The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-05-23
CHiNA'S TWO LANGUAGES
One Is Written, and the Other, Very Much
Different. Is Spoken.

Dlnerent. Is Spoken.
G. Imbault Huart, in a manual for
the acquisition of the spoken Chinese
language, gives some interesting in
formation about this tongue, con-
corning which very little is general
ly known, and that very little very
lnaccurately. Mr., Huart lays it down
as principle that there are two dis
tlnct languages in China, or, more
accurately speaking. two forms of
the same language, 1ke one written
and the other spoken.
"The first consists of signs or char
actors of one or more strokes of the
brush, to each of which is conven-
tionally attached a sound.
AS the keyboard of the human
voice is limited and as it was impos-
sible for the cycle of Chinese knowl-
edge to be so, it results that we find
host of characters that have iden-
tically the same sound-that is to
say, that are pronounced alike, while
at the same time havinga particular
sense.
In consequence of this multiplicity
of homophonous terms, this language
cannot be spoken; it is only to be
written. 1t has as it's principal char
acter absolute monosyllabism.
The spoken language, on the con-
trary, is polysyllabic Most of the
words therein are formed of the ag-
gregation of two or more sounds, to
each of which, in the written Ian
guage, corresponds a single charac-
ter. 1t is spoken, not written.
The principal character of every
primitive language has been mono
syllabism. Every language, mono
syllable in it's infancy, has afterward
developed, by means of various proc
esses, which in the European
languages have been juxtaposition,
attraction, composition, etc, and
in the Semitic languages, detection,
and thus polysyllabism has been
reached
The same has been the case with
the Chinese. The spoken language,
says Mr.. Huart, had necessarily to
originate before the written, and the
Chinese characters were devised for
figuring the idea that the sounds of
the spoken language represented.
Mr.. Huart gives an example that
clearly shows how the spoken Ian
guage passed from monosyllabism
to polysyllabism. The sound fou,
having several meanings, would have
inevitably led to confusion. Upon
this sound being heard isolatedly, it
could not have been known what fou
it was question of, whether it con-
cerned father wife" of "to
hide, " etc.
In order to avoid such ambiguity,
the Chinese added to fou, father, {"
the word ts'inn, relative" and fou-
ts'inn, father relative" then signi-
fed father. :" To fou, "wife," was
added jenn, "human being" and
fou-jenn. then signified woman, -
wife" Before fou, "to hide" was
placed mai, to inter-" and mai-fou
took the meaning of "to place ones
self in ambush" etc.
The idiom has become fixed by u.s.
age-a word under the protection of
which everything is placed in China.
The most learned member of the For
est of Pencils Institute of China)
would be incapable of Analysing the
first sentence presented to him or of
explaining it dramatically.
If he were asked why the sentence
was constructed in such a manner
rather than in another, or why such
word was found at the beginning
and not at the end, he would never
be able to tell.
He would answer that he knew
that it should be so, but that he did
not know why. The Europeans and
Americans are the only ones capable
I of Analysing a sentence, and they
alone have been able to deduce rules
of grammar and syntax in order to
guide students and teach them to
learn correctly how to construct Chi.
nese sentences Revue Scien.
tifique.
Ambiguity That Evoked q Smile.