Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/159

Rh mother is dead he can scarcely be calling for her, like the negro and the Indian of Upper California mentioned by Mr. Tylor.

"To sneeze" is in Mandarin t‘i (written 嚏 and otherwise), a word which seems to represent a lisping sneeze. It is an old and classical word, and is given in the "Shuo-wên." But there are several vulgar terms the nature and meaning of which cannot be doubted. Such are ha-yi, and ha-ch'i, a sneeze, and ta-ha-ch‘i (打哈氣) to sneeze. So also ch‘i-chih (written 乞痴) and ta-ch‘i-chih are respectively a sneeze and to sneeze. There are also several other expressions of a like character and of local range.

In books and in the speech of the educated, the act of snoring is denoted by han (鼾), the noise of breath emitted during sleep. In the rude dialects, however, and in the talk of the people generally, this word han is not very much used. It is replaced by such purely imitative expressions as the no-no of the Foochow people, the hu-hu, ka-ka, and k‘a-ka of other provincial districts. Other terms are hou (齁) and ta-hu (打呼), which, like some of the other terms here given, are used of a loud continuous snoring, like that which the poet describes when he says of the drunken sleeper,

We read of a man hou-ju-lei-hou (齁如雷吼), "snoring like thunder roaring," and Han Wên-kung, in one of his poems, makes a friend snore loud enough to make an iron Buddha frown and a stone man tremble with fear.

For defects and peculiarities of utterance of all kinds and degrees, the Chinese in their familiar speech have appropriate terms. Such peculiarities are generally regarded as fit subjects for good-natured banter and even for nicknames. Thus the deaf mute is called a ya-tzŭ (啞 or 瘂子) or ya-pa, because he seems to be always trying to utter something like ya-ya. But many a man is called a ya-tzŭ who is not dumb but only much embarrassed in utterance—a Balbus. And ya or ya-ya may be used to express a hesitation in speech or a difficulty in expressing oneself. In the Mandarin and book language, the expression for stammering and stuttering is noh-noh, and another term for a trouble in speech is