Page:A Manual of the Foochow Dialect in Twenty Lessons.pdf/54

Rh 5. Such sentences as “it is not as easy as that”, “make it as large as this”, presuppose some standard of comparison. This is expressed by ciŏng-nâng this sort, hiŏng-uâng that sort, or by 只滿 cī-muāng and 許滿 hṳ̄-muāng this fall, that full literally, but answering to, “so very” being placed before the descriptive word. He is not as clever as that 伊毛許滿大聰明 ĭ mò̤ hṳ̄-muāng duâi chŭng-mìng. My teapot is as large as that, 儂家其茶婆務許滿大 Nè̤ng-gă gì dà-bò̤ ô hṳ̄-muāng duâi.

6. Incomparability is expressed by, 毛乇比併 Mò̤-nó̤h bī-piâng. God is incomparably wise, 上帝其智慧毛乇比併 Siông-Dá̤ gì dé-hiê mò̤-nó̤h bī-piâng.

7. The idea of slight difference in quality is expressed by, niăh-no̤i, 一滴仔 siŏh-dék-giāng, siŏh dī-dĭ, with or without the comparative sign gó. A little better, Gó hō̤ niăh-nó̤i. A little larger, 大一滴仔 Duâi siŏh-dék-giāng.

8. The idea of passable quality is expressed by the phrase, iā-ô-hō̤ tolerably good. Is this paper good? It is passable. 者紙⿰亻鞋好賣 也務好 ''Ciā cāi â̤ hō̤ mâ̤? Iā-ô-hō̤''.

9. The comparative degree of adjectives is expressed by:&mdash;(a). Prefixing 故 gó or 更 gáing. This character is larger, 者字故大 Ciā cê gó duâi. This is better, 嚽更好 Cuòi gáing hō̤. (b). The use of such words as: 贏 iàng to win, or the full idiomatic term iàng-kó̤, with or without the comparative sign 故 gó. Dai Seng’s writing is far better than Ting Hua’s, 得信寫其字是故贏去丁華寫其字 Dáik Sèng siā gì cê sê gó iàng-kó̤ Dĭng Huà siā gì cê. (c). The use of 倍 buôi so many times, with dék following the adjective. Twice as good, 好的雙倍 Hō̤-dék sĕ̤ng buôi. (d). A