63. In eight of the nine divisions above, the second initial is the strong aspirate either alone or following, the letters k, t, ch, p, f, ts and tsh. Of these the palatal ch, and sibilant tsh, are not needed in Shánghái pronunciation. Ts takes their place. In double initials the aspirate is between t and s, or t and sh.

• (ch) 知道 m. ch táú‘ s. tsz dau‘, to know.
• (tsh) 出來 m. ch’uh lái s. ts’eh lé, come out.

F‘ is the same as f. In other instances the aspirate is always preserved.

• 吹進吹出 t’sz tsing‘ t’sz t’séh, blow in and out.
• 看歇戲否 k’ön‘ h’ih h’í‘ ’vá, have you seen the play?
• 開口 k’é ’k’eu, begin speaking.

In other cases, all these letters with and without aspirates, are the same with mandarin.

64. The third initial of the same eight divisions is wanting for Shánghái, only in the case of those headed ch and tsh. Their place is supplied by z. 形狀 yuug zong‘, visible form. Sh and zh in the seventh, are replaced by s and z.

• 一隻手 m. ih chih ’sheú s. ih tsáh ’seu, one hand.
• 時物 m. sh wúh s. zz veh, things in season.
• 扇子 m. shen‘ tsz s. sén‘ tsz, fan.
• 受領 m. sheú ling s. ’zeu ’ling, receive.

65. The h of mandarin is never heard before w or y in the lower tones:—

• 三魂六魄 san wung lóh p’áh, three mental, and six physical principles of human life.
• 無形無像 vú yung vú ziáng‘, invisible.
• 縣分꜄ yön‘ vun‘, what belongs to a district city.
• 效法別人 yiau‘ fah pih niun, imitate others.

In other examples among the lower tones, a slight aspirate is retained for the strong hissing sound of mandarin.

• 紅格紙頭, hóng kák ’tsz deu, red ruled paper.
• 閒書 han sû, light reading, 鞋子 há ’tsz, shoes.

This slight aspirate is lost in a word standing last in a combination.

• 那能修行 ’ná nung sieu ang? how shall I grow virtuous?
• 幾許闊狹 ’kí hau‘ kweh ah? how wide?

The English aspirate is between the two aspirates here distinguished, and is the same as that of Fúh-kien. We have no parallel in our pronunciation, to that hissing guttural sound, which in the mandarin provinces, belongs to all the five tones, and in Kiáng-nán to the upper series. Hence Morrison speaks of it as sh. Nor can the weak aspirate of the Kiáng-nán lower series, disappearing as it does so frequently, be regarded an equivalent to the English h.

66. With regard to the thick mutes and sibilants (g, d, b, v, z,) in the lower tones, it may be remarked generally, that foreigners in learning colloquial phrases, usually acquire the habit of pronouncing these consonants thin, when first in a combination, and broad, when some word precedes. This is so frequently true, that no further proof is needed of the pronunciation being variable.

• 第個 tí‘ kú‘, this.
• 次第 t’sz‘ dí‘, good order.
• 提拔 tí bah, rescue.
• 拔草 pah ’ts’au, to weed.
• 罷勿得 pá‘ veh tuh, indispensable.
• 勿罷拉 veh ’bá ’lá, more than that.
• 大同小異 tá‘ dóng ’siau í, differing but little
• 勿大好 veh dá‘ ’hau, not good.

For t and p, there is no difficulty in spelling as is here done, but k, s, f, are not so easily disposed of. The initial k or g is enunciated thickly before the vowels i and ü, though according to the system of the Dictionaries, the initial is the same in all cases. Some foreign students regard it as an aspirated consonant. Others write it dj or d. This anomaly of pronunciation, so difficult to express, does not occur before w, a and é. Limited thus to í and ü, it is thought preferable not to depart from the analogy, by inventing a new symbol for the few words in use that contain this unmanageable consonant.

• 插旗 t’sah gí, set up a flag.
• 顯轎 ’h’ien giau‘, mountain chair.
• 葵花 kwé hwó, sunflower.
• 求告 kieu kau‘, pray.

67. The lower f and s, are often heard v, z, even without a word preceding. Thus the actual pronunciation cannot be fairly represented by the law that answers for the other letters, and the only resource is to follow the natives in each case. This v, as well as that from w (m.) are pronounced w on the eastern side of the Hwáng-p’ú.

• 服事 foh zz‘, to serve.
• 牢實 lau zeh, honesty.
• 謝謝 siá‘ ziá‘, I thank you.
• 俗字眼 sóh zz‘ ngan, colloquial expressions.
• 尙書 zong‘ sû, the Historical Classic.
• 飯吃曼 van‘ k’iuh man‘, have you dined?
• 邪派 siá p’á‘, depraved customs.
• 罰咒 vah tseu‘, to swear.
• 實在 seh zé‘, truly.

