271 



( II IN A. 



' r pi ii examining dictionary for a pnrticular cha- 

 i ictrr, it to find ill key or root, which is placed i n the 

 right, on the left, at the top, or at the bottom, and 

 which a little practice toon enables the learner to dis- 

 tinguith. The men. ing of the character may then, sonic- 

 tune*, be conjee turcd from the root or key ; as the sign 

 of the hand, found to be the key of any character, would 

 imply, that it expressed some work of art, trade, or manu- 

 facture ; or that of the lifarl, tome of the passions, af- 

 fections, or sentiment* of the mind. When it is neces- 

 sary to proceed farther, to ascertain the precise meaning 

 from the dictionary, the next step is to count the num- 

 ber of lines or points in the character, without including 

 thotf of the key or root ; and this is considered as one 

 of the most perplexing exercises to the beginner, as he 

 it apt to reckon those lines, which are merely termina- 

 tions, or joinings of the different strokes, and which he 

 can learn to distinguish, only by being accustomed to 

 write, as well as to understand the characters. Suppose 

 then the character, for which the dictionary is consulted, 

 to have, as its key, the simple sign expressing nater, 

 and to contain, besides, six additional lines or points, the 

 scholar turns to the place, where the character water 

 stand*, at the top of the page, and looks along the mar- 

 gin, till he find the numerical character six, when he 

 will perceive all the characters in succession, which are 

 formed of the sign of water, with six additional lines. Be- 

 tides the signification of the character, its name or sound 

 is, at the same time, expressed by the alphabetical signs, 

 already describi-d ; as, for instance, to shew the pro- 

 fiunciation of the character tc/iong faithful, tin-re would 

 be found underneath it the words Iclicc, and /UOH;;, with 

 the term /4/f to cut or divide, denoting, that the initial 

 tch and the final oong are to be divided or separated from 

 their r, spec-live words, and joined together, to form the 

 sound required, tchoong. There are dictionaries also 

 among the Chinese, arranged according to the accents, 

 by which, if the pronunciation of the character is known, 

 the signification may be found ; and others, in which the 

 characters are distributed, as in a vocabulary, under dif- 

 ferent heads, where, if their meaning is known, their 

 name and prunurciation will be found. 



Grammar. I" *'"-" Chinese spoken language, there is no b, <1, r, r, 

 or ;; no word begins with a or <; and all of them ter- 

 minate with the vowels, a, c, i, o, u, ou, or the consonants 

 , ng, and I. The grammatical construction of the lan- 

 guage is extremely simple. There is no inflexion of ter- 

 mination ; but every character remains the same un- 

 changeable monosyllable, through all its numbers, per- 

 sons, moods, or tenses ; and may be employed as a noun, 

 adjective, or verb, without the smallest variation in its 

 found or form. The signification is thus determined by 

 expletives or particles, which are frequently omitted in 

 the written language, especially in the more elevated 

 compositions ; but which are more numerous in the 

 spoken language, and colloquial style. 



In tul>ttantivct,\.\\e genitive case is formed by the par- 

 ticles te, tie, tchc, placed after the nominative ; or, when 

 these are suppressed, by putting the word in regiminc 

 before the other, as Icia-tc/ioo of the house the master ; 

 the dative, by the particles eu or ec preceding the word ; 

 the accusative by its petition, which is almost uniformly 

 after the verb j the ablative, by the particles lung or 

 ttuae before the noun ; and the plural number is produ- 

 ced by the addition of the syllable men, or mun, or by 

 tome word expressive of quantity or plurality, as tojin 

 many men, or by repeating the noun, tjin,jin, men. 



Adtcctivrt. ^ n *dj ccl ' ret there is no termination to express agree- 

 ment with the tubstantive io gender or number - r but 



tin y are generally placed before the noua. Many ad 

 jrctivcsare formed from the genitive of the substantive, a 



- !'. 



i .,,. 



e 



r-i whiteness, jiai-lic white, litiu goodness hait //rgood; 

 luit, when united with a noun, the particle is generally 

 omitted, as liau /in, a good man. The comparative de- 

 gree is formed by prefixing the particle / fiau, 

 better; and the superlative, by re-pealing the word as 

 liiiii-.l.iiii very good, or by adding farther the particle 

 /iV, as liau /tan-lit'. 



The personal pronouns are go, or tigo, I ; if, thou ; Pronouns. 

 la, he; of which the plurals arc nn-o-ruun, we ; /ic-mu/i, 

 you ; la mun, they. The sign of the genitive converts 

 these into postessives ; as ngti-tif, mine ; tie tie, thine ; 

 la-lie, hit; ngo-muntie, ours; nc-mun-tie, yours; ta- 

 niun-lit; theirs. 



The genders are sometimes expressed by particles pre- Genders, 

 fixed, as ntin-jin, a man, niu-jin, a woman ; but diffcieiit 

 words are employed in the case of animals, as kotig a 

 male, and inuo a female quadruped ; Hi' n ^ or kio, a 

 male, and moo or ise a female bird. 



In verbs, there are only three tenser, that can be said Verbs. 

 to be distinctly marked, the present, the past, and the 

 future, as ngo-lai, I come, rigo-lai-leao, I come or have 

 come, ngo-thau-lai, or ngo-ncc-lai, I shall or will come, 

 or, when any determined future purpose is expressed, 

 xirr;-i/i/cN-<r-/i, I am determined to come. The other 

 moods and tenses are marked by particles, adverbs, or 

 even by other vcibs ; as in the imperative, or at least what 

 corresponds with that mood, it is often said, Kate klice, 

 to open begin. In like manner, a passive signification 

 is expressed by certain particles, such as t/icc, equivalent 

 to is or are, pee to was or were, &c. 



The syntax is also simple and easy ; the nominative Syntax, 

 generally preceding, and the accusative following the 

 verb. The chief difficulty consists in properly placing 

 the prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, and other par- 

 ticles, upon the exact position of which the meaning and 

 elegance of the expression often entirely depend. The 

 two negatives mo and poo are particularly frequent ii 

 the spoken language, and have a very extensive use. 

 The first, generally employed along with the verb yen, 

 expresses want, or deficiency, as mu-yeu-nai, there is no 

 milk, I have no milk; the latter denotes an opposite 

 quality to the word, which ii accompanies, as halt, good, 

 poo-fiau, bad ; je, hot, pooje, cold. 



The mode of teaching the written language, as prac- M 0(!f of 

 tised among the Chinese, appears to be exceedingly te- teaching, 

 dious and preposterous. Instead of teaching first the 

 signification of the simple root--, and the analysis of the 

 compound characters ; and afterwards, or, at the same 

 time, the sounds or pronunciation; the scholar continues, 

 for live or six years, to learn to name the several charac- 

 ters, without attending to their meaning. He is next 

 employed, for at least four years more, in learning to 

 form the characters, by tracing copies faintly drawn with 

 red ink, and then, by imitating them on fresh paper ; in 

 combining the pronunciation with the writing, by na- 

 ming the lines and points which compose a character, 

 and describing the form and order, in which these lines 

 must be placed, in drawing the character ; and in ac- 

 quiring the difficult talent of following the motions of a 

 person's finger, describing the different characters in the 

 air. Thus a youth, of fourteen or sixteen years of age, 

 is able to wrile and name a multitude of characters, with- 

 out knowing the meaning of one. The last step is to 

 analyse the characters by the help of a dictionary, and 

 to understand the use and signification of the writ- 

 ten language. In this way, the scholar passes through, 

 a regular course of reading ar.d hard study. 



