The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-08-15
NOT a MoNosyLLAslc LANGUAGE.
Chimes, Made Up of $4,000 Characters Not
Difficult to Learn.


Chimes Made Up of 10000 Characters Not
Difficult tn Learn.
There are about 60, 900 characters In the
Chinese lang,agaproper, but the average
Chinaman no moro learns all Of those
characters than the everyday American
learns the 100, 900 words In the English
language. The Chinaman, however, learns
ON the, average moro than does an Amerl-
can in "A similar position in life. A China
man who can neither read nor write IL o
rarity. Chinese Is not a monosyliable Ian
guage, as many suppose, and IL Is impos-
sible TO utter in Chinese any butthe short
est sentences In monosyllablos. In writ
ing the Chinaman makes one oomplicat-
cd but integral character for each word,
but that word may be properly spoken In
two, three or four syllables. His syllablas
are divided by no longer intervals than
are his (words and that Is what makes
the language sound TO the foreigner like
singsong jargon. Wedo not know wheth-
er he Is telling story or attempting q
song
The Chinese perhaps think the same
thing Of an American, who bites of his
words and swallows them or telescopes
one into the other. Business men thrown
In contact with Chinese merchants who
speak pure Chinese say that it is not diff
cult to learn. Instead of 90 letters, not
including the useless 81, the Chinese have
800 OF 600 syllables, and these are COM
blned into various forms to make the co.
900 words In their "dictionary.n These
syllables vary In meaning according to
the tone In which they are spoken or the
strokes used in writing them.
A Chinaman can unite any TWO Of the
600 syllables and make an intelligent
word. This Is not the case with the Eng
lish language. This flexibility Is perhaps
owing 20 the shortness of their words (sel-
dom moro than three syllables) and the
tone or strokes belonging to the syllables
when spoken or written. A syllable may
mean one Of hundred things, and its
particular meaning is liIs>ted by placing
another syllable Of similar significance
before or after 1t, using its particular tone
or stroke when writing Sometimes the
syllables are uttered in such rapid success
sion that they seemingly form one word,
but the trained Chinese ear notes tho tones,
and he Is easily understood, the marvel
Gus subtleties Of accent conveying the ex-
preston 10 a nicely. He does not have to
state proposition, aud then. to make
In other words" There arc no "other
words" with the Chinese.
The tone gives the meaning. The Chi
nese have a system Of al4 radicals having
various strokes from to IL, which are
combined with the characters. Each rad
ical has separate meaning, generally de-
noting the simplest object, as man, sky,
earth water, king. The student first
leaEps these, which answers to the A B
g. He next studies the syllables or COM
binations, and thus he has learned to read
and spell. Grouping the syllables into
words depends upon his powers of speech
or of composition In writing. What 10
pupufariy known as slang Ia not knewn
TO the Chinese. Their language is suffi-
cicntly copious without resorting to the
brutal forms Of speech. The most wither-
ing contempt or the kecnest of satire may
be expressed In the politest terms.--New
York Post.