68. The initials z and dz correspond, though somewhat irregularly, to the tabular initials z, zh, and j, dz, dj.

• 樹丫枝 zû‘ au tsz, branches of trees.
• 若使 zák sz‘, if.
• 炰茶 p’au‘ dzó make tea.
• 傳下來 dzén ’au lé, deliver down.
• 聚攏來 dzü‘ ’lóng lé, collect.

The d is often dropped, both, in reading and in the conversational form.

• 勿會寫字 veh wé‘ siá zz‘, cannot write (m. tsz‘).
• 擺渡船 ’pá dú‘ zén,[1] ferry-boat (m. ch’uen).
• 養蠶 yáng‘ zén, keep silkworms, (m. t‘sán).

The d is in some words retained in reading, when dropped in the colloquial form.

• 豺狼虎豹 zá (r. dzé) long ’hu pau‘, wolves and tigers.
• 稻柴 tau zá (c.) rice straw.
• 柴門 dzé (r.) mun, wooden gate.
• 造完 ’zau (r. dzau) wén, finish building.

69. Words beginning with a vowel, belong to the thirty-first or thirty-third initials (y, y,) according as they are high or low in tone. In giving the romanized form, a more extended subdivision of the vowels must of necessity be adopted. In the present work, the initial vowel is italicized, when its word belongs to the lower series.

• 遠來死 ’yön lé ’sí, very far off.
• 寃枉 yön ’wong, falsely accuse.

Those words in the dialect that begin with n, m, v, while in northern mandarin they have only a vowel as their initial, are placed in the Dictionary system under those consonants, and they are all in the lower tones.

• 原是 ’niön ’zz, well then it is—
• 千山萬水 t’síen san van‘ ’ss, a long distance
• 一百萬 ih páh man‘, a million.

Words in the upper series beginning with a vowel, which in northern mandarin take the sound ng before them, never have it in the Shánghái dialect, nor in the Dictionary system. E.g.[1] 愛 ngái‘, 惡 ngóh,[2] are pronounced é‘ and oh.

• 愛伊樣物事 é‘ í yáng‘ meh zz‘, love that thing.

In the lower tones the initial ng is always preserved.

• 勿碍啥 veh ngé‘ sá‘, no matter.
• 一眼勿硬 ih ’ngan veh ngáng‘, not in the least hard.
• 咬牙切齒 ’ngaú ngá t’sih ’t’sz, grind teeth with rage.
• 我勿餓 ’ngú veh ngú‘ I am not hungry.

70. The remaining initials are ng, n, ni, m, v, l, and j. They belong with few exceptions to the lower tones.

Ng, I. Many words classed in the Dictionaries under this initial are pronounced differently in this dialect. Thus 堯 yau, 言 íen, have no initial consonant, 疑 ní, 爾 ’nü, 義 ní‘, belong to the tooth nasal (n), 午五魚 are read ü, ú, but spoken ng. Ng precedes a, e, o, ö, u, but not i, ü.

II. Other words as 月 niöh, 牛 nieu, 願 niön, belong more properly to the class headed ni, or the Spanish circumflexed n. The Sú-cheú dialect agrees better with the Dictionaries in this class of words, than that of Shánghái.

III. All the words in Morrison with the initial g belong to this class, except such as are in the upper tones. Such words as he writes aou, ae, yae, follow the same rule.

71. N, NI. These though distinguished in some alphabets as in Sanscrit and Spanish, may be for our purpose more usefully regarded as identical, the i being considered to belong to the final. Accordingly such words as 女 ’nü 你 ’né, 鈕 nieu, though placed under the palatal nasal ni in the native system, will be regarded as belonging to the tooth nasal n, and the remainder of the sound reckoned as the final. Even in the tables, these two consonants are in intentional juxtaposition. The consonants t, ch, to which they respectively belong are also naturally allied, as may be illustrated from our dialect, where ch becomes ts.

Many words written by Morrison yǔh, yin, yen, ying, yŏ, yu, yuen, yuĕ, take this initial, when they are in the lower tones. N, when thus prefixed, precedes no vowel but i, ü. The following are examples:—

72. M. V. The class headed m includes not only the mandarin words in m, but some that in mandarin begin with w. They are therefore placed together in the Dictionary system. Words thus transformed have v in reading as an intermediate sound, and often retain that form in the colloquial. If they are not words in very common use, they do not assume m as their initial. The following are examples:—

• 夫 mí and ví, c. ví, r.
• 萬 man‘ and van‘, c. van‘, r.
• 襪 mah, 蚊 mun, c. and r.
• 文, 武 vun, ’vú, c. and r.

