466 CHINA (LANGUAGE AND LITEKATUBE) by Medhurst in his Chinese dictionary, and are used throughout this article : 20 initials ch, ch f, g, h, j, *, F, Z, m, n, p, p s, ah, t, f, ts, U y ; 55 finals a, d, oe, an, tin, ang, dng, aou, ay, e, ea, eae, eang, eaou, eay, ee, een, ei, elh, en, eft, eu, eu&, euen, euh, eun, eung, ew, lh, in, ing, o, 6, oo, ow, uS, uen, uh, un, ung, wih, uy, wa, w&, wae, wan, wan, wang, wang, wei, wo, wo, wuh, wuy, ze. One of the most important elements in Chinese orthoepy, and one upon which it is admitted to be most difficult to make one's self understood by a stranger, is the tones. These are certain modulations of the voice, which, applied to a vocable, determine respectively the different meanings of the word so spoken. The tones of the language have a history which shows a gradual change from ancient times to the present. According to Edkins, there was a time when the Chinese did not differ from other languages in the mat- ter of tones. In the time of the Chow dynas- ty (12th to 8d century B. C.) there were but three, the even, long, and short, or 1st, 2d, and 4th of the present series. During the Han period (206 B. C. to A. D. 237) another tone began to make its appearance, the receding, or 8d of the category. At some period not earlier than the 10th, century, the first was divided into an upper and lower, thus forming a 5th tone; and so was completed the system we find in use now in the midland and western Mandarin-speaking regions. The 1st or even tone is the musical monotone, neither admitting of inflection in the tone nor variation in the volume of voice. The 2d or long tone is that rising inflection which is heard in our own language, in every question that indicates some degree of surprise, and in the common expres- sions ah ! indeed! The 3d or receding tone is a monotone like the even, with this difference, that it is an inverted swell, and dies away upon the ear like the tones of receding music. The 4th or short tone may be regarded as an abrupt monotone, like the a in the English word rat, omitting the final consonant. In Canton all the four tones are divided into upper and low- er, forming eight in all. In the Shanghai dia- lect there are also eight. In Foochow there are theoretically eight tones, but practically only seven. In the neighborhood of Amoy there are seven ; and in the Hakka dialect in Canton province there are only six. The most recent change among the tones is the abandonment of the short in the Peking dialect, where the words of that class are distributed among the other three classes, leaving only four tones now in that region. Gutzlaff thus divides the syllables of the language among the four tones : 1st tone, 538; 2d, 501; 3d, 519; 4th, 221. Besides the aspirates and tones, accent is also to be taken into account, as modifying the ut- terance of a word; particular members of a sentence, according to the dialect, being sub- ject to this modification. Chinese possesses a grammar, in which all the parts of speech are nearly as well defined as in that of any other language ; but depending as it does so much on the value of position among the members of a sentence, it is less flexible than that of inflected tongues. Polysyllabic nouns are formed in various ways, among which are the following : 1. The combination of a root noun with a final particle, as yin-tsze, silver, where yin is the root and tszb the particle ; jlh Vow, sun, where fih is the root and t" ow the particle. 2. Com- bination of a root noun with a personal suffix, as chad jin, master, composed of chob, master, and jin, man; ndng-foo, agriculturist, from ndng, farmer, and/oo, person- fob-hob, butch- er, from fob, butcher, and hoo, resident ; muh- tsedng, carpenter, from muh, wood, and Uedng, mechanic ; shwAy-shbw, water-carrier, from shwtiy, water, and snow, hand. 3. Combina- tion of a specific noun with a generic, as plh- shod, the cypress, from plh, cypress, and shoo, tree; U-yA, the carp, from U, carp, and yd, fish ; td-U-shlh, marble, from td-U, the name of a place, and shlh, stone. 4. Combination of a number with a root noun, giving a special meaning, as sze-pabu, writing materials, from see, four, and paou, precious objects (i. e., ink, pallet, pencil, and paper) ; plh-shng, the peo- ple, from plh, a hundred, and sing, surnames. 5. Combination of two substantives of allied meaning, asfung-suh, custom ; e-sze, meaning. 6. Combination of two antithetic roots, as tung-se, thing, from tung, east, and se, west; td-seaon, size, from ta, great, and seabu, little. 7. Combination of two roots in construction, as swdn-fd, arithmetic, from swdn, calculation, and fa, laws of; shoo-fdng, library, from shoo, books, and/<Jw<7, room. 8. Combination of an adjective and a substantive, as labu-shob, rat, from ladu, old, and thob, the genus mm ; ledng- sin, the conscience, from Hang, good, and sin, heart. 9. Combinations of three, four, and more syllables are not uncommon, as mae-mae- jin, a trader, from mat, buying, mae, selling, and jin, man ; leae-kwft-jin, foreigner, from wae, foreign, kw&, country, andjtn, man. Ad- jectives are chiefly distinguished by the addi- tion of the syllable tdh to a qualifying root, as habn-telh, good; plh-telh, white. Some- times they are formed by the combination of two roots of allied meaning, as lan-tb, lazy, from Ian, idle, and to, indolent. Ordinal num- bers are formed by prefixing te to the cardinal, as san, three, te-san, third. The personal pro- nouns are wo, I; ne, thou ; fa, he or she. The plural is formed by the addition of the syllable mun, as wo-mun, we. Verbs are formed by the combination of two or more syllables: 1. By a root and an auxiliary, as na-lae, to bring, from nd, to take, and lae, come ; lce-tih, to remem- ber, from ke, to remember, and tih, obtain. 2. By two verb roots, as he-hwan, to rejoice, from he, to be pleased, and hwan, to be delight- ed. 3. By a verb and a noun root, as hw6- hwd, to talk, from shw6, to say, and hied, words. Adverbs are formed in various ways, by the combination of two or more syllables, as U-meen, inside, i. e., inner face; wae-fow.
