his, said Dr. Reifler, was the grossest misrepresentation "of any language ever made and then went fon to show by comparing the "de velopment of Chinese with English and other European languages how lullerly false itis to consider, "that Chinese scholars zat at a round table Jand invented the Chinese characters, The Chinese characters have. not been invented by single Chinese scholars, they have arisen and developed from and. together with the Chinese languages of ancient times, and they have arisen and developed after the Chinese had already a spoken language and on the basis of an organic.. principle common to all Janguages."
He first pointed out by comparing English and Chinese. grammar, word formation and vocabulary that. the Chinese language is not so exotic 8 sometimes thought. Chinese in common with all other languages, he undergone and is under= a continuous process of trans formation which T may well call a process of deterioration, This pro cess is a twofold one: it is first a deterioration of the sound values of the pronunciation and secondly 9 continuous change of the mean of every single word root, example the following English series which Is derived from the same ancestral root—to brew with "bre-wary, (0 bear with birth, to breed, brick, fertile, bitd, "bread." bier, Gradual Development ing explained the reasons. for these changes of sounds and mea ings, Dr. Tellier applied the same method for the explanation as to why' the Chinese need. twenty-seven strokes, hooks and dots to. express the "idea of "rope of cable"
He dealt fully with th character series showing the gradual development of this. ¢on plicated "character from Its first hosie meanings as follows—glance trate, eunuch, slave, to restrict, imprison, to fetter, to tie, fetters, ropes snd cables, conclusion Dr. Reifler pointed out that the rediscovered fact the organic principle in the Chinese Ianguae forces this language, usually considered exotic and peculiar, back auk and other hitherto investigated ence of Philology. He. then showed how the application of this principle in the teaching of the Chinese language and characters not the "study immensely fascinating and amusing, but by innumerable helps to the also reduced the time more than one third the ily required. for the study With this now method the teaching of the Chinese Janguage is. tes, raised to the same high level and ficiency with which European languages "are taught' today. Ite emphasized that this new method is the result of years of research: and of experiments with foreign: students in numerous Chinese courses and expressed the hope that these ideas will revolutionize thought: about the Chinese and make failures of foreign students. thing of the past.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.