Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1894-09-08
CHINESE LANGUAGE.
SOME or THE cuRiosiriEs or THE
.EAR SPLITTING JARooN..

Musicians say n H.s an Aninisy with the
Notes af nirdx-Ne Aiphsbss and No
Parts sf Speech Some Amssfnx EXAM
pie. 81 Chinese rslk.
The superficial observer often refers to |
the Chinese spoken speech as an '.ear
speech rs "hierogiyphics." Frequent Wis
itors to any Chinese quarter" notably
large Chinatown" like that OF Los
Angeles, viii soon become so familiar
with this 80 called jargon as to note that
1t is 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. Thisis 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 all
other tongues. Each tone Is attached to
q character, and one character IL made
to mean several different things, accord
| ing to the tone used. In Chinese the
| tone gives the meaning. Aword spoken
with a falling infection means one
thing, and quite another when spoken
with a rising infection. We often hear
q Chinaman. as he walks along the street
talking with his companion, utter word
In falling infection which sounds like
n-go. This means II" He IL talking OF
himself perhaps saying how great he
thinks himself to be. But II 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
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
same infexible words and precise nc .
cents. There are only five tones In the
Chinese voice, but as every word has all
OF its syllables accented there are 25 per-
mutations, and these are almost always
In constant use, even in ordinary convcr-
sation. A question may be asked with
or without a rising infection. according
to the word used.
Chinese adjectives are nouns. For
"many thanks" /, is '.thank thank" A
great man" is GREATNESS man." Some
times a noun In formed OF noun and q
verb, as '.barber," whom they call ''shave-
head teacher The verbs have neither
moods nor lenses, and when your laun'
dryman wishes to tell you that ~ have
washed" he says, II pass over wash.
Their adverbs are mostly formed by join
ing together nouns and verbs. as ''finisf
day" for yesterday" To cook is to .'eal
rice" Every noun Is plural and includes
all there IL of that article, unless 1t l.
J limited by the expression lone piece" al
lone piece house" Instead of wife ant
children they express family and wife.
The word woman means "father man.
If repeated, 1t signifies ''scolding." Th'
noun always remains in the same shape
! and the verb has but one form instead o
, the many known to the English Ian
guage. The Chinese language has no de
, clensions, subjugations, moods. lenses
. propositions, conjunctions, adverbs. first
] second and third persons. no singular
and plural. and no gender except by th'
, addition Of few participles In rare in
stances. It is evidently simple and cas-,
] TO learn. one Of the simplest and mos
curious things about 1t being. as abov'
stated, that every noun, unless qualifes
9 otherwise. is plural.
There are about 60, 900 characters use'
] In the Chinese language proper, bnt tn
e average Chinaman no more learns all o
J, those characters than the everyda,
! American learns the 100 900 words in tn
English language. The Cfzinaman. how
: ever, learns on the average more thai
D does an American In a similar position
in life. A Chinaman who can neithe
o read nor write Is a rarity. Chinese
q not q monosyllabic language. as man
suppose. and 1t Is impossible to utter i
Chinese any but the shortest sentences i
monosyllables.
In writing the Chinaman makes on
! complicated but integral character 70
each word. but that word may be pror
ely spoken In two. three or four sylls
I bles. His syllables are divided by n
: longer intervals than are his words, an
that IL what makes his language SCUM
y : to foreigner like q singsong jargor
: We do not know whether he Is telling
: !. story OF attempting song. The Chimes
! perhaps think the same thing Of an Amer
= ican, who bites of his words and swal
I lows them or telescopes one into another
!. Business men in this city thrown /
contact with Chinese merchants VIII
speak pure Chinese say that it Is not diff
cult to learn. Instead OF 20 letters. nc
including the useless a.. the Chimes
have 500 or 900 syllables, and these ar
combined into various forms to make th
a co. 900 words In their dictionary" Thes
|, syilabies vary In meaning according I
!. the tone in which they are spoken or TIA
4 strokes nsed in writing them.-Los An
!, geles Cor. New York Post.