The China Review.
The Höng Shán or Macao Dialect.[1]
By J. Dyer Ball.
Though Macao has had early continuous and almost constant intercourse with Europeans for the long period of nearly three centuries and a half,—the Portuguese first took up their residence there in A.D. 1557, —yet the dialect of the Höng Shán district, in which it is situated, has not received, as far as the writer is aware, any special study. Led away by the will o' the wisp of having a uniform pronunciation,—a uniform pronunciation which prevails nowhere—our standard dictionaries of Cantonese have classed some words under sounds which are Höng Shán pronunciations, such for instance as the sound sü, part of the words which should come under súí or söü being placed under it. Dr. Williams in the Introduction to his Tonic Dictionary, pp. XVII, XX, and XXI, gives in a general way a few instances where the Höng Shán differs from the standard Cantonese, and in the Introduction to 'the Chinese Chrestomathy' in the Canton dialect, p. X, there are eleven lines calling attention to some of the variations of the language as heard in Macao; but with this slight exception, noting a few differences in pronunciation, nothing seems ever to have been written specially dealing with the speech of the Höng Shán people.
As far as can be ascertained, only one book
has ever been written in the dialect of the
Höng Shán district; and that was a small
pamphlet of seven pages thus described in
'Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese giving a list of their publications':—問答俗話, Catechism in the Macao dialect,
seven leaves. Macao, 1840.
This is divided into three parts; the first is
a catechism of Christian truths, prefaced by
a map of Jerusalem; the second is geographical,
with a map of Asia; and the third
is a collection of Scripture quotations.
This was prepared by Rev. J. J. Roberts of
the Southern Baptist Convention, the signature
of the author in Chinese being Háú.
It would be most interesting to have a look
at this little book, the only one that has
ever been written in this dialect.
It is almost needless to say that the Chinese never appear to have thought of writing anything on it.
- ↑ For other papers on the dialects of Cantonese see China Review, Vol. XI, p. 236 and Vol. XII, p. 47 for the San Ning dialect by Rev. A. Don, Vol. XVIII, p. 178 for the San Wúí dialect by the present writer, and the same Vol. p. 284 for the Tung Kwún dialect also by the present writer. The papers on San Wúí and Tung Kwún dialect have been issued as separate pamphlets.
