Arizona silver belt., 1894-07-07
CHINESE LANGUAGE.
SOME OF THE cuRloSlTles OF THE
 LEAR SPLITTING JAReoN."

Notes of Birds-No Alphabet and No
 Parts of spcech--some Amusing Exam
 ples of Chinese Talk
 The superficial observer often refers to
 the Chinese spoken speech us an lear
 splitting jargon" and to the written
 speech as "hieroglyphics. Frequent vis-
 itors to any Chinese quarter" notably a large Chinatown" like that of Los
 Angeles, will soon become so familiar
 with this so called jargon as to note that
 1t is far more musical than the English
 speech. Musicians ate 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, This Is 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 lam
 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 all
 other tongues. Each tone is attached to
 a character, and one character is made
 to mean several different things, accord
 ing to the tone used. In Chinese the
 tone gives the meaning. Aword spoken
 with falling infection means one
 thing, and quite another when spoken
 with rising infection. We often hear a Chinaman, as he walks along the street talking with his companion, utter word in falling infection which sounds like n-go. This means "I." He is talking of himself-perhaps saying how great he thinks himself to be. But if he drawls out the sound long and even he is call ing some hoodlum goose" He gives the falling infection to the first syllable, and the rising infection to the last, and in rather musical voice. This would be 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 a minor key, but the tones are as infexi- ble as written words and must be so used, CT the exact meaning Is lost. All the expressions of human passions--laugh. tr or sorrow-must be expressed by the same inhexible words and precise ac- cents. There are only five tones in the Chinese voice, but as every word has all Jf its syllables accented there are % per mutations, and these are almost always in constant use, even in ordinary conver- cation. A question may be asked with or without rising infection, according to the word used.
 Chinese adjectiyes are nouns. For mary thanks" it is thank thank" A great man" is greatness man" Some times a noun is formed of noun and V srb, as barber, whom they call shave h, ad teacher" The verbs have neither m pods nor tenses, and when your laun- dryman wishes to tell you that T have wished" he says, 'I pass over wash" Tleir adyerbs are mostly formed by join ing together nouns and verbs, as finish di y" for yesterday" To cook is to "eat rite. Every noun is plural and includes all there is of that article, unless it is limited by the expression tone piece" as "one piece house" Instead of wife and children" they express family and wife"
 The word woman means father man." If repeated, it signifies "scolding.' The | uoun always remains in the same shape, | nd the verb has but one form instead of | t he many known to the English liIn- guage. The Chinese language has no de- elensions, subjugations, moods, tenses, cOniunctiols, adYerbs, first, second and third persons, no singular and plural, and no gender except by the addition of few participles in rare in- stanc ss. It is evidently simple and easy to learn, one of the simplest and most curiods things ab5ut it being, as above statGd, that every noun, unless qualified otherwise, Is plural.
 There are about 60, 900 characters used n the Chinese language proper, but the lyerage Chinaman no more learns all of hose characters than the everyday American learns the 100, 900 words in the English language, The Chinaman, how yer, learns on the average more than ioes an American in similar position n life. A Chinaman who can neither cad nor write is a rarity. Chinese is lot mouosyllabic language, as many uppose, and it is impossible to utter in Chinese any but the shortest sentences in 
 In writing the Chinaman makes one but integral character for ach word, but that word may be prop rly spoken in two, three or four sylla- ,les. His syllables are divided by no onger intervals than are his words, and hat is what makes his language sound o foreigner like a singsong jargon. We do not know whether he is telling a tory or attempting 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 is not diff ult to learn. Instead of 26 letters, not lcluding the useless &, the Chinese ave 800 or 500 syllables, and these are into various forms to make the 3 900 words in their dictionary" These yllables vary in meaning according to le tone in which they are spoken or the ,rokes used in writing them.-Los An { eles Cor. New York Post.