Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-08-10
NOT A NoNosYLLABlc LANGUAGE.
Chinese 1-ade Up of 10000 Characters Not
Difficult to Learn.

Difficult to Learn.
There are about co. CO characters in tho
Chinese language proper, but the average
Chinaman no more learns all Of those
characters than tho everyday American
learns the 100, 600 words in the English
language, The Chinaman, however, learns
on tho average moro than docs an Amori-
can in similar position in life. y China
man who can neither read nor write is q
rarity. Chinese is not a monosyllable Ian
guagc, as many suppose, and it is impos-
bible to utter in Chinese any but the short
rst sentences in monosyllablcs. In writ
ing the Chinaman makes one complicat-
ed but integral character for each word,
but that word may be properly spoken in
two, three or four syllablcs. His syllablcs
are divided by no longer intervals than
arc his words, and that is what makes
the language sound to the foreigner like
singsony jargUn. WcdO not know wheth-
er he is telling 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 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 20 letters, not
including the useless &, the Chinese have
500 or 600 syllablcs, and these are com
bned into various forms to make the Co..
600 words in their dictionary" These
syllablcs 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 feasibility is perhaps
owing to the shortncss of their words (scl-
dom more than three syllablcs) and the
tone or strokes belonging to the syllabes
when spoken or written. A syllable may
! mean one of hundred things and its
particular meaning is limited by placing
another syllable Of similar significance
before or after it, using its particular tone
or stroke when writing Sometimes the
syllabcs are uttered in such rapid success
sion that they seemingly form one word,
but the trained Chinese ear notes the tones,
and he is easily understood the marvel
Gus subtlctics of accent conveying the ex-
preston to IA nicely. He does not have TO
state Il proposition, and then, to make
himself clear, rcstatc it by the usual or,
in other words" There are no "other
words" with the Chinese.
The tone gives the meaning. The Chi
ncsc have a system of IA radicals, having
various strokes from l to II, which are
combined with the characters. Each rad
ical has n separate meaning, generally de-
noting the simplest object, as man, sky
earth water king. The student first
learns these, which answers to the y b
c. He next studies the syllables or com
bnations, and thus he has learned to read
and spell. Grouping the syllablcs into
words depends upon his powers of speech
or of composition in writing. What is
popularity known as slang is not known
to the Chinese. Their language is sufll-
GENTLY copious without resorting to the
brutal forms of speech. The most wither-
ing contempt or the keencst of satire may
be expressed in the poiitcst tcrms.-Ncw
York Post.