Also 問忘網望味物 are spoken mun‘, &c., and read vun‘, etc. In early Chinese these words all began with b.

73. L. J. The former of these, as used in our dialect, agrees with the native system, and with the northern mandarin, and calls for no remark except that a very few words as before noted belong to the upper series. See Art. 56.

Under the initial j, are found all the Shánghái words in ni (c), and z (r), which are j, in Mandarin. E.g. 譆饒熱染日忍軟閏絨認撚 are spoken niáng, &c., and read záng, &c.

Thus,

• 人 niun, c. zun, r. jin, m. a man.
• 肉 nióh, c. zóh, r. júh, m. flesh.

Words that are semi-colloquial, or only used in combination retain z. E.g. 惹仁仍弱乳 are read and spoken ’zá, zun, etc.

Thus, 自然 zz‘ zén, c. and r. tsz‘ jen, m.

⁂ Words in z from sh, or s in mandarin, never change into ni. Thus, the natural separation between distinct classes of words is maintained, when their reading sounds are identical.

74. This class also includes r.h. The native tables make no difference between j and rh, and in some parts of China the initial j is in jih, sun, and some other words pronounced like r.

• 而且 rh ’t’siá, perhaps.

When thoroughly colloquialized, however, these words pass into ní, and must be placed under n or ng.

• 二 ní‘, c. rh‘ r. two.
• 兒子 ní ’tsz, or ng ’tsz, c. rh, r. son.
• 耳朶 ’ní ’tú, c. rh tó, r. ears.

ii. Finals.

75. The Shánghái finals are about 60 in number. According to the native system, the whole of a word except the initial letter and the aspirate if there be one, is included in the final. In the Dictionaries, the finals, which unlike the initials differ but slightly from modern mandarin pronunciation, are less numerous. The 字彙 tsz‘ hwei‘ has 44. The short tones which should be considered independent rhymes are counted with the corresponding long ones, and thus the number is diminished. The first table in K’áng-hí has sixteen, and the second, twelve. Under each are several subdivisions. Another small and very convenient Dictionary, the 五方元音 ’Wú fáng yuen yin, taking the five tone mandarin dialect for its guide both in initials and finals, adopts twenty of the one, and twelve of the other, and arranges them under five tones. In reducing them to this small number, some violence is done to the sounds. All words beginning with a vowel, or ng are arranged under w and y. In the finals, expedients are also employed to diminish the number of headings.

76. In the finals, the departures from the mandarin type are numerous, but they are according to system, and the knowledge of one variation is usually a key to the pronunciation of many tens of other words. The variations are usually the same for one long tone as for all.

In the following table which consists of words without a diphthong, the first column contains the final according to Shánghái pronunciation; the second, all the examples of it having different rhymes in mandarin; the third, the mandarin spelling; and the fourth, the Shánghái reading sound.

77. The other intermediate vowels u, occurring only after k, g, forms the following finals:—

Obs. i. For óng and úng, Morrison writes úng; Prémare óng. It will be seen that in our dialect they are both in use. When a word is pronounced alone, or when last in order, ó is more common, while ú prefers the first place in combination; 松紅 Súng-kong, Súng-kiáng; 吳淞 Ng sóng, Wú-súng; 中國人 tsúng kóh niun, Chinaman; 勿拉當中 veh ’lá tong tsóng, not in the centre.

Obs. ii. Words in é from m. ái have two sounds. Some employ the Scotch ae in sae, nae, etc. nearly like e before r in the English words there, where. Others pronounce the English a in cake, same, i.e. in our orthography é. Ex. 來海 lé, ’hé, are constantly heard with both these sounds.

Obs. iii. Words in én, beyond 黃渡 Wong dú‘, and 朱家閣 Tsû ká koh, 25 and 30 miles to the west of Shánghái, change into ön.

Obs. iv. On án, wán. The second of these mandarin finals passes into én or ön. The former retains a for á. Ex. 滿洲 Mén tseu, Manchu; 五六萬 ’ng lóh man, 50,000 or 60,000.

78. If the old native tables of finals could be reduced to a fixed Roman orthography, our dialect would be found to bear more similarity to that pronunciation as its maternal stem, than to its northern relative the modern mandarin. The final k in the short tone was recognized, and many sub-divisions of a final into two or more branches agree with our usage; i.e. kwán into kwön and kwan. Some southern dialects preserve some parts and some others parts of this traditional pronunciation. The work before referred to, Lé‘ sh‘ yin kíen‘ says, in the 凡例 Fán lieh, Introductory Notes, 南音於剜彎, 官關, 般班, 分之甚細。 北或合面爲一, Nén yun ü wén wan, kwén kwan pén pan, fun tsz zun‘ sí‘. Poh wóh heh rh wé ih. “In the south (Kiáng-nán. etc.), the pronunciation of the words pén pan, etc. is carefully separated, while in the north, they combine in one (á) sound.”

Another instance there given, of difference between the north and south in the final, is in such words as 銀盈, 勤檠, 神繩, 林靈, 貧平, 金京, m. yin ying, k’in k’ing, shin shing, lin ling, p’in p’ing, kin king. These the author says, are carefully distinguished in the north, while in the south they are identical in sound.

The rule of Shánghái pronunciation is this. Those words that end in ng in mandarin keep it. Those words that end in un change n into ng, while such as terminate in un take n or ng indifferently. Thus the above examples are read niun (g) yung, kiun (g) kiung, zun (g) zung, ling ling, ping ping, kiun (g) kiung.

Both of this writer’s observations are exemplified in the table. It is there shewn how far precisely this coalescing and subdividing of rhymes extends. One rhyme in either of the dialects, may branch off in the other into four or even six independent finals.

79. The most curious fact deducible from the table is, the affinity of certain vowels for the terminating consonant k (g before words in the lower tones) found in the short tone; a peculiarity which disappears a little south-west of Shánghái, and is not noticed at Ningpo.

The principal forms of words in the short tone in mandarin, according to different systems of orthography in common use are as follow:—

Most words in the short tone ending in k, are of the last three of these finals u, ú, ó. Of the others, those in ih if they take k often insert a short u. E.g. 力 is heard lik or liuk. Similarly when words in úh and óh do not take k, they change úh and óh into eh. Thus, 末 móh becomes meh, Many words in conformity with this law, change their places among the finals, and the collocation of a and e, with k is carefully avoided, while u, ú, ó, retain it with equal consistency.[1] It should be observed however, that the á of mandarin becomes a in the short tone, and the longer a is only used as the colloquialized form of u. E.g. 百 c. pák, r. puk. Thus in Shánghái usage, á, u, ó, o take k in the short tone, a, e, ö, admit m terminating consonant, while i remains common.

This law is much simpler than that of the Fúh-kien and other dialects of the south of China. But while in those dialects, there are found as in the dictionaries three terminating consonants, k, t, p, similar affinities to vowels are traceable. In Fúh-kien with the exception of á, which, all three share between them, k usually prefers one set of vowels, and t and p another.

The native rule in the southern dialects, that k, t, p, are merely the form assumed by the final letters ng, n, m, in the short tone, is inapplicable to dialects, so far north as this. In the native system of finals, this limitation is found indeed, but is not rigidly adhered to. Some words in t are placed under ng as well as n. Others in k occur under vowel finals. The cases of conformity however, are so much more numerous than the exceptions, that the rule is indubitable. Since here only k is in use, the modern seat of the old pronunciation of the dictionaries must lie in part farther south. It embraces indeed the seaboard provinces, from Shánghái to Canton with parts of Kiang-si and Hu-nan.

80. The letter n is also affected by the preceding vowel. After a, e, ö, û, it is almost unheard when no word follows, and though a well-defined consonant in the next word brings it into notice, it is still only audible as a slight nasal sound. The vowels i, o, refuse to be associated with it, and when u precedes, it only holds its position in common with ng. After ü it is as in mandarin.

81. Out of 63 finals, there are twenty that vary their sound in reading. In all these, there is an approach to the mandarin pronunciation, and they are therefore employed, by those born within the limits of the dialect, when they wish to make themselves intelligible to strangers. In such cases, they are usually under the delusive impression that it is mandarin they speak. Such is the advantage of the alphabetic system, with its all-versatile and exhaustive applicability, that a foreigner can pass from one dialect to another so far as sound is concerned, with much greater quickness than a native. The latter has no ready method of writing new sounds down, nor is he practised in the art of separating them into their alphabetical elements. No thing but a long residence in the region of another pronunciation, and some natural flexibility of organs, can give him a different set of tones, and a new arrangement of vowels and consonants. The sight of a character suggests to him the sound, that he learnt in his childhood, and having always regarded each, sound as a unity not separable into alphabetic parts, any variation is too confusing and difficult of appreciation to be readily adopted.

The total number of sounds in our dialect independent of tones, is about 570. Morrison counts those of mandarin at 411, The difference is due to the broad initials b, g, d, v, z.

82. Irregularities of Pronunciation. Words that do not conform in sound to the rules given in this section are few.

• 十五 só‘ ’ng, (for seh ng), fifteen.
• 錢 dzíen, r. is pronounced díen‘, c.
• 逐軸 dióh, r. They should be dzóh.
• 打 ’tá, to strike, in reading and colloquial is ’táng.[1]
• 那 r. ná, c. á in á lí, where.
• 所在 r. ’sú ’dzé, c. ’sû zé, a house.