Page:An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect.djvu/14



and are placed under the characters. The general definitions are on the authority of Kanghi's Imperial Dictionary and native authors, as interpreted by teachers and lexicographers. The colloquial or unauthorized meanings are always clearly distinguished. Sometimes an additional reading of a leading character is given before the general definitions, when its definitions are the