An Outline of the System Adopted for Romanizing the Dialect of Amoy

by Charles William Bradley

Outline of the system adopted for romanizing the dialect of Amoy.

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The dialects of Fuhchau, Amoy^[1] and Changchau are perhaps the most important varieties of the Chinese language as spoken in the province of Fuhkien: the first named city being the capital of the province, the second, of much maritime importance, and the last enjoying a high degree of reputation for literature, refinement and wealth. The points of difference between the dialects of the latter two are, however, on account of their closer vicinity to one another, much fewer than between those of Fuhchau and Amoy.

The experiment of writing the colloquial dialect of Amoy in Roman characters (sometimes modified by certain diacritical signs), was first made about the year 1848, by the Rev. John Lloyd, of the American Presbyterian Board of Missions, and was subsequently much improved and reduced to its present form by the Rev. Messrs. Doty and Talmage, missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Since 1851, these gentlemen have issued sundry elementary reading-books on this plan, among which are the Story of Joseph, as related in the Chinese version of Genesis xxxvii-xliv., and the Gospel according to St. John. For an account of the happy success which has followed this attempt to facilitate the acquisition of that difficult language to the natives themselves, see letters of Rev. J. V. N. Talmage in The Missionary Herald, vol. xlvii. p. 154; and

vol. xlviii. pp. 17, 150.

Dialect of Amoy.

Initials and their Powers.
B[2]	as in bale.
Ch	as in chair, or as ts.
Chh	is ch strongly aspirated.
G	is always hard, as in go.
H	as simple aspirate, as in hat.
J	as g soft, or j in Jew.
K	as in king.
L	as in long.
M[2]	as in man.
N	as in now.
P	as in pipe.
Ph	as p with an aspirate—something like p'ŭh.
S	as in sing.
T	as in time.
Th	as t with an aspirate; or as if t'ŭh.
The whole number of initials is sixteen.
Finals, and their Powers.
a[3]	as in father.
aⁿ	ⁿ indicates that nasal sound which the Portuguese Jews give to the Hebrew ע.
ah
aⁿh
ai	as ai in aisle, or i in pine.
ⁿai
ak
am
an
ang
ap
at
au	as in German, or as ow in cow. [Lloyd, in his Vocabulary of this dialect (MS.), uses the Eng. ou.]
e	as French e, or a in table.
eⁿ
eh
eⁿh
ek	pronounced as if it were euk.
eng	pronounced„ as if„ it were„ eung.
i	as i in police, or as e in me.
iⁿ
ia
iⁿa
iah
iak
iam
ian
iang
iap
iat
ih
iⁿh
im
in
io
ioh
io͘k
io͘ng
iou
iⁿou
iouh
iⁿouh
ip	pronounced as iip.
it	pronounced„ as„ iit.
iu
iⁿu
o	always long, as in no.
o͘	as a in fall, or as o in lord.
o͘ⁿ
oa
oⁿa
oah
oai
oⁿai
oⁿaih
oan
oang
oat
oe
oeh
oⁿeh
oh
o͘k
o͘m
o͘ng
[ou	as ow in cow.] (See au.)
ⁿou	(= ⁿau).
ouh	(= auh).
ⁿouh	(=ⁿauh).
m	has the same sound as the English m.
ⁿg	as ng in sing. (See aⁿ).
u	as in tune, or as oo in fool.
uh
ui
uⁿi
uih
un
ut

Vowels.

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u.

1. A has the sound of a in father, except when followed by the simple consonant n, or by t final, when its sound is somewhat flattened, and becomes nearly the same as a in mat.

2. E=ey in they; or as a in mate.

3. I=i in machine. In mixed syllables it is sounded nearly as if written double (=ii), each having the same sound as (but only one-half the length of) the simple i.

4. O=o in go.

5. O͘=o in Lord, or a in all. In mixed syllables the dot may be omitted without danger of leading to error of pronunciation.

6. U as u in tune.

Tones and Tonal Marks.

The Chinese of Amoy count eight tones; two of these, however (to wit, the 2d and the 6th), are one and the same. The names of these tones are as follows:

• 0th1st is chiⁿū piⁿâ = upper even.
• 0th2d is„ chiⁿū siⁿa = upper tone.
• 0th3d is„ chiⁿū khi = upper departing.
• 4th is„ chiⁿū jiṕ = upper entering.
• 5th is„ ē piⁿâ = lower even.
• 6th is„ ē siⁿa = lower tone.
• 7th is„ ē khì = lower departing.
• 8th is„ ē jiṕ = lower entering.

These two jiṕ tones always end in h, k, p, t. If the other tones end in a vowel, then the jiṕ ends in h, as: ba, bah. If the other tones end in ng, the jiṕ ends in k, as: kang, kak. If the other tones end in n, the jiṕ ends in t, as: kun, kut. If the other tones end in m, the jiṕ ends in p, as: kim, kip.

The chiⁿū siⁿa (2d) and ē siⁿa (6th) are the same.

The two jip tones are distinguished from all the others by their termination. The ē jiṕ (8th) is distinguished from the chiⁿū jiṕ (4th) by the mark ◌́ placed over it, as kut, kút; bak, bák. The chiⁿū jiṕ, therefore, needs no mark.

The chiⁿū piⁿâ (ist tone) has no tonal mark: its termination distinguishes it from the jiṕs, and its having no tonal mark distinguishes it from the other tones.

The 2d tone, or chiⁿū siⁿa is marked ◌́, as: kóng, bí.

The 3d tone (chiⁿū khi) is marked ◌̀, as: kàng.

The 5th tone (ē piⁿâ) is marked ◌̂, as: hêng.

The 7th tone (ē khì) is marked ◌̄, as: khiām.

Examples.

1st.	kong	min	si
2d.	kóng	mín	sí
3d.	kòng	mìn	sì
4th.	kok	mit	sih
5th.	kông	mîn	sî
6th	kóng	mín	sí
7th.	kōng	mīn	sī
8th.	kók	mít	síh

The tones are modified in combination. In words of two or more syllables all the tones but that of the ultimate syllable are changed, except the 7th, which is always the same. The 1st, 5th and 8th are changed into one and the same even tone, which is a little higher than the 7th. The 2d is changed into the 1st, the 3d nearly into the 2d, and the 4th into the 8th, or nearly so.

1. In the local dialect Emung; court dial., Hiamun.
2. Permutation between these initials is frequent; as bô or mô, a negative particle=no or not.
3. In colloquial discourse this final is uniformly employed as a simple euphonic suffix to personal names, as: Kiana, Winga, Suma, for Kian, Wing, Sum. The Cantonese dialect, on the contrary, prefixes a under the like circumstances, and for a like reason, as: Akian, Awing, Assun.