The Lake Charles echo., 1894-04-27
CHINESE LANGUAGE.
SOME OF THE cuRloslTlEs OF THE
r., : EAR SPLITTING JAReoNn

Musicians Say II Hus an Affinity wltl. the
Notes Of Blrds-Eo Alphabet AMI No
Parts of speoch--sono Amusing Exnm-
Plies Of Chinese Talk.
The superficial observer often rofcrs TO
the Chinese spoken speech as M ''oar
splitting jargon" and TO the written
speech as "hieroglyphios." Frequent Wis
ltors to any "Chinese quarter notably
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 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, This 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
guRge 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 Ia attached to
q character, and ono character Is 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 rising infection, We often hear
a Chinaman, as he walks along the street
talking with his companion, utter 0 word
in falling infection which sounds like
n-go. This means ~" 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" Ha gives
the falling infection to the first syllable,
and the rising infection to the last, and
in rather musical voice, This would
be a ditflcult feat for an American.
No matter In what mood he may be, he
may not and perhaps cannot change tho
accent. The voice may be louder or in
minor key, but the tones are as intlexi-
BILE as written words and must be 80 used,
or the exact meaning Is lost. All the
expressions Of human passiops-laugh-
ter or sorrow-must be expressed by the
same inaexibls words and precise ac-
cents. There are only five tones IN the
| Chinese voice, but as every word has all
of its syllahles accented there are 20 per-
mutations and these are almost always
in constant use, even in ordinary conver-
sation. A question may be asked with
or without rising infection, according
to the word used.
Chinese adjectiyes arc nouns. For
"many thanks" it Is "thank thank" A
great man" is greatness man." Some
| times a noun is formed of q noun and a
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 II have
washed" he says, II pass over wash >
| Their adyerbs are mostly formed by join
ing together nouns and verbs, as ''tinish
day" for yesterday" To cook Is to 'eat
rice" Every noun 10 plural and includes
all there Is Of that article, unless 1t is
limited by the expression tone piece" as
tone piece house" Instead Of wife and
children" they express "family and wife "
The word woman means "fatheT man, v
If repeated, it signifies 'scolding.p The
noun always remains in the same shape,
and the verb has but one form instead OF
the many known to the English Ian
guage. The Chinese language has no de.
clensions, subjugationsj moods, lenses,
propositions, coniunCtions, adverbs, first,
second and third persons, no angular
and plural, and no gender except by the
addition of u few paFticiples IN rare in
stances. 1t is evidently simple and easy
to learn, one of the simplest and most
curious things about 1t being, as above
stated, that every noun, unless qualified
otherwise, is plural,
There are about 10000 characters used
In the Chinese language proper, but tho
average Chinaman no more learns all Of
| those characters than the everyday
American learns the 100, 900 words in tho
English Language. The Chinaman, how
ever, learns on the average more than
| does an American in a similar position
in life. A Chinamap who can neither
read nor write is rarity. Chinese i
not a monosyllabic language, as many
suppose, and It Is impossible to utter ~
Chinese any but the shortest sentences ir
monosyllablas,
| In writing the Chinaman makes ont
| complicated but integral character fol
each word, but that word may be prop
erly spolsn in two, three or four sylla
bles. His syllables are divided by nt
longer intervals than arc bis words, and
that Il what makes his language sound
to a foreigner Ike q sipgsong jargon
We do not know whether he Is telling 1
story or g,tempting q song The Chinese
perhapsfthipt thesanle thing Of an Amer
i lean, who bites OIL his words and swal
lows them or telescopes one into another
Business men IN this city thrown II
contact with Chinese merchants whC
sneak pure Chinese say that II Is not ditii
cult 70 learn Insiead of 2e letters, mol
| including the useless &, tle Chiness
have zoo o. 600 syllables, and these ar.
combined into various forms % make tht
90. 900 words IN their dictionary Thest
syllables vary In meaning according tc
tie tone II which they are spoken OF ths
i strokes used IN writing them, Los An
| geles Cor. New York Post,