CHAPTER X.

STRUCTURE OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE, 578-625

Influence of the Chinese language upon its literature, 578; Native accounts of the origin of their characters, 580; Growth and development of the language, 581; Characters arranged into six classes, 583; Development from hieroglyphics, 584; Phonetic and descriptive properties of a character, 587; Arrangement of the characters in lexicons, 589; Classification according to radicals, 591; Mass of characters in the language, 593; Six styles of written characters, 597; Their elementary strokes, 598; Ink, paper, and printing, 599; Manufacture and price of books, 601; Native and foreign movable types, 603; Phonetic character of the Chinese language, 605; Manner of distinguishing words of like sound, 609; The _Shing_, or tones of the language, 610; Number of sounds or words in Chinese, 611; The local dialects and patois, 612; Court or Mandarin dialect, 613; Other dialects and variations in pronunciation, 614; Grammar of the language, 617; Its defects and omissions, 621; Hints for its study, 623; Pigeon English, 624.