
into the Canton, Haklsa, Annoy, Swatow,
Shanghai, Ningho the Hainanese and
the Mandarin. The youngest Of these
dialects is the Mandarin. Mandarin,
contrary to the general impression, is
not the universal language of China
The Canton tongue resembles the an
cient Chinese spoken 5000 years ago
more closely than the Mandarin. The
Hakl<a shows also traces of great
antiquity. 1t is much older than the
Mandarin; almost equalling in point of
age the Canton tongue or Cantonese.
! The same thing may be said of the
Swatow, Annoy and Shanghai dialects
In general we may say that the Ian
guagos spoken in southeastern China
show traces of the ancient Chinese
tongue, while the Mandarin tongue Is
modern.
"In addition to these main divisions"
continues the article, "there are many
other quasi-dialects, spoken in some
instances by thousands of people But
the same word forms, or dialects, are
not used by all persons in single dis
trict, although the districts-civic di-
visions-as rule are much smaller
than those in the countries of western
Europe. People distant from one an
other only few miles often use totally
different dialect forms In some of the
larger cities, such as Canton, with
more than 100000 inhabitants, one
often finds several dialect forms in use
The variations in the Chinese tongue
are 80 great, indeed that it Is not too
much to say that there nre as many dia-
lect forms in the Flowery Kingdom as
days in the year.
lnl1y In 10
the Mandarin. 1t is used in one form
or another in fourteen or fifteen of the
nineteen provinces composing China.
There arc also northern and southern
Mandarin tongues. The best northern
Mandarin dialect is spoken in Pekin,
while the best southern Mandarin is
spoken in Nankiu. A third marked
form of the same tongue Is used in
west China, especially in Tsien -Kiang.
People who speak the various Mandarin
dialects, however, can understand one
another readily. If we estimate the
population of China at 800, 100000 of
people, at least 500, 900, 600 use the Man
DARN tongue. All persons, from what
ever part of China, who desire to enter
political or Official life learn this
tongue.
"The other Chinese languages are
spoken by comparative small numbers
of people. About 100000 600, for in
stance, speak Cantonese in one form or
another 1t is used in the greater part
OF the province of QuangTong About
one-third of the people OF this province
use the Ha|ska tongue. In its north
eastern part the Swataw dialect is also
heard. Cantonese is also spoken in the
Kuangsi province. There are not SO
many dialeotic forms of the Haltlxa
tongue as of the Cantonese. Passing
up the coast we fad about 5000, 900
people speaking Swatow. In all proba-
bility 100000 Chinese use the Annoy
dialect, which resembles Swatow about
as closely as Portuguese resemble S
Spanish. Still further up the coast we
find the Futwa dialect 1t is used in a
district about $50 miles long and 300
miles broad, containing population of
5000, 900. This country is for the most
part mountainous, The dialects of
Ningho and Shanghai, although only q
few miles apart, differ greatly. The
Hainanese is spoken by the people of
Hainan. 1t is related to the Annoy and
Swatow dialects, slightly resembling
the Japanese-and is spoken by about
100000 people. The inhabitants of
about Lutshu, between Japan and
Formosa, also speak Hainanese-
1.-The introduction of u uniform Ian
guage in China is only a dream. Two
hundred years ago the emperor Kang-hi
founded schools in the various parts of
the empire in the hope OF accomplishing
that end, but the result was disappoint-
ing. 1t may be accomplished in the
future when railroads in various parts
of the country bring tho people closer
together. Centuries will pass by be-
fore that time, however. The
Nj andarin tongue, If any, will become
the universal one in China.--Ostasin-
fischer Lloyd
Success as n Soldier.