ON THE AMOY COLLOaUIAL DIALECT. 89 



a first and a seventli tone thus being changed into two seventh tones. 

 "Thang teng," a '* cask-shaped lantern," is not uttered with a second 



but 



Thang teng. 

 These are given as instances of the changes in the tones 



and first tone, but with two first tones; not f- — p 



Pi- 



Th^ng teng. 



resulting from the formation of compound M^ords. To a foreigner, 



the whole subject is very difficult. 



Practical efficiency of tonal distinctions. 



This entire contrivance of tones as an element of spoken language 

 may, at first sight, seem not only clumsy and difficult but uncertain 

 and impracticable — necessarily leading to mistakes and most serious 

 misapprehensions. But this is not the case, and whatever our opinion 

 of the cleverness and ingenuity of the expedient, there can be no doubt 

 of its success. The whole system of tones is most disheartening to 

 the foreigner attempting to learn to speak Chinese, and for a long 

 time the task seems an impossible one, the tones being difficult of re- 

 cognition and still more difficult of accurate utterance. Yet the little 

 children learn them with the utmost exactness, and utter them most 

 distinctly, never failing to give the proper modulation. Thus trained, 

 the Chinese see in a tone not the accident of a monosyllable but a 

 constituent part. The common people and even the educated men 

 seem never to have analysed their words and recognised the articulate 

 and the tonal elements. If the tone be wrongly uttered, the error is 

 deemed as great as if the mistake had been one of articulation. To 

 say "b6ng" (second tone) instead of "beng" (fifth tone) is regarded 

 as an error not. less than it would be to say "teng" for "beng." 

 Indeed the use of a wrong initial element would be thought a lighter 

 fault than a false modulation. 



From these facts it is evident that to a foreigner endeavouring to 

 acquire a Chinese spoken language, a musical ear is of the highest 

 value. No mental qualification is of equal importance. The language 

 is not otherwise difficult ; its structure is simple and its vocabulary 

 limited. But the inability to recognize the pitch of lounds and the 

 intervals of difi^erent tones, is as fatal to success in the acquisition of a 

 Chinese spoken dialect as deafness itself. In acquiring most languages 

 the articulation must be caught, and if that be effected, the work is 



