Chinese Language

The superficial observer of ten refera to the Chinese spoken speech as an "ear eplitting jargon" and to the written epeech as "hieroglyphics." Frequent visltors 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 it ia 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 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 language has more symbols than all of the alphabets in the universe combined, and thre 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, according to the tone used. In Chinese the tone gives the meaning. A word spoken with a falling inflection means one thing, and quite another when spoken with a rising inflection. We often hear a Chinaman, as he walks along the street talking with his companion, utter a word in a falling inflection 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 calling some hoodlum a "goose." He gives the falling inflection to the first syllable, and the rising inflection to the last, and in a rather musical voice. This would be a 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 inflexible as written words and must be so used, or the exact meaning is lost. All the expressions of human passions - laughter or sorrow - must be expressed by the same inflexible words and precise accents. There are only five tones in the Chinese voice, but as every word has all of its syllables accented there are 25 permutations, and these are almost always in constant use, even in ordinary conversation. A question may be asked with or without_a rising iuflection, according to the word used. Chinese adjectives are nouns. For "many thanks" it is "thank thank." A "great man" is "greatness man." Sometimes a noun is formed of a noun and a verb, as ' 'barber," whom they cali ' 'shavehead teacher." The verbs have neither inoods nor tenses, and when your lanndryman wishes to teil you that "I have washed" he says, "I pass over wash." Their adverbs are mostly formed by joining together nouns and verbs, as "finish day" for "yesterday." To cook is to "eat rice." Every noun is plural and includes all there is of that article, unless it is limited by the expression "one piece," as "one piece house." Instead of "wife and children" they express "family and wife." The word wonian m eans ' ' father man." If repeated, it signifies "scolding." The noun always reinains in the same shape, and the verb has but one f orm instead of the many known to the English language. The Chinese language has no declensions, subjugations, moods, tenses, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, first, second and third persons, no singular and plural, and no gender except by the addition of a few participles in rare instances. It is evidently simple and easy to learn, one of the simplest and most curious things about it being, as above stated, that every noun, nnless qualified otherwise, is plural. There are about 60,000 charactere used in the Chinese language proper, but the average Chinaman no more learns all of those characters than the everyday American learns the 100,000 words in the English language. The Chinaman, however, learns on the average more than does an American in a similar position in life. A Chinaman who can neither read nor write is a rarity. Chinese is not a monosyllabic langtiage, as ■ many suppose, and it is impossible to utter in Chinese any but the shortest sentences in monosyllables. In writing the Chinaman makes one complicated but integral character for each word, but that word inay be properly spoken in two, three or four syllables. His syllables are divided by no longer intervals tlian are his words, and that is what makes his language sound to a foreigner like a singsong jargon. We do not know whether he is telling a story or attempting a song. The Chinese perhaps thiuk the same thing of an American, who bites off his words and swallows them or telescopes one into another. Business inen in this city thrown in contact wit.h Chinese ïnerchants who speak pure Chinese say that it is not difficult to learn. Instead of 26 letters, not including the useless &, the Chinese have 500 or 600 syllables, and these are combined into various f orms to make the 60,000 words intheir"dictionary." These Byllables vary in meaning according to the tone in which they are spoken or the