Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/157

Rh in the exclamation wu-hu, alas! It is also used as a verb in the sense of call, as to call a servant. Hence it came to be employed generally with the meaning of to call or address, and also as a noun denoting style of address. So also hi came to be used as a verb meaning to inhale generally, as in the expression hi-shi-ya-pien-yen (吸食鴉片烟), to smoke opium, to take opium by inhalation. The noise made by breathing in air is also expressed by hsü (呴), and that made by breathing out air by ch‘ui (吹). The former also means to breathe hard, and the latter, as has been seen, is used of the wind blowing, and of playing on wind instruments.

The term for to cough, k‘o-sêh (咳嗽), is generally acknowledged to be only an attempt to reproduce the sound made in the act. The general term for to laugh is hsiao (or sio 笑), a word which was at the first apparently imitative or suggestive. There are, however, in addition to this word various sounds for representing different kinds of laughter. Some of these are merely exclamations or interjections. A hearty, jolly laugh is ka-ka, or ha-ha, or ho-ho, or h‘o-h‘o, and such expressions are often used with hsiao as a kind of gloss, hsiao being taken to denote the facial expression chiefly. Occasionally we find full statements like the hsiao-yen-ya-ya (笑言啞啞). These words seem to mean "laugh, saying ya-ya," and the "Shuo-wên," with reference to this passage, gives hsiao as the meaning of ya. From it perhaps were derived statements like ya-jen-hsiao-yue, "he said, laughing." Then there is hi or hi-hi, used to express a quiet laugh, sometimes with the implied meaning of derision. In the "Shi-ching" we find a deserted mistress singing of herself, "My brothers, not knowing, laugh at me,"—hi-ch‘i-hsiao-i (咥其笑矣). Here the word hi is explained by some as meaning hi-hi, that is, in derision. The character read hi is also pronounced ti, and it is used to imitate a loud laugh. So also we have p‘u-chih-ti-hsiao, laughing with a p‘u-chih, that is, exploding in laughter. But in this sense p‘u-p‘u-chih-chih may be used without the addition of any word for "to laugh." The word hai (孩) denotes a child, but written 咳 it means to smile as a child, and then to