mily name for example, has the same pronunciation as sin‘, to believe. The same law exists for the initials h and k, as in northern mandarin. Before the vowels i, ü, they change to s and ts.
The same system seems to be spread throughout t a great part of the western provinces. It exists so far as respects the tone system, in Kwei-chen and parts of Kwan-si.
From this analysis of the preceding dialects, it appears that mandarin, so far as sound is concerned, may be defined as that system which has either five or four tones, has only n and ng, for consonant finals, and is wanting in the letters, g, d, b, z, v, among its initials.
Foreigners in writing Chinese sounds, have usually adopted the Nanking pronunciation as a standard, but where it varies from the orthography of the national dictionaries, as given in initials and finals, the latter has been followed. In the present work, all modes of pronunciation, of which information has been obtained, will be illustrated as far as appears suitable to the character of the book.
The Peking dialect must be studied by those who would speak the language of the imperial court, and the accredited kwan hwa of the empire. It has not been selected as the standard of spelling in the present instance, because it is too far removed from the analogies of the dialects in the southern half of the country. While many details respecting it will be found here, the form of the sounds hitherto adopted by foreigners will not be abandoned. The Peking dialect is more fashionable, but that of Nanking is more widely understood, and is better suited by its central situation to the scope of this work, which aims to collect and compare the characteristics of many dialects. The Peking sound of characters, (illegible text) are different from that of Nanking, will be usually inserted in parenthesis.
CHAPTER III.
On Tones.
Value of the vowels as used in this work. Medial, i as in ring; e as in run; a as in rather; o as in roll; u as in rule. Final, i as in reel; e as in there; a as in rather; o as in roe; u as in rue; u as in tu; ï as in rattle. |
In treating of tones, it is necessary to distinguish natural tones
B
