The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-06-22
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.
1t Is Not So Monosyllabic as Is
Commonly Supposed
Nor Is Ii DimcuIt to Learn -. /. Hear
ing OF 1t Would Lead One to
belIeve-The Method
OF STUDY.

There are about sixty thousand char
acters in the Chinese language proper.
but the average Chinaman no more
learns all of these characters than the
everyday American learns the one
hundred thousand words in the Eng
lish language. The Chinaman. howev-
er, learns on the average more than
does an American in d similar position
in life. A Chmaman who can neither
read nor write is a rarity. according To
the New York Evening Post. Chinese
Is not a mono syllable language. as
many suppose. aud it 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 syllableS. His
syllables are divided by no longer in
tervals than are his words, and that is
what makes the language sound to d
foreigner like a sing-song iargon. We
do not know whether he is telling a
story or attempting a song. The Chi
nese perhaps thinks the same thing OF
an American who bites off his words
and swallows them or telescopes one
into the other. business men thrown
who speak pure Chinese say that il is
not Cifficult to learn. Instead of
twenty-siX letters, not including the
useless X. the Chinese have five hum
dred or six hundred syllables and
these are combined into various forms
to make the sixty thousand words in
their dictionary" These syllables
vary in meaning according to the tone
in which they are spoken or the strokes
used in writing them.
\ Chinaman can unite any two of
the six hundred syllables and make an
intelligent word. This is not the case
with the English language. This
heXibility is perhaps owing to the
shortness of their words (seldom more
than three syllables1 and the tone or
strokes belonging to the syllables
when spoken written syllable
may mean one of a 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 Syllables are
uttered in such rapid succession that
they seemingly form one word, but the
trained Chinese ear notes the tones.
and he Is easily understood-the
marvellous SubllellcS OF accent convey
ing the expression to a nicely. He
does not have to state a proposition.
and then. in order to make himself
clear. restate it 10y the usual or, in
other words There are no other
words with the Chinese. The tone
gives the meaning. The Chinese have
Il system of two hundred and fourteen
radicals. having various strokes from
one to seventeen. which are combined
with the characters. Each radical has
d separate meaning. generally denot-
ing the simplest object, as man, sky,
earth, water. king. The student first
learns these. which answer to the
c; he next studies the syllables, or
combinations. and thus ne has learned
To- read and spell Grouping the
syllables into words depends upon his
powers of speech or of composition in
writing. What is popularity known "a
slang is not known To the Chinese.
Their language is sufficiently coPiouS
without resorting to the brutal forms
of speech. The most whitening con
tempt or the beene I of satire may be
expressed in the politest terms.