Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-03-08
TnE TEA-OHEST LING UAGE.
It is Not SO Difficult as 1t Looks,
After All.

~ 4Nol bu IL AsOOhht
After All.
A Los Angeles correspondent, writing
of the local chinatown" says
Chinese adjectivcs are nouns. For
"many thanks" it is "thank thank" A
"great man" is greatness man." Some
times noun is formed Of noun and
u verb, as "barber," whom they call
"shaye- head teacher" The verbs have
neither moods nor lenses, and when
your laundryman wishes to tell you
that 81 have washed he says ~ pass
over wash" Their adverbs arc mostly
formed by joining together nouns and
verbs, as "linish day" for yesterday"
To cook is to "eat rice" Every
noun is plural and includes all
there is of that article unless it
is limited by the expression tone.
piece" as "one-piece house" Instead
of wife and children" they express
family and wife" The word woman
means "father man," If repeated, it
signifies "scolding." The noun always
remains in the same shape, and the verb
has but one form, instead of the many
known to the English language. The
Chinese language has no declensions,
subjugations, moods, lenses, preposi.
tons, conjunctions, adverbs, first, second
and third persons, no singular and
plural, and no gender, except by the adj
ditIon Of few particles in rare in
stances. 1t is evidently simple and easy
to learn, one of the simplest and most
curious things about it being, as above
stated, that every noun, unless qualified
otherwise, is plural. Those who have
wrestled with Lindley Murray will per-
haps appreciate the Chinese language
for its few "parts of speech"
There are about go 900 characters used
in the Chinese language proper, but the
average Chinaman no more learns all of
those characters than the everyday
American learns the 100000 words in
the English language. The Chinaman,
however, learns on the average more
than does an American in Il similar
position in life. A Chinaman who can
neither read nor write is rarity.
Chinese is not monosyllabic language
as many suppose, and 1t is impossible to
utter in Chinese any but the shortest
sentences in monosyllables. In writing,
the Chinaman makes one complicated
but integral character for each word.
but that word may be properly spoken
in two, three or four syllubles, His
syllables are divided by no longer
intervals than are his words, and that
is what makes the language sound to a
foreigner like sing.song iargon, We
do not know whether he is telling a
story or attempting song. The Chinese
perhaps think the same thing of an
American, who bites off his words and
swallows them, or telescopes one into
another.
Business men in this city thrown in
contact with Chinese merchants who
speak pure Chinese say that it is not
difficult TO learn. Instead of twenty.six
letters, not including the useless &, the
Chinese have 500 or 800 syllables, and
these are combined into various forms
TO mako the 60, 900 words in Their "dic-
tlonary." These syllables vary in mean.
Ing according TO the tone in which they
are spoken or the strokes used in writ
ing them.
A Chinaman can unite any two of the
800 syllables and make an ineligible
word. This is not the case with the
English language. This tlexihility is
perhaps owing 10 the shortncss of their
words Seldom more than three syl.
lable7) and the tone or strokes belong.
ing to the syllables when spoken or
written. A syllable may mean one of a
hundred things, and its particular mean
ing is limited by placing another syl-
liable OF similar significance before or
after 1t, using its particular tone, or
stroke when writing, Sometimes the
syllables are uttered in such rapid sue.
cesslon that they seemingly form one
WORD, but the trained Chinese ear notes
the tones, and he is easily understood--
the marvellous subtleties of accent con.
yeying the expression to a nicety. He
does not have to state proposition, and
then, in order to make himself clear. re.
state i by the usual "or, in other
words" There are no "other wordsn
with :he Chinese. The tone gives the
meaning.
The Chinese have system of o14
radicals, having various strokes from
one TO II, which are combined with the
characters. Each radical has separaie
meaning, generally denoting the sim.
plest object, as man, sky, earth. wnter.
KING. The student first learns these
whlch answer to the A b q; he next
studies the syllables, or combinations.
anu thus he has learned To read and
spell. Grouping the syllables into words
depends upon his powers of speech or
oil composition in writing.