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orthography for use in different cases. If this be so, it has been adopted into the Ningpo dialect, for some unknown reason, as a substitute for the mandarin genitive affix teih, and its use has thus been extended.

The genitive case is the only one marked by a regular enclitic. Even this is sometimes dropped when the connexion of the words is sufficiently clear. The instrumental, dative, ablative, and locative senses, are all expressed by prepositions1 or particles following the noun2.

II. The sign of the Plural is almost confined to the pronouns. Only a few nouns used in address are, in the court dialect, treated in this respect like pronouns.

(1) In the Classical Chinese the plural sign is different for each of the three persons. Thus :

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Urh (11524)'
E (1933), or Pe

He;

(8330)'

1

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Pe-tăng is rather he and his associates,' he and such as he' (cf. oi Teρí). In this sense tăng is also used with the pronouns of the first and second persons; whilst chae and tsaou are their proper enclitics for the mere plural. Chae means originally 'class' or 'company;' and tsaou, 'meeting,' 'order,' 'class.' Tăng is a word of the same kind as chae and tsaou; but, if I am not mistaken, retains its distinctive meaning, and does not degenerate so completely as they do into a mere sign of the plural. Its senses are both verbal and substantive; e. g. 'to compare, to be of the same kind, to wait for,' and 'kind or quality, class, rank, &c.' (Morrison). In the Ningpo colloquial tăng stands for 'with,' 'and,' like yu in the classical, and ho in mandarin.

(2) In the Mandarin colloquial, the plural for all three persons alike is formed by the particle mun ; a compara

1 E. gr. in the Classical style, e with, yu to, wei for, yew from.

"shang upon, nuy or chung within.

3 E is not used in this sense in the

earlier classical style; nor do I recollect an example in a classical book of any 3rd pers. pl. of the pronoun.

tively modern word compounded of the symbols for 'man,' and 'gate,' the latter of which is also pronounced mun.

According to Morrison the meaning of the word is 'full' or 'plump.' But I do not recollect to have met with it anywhere except as the sign of the plural. The mandarin pronouns are as follows:

Singular, Wo, I;
Plural,

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Wo-mun, We; Ne-mun, Ye; Tha-mun, They.

a father or other venerable

A few nouns such as yay (11988), person; heung (3889)' a brother; neang (7944), a lady; are treated like pronouns in respect of the plural. Thus Yay-mun, sirs; 2 Te -heung-mun, brothers; Koo (9979) (6471) ̄neang-mun, ladies. (3) In the Ningpo colloquial the word lah is the sign of the plural; thus:

Singular, Ngô® (=Wo), I; Ng (=?Ne), Thou; Gyi (=Ke), He.
Plural,
Gyi-lah, They.

Ah-lăh, We;

Ng-lah, Ye;

The irregularity of the first person plural may perhaps be traced through the dialect of Shaou-shing, a department conterminous with that of Ningpo, its chief city being 80 miles to the west of Ningpo. There we find Ngo, I and Ngah-lah (for Ngo-lah), we; which, dropping the initial ng, gives the Ningpo word ah-lah.

Chay (480)

(7857)'

'this,' and Na 'that,' for the nearer and remoter subject respectively, are much used in mandarin. Their plural is formed by means of the adjective seay (8899),' 'few. Thus, chay-seay, 'these,' na-seay, 'those.'

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'small,' or

The nasal ng without a vowel is not found in mandarin. The Ningpo dialect adopts it frequently, e. g. in place of ne thou, woo (ngwoo) five, and yu a fish.

Gy represents a consonant between the hard and soft g. The counterpart of Gyi in mandarin pronunciation is

Ke(5194).

a

At Ningpo we use keh, perhaps a corruption of chay, in place of both these demonstratives, and form its plural by the syllable sing; keh-sing, 'these,' or 'those.' Our native scholars have adopted for this sing a symbol (9476), which means, star,' and also, says Morrison, 'dots, single unconnected things.' The plural of nouns is implied rather than expressed by the juxtaposition of a numeral or some word implying plurality; such as chung, ' many,' soo, 'some,' keae, 'all,' &c.

'(1938)'

It has been affirmed that words of class, rank, &c., such as pei (8470), luy (7431), tăng (9885), are used as affixes 'to form the plural of nouns,' so that v. gr. e-pei means 'foreigners,' the plural of e 'a foreigner.' Pei and tăng are in fact so defined by Morrison. But to the best of my recollection I have never met with a single place in which the proper sense,-class' or kind, -was not preferable as a rendering for pei, tăng, &c., to treating them as mere signs of the plural. In the large majority of instances all nouns are written alike and without affix3, whether they be singular or plural. And when we find a noun with the affix in question, it is surely reasonable to enquire whether the ordinary sense of the affix will hold before we conclude it to be a mere sign of the plural.

(5463)'

With regard to keae Professor Max Müller has, I think, mistaken the Chinese construction. He says: 'man in China is gin (jin), kiai (keae) means the whole or totality. added to gin gives gin-kiai which is the plural of man.'

This

To the best of my belief there is no proper 'plural of man' in Chinese. But in fact keae ought not to be treated as an affix at all; though, as Prémare (pp. 47, 144) rightly says, it must be 'put after' its noun. Two of Prémare's examples, one from the mandarin the other from the classical part of the Notitia, will serve to illustrate the real construction of keae:

1 So that e-pei should mean 'the class of people called e or 'barbarian;' jin-luy, mankind,' not simply 'men' the plural of man; and so forth.

2 E. gr. jin meaning 'man,' 'a thousand men' is yih(12175)-t'hseen (10697) jin not yih-t'hseen jin-keae or jin-pei.

And sheep' (as in English) whether singular or plural is always yang (11864) • Yang-luy or yang-che-luy, if it occurred, would mean the ovine species; not a mere plural of yang.

3 Lectures on the Science of Language. First Series, p. 43.

(1) ‘Jin keae yew ping, singuli homines habent morbum;' and (2) the well-known Confucian aphorism, Sze hae che nuy keae heung te yay, in toto terrarum orbe omnes sumus fratres.' Here'singuli' and 'omnes' of the translator are as much the prefix and affix respectively of 'homines' and of the clause in toto terrarum orbe,' and as little integral parts of speech, as keae is a mere plural affix or has ceased to sustain its part as an adjective.

The interest with which a missionary, whose field of duty lies in China, is naturally drawn to the speculations and discussions of scholars and scientific men when they touch upon Chinese is the writer's excuse for having ventured to contribute to this journal.

GEORGE E. MOULE.

Missionary, C.M.S.

Journal of Philology. VOL. II.

6

יקש NOTE ON THE HEBREW ROOT

THE discussion of this root is important as leading up (§ VII) to the great crux of Gen. vi. 3: And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.'

may be suffi

I. There are many passages in which ciently rendered by some such general expression as 'snare;' and that, without any attempt to distinguish it from other words (such as ), which might be rendered in certain cases by the same word 'snare.' But it becomes needful in respect of certain passages to attempt a more exact definition of the meaning of the root up and its derivatives; and this is especially the case with the passage subjoined:

:

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin (p) is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?' (Amos iii. 3—6).

The verse italicized suggests (in connexion with its context) that the root p' may refer to the baiting of a trap. The prophet is arguing from the necessary correspondence of cause and effect:

הילכו שנים יחדו בלתי אם נועדו

Can two things go together, except they correspond?

When an effect is observed we can argue to the occurrence of its natural cause; its corresponding cause must go with it. When the lion's growl is heard, we infer that he has taken

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