INTRODUCTION; WITH
REMARKS ON PRONUNCIATION AND
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE.
ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION.
VOWELS.
The vowels a, e, i, o, u, are pronounced much as in Italian and German.
a as in far. It must never be pronounced with the peculiarly English sound of a in man.
e as in grey. But in the syllables ien, iet, it is nearly the same as in men, yet, and sometimes ap- proaches to the English a in man.
I as in machine, not with the short English i in swift. Thus the Amoy word sin is almost the same as the English seen, but quite different from the English sin. Almost the only words which I have observed where it comes near the short English sound are chit, this," and hit, that," which often come very near the English words spelled alike.
o, when final, is pronounced as in no, go. It is also thus pronounced when followed by h; for, as is explained below, the final h is silent, and merely indicates that the vowel is short and abrupt, so that final oh is just short final o.
But when o is followed by m, ng, p, or k, it is pro- nounced as in the English hop, sock, long.
When followed by another vowel it has the first of the above sounds, as in go, no, but in some cases very short, almost like w, as is fully explained below under the head of the diphthongs.
I as in put, rude.
ɵ͘ has the sound of aw in law, saw. This sound is really the same as the second sound of o, as explained above, so that strictly speaking this lettere should have been used in place of o before m, ng, p, and k; but I have followed the spelling now universal at Amoy by using the letter o before these consonants for the sound more accurately written ɵ͘.
E is the French è, or like the English e in there. It scarcely ever occurs except in the Changchew dialect, so that persons who cannot catch the sound may use e as the nearest approximation.
In vowels with double dots, the double dot always indicates a change of the vowel sound, and is never used for the diæresis.
ö is the same as the German ö. It occurs only in the dialects of Chin-chew and Tung-an, where it is often used instead of the Amoy and Changehew e. Thus any one who cannot catch the sound of o will he most safe to use e instead. It must by no means be confounded with o; only Cn. öe corresponds with A. oe.
ü is nearly the German ü or French u, but not quite the same, having often a slight variation from that sound in the direction of ö.
It occurs only in the dialects of Chin-chew and Tung- an, in which it frequently takes the place of the Amoy 11. It almost invariably does so when the Amoy u cor- responds to the Changchew i, but it often occurs also when the Amoy and Changchew agree in u. P'ersons who cannot get hold of the sound may therefore use u as an approximation.
ï is a sound very rarely heard. It is exactly the short English i in sit, swift. I have used it in chih, chït, hïh, hït, tih, where they occur as leading words in alphabetical order; but where they occur in the phrases and examples under other leading words, I have written such words chit, hit, and tih or toh, as their pro- nunciation is very indefinite. When slowly and care- fully pronounced, chit, hit, are the sounds given. But tih, tih, or teh, is never pronounced slowly or care. fully, it is always unaccented and rapid, so that its sound is much disputed. I refer in these remarks to one word only under each of these syllables, for the other words under each syllable always retain the clear sound of i.
DIPHTHONGS.
In all the diphthongs cach vowel is heard distinctly with its own proper sound.
In ai, au, and oe, the first vowel is accented, the second unaccented. ai like the English ie in tie; au like the English ow in now; oe very nearly as in the English Noel.
In oa, on the other hand, the a is accented; the o is unaccented and generally extremely short, almost like w, indeed in many words it might be written w when pronounced at the usual rate; but when pronounced long, the sound of the o is clearly heard, e.g. sometimes in the "chiu"-pia"" and "e-khi" tones; and in the nasal form oa", the o is distinctly heard; but in all cases great care must be taken not to exaggerate the o sound, but to make the a the principal vowel.
The same remarks apply to oai, where the accent is on the a, the whole coming very near the English Wye, but with rather more of the o sound.
