Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1900 — How the Chinese Unite Words. [ARTICLE]

How the Chinese Unite Words.

The Chinese unite the words in a name so that they form one word, just as we write Newtown, Hartford, or Deerfield. Sometimes we unite the words in a Chinese name and sometimes we separate them, but there is no reason, for example, why we should write Tien-Tsin when we do not write Pe-Kln. Each of these names Is composed of two words. Pe means “north” and Kin means “the capital” or the “the King’s household,” and thus Pekin means the northern capital. Tien means “heavenly” and Tsln means "place,” and thus the name of the largest city in northwest China means “heavenly place”—a name it has borne for many centuries. When Marco Polo visited the city In the thirteenth century he translated its name into “Citta Celeste.”—New York Sun.