Obs. These may be shown by examples to be adverbs. 放拉兩起個 fong‘ ’lá ’liáng k’í‘ kú‘, place them apart; 當伊父母一般 tong‘ í ’vú ’mú ih pén, treats him in the same way that he does his parents.
261. Repeated adjectives standing before verbs, are used as adverbs.
- 早早來 ’tsau ’tsau lé, come early.
- 慢慢走 man‘ man‘ ’tseu, walk slowly.
Obs. Sometimes the adjective is not repeated, as in 慢去 man‘ k’í‘, be slow to go, good bye, In 走好 ’tseu ’hau, walk carefully, the adverb follows the verb as in English.
262. Repeated forms imitative of natural sounds are in frequent use.
- 丁冬了冬 ting tóng ting tóng, sound of drum (’kú).
- 鎟鋃鎟鋃 song long song long, ib. horse bells (ling).
- 帖塌帖塌 t’ih t’ah t’ih t’ah, sound of shoes.
- 結怪結怪 kih kwá kih kwá, calling of crows.
- 刮臘刮臘 kwah lah kwah lah, wind blowing on reeds.
- 兵兵浜浜 ping ping páng páng, noise of beating ice.
- 以列以列 ’í lih ’í lih, braying of asses.
- 以挨以挨 ’í á ’í á, creaking of doors.
- 胡盧胡盧 ú lú ú lú, sound of piping.
- 㷸爆㷸爆 pih póh pih póh, sound of splitting bamboo as by fire.
Obs. Words of this sort occur so frequently in conversation, that at the risk of their being thought too amusing for a serious book they are here noticed. The second and third tones scarcely occur in these onomatopœia. The forms used in other dialects differ from these.
263. Adverbs of manner applied to qualify actions, and not reducible to the heads already given are such as,—
- 白白裏 páh báh ’lí, in vain; or, páh alone, e.g. páh sóng‘ t’éh.
- 特特裏 tuh duh ’lí, on purpose.
- 特意 tuh í‘, intentionally.
- 偷伴子 t’eu bén ’tsz, secretly.
- 假佯頭 ’ká yáng deu, falsely.
- 倖喜 yung‘ ’h’í, luckily.
- 造化 ’zau hó‘, 恰好 hah ’hau, fortunately.
264. There is a large number of primitive adverbs, applied to qualify adjectives.