Preface to the Third Edition.
The last edition of this book appeared in 1892. This Second Edition was sold out some time ago, and has been out of print for a considerable time. It seemed desirable on issuing a Third Edition to take the opportunity of adding largely to it, as the previous edition, only containing some forty pages was limited in its scope and utility.
As the Chinese are awakening to a wider life in the modern world, an extension of the vocabulary of all classes amongst them is taking place as new ideas are adopted, new appliances used, and new knowledge gained. It is hoped that, though it is impossible to introduce every new term on its first appearance in the language into a Small Dictionary like this, yet the user of this book will find not a few new terms in it together with an immense number of other words which found no room in former editions.
One new feature in this edition which demands notice is a slight change in the representation in the romanized spelling of two words by which a 'superior letter' is used for the final k in the finals loᵏ˳ and cheᵏ˳. The peculiar pronunciation of the words has never been noticed before, and the ignoring of this peculiarity is one of the causes which contribute to the poor pronunciation of Chinese by foreigners.
Dr. Sten Konow calls attention to this peculiarity of pronunciation in one of the Indian dialects in an article on the Kurku Dialect of the Munda Family of Speech in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for the year 1904 pp. 426-427. He says:—'The Kurkus are a Munda tribe living in the North of Berar and the adjoining parts of the Central Provinces. At the last census of 1901 their dialect was returned as spoken by 87,675 individuals.'
Dr. Konow says:—'One of the most characteristic features of the Munda phonology is the existence of a set of semi-consonants, * * * They are formed like the corresponding consonants k, c, t, and p, but the enunciation is checked at the point of contact, and there is no off-glide * * * We can * * * trace the use of semi-consonants * * * back
