The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-06-09
CHINESE LANGUAGE.
some or THE cURlosiTiEs or TIE
LEAR SPLITTING JARcoN..

Musicians say It Has m Aninity with eli.
Notes or Birds-No Alphabet and No
Parts OF Speech-some Amusing Exam.
Piles os Chinese Tall.
The superficial observer often refers ID
the Chinese spoken speech as an zeal
splitting jargon" and to the written
speech IS "hieroglyphics. Frequent Wis.
ttors TO any Chinese quarter notably
Q large Chinatown like that Of Los
Angeles, win soon become so familiar
with this 20 called jargon as to note that
1t 10 far more musical than the English
speech. Musicians are authority for the
statement that the Chinese language has
more affinity when spoken) with the
notes OF birds than with the tones of any
other language. Thisi 10 perhaps because
the Chinese, having no alphabet, must
have many tone combinations to give
the various expressions and meanings to
the thousands of characters.
Having no alphabet, the Chinese Ian
guage has more symbols than all of the
alphabets In the universe combined, and
there are more tone combinations for the
expression OF those symbols than In al
ether tongues. Each tone is attached to
. character, and one character Ia made
20 mean several different things, accord
Ing TO the tone used. In Chinese the
tone gives the meaning. Aword spoken
with Q falling infection means d
thing, and quite another when spoken
with . rising infection. We often hear
. Chinaman, as he walks along the street
talking with his companion, utter d word
In q falling infection which sounds like
n-go. This IL" He lie talking of
himself-perhaps saying how great he
thinks himself to be. But If he drawls
out the sound long and even he IL call
ing some hoodlum o goose" He gives
the falling infection to the first syllable,
and the rising infection to the last, and
ina rather musical voice. This would
be q difficult feat for an American.
No matter in what mood he may be, he
may not and perhaps cannot change the
accent. The voice may be louder or in
q minor key, but the tones are as infiexi-
BILE as written words and must be SO used,
or the exact meaning is lost. All the
expressions of human passions-laugh-
ter or sorrow-must be expressed by the
iniexible words and precise &C
cents. There are only FIVE tones in the
Chinese voice, but as every word has all
of its syllables accented there are % per-
and these are almost always |
constant use, ven In ordinary CONVEX
sation. Aquestion may be asked with
or without a rising infection, according |
10 the word used.
Chinese adjectives are nouns. For
many thanks it is s'thank thank "A
'sgreat mar" is GREATNESS man." Some
times o noun Ia formed OF q noun and o
verb, az barber, = whom they call shave
head teacher" The verbs have neither
moods nor lenses, and when your laun-
dryman wishes to tell you that 81 have
washed" he says. 81 pass over wash"
Their adverbs are mostly formed by join
together nouns and verbs, az Finish
day" for yesterday To cook is TO tseat
nee" Every noun ID plural and includes
Iii there Is of that article, unless 10 IL
by the expression zone piece rs
lone piece house" Instead OF wife and
shildren' they express family and wife,"
The word woman means father man.
. repeated, it signifies '.scolding." The
noun always remains i'm the same shape,
and the verb has but one form instead OF
The many known to the English LAM
yuage. The Chinese language has no de-
:lensions, subjugations, moods. tenses,
propositions, conjunctions, adverbs, first,
lecond and third persons, nc singular
ind plural, and no gender except by the
addition of o few participates In rare in
IL ID evidently simple and easy
learn, one of the simplest and most
things about 10 being, as above
that every noun, unless qualified
Is plural.
There are about 0 1000 characters used
the Chinese language proper, but the
average Chinaman no more learns all OF
characters than the everyday
American learns the 100, 900 words in the
language. The Chinaman, how
,ver, learns On the average more than
Ices an American in a similar position
life. A Chinaman who can neither
cad nor write Is q rarity. Chinese Ii
lot q m~onosyllabic language, as many
suppose, and it Is impossible TO utter In
Jhinese any but the shortest sentences in
nonosyllables.
In writing the Chinaman makes one
complicated but integral character for
.ach word, but that word may be prop
trly spoken in two, three or four sylla-
,les. His sy1lables are divided by no
onger intervals than are his words, and
hat Is what makes his language sound
o q foreigner like q singsong jargon.
We do not know whether he Is telling a
tory or attempting q song. The Chinese
,erhaps think the same thing Of an Amer ,
can, who bites of his words and swal-
ows them or telescopes one into another. !
Business men in this city thrown In
,ontact with Chinese merchants who
peak pure Chinese say that it snot diff
nit to learn. Instead of 20 letters, not
including the useless q, the Chinese
500 or 600 syllables, and these are
,ombined into various forms 10 make the
1000 words in their dictionary These :
yllables vary In meaning according to
he tone in which they are SPOKEN Or the