- 脚夫 kiák fú, a porter.
- 兇手 h’iúng ’seu, murderer.
- 本作, 木匠 mok tsoh, or móh ziáng‘, carpenter.
- 水作, 泥水匠 ’sz tsoh, or ní ’sz ziáng‘, bricklayer.
- 鞋匠司務 há ziáng‘ sz‘ vú‘, shoemaker.
- 裁縫司務 dzé vóng sz‘ vú‘, tailor.
- 店家 tién ká, shop-keeper.
- 船家 zén ká, boatman.
- 捉魚人 tsoh ng niun. fisherman.
- 拾柴人 sih zá niun, wood gatherer.
- 東家 tóng (east) ká, master (who places his guests on the right.)
- 禮生 ’lí sáng, director of rites.
- 先生 síen sáng, teacher.
Obs. In the longer examples, some verbs will be found which enter into composition, as those in [Art. 113].
113. Verbs and adjectives are frequently compounded in the same way as substantives.
- 屏風 ping (to screen) fóng (the wind), a screen.
- 扶手 vú (to support) ’seu (the hand), hand-rail.
- 吃局 k’iuh (eat) gióh (food), food.
- 小姐 ’siau tsiá, young lady.
- 古董 ’kú (old) ’tóng, curiosities.
- 夥計 ’hú (combine) kí‘ (plans), partner in business.
- 辮子 píen‘ (to plait) ’tsz, the queue.
- 黃狼 wong (yellow) long (wolf), weasel.
- 抽㔸 t’seu (to draw out) t’í‘ (drawer), a drawer.
- 生梨 sáng (raw) lí (pears), pears.
- 花紅 hwó (flower) óng (red), small apples.
- 金箔 kíun boh, (thin) gold-leaf.
- 相好 siáng (mutual) hau (good) intimate friends.
114. The word 阿, merely euphonic, is joined to the names of persons, both relative and proper. Thus instead of 哥哥 kó kó, elder brother, we have in Shánghái 阿哥 ah (r. á.) kú also 阿爹 or 爹爹 tiá tiá, father. When applied to the names of children and others in humble life, either word in the proper name may annexed.
115. Some examples of foreign words used in the dialect, and of colloquial substantives, extracted from the history of Shánghái are here appended.
- 鴉片 á p’íen‘, opium.
- 袈裟 ká só, Buddhist priest’s robe. Sanscrit Kashaya.
- 記 (c) 翼 (c) kí‘ lih, wings. m. ’ch pang rh.
- 尾杷 (c) ní‘ pó, tail. (尾) r. ’vi) m. i pa.
- 小囝 (c) ’siau nön, little boy.
- 鱟 (c) heu‘, the king-crab, rainbow. m. kang‘, r. 虹 hung.
- 簷凙 (c) yien doh, icicles. m. ping chiu‘ ’tsz.
- 羊乳 (c) yáng ’ná, goat’s milk.
- 筷 (c) k’wan, chopsticks. m. k’wai tsz.
- 烟囪 (c) íen t’sóng, chimney. m. yen ’t’ung.
- 爺娘 yá niáng, father and mother. m. tie niang.
Obs. Characters followed by (c) are such as are borrowed, to represent purely colloquial words.
New and colloquial words are usually written on the phonetic principle, as may be noticed in the first three examples. Natives differ much in their way of writing purely colloquial words, and being never made use of in books, it matters little what character is adopted.
116. The last way of forming compound substantives to be exemplified, is by the particle 個 kú‘, which coming after a verb and noun expresses an agent.