The required dialect should have therefore an extensive system of initials, and as the modern tonic Dictionaries of Canton and Cháng-cheú, very accurately represent the dialects of those places, it may be assumed of the Dictionary tables, that they are no less careful in exhibiting the pronunciation of their time.

Among the finals, ng, n and m, terminate words in the three long tones, and the corresponding mutes k, t, p, are recognized as the terminations of words in the short tone, few of them having a vowel ending.

This is very clearly perceptible in the tables of the 字彙 a Dictionary, which was published many years before that of K’áng-hí, and in those of the Dictionary called 洪武正韻 hóng ’wú chung‘ yün‘. In the latter for example words in the short tone ending in k, are classed under 屋, 藥, 陌. Those in t are found under 質, 曷, 轄, 屑. Those in p are under 緝 合 葉 pron. tsip, etc.

The same careful separation of the finals ng, n and m is also found in these Dictionaries. The modern mandarin sound kíen, is found subdivided into the four words kíen, kiem, kan, kam; e.g. the 字彙 classes words in íen under the headings, 堅, 廉, 艱, 監. Mandarin words in óng are found under two heads, 公 kóng and 弓 kióng respectively. While the first medial i is thus affected, the other medial u is found as it is in modern mandarin spelling, except that 戈 is spelt kwo, and heads a class distinct from another which is ranged under 歌.[2] ]

The number of classes into which the finals are divided varies in different Dictionaries. That of the 字彙, perhaps the must convenient arrangement, consists of 44, This includes the 入聲 finals k, t, p, as the same in sound with ng, n, m. The difference between these two sets of letters, is supposed to be due only to rapid pronunciation occasioned by the tone. In that work, the finals are as follow:—

  1. Kóng 公, kí 基, kung 庚, kin 巾, kiün 鈞, kwáng 光, kwei 規, kwái 乖, kwá 瓜, kié 迦, kó 歌, kán 干, kwán 關 kiem 監, keú 鉤.
  2. Káng 岡, kü 居, kun 根, kim 金, king 扃, kwung 觥, kú 姑, kái 該, kiá 嘉, k’iö 㵃, kwön 官, kíen 堅, kán 艱, kaú 高, kieú 鳩.
  3. Kiaú 驅, kióng 弓, king 京, tshim 簪, kwun 裩, kiáng 江, tsz 貲, kiái 皆, ná 拿, kwó 戈, kiuen 絹, kiem 兼, kam 甘, kiaú 交.

The remaining principal element of these tables is their arrangement according to tones; which are neither five, seven, nor eight, but always four. Thus, 東, 通, 同 are all in the first tone 平聲, under the initials t, t’, d. So also 兵評平明 are all in the first tone 平聲, under the initials p, p’, b, m.

Among the words registered in the second tone, are many that are in modern Chinese in the third tone. Such are—

後上動奉坐部禍倖跪近是市緖善弟道父婦犯罪造重在緩罷下丈蕩牝舅社單被倍似曙柱拒忿殍抱竪

下 being in the second tone, we see the probable reason why it was not chosen for the name of the third tone. The character 去 was preferred, because it exemplified the tone of which it was the name.