Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/160

146 ki-ki. But each dialect seems to have at least one or two peculiar expressions for a difficulty of utterance. Such are the Foochow tih (or tah or chih)-ma-ch‘ok, and the tih-tih of Amoy.

There are also expressions which are purely descriptive or explanatory, as "to speak biting the tongue," "to speak with a stiff tongue." But terms like those mentioned above are the names commonly employed both in speech and writing. The workword [sic] ki (chi 吃) is explained by "hesitation in speech" and "trouble from the limping of speech," or stuttering. By the term nah-nah or noh-noh (written 吶吶 and 訥訥) various kinds of impediments in speech are indicated. An early use of it is found in the "Li-chi," where it is recorded of Wên-tzŭ (文子) that his speech was noh-noh, [sic] like as if it could not get out of his mouth" [sic] (其言吶吶然如不出諸其口). Here noh-noh is explained as meaning low and slow, but it is generally understood as denoting a hesitating in speech, or stammering. The words here quoted have become almost proverbial, and one may see them used in the native newspapers. Then the word yin or gyin (喑), already noticed in another use, sometimes denotes an inability to speak, or at least to talk distinctly. So also wa (哇) pronounced huo, which has several other meanings, is used in the sense of a choking impediment in speech. These terms, it will be noticed, are still, or were in their early forms, purely imitative. So also are the common k‘o-k‘o-pa-pa and the kie-kie (chie-chie)pa-pa. These terms may be used as verbs, as in the expression tsui-li-k‘o-k‘o-pa-pa (嘴裏磕磕巴巴), "he stammers," lit., in his mouth he k‘o-k‘o-pa-pa's. They may also be used as adjectives, the particles chih (之) and ti (的) being sometimes added, and they may be nouns or adverbs also according to the context. The individual and the local peculiarities of utterance among the Chinese are worthy of more attention than they have received. These must have had, and must still have, some effect in the formation and maintenance, not only of dialects but also of variations in the written language. There are some Chinese who cannot pronounce sh, and say sa and san for sha and shan. One man of my acquaintance could not pronounce words like pu