the other dialects belonging to the Cantonese family of dialects, such for example as in the San Ning, yet there are more than in some of the others, as for example in the Tung Kwún. The following are the principal changes in the Höng Shán:—ch in Cantonese becomes almost always ts except before e, í, ö, and ü. It may at first sight be thought 正 cheng and 秤 ch'eng (in Höng Shán tsang and ts'ang) are exceptions to these exceptions; but it will be noticed that the e (or rather i, it being ching in the book language) becomes a short a; and that in the second word in Cantonese it is a short i. Again 黜 chut retains the ch in Höng Shán, because the u in Cantonese is turned into the French ü, in the Höng Shán.
It can readily be understood that there is
considerable difficulty at times in distinguishing
whether the letters are ts or ch.
The writer of the Introduction to the
'Chinese Chrestomathy' (p. X) also seems to
have experienced something of the same
nature as he says:—The sounds tsz' and
sz are sounded like a hard hissing tchí and
chí differing from the common chí by its
forced enunciation as if attempting to say
tsz': in both these deviations an approach
to the Fukien dialect is observed.
As far
as the present writer is informed, these
remarks appear to be erroneous. The sound
is ts and not tch, and sz is not pronounced
chú but sí. It is just possible that there
may be some variant of the Höng Shán in
which these words are so pronounced; but
the present writer is informed that such is
not the case. In listening attentively to a
speaker, it seems as if he veered between ch
and ts, sometimes pronouncing the one and
sometimes the other. Perhaps the speech of
those from the country who have never
heard any other dialect but their own,
might give more certain and reliable results;
for it is well known the Chinese as a rule
are not able to distinguish clearly
between these two sounds, so that residence
amongst speakers who pronounce them in a
slightly different way is apt, unknown almost
to themselves, to lead them occasionally
perhaps to pronounce the words like those they
are living amongst, when especially in their
everyday talk with those around them they
give up their own speech and adopt the
speech of those amongst whom they live.
As far as the writer can gather the ts sound
seems to predominate in the Höng Shán
dialect; but thus ts does not appear to have
such an explodent force as from Cantonese
lips—in short it appears to be softer somewhat
than the Cantonese ts. There seems
often to one who is listening very little
distinction between ts and ch: they sometimes
appear to approach as near to each other as
it is almost possible to do. It is just
possible, of course, that there may be a wavering
between the two, though this is scarcely
likely.
H takes the place of the initial f in Cantonese before u and ú as a general rule, there being some exceptions. Initial f before ok and on is sometimes replaced by k' in Höng Shán. Initial h is generally the same, but words in hak with perhaps one exception become h'ak, and other words occasionally take a k or k'. Exception:—愷 ôí, h replaces the semi-vowel initial y that appears in some pure Cantonese words.
Initial k is always the same. Exception 嬀 waí. Kw:—with regard to the w after k—it is dropped throughout the Höng Shán district; and the district city of Shek-k'éí was no exception to the general rule until the students attending the literary examinations in Canton began to despise their own provincialisms, and approximated in this respect to the standard of pure Cantonese, as represented in the provincial capital: so that in the city of Shek-k'éí both pronunciations are in use. The initials l, m, n, ng, and p are the same in Cantonese and Höng Shán as a general rule; but ng is more common in Höng Shán, as it forms the first letters in some words in which it does not appear in pure Cantonese, being prefixed to
