Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1883 — The Chinese “Ten” Nasal and Guttural. [ARTICLE]

The Chinese “Ten” Nasal and Guttural.

One peculiarity of the Chinese language, which does not occur in any other that l am acquainted with, is the effect of the different -tones employed. Two words may be Bomanized or spelled according to our sounds in exactly the same way, but a* high nasal in one case and deep guttural in the other gives a totally . different meaning. This ia a difficulty that is hard to overcome. A clergyman of my acquaintance, delivering his first Chinese sermon, was very much annoyed at a blunder he made in the word heaven, ten, which, without the use of the nasal, denotes field. He spoke to them at length of the lives Christians should lead, and informed them as a reward for this proper conduct they would go to “ten” when they died. * “Humph!” said one old man on the front seat, “we can do that any day.”— Cor. St. Louis Globe-Democrat.