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Lesson IX.
Lesson IX.
tones.
There are four great classes of tones—1st. Phêⁿ; 2nd. Siãng; 3rd. Khṳ̀; 4th. Jíp. In the Swatow Colloquial, eight seperate tones are distinguished from one another:—
- 上平 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿ as 知 tsai, to know.
- 下平 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿẼ-phêⁿ as„ 來 lâi, to come.
- 上聲 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿSiãng-siaⁿ as„ 海 hái, the sea.
- 上去 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿChiēⁿ-khṳ̀ as„ 試 chhì, to try.
- 下去 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿẼ-khṳ̀ as„ 老 lãu, old.
- 去聲 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿKhṳ̀-siaⁿ as„ 易 kōi, easy.
- 上入 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿChiēⁿ-jíp as„ 歇 hiah, to stop.
- 下入 Chiēⁿ-phêⁿẼ-jíp as„ 葉 hiéh, leaves.
inflections of the tones.
When a syllable is connected with another by a hyphen, the former loses its original tone, and the latter retains it in full force. There are exceptions in the case of the first and sixth tones, which, though these are connected with other syllables, are not changed, but the rest are thus changed:—
- The second becomes the sixth.
- The third becomes the fifth.
- The fourth becomes the third.
- The fifth becomes the fourth.
- The seventh becomes the eighth.
- The eighth becomes the seventh.
- As:—
