Page:Chinese spoken language.djvu/24

18 In common conversation, mò$2$, signifying mother, and këüh$4$, to denote the male, are employed after nouns, to distinguish the gender of all the lower animals, including birds and insects; as iong$5$ mò$2$, the female goat; iong$5$ këüh $4$, the male goat. For human beings, nü$2$ ing$5$ is used for woman, in the most genteel society; but the common terms for man and woman are derived from a singular circumstance in the history of the ancient kingdom of U$5$-chü, of which Fuh Chau was the capital.

The kingdom of U$5$-chü was subjugated by the Tong$5$dynasty, and tradition says, that all the men were destroyed, and that the women were compelled to become the wives of their captors, (called Tong$5$ men,) who immediately occupied the kingdom of U$5$-chü, which, thereafter, became a part of the great Chinese empire. In memory of this circumstance, to the present day, the women of Fuh Chau are usually called Chü niong$5$, or Chü niong$5$ nëng$5$; that is, Chü ladies, retaining a part of their ancient name. Girls are called Chü nie-kiang$2$; that is, Chü children. On the other hand, the men are called Tong$5$ può kiang$2$; that is, Tong$5$ children. The shorter tem, Tong$5$ può, is often used to signify husband. A teacher, or any literary man, is called sieng sang, while a literary lady is called sieng sang niong$5$. There are also other terms descriptive of the various human relations, some of which are essentially masculine, and others essentially feminine; as,

Number. – In the Chinese language, bother written and spoken, there is often much vagueness in regard to the number of nouns.

The singular can only be indicated definitely by being preceded or followed by the numeral for one. The plural is denoted by the connexion of words in the sentence, or by the addition of teng$2$, denoting a class, or collection of individuals. Sometimes the plural is formed by repeating the noun, as nëng$5$ nëng$7$, man by man, or men generally.

Classifying Nouns.
These are analogous to what are called, in English, collective nouns; as flock, drove, herd, pair. These and many others of the