The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-09-30

m ip.tanoe Of a language tending 10 return
10 the. stage which IL has left, and ~
IL rare that = language abandons ir =
higher stage that in which custom ana
literature have fixed II. For example, China Is
the near neighbor and even the titular sover-
eign OF the country Of the Manchus and OF the
Eastern Mongols. She has been conquered by
both At different times, but she has borrowed
nothing from their idioms, which are agglu-
~tinative, although poor specimens OF the class;
while, on the other hand, her own influence
over their idioms Is almost nil, In spite OF the
ascendancy Of her superior civilization. For
trading purposes, the Chinese language spreads
beyond the great wall 10 the north and west, and
Is spoken within the towns situated In the Mon
sol and Manchu country; outside OF the towns
however, the natives keep their own vernacular.
How has IL Jared with Corea7 The mountain
Gus peninsula which juts out southwark between
the Yellow Sea and the Sea OF Japan was occu-
pied from the twelfth TO the first century Il. G.
by the Chinese, and has retained from the Lam
guage of the conquerors n number OF names OF
objects, of administrative divisions, and OF occu-
pations Of all sorts. Yet the Corcans have had
language of their own, for the most part not
akin TO the Chinese In respect Of vocabulary,
and weakly. but certainly agglutinatlve, from
time immemorial. They have also an alphabet.
(of Indo-Thibetan origin. II Is believed, but
khhNy Wv hA'b 6NtNA " w iathhNa ~ 10y
considerable extent any more than the Thibet-
ans by the possession Of this instrument
Of progress. Unlike the Thibetans. however,
the Coreans have not been reduced to intel
lectual childhood by q debased form of Buddh-
ism. In Corea, Buddhism is. as II lie in China,
at once official and despised, and NJ. Lefevre
would seek the cause which has hitherto con-
demned the country to a semi-barbarous con-
dition in the influence Of fear. Afraid alike Of
Mi. - &c.,. al... l.... ,,,,ul. nfaa,.t , M
isolation which produced Intellectual torpor.
Until quite lately We were indebted almost ex-
clusively to Catholic and Protestant missionaries
for geographical details and for Information re-
garding the people. It's customs. and its govern
ment. There Is extant n Corean-Frcnch diction-
airy, the work OF q priest who escaped the massa-
ere Of 1886, and q Corcan grammar in French has
been published at Yokohama. notwithstanding
the recent opening OF certain ports. our knowl-
edge OF the Corean people is still far from extern
sive; we know that there is a King who nom
inally possesses absolute power: that, in
reality, the power has been exercised by
great chiefs who surround him with all the
forms Of servile respect: that the nation Is di-
vided into mobiles, plebcians, and slaves; that
the married women are sequestered; that
polygamy exists; that u belief in genii and an
cestor worship prevails; that there are survivals
Of fire worship. and that the custom of mourn
ing Is so rigorous that a son Is obliged tn weep
for his deceased father three times a day at
stated hours for three years. and to abstain for
the same period from all public functions. These
customs would scarcely be regarded by eth
nologists ns uncommon, but in two or
three respects the Coreans are peculiar.
They do not spin or weave wool; In
winter they merely wear a greater amount of
hempen and cotton clothing, and their soldiers
wear cuirasses lined with many folds of similar
material, which were proof against the bullets
OF old times: violet and olive are the favorite
colors, white and green being for mourning.
Let us look now at the language OF the Kaok-
aiuli, or Korai, Of which we have made Coreans;
1t is the appellation OF one of the northern
provinces. To their country they prefer to
give a name which recalls its situation between
the empire OF the centre and the land OF the
rising sun. viz. Tchiaosicn, or Chosen, which
means the clearness Of morning. According
to the missionary ballet, the CoreRn language
In grammatical structure somewhat resem-
bles the Tongus and Uralian idioms. The
ORGANIZATIONS OF the verbs vary according to the
sex and condition of the interlocutors. The pro-
nunciation is harsh ard full OF asplrates, drawl-
ing and indistinct; each phrase ends with a pc
culiar cultural difficult to reproduce. The
liquid ! is not clearly heard. The vowels, four
teen in number, are uncertain. and inclined to
be diphthongs. The written characters consist Of
rather more than 200 signs. some syllable, 9TH
ers alphabetic. But one learns with astonish-
ment that educated people disdain to
use them. According to Elistc Reclus, the in
PRODUCTION of q number Of foreign words,
Chinese In the north, japanese in the south,
has given birth to various jargons which are
widely spoken In the centres OF The
official language is Chinese. Just ms in Europe
In the middle ages, Latin, the language OF the
lettered. persisted side by side with the local
idioms. so the written Chinese Is maintained In
Corea, together with the language OF the people;
but 1t Is pronounced in such n fashion that the
Chinese could not understand it without
an interpreter. According TO the mission
airy Daveluy, the vocabulary of certain dis
tricts is composed entirely Of Chinese words.
with Corean examinations. Every person. every
thing has two names, one Corcan, the other Co
rcanized Chinese, and these synonymes enter
freely into the speech of all c.gsses. 1t is, how
ever, the vocabulary only that is mixed, not the
structure; the agglutinative character of the
language is exhibited even In the elements Dor
rowed from the Chinese monosyllabism.