9S PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



ing thus 1200 distinct vocables, the language would be complete for 

 all essential purposes. Few uncivilized communities have a greater 

 number of primitive words in ordinary use. How tlie highly civil- 

 ized and literary Chinese manage to express with their limited vocabu- 

 lary a vast range of ideas is easily understood. Much is accom])lished 

 by the mere effect of position, — a method which is almost as fruitful 

 in language as in arithmetic. Thus td signifies great, or greatness ; 

 jin, man or manly : td jin is " great man ; " jin td, manly greatness 

 Jin may become a verb, as in the expression quoted by Remusat 

 from the discourse of a Chinese author against the Buddhist monas- 

 teries, /ih khi jin, literally " man those men," i.e., make men of those 

 persons who are not now acting the part of men. So, in English, we 

 can say a "man-child" and a " child-man." A merchant-cajitain will 

 ^' ship a man" to "man his ship." What is with us an occasional 

 practice is the regular habit of the Chinese language. To this should 

 be added the use of conjoint expressions, in which each pai't explains 

 the other. Thus tdo has twelve meanings in Chinese, and makes, in 

 fact, twelve words, totally distinct, and each represented by its own 

 written character. Among these meanings ai-e to lead, to rob, to 

 cover, a flag, cei-eal grain, and loay. Loii has seven significations, 

 with as many characters, comprising dew, cormorant, to suborn, and 

 road. When these two words are united in the form of tdo loti, to 

 express a single idea, that idea can only be the one common to both, 

 namely ivai/ or road.^^ The combined form is not properly a com- 

 pound or a dissyllable, as each word retains its tonic accent ; but the 

 method, nevertheless, gives to the langviage the same means of avoid- 

 ing ambiguity, and of enlarging its vocabulary, which are possessed 

 by the synthetic tongues. From chod, book, and fang, house, we 

 have chod-fdng, book-house, i.e., libraiy ; from khi, begging, and jhi) 

 man, khi-jin, beggar ; from thian, heaven, and niu, daughter, thidn- 

 niti, heaven's offspring, which, by a poetical metonymy, has become the 

 ordinary name of the swallow, f In this way, the language, with its 

 scanty list of primitive vocables, has been made sufficient for the 

 needs of an elaborate culture and an extensive literature. 



The child who at two years of age could pronounce onl}^ the sim- 



* Grauimaive Chinoise, p. 108. The English "roadway" offers a curious resemblance to this 

 expression. 



ilb.. p. 111. The pronunciation of the Chinese words is given in the French orthography. 



