THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2161, 7 December 1875, Page 4

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.

The ancient alphabets .with which we are acquainted, were symbols representing material objects. In the Hebrew language "aleph^' an ox; "beth," ahouse; " gimel," a, camel; arid " daleth," a door, are the »lph,a, beta, gamma, delta, 6f the Greek, and a, b, g, dof the Lathi. /[ The Chinese have no idea of a phonetic alphabet. Their language was originally written in 214 characters, representing material objects,; and:ar? said to haye been suggested fittjiir the marks found on the back of the tortoise, and from, tracks of birds' feet iv the snow. As their civilisation advanced, "they were foiind insufficient,-but by an ihgeniptis combination of two or more radicals' to form one character, managed to make them express Abstract; ideas and actions of the understanding: Thus; for example, the characters for sun and moon represent " brightness," nothing being brighter than the sun and moon. The figure 8i With- a knifebelow, represents " division." ,-A,n enclosure divided into four parts stands for a farmi Thousands of similar examples might be cited illustrative of the patience and ingenuity of the people. The Chinese characters are ideographic, every character representing an idea or an object. Their language at present is i; wr;itten with forty thousand, characters. r^To. learn such, a.number of letters would require . the labour of a lifetime were it not that a key is to' be found in the original 214 radicals, so that a man of ordinary capacity can acquire the language as quickly as he could Latini Greek, or modern languages. The composition "of the Chinese language differs from all others. The words do not pluralize,. nor the verbs change in the different moods and tenses —there is no grammar. The writing and composition of the language arc based on written rules; to follow the example of their authors is the, standard. , Their ; writing was done at first with an iron style on slips of bamboo, each chapter being tied together, s6 thaif i \bobk containing as much, matter a*s the Ne:vr Testament would be as large as a bale of hay. In writing thfey begin at the right - hand side of the page,.and continue downwards ;■ their system is precisely opposite to that of ours. Great diversity' exists in fthe spoken dialects of the Chinese, so riiuch so that the natives of different provinces are absolutely unintelligible to each other, yet the written medium is easily understood, and writing, instead of speaking, constitutes the universal method of exchanging ideas.-: The"'written language of the Chinese being symbolical, the same symbols are used! in all parts, of the empire to represent the ideas, so that a man readily understands a book though he . may speak a different dialect from the author. ■ \Beybhd the limits of Chinese rule, the Chinese character is written and understood throughout Tartary, Thibet, Corea, Loo Choo, Siam, and Japan, and the same mode of writing is current and legible, so that a man who can write the Chinese language catti "make himself understood throughout these vast regions. What a stimulus does, this afford to an active and intelligent mind when engaged in studying the Chinese language or writing. a book for their instruction that he is doing what can be made available tothe benefit of so many millions, and that to the latest generation. Such a book requires but printing and circulating in order to edify and enlighten one-third of the human race.—Cooktown Herald.