Page:A Grammar of the Chinese Colloquial Language commonly called the Mandarin Dialect (IA dli.granth.92779).pdf/12



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1.The five vowels i, e, a, o, u, in an open syllable, have the Italian sound. They are the vowels contained in the words feed fail, father, foal, fool.

2.The vowels i, e in closed syllables are pronounced as the vowels in fin, fun. But after i and y, the letter e us t be pronounced as e in sent.

3.The vowels a, o, u, in closed syllables are the same as in open syllables.

4.Words in the fourth tone-class (juh sheng) are terminated by h, to indicate that the sound closes abruptly through without an articulate consonant.

5.The symbols ï, ü, è, are pronounced as e in tassel, u in the French word tu, and the first e in there.

6.The mutes k, t, p, f, ch, though sometimes a little softened in northern pronunciation, so as to sound like g, d, b, v, are to be considered hard like the English consonants k, t, p, f.

7.The aspirated consonants k‘, t‘, p‘, c‘h, t‘s, are the corresponding mutes pronounced with a distinct separation immediately following them.

8.Before the vowels i and ü, the letters k and ts, are in many dialects heard as one sound, which appears to be approaching ch, but is not yet definitely arrived at that sound. Before the same vowels, in the same dialects, h and s also coincide.

9.The five tone-classes are marked in the following manner:—I. ,t‘i; II. ’t’i; III. t‘i‘; IV. t‘ih; V. .t‘i. In Kiang-nan and the south, the regular four tone-classes are subdivided into an upper and lower series, making eight in all. In mandarin this subdivision extends generally, only to the first which is subdivided into the first and the fifth.