ON THE AMOY COLLOQUIAL DIALECT. 83 



provinces, but it is probable that there are more than one hundred. 

 In the province of Fuh Kian there are at least five, each one unin- 

 telligible in all other districts. 



There was a time when the European languages were deemed unfit 

 for the use of learned men, and when all books were written in Latin, 

 so that a man who could not read Latin was shut off from all the 

 literature of the age. Whatever then might be a man's native 

 language, it was necessary for him to learn to read Latin. This is 

 the case in China at the present day. No books are to be found in 

 one's mother tongue ; the language of books must be acquired by 

 long and patient study. But, unlike the Latin, the written language 

 of China can neither be read aloud intelligibly, nor spoken. There 

 are so few sounds in this monosyllabic language, that the name and 

 sound of a character give no certain clue to its meaning. By the 

 people of the different provinces the names of the characters are 

 uttered so differently that they are unintelligible to each other. The 

 literati of China have therefore no spoken language adapted to their 

 use in conversation on elevated subjects. The Chinese scholar gives 

 and receives instruction solely from the printed page. If conversa- 

 tion on topics of science or literature be attempted, the defects of the 

 spoken language are supplemented by the introduction and interpo- 

 lation of well known and trite citations from the books. Some 

 "book-phrases " have thus become a part of the ordinary colloquial 

 language of the common people and are perfectly understood by all. 

 Other phrases, less frequently cited among the uneducated, are in 

 constant use among the literary, and serve to make up for the meagre 

 vocabulary of the colloquial dialect. Chinese pedants employ so 

 many of these " book-phrases " in their ordinary conversation that 

 they are not understood by men of considerable literary culture. 



The Mandarin or Court Dialect, the only comfnon language through-^ 



out China. 



For many centuries Nankin was the capital of China, and its 

 spoken language has maintained to the present day its position as the 

 court dialect of the whole Empire. A Chinese, who can read the 

 books with the Nankin pronunciation of the characters, and can speak 

 the Nankin colloquial, may converse freely on any subject with men of 

 like training from any part of the Empire. The Chinese officers, and 

 indeed those seeking official positions, all speak this dialect, without 



