[ [1] Vide Preface to Morrison’s Dictionary, and Marshman’s Clavis Sinica. None of the western alphabets appear to have been so scientifically arranged as the Sanscrit.
6. In the native system, while the consonants are accurately distinguished, the initial vowels are placed together, under only two heads. In this respect therefore, we depart from it in the following table. The initials sh, zh, ch, f’, and some others are also omitted as not applicable to our dialect. The imperfect nasal consonants are inserted, though as local variations they have no place in the native tables. In naming the classes, western terms have been adopted.
Tabular view of the alphabetic sounds of the Shánghái dialect.
| Fifteen vowels. | |
| Quantity of syll. | Value. |
| long or short. | á father |
| do. | a hand, back |
| long | au Paul |
| do. | é May |
| short | e let |
| long | eu cousin |
| do. | í marine |
| long or short. | i sing |
| do. | ó go |
| do. | o long, lock |
| do. | ö Göthe |
| long | ú rule |
| long or short. | u sun, suck |
| long | ü Tübingen |
| do. | û as in 書 sû |
| Thirty three consonants. | |||||
| High | Low | ||||
| Thin | Asperated | Broad | Nasals & Liquids | Imperfect nasals | |
| Mutes | k, t, p | k’, t’, p’ | g, d, b | ng, n, m | ng, n, m |
| Labio-dentals | f | v | |||
| Sibilants and aspirates | s, sz, tz, tsz, h’ | ts’, ts’z | z, zz, dz, dj, dzz, h | ni | |
| Semi-vocals | l, rh | ||||
If from these consonants, we subtract the combinations of t and d, with s and z, the aspirated mutes, and ní, as capable of resolution, there remain twenty three in all. Of those that are left, sz and zz may also be supposed to be made up of s, z, and an indistinct vowel ï, heard in English after the l of beetle, needle, etc.
Section 2. On the Tones.
7. In order to determine the position of the Shánghái patois among the dialects of China, something must be said on tones generally. Chinese pronunciation may for our present purpose, be considered in three or more general divisions, according to the number of tones.
(1.) The first of these is the Northern mandarin. 北音 Pih yin, where four or five tones are in use. It is the pronunciation of the Emperor’s court, and professedly of the government officers throughout the empire. It is also spoken in considerable purity in the parts north of the Yáng tsz Kiáng (hence its name), and in the provinces of Sz-ch’uen, Kwei-cheú, Yün-nán, and parts of Kwangsi and Hunan.
(2.) The second in the Southern pronunciation, 南音 Nán yin, spoken in the part of Kiáng-sú, that is south of the Yáng-tsz’-kiáng, in Cheh-kiáng and part of Kiáng-sí. This is mainly the pronunciation out of which the mandarin grew and which is followed in the Dictionaries, from K’ang-hí upwards, nearly to the Hán dynasty.[1] The tones are four in number, each subdivided into kaú and tí, upper and lower, or as they are also denominated yin and yáng, feminine and masculine. These upper and lower series of tones are also distinguished, by different initial consonants, the one taking g, d, b, v, z, etc., and the other k, t, p, f, s, etc. The variations that exist even between contiguous districts, are very numerous, a circumstance which furnishes a mark of distinction between this part of China and the mandarin provinces, where orthographical differences are few.