The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-02
ALESSON IN CHINESE.
a Wade Mecum to Elucidate Eastern
War Dispatches.
From the Burlington Hawkeye.

rum the DURING TON A1dHktgH-
Newspaper readers who attentively fol-
low the course Of events in Eastern Asia
are doubtless oftentimes puzzled over the
queer names of Chinese and Korean towns
and cities. and wonder over their mean
ing. Although not in complete mastery
Of the language Of the CeIestials. we are
able to give the patrons Of THE Hawk
eye" the meaning of some of the sounds,
and syllables which occur most frequently
in Chinese names. Thus hei means black;
hia, the lower; huang. yellow; nan. south
ern: PAL. white; pei, northern; pc, white;
shang, the upper; 81, western; siad, small;
ia, large, great; tung, eastern. The end
ings have q qualifying meaning. and here
is a list of them: Ain means mountain
chof. city; chen. city; chuang, village;
goi, stream; hada, mountain; hal. lake;
no, river; hoto. city; hotum, city; hu,
lake; XIII, stream; khinno, bridge; khon
mouth of a river; giang, river; kon,
stream; kuenn, fort or camp; ling. pass,
men, gate; muren, river; nor, lake or
swamp; ONO, lake; pc, lake or swamp;
phu, village; sha, sandbank; shan, is
land or mountain; shut, stream; so. fort
or camp; stu, village; tas, island; tschang
village; tschen, city; tchu. river; tchuan
river; than, rapids; thun, village ten,
lake or swamp; ten, village; tse, lake in
swamp; tsi, village; ulua, river; ussu,
stream; wei, fort or camp; ying, fort or
camp.
This small list which contains no less
than eleven different words all meaning
stream or river. gives an idea Of the wealth
of words of the Chinese language. The
difficulties of learning the language of
these Orientals for foreigners are enor-
nous, and it is as equally difficult to
learn to write as to speak 1t. The Chinese
use about $1,000 different signs or charac-
ters in their writing and often a combina-
ton of thirty or forty of these is neces-
sary to express the meaning of a single
idea. The Japanese, however, progress
sive in everything, are on the way to
emancipating themselves from the bane
of such language; they are making ef-
forts to introduce the Latin characters in
general use. substituting them for the Co.
600 characters which they have taken
from the Chinese and kept in use with
slight alterations. The Romantic charac-
tiers are taught in the better schools and
already one or more newspapers in the
japanese language appear, printed in La
tin letters.
A peculiar squabble abont words has
dAAHtAl AIOli 0llilld declaration OF War
against Japan, dated Aug. l. In it the
japanese are termed as "Wo" or IVA. >"
which means Servants" or ''vassals. :"
The word had been used for long centuries
as the name of the japanese, but latterly
it has received a eontemptuous meaning
and as the japanese have for quite while
past claimed the name of "Ji-Kwo'' or
'Ji-pen," the people of the Land of
the Rising Sum-" they looked upon the ap-
pellation given them by the Chinese as an
intentional and deadly insult. Japan IS
not the only country however, which
complains about Chinese want of cour-
tesy. Other foreign persons have had
reason to protest against the habit of the
Chinese government to insert in the con-
tident belief, that the foreigners would not
comprehend the meaning, terms in the
treaties made with them which were any
thing but flatterir,g. Foreign ambassa-
doris. therefore, became more careful and
employed experienced interpreters to care
fully search all documents composed in
the Chinese language for any opprobrious
terms. When the cunning Chinese noticed
this, they fastened to reconciliate the for
eigners, by applying to them in their docu-
ments the most fiattering terms of en-
dearment. And hence England is to-day
by the Chinese called "Ying-Two," the
1ourishing; France, "Fa-Two," the land
where laws live; Italy, 1.-TWO" the
land of justice; Germany "Te-Two," the
one rich in virtues, and the United States.
Mel Kwo," the beautiful