The Languages of China Before the ChineseD. Nutt, 1887 - 148 pages |
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ABORIGINAL ancient Annam Annamite Asiat Babylonia Beginnings of Writing belong Burma Burmese century B.C. character China proper Chinese dialects Chinese language civilization cognate compiled dial early Chinese Edkins Flowery Land formation former Formosa Fuhkien Grammar Gyarung Han dynasty hoh tchi Honan Hou Han Shu Hunan Hupeh hybridized ibid ideological indices ideology Indo-China Indo-Pacific influence instance intermingling Jung Kareng kiang Kiangsu King Ku-wen Kuangsi Kueitchou Kuenlunic LANGUAGES OF CHINA linguistic Lolo Lu-tze Mandarin Miao Miao dialect Miao Man hoh migration modern Mōn Naga names native non-Chinese numerals phonetic populations postposition PRE-CHINESE ABORIGINAL prefixes pronunciation province region river Shan Language Shan Race Shensi Si-fan Siamese Singpho spoken Szetchuen T'ung Taï-Shan Taïc Tayal tchao Tchehkiang Tchou dynasty tchuen Tchung Terrien de Lacouperie Tibet Tibetan Tibeto-Burman tribes Ts'in Ts'u Tung verb vocables vocabulary written Yellow River Yunnan
Popular passages
Page 59 - In the numerals, for instance, which are given in two or three series, similarities exist with those of some tribes of Formosa. But they are remote, and do not come from a direct relationship ; they are apparently survivals of a former state of things, previous to their respective migrations, when their various ancestors had relations between themselves on the continent.
Page 19 - Ngu1 had applied for help against the encroachments of the State, also nonChinese, of Ts'u.2 It was in the 14th year of the Duke Siang of Lu, otherwise 558 BC- The Jung Viscount Kin-tchi, previous to his admission to the covenant, said : " Our food, our drink, our clothes, are all different from those of the Flowery States ; we do not exchange silks or other articles of introduction with their courts ; their language and ours do 1 Now Wu in Mandarin pronunciation.
Page 108 - Chinese Empire, was really the first who began the task 221 BC, and the results of his efforts and conquests, jeopardized through the weakness of his unworthy successor, were upheld again by the following Han dynasties (BC 206-220 AD). The splits which occurred severally in the course of history in the succession of the Chinese government, and resulted in the fragmentation of the dominion between several contemporaneous dynasties, have greatly helped, as did the internecine wars and Tartar conquests,...
Page 54 - It will be sufficient to remind our readers that all the probabilities, the amount of which is nearly equivalent to a certainty, show that the Ta'i-Shan linguistic formation has taken place in historical times in Pre-China. It has evolved from the intermingling of southern languages belonging chiefly, though not exclusively, to the Mon type, with Chinese and other languages of the Kuenlunic family. The mental crudeness of the former has permitted them to preserve their ideology, and even to impose...
Page 16 - ... The ethnology of the peninsula cannot be understood separately from the Chinese formation, and the intricacies of one help pretty often to make intelligible the complication of the other. Part III. The Aboriginal Dialects in the Chinese Language and Ancient Works, §§ 20-61. V. THE CHINESE LANGUAGE AFFECTED BY THE ABORIGINES. " 20. The succession of races and the transmission of languages, two facts which are not correlative, render it difficult to follow the linguistical history of any country,...
Page 21 - ... elsewhere. The scene is in Ts'u (ie Hupeh). " A male child was thrown away by his mother's orders in the marsh of Mung : there a tigress suckled him. This was witnessed by the Viscount of Yun, whilst hunting, and when he returned home in terror, his wife (whose son the child was) told him the whole affair, on which he sent for the child and had it cared for. The people of Tsu called 1 I have added the information in brackets, in order to make the matter clearer. Roughly speaking, the...
Page 84 - ... 175. There are no instances which permit any inference •as to the ideology of the language, but the numerals and 1 "The letter r is rolled in a very pronounced manner, a striking contrast to the way in which this letter is slurred over by the Chinese, who in many cases cannot pronounce it, as, for instance, at the beginning of a word before a or •', when the r is changed into I. Yet in other cases they are capable of producing the sound, as, for instance, in the word i-ran.
Page 123 - After the disturbance of ideologies, the most important result for all the languages engaged in the struggle, a result produced at the same time by the intermingling of blood, concerns the phonesis. We have called attention to this fact again and again.1 The difference of phonetic peculiarities between the two great stocks was on a par with the opposition of their ideologies. The Southerners...
Page 8 - commissioners or envoys travelling in light chariots ' l yeo hien-tchi she, on an annual circuit of the empire during the eighth moon of the year to inquire for the customs and forms of speech (or words) used in various regions.2 On returning, these messengers presented to the Emperor reports, which, at first preserved in the house of 1 The Rev. Dr. WW Skeat reminds me here of the words of the poet : " where Chineses drive With sails and wind their cany waggons light.
Page 125 - Sprachen (Wien, 1869). 3 The languages of Tibet, Burma, Pegu, Siam, Annam, China, are generally called monosyllabic, and are still erroneously supposed by many to be living illustrations of the imaginary primitive language of monosyllabic roots. Such monosyllabism does not and never did exist. In reality there are three sorts of monosyllabism only — one of decay, one of writing, and one of elocution. It is to the last and first that the tongues of south-eastern Asia belong, with the complication...