上平聲Upper Bing-sung.Tau,Pa,Si,
下平聲Lower Bing-sung.Dau,Ba,Zi,
上上聲Upper Zang-sung.°Tau,°Pa,°Si,
下上聲Lower Zang-sung.°Dau,°Ba,°Zi,
上去聲Upper Chui-sung.Tau°,Pa°,Si°,
下去聲 Lower Chui-sung.Dau°,Ba°,Zi°,
上入聲Upper Zeh-sung.Tauh,Pah,Sih,
下入聲Lower Zeh-sung.Dauh,Bah,Zih,

The student should practise upon the sounds illustrating the different tones. The columns should be read from the top down. The teacher can guide him by first pronouncing the Chinese characters.


LESSONS IN THE SHANGHAI DIALECT


LESSON I
The Classifier

A or an is translated into Chinese by the numeral ih (一) one, and a classifier placed between the numeral and the noun. There are over forty classifiers, different nouns taking different ones, according to the class to which they belong. Nouns being generally used with classifiers accounts for the fact that in Pidgin English we have the oft recurring expression, “one piecee.”

Most concrete nouns take classifiers, but not all. Exceptions will be pointed out later on. Sometimes when the object spoken of is quite definitely known, the noun is used without the classifier.

In this lesson, the two most common classifiers will be introduced, and in succeeding lessons the others will appear gradually.