Phrase Book in the Canton Dialect (1888)/English Preface

by Thomas Lathrop Stedman and Li Kuei-p'an

PREFACE.

The present work was conceived with the design of furnishing to the Chinese, residing In this country, the means of acquiring an elementary knowledge of English, such as would be of use to them in their intercourse with our own people. With this object In view the subjects selected have been those which are of every day use and the sentences have been made as brief as possible and are expressed in the most simple language. The pronunciation of every English word is Indicated in Chinese characters placed immediately beneath it.

But, as the work progressed, it occurred to the authors that it might also be made serviceable to English speaking persons who, for commercial, missionary or philological purposes, desired to acquire some knowledge of Chinese. With this object the pronunciation of the Chinese words has been indicated in Roman characters. The language of the book is not the official Chinese, the so-called Mandarin, but the dialect spoken by the natives of Canton and its vicinity, from which province come the greater number of the Chinese in America.

The following are the values of the letters used to indicate the sounds of the Chinese characters. The system of orthography is substantially that employed by Bridgman and Williams, but any one familiar with the books of these writers will see that the pronunciation of many of the words is often very different from that indicated by them. The sounds here given, however, both vowel and consonantal, are those given to the words by most of the Cantonese resident in New York. Of course the representation of the sounds in Roman characters can be only approximately correct, but this system of orthography will at least serve as a guide after the sounds of a few words have been learned from a native Cantonese. And this is all that can be said of any attempt to represent the sounds of one language by those of another.

Vowels.—

A, a pronounced as u in fun; ȧ as a in father; final a is always heard as a in father. E, e pronounced as e in men; final e as a in gale. I, i pronounced as i in pin, or as i in marine; final i almost always has the latter sound. O, o pronounced as o in for; ȯ as o in no. U, u pronounced as u in pull, or as oo in pool; ü as the French u in une, or the German ü in früh. AI, ai pronounced as ai in aisle; ȧi has a broader sound; it may be imitated by pronouncing rapidly the two words, ah, ill. AU, au pronounced as ou in bough; ȧu has a broader sound, similar to that heard in the Italian word causa. EU, eu pronounced like the vowel sounds in person, but with no stress on the first one, and very rapidly so that the two sounds almost blend into one. OI, oi pronounced like oi in oil. UI, ui pronounced according to the rules given; IU, the same is true of iu. In both cases each vowel is pronounced distinctly, yet rapidly, so as almost to blend. The vowels ȯ and u and the diphthongs oi and ui, are often interchangeable: a word having the ȯ sound in one village being pronounced u in another village, and one in with the diphthongal sound oi being heard as ui. The same is true of i and e.

Consonants.—

NG, ng initial or final is pronounced as ng in singing. The initial sound may be acquired by repeating this word, leaving off the initial si. CH, ch, when unaspirated, is pronounced more softly than in English, approaching closely the sound of j in joint. S, Instead of the hard sound of s, heard in the word so, some Cantonese give an aspirated sound to many of the words here written with the initial s. Thus instead of so the sound heard is nearly as show. K, k, unaspirated, has a soft sound resembling g in gone. P, p, unaspirated, is pronounced nearly like b in but. T, t also, when unaspirated, approximates closely d in do. K, p, and t, when final, have the same sound as in English. When aspirated these letters are pronounced as in English. ‘ An inverted comma follows these letters when they are aspirated. "In such cases a strong aspirate closely follows the sound of these consonants. Pronounce the word Tahiti without the vowel a. This may be expressed by T‘iti, according to the orthography now explained." (Edkins.) The other consonants, both initial and final, have the same value as in English.

Tones.—The Chinese, having so many words of similar sound, make use of varying inflexions of the voice to distinguish them. These are called tones. In the Canton dialect there are eight of these tones, four in a higher, and four in a lower, key, separated from each other by two or more full musical notes.

1. The first tone is the even or monotone. It is the tone used in ordinary conversation. In English. The voice neither rises nor falls, but continues on an even key.
2. The second tone is the rising. It is made by a rising inflection, somewhat as is heard in English in the last word of a question to which an affirmative or negative answer is expected; as, are you well?
3. The third is the falling tone. The intonation falls as the word is spoken. This is usually hoard in English in the last word of a question to which neither an affirmative nor a negative answer is expected; as, what is your name?
4. The fourth is called the entering tone. It is an abrupt termination, sounding as if the last letter of the word were dipped off. It may be imitated by pronouncing the words sat, sap, or sack, but arresting the sound just as the organs are in position to pronounce the last consonant. In the Canton dialect this tone is always indicated by a final k, p, or t. These consonants are not distinctly heard, but rather suggested, the enunciation ceasing the moment the lips and tongue are in position to sound the final letter.

In the following pages the tones are indicated as follows: For the upper tones commas are used, and are placed at one of the angles of the word. Thus: first tone, ,ying; 2nd tone, ‘ying; 3d tone, ying’; 4th tone, yik,. The lower tones are indicated in the same manner by a period at one of the four corners of the word. Thus .yung ˙yung yung˙ yuk..

The correct enunciation of the tones is the most difficult part of the pronunciation to acquire, yet it is a matter of prime importance, for one who wishes to make himself intelligible in conversing with a Chinaman, to use them correctly; for if no tones, or wrong ones, are employed, it will be difficult or impossible for the speaker to make himself understood.

Chinese, at least the spoken language, is not very difficult to acquire, and may be learned almost as readily as any of the European tongues. Of course, to obtain a thorough knowledge of the characters, so as to be able to recognize them and to write them, demands more labor, yet the difficulties are not insuperable, and maybe overcome by a little application and perseverance. It will be found best to begin very slowly, and to proceed more rapidly later, after one has become familiar with the peculiarities of the language. For the first month let the student learn but one sentence a day, but learn it thoroughly, so that he can repeat and write the Chinese at once after reading the English sentence, and can also repeat the English after looking at the Chinese characters or hearing them read. Each day, both before and after learning the new sentence, let him review those which he has already studied. After the first lesson has been thus perfectly learned, the student will find that he has acquired a certain facility in memorizing the sounds and the characters of the Chinese words, and he will thereafter be able to progress more rapidly. Discouragement will come only from attempting to do too much at the beginning.