ON THE AMOY COLLOaUIAL DIALECT. 93 



Notwithstanding, there are a great many words identical in sound 

 and meaning, in the two languages. 



There is also a large class of words in the spoken language clearly 

 derived, by slight and methodical modification, from the written. 



In English dictionaries the derivation of the word " tea " is traced, 

 through the French and Spanish languages, to the Chinese " tsha." 

 This is the pronunciation of the character in the Nankin or Court 

 dialect, and has evidently nothing to do with our word " tea." The 

 true derivation is from the Amoy word " te," (pronounced iay), which 

 is the word used both in the written and spoken languages. The ear- 

 liest European trade was with this port, and thus the Amoy name was 

 introduced into the Western European languages. The Russians, on 

 the contrary, obtaining their tea by land from the Northern part of 

 China, call it " tshai," a |word evidently derived from the Nankin 

 dialect. 



Syntax of the Amoy Colloquial. 



In Chinese (both written and spoken), there are no inflexions. 

 Verbs, nouns, adjectives, have no prefixes and affixes, no augments 

 and reduplications, no marks of case, number, person. There is a 

 particle " te " which gives to the immediately following verb a present 

 sense ; thus, " te lai " means " are coming," " te khi" means *'*are 

 going.'' There is a word which, preceding a verb, gives it a future 

 meaning ; thus, " gua beh lai," " gua beh khi " means " I will come," 

 " I will go." The particle "la," following a verb, indicates the pre- 

 terite ; thus, '• lai la," " come," " khi la," " gone." The word 

 " liau," following the verb, gives the idea of completeness to the past 

 sense ; thus, " chbe liau," " thoroughly done," " chiah liau," " eaten 

 all up." Another mode of expressing the preterite is by the use of 

 the word ** bat," " to know ;" as, " gua m bat khi," " I have never 

 gone." The passive voice is sometimes expressed by the word " tit," 

 " to get, to obtain." Thus, "boe kong," "cannot say," becomes 

 " boe kdng tit," " cannot be said." 



