The eighth, or secondary abrupt tone, called ha2 ih8, closes abruptly, like the fourth tone, but differs from it by being enunciated on a uniform pitch, a little above the ordinary key. The eighth tone is an abrupt termination of the first tone, in the same manner as the fourth tone is an abrupt termination of the third.
The tone affect only that part of the word known as the final, while the initial remains unaffected by the tone.
In the table above, the finals are given with the modifications produced by the tones. If each initial consonant is successively prefixed to all the forms in the table, there will be obtained all the separate words, or distinct syllables, found in the language. We have placed at the head of the table, the initial eng, which denotes merely the absence of any initial consonant, as this gives the simplest form of all the finals through each tone. The student will see, from the table at page 8, 9, how each initial is successively united with all the finals, and in the table, pages 16, 17, how each final, whether joined to an initial or otherwise, is modified by the tones. In the table, the vowels printed in italics are accented; in all other cases the first vowel in a word takes the accent. The accented vowels are not marked in other parts of this article. Besides the final syllables in the table, the semi-vocal ng is used in the seventh tone, without a vowel or any other addition. With this addition there are sixty-one independent final syllables, which may be arranged in alphabetical order, as follows:
a, aë, aëh, aëng, ah, ai, aih, aing, aiu, ang, au, auh, aung, e, è, ë, eh, ëh, eng, ëng, eu, ëü, ëüh, ëüng, i, ia, iah, iang, ie, ieh, ieng, ieu, ih, ing, ieh, iong, iu, ng, o, ò, oe, oh, oi, òi, ong, u, ü, ua, uah, uai, uang, ue, uh, üh, ui, ung, üng, uò, üò, uoh, uong.
If we add the forms produced by the prefixing the initial consonants, we shall obtain nine hundred and one syllables, or simple words, capable of being distinguished by the mode of spelling them with Roman letters. Some of these forms, it will be noticed, are produced by changes in orthography, required by the tones. The entire number of forms obtained by all the changes produced by the tones, is three thousand four hundred and sixty-six words, which can be distinguished by the ear. Some of these are distinguished with difficulty, and (as nearly as is known) only one thousand six hundred and forty-four of these monosyllabic words are in actual use in the spoken language; while in the Tonic Dictionary, or Paih Ing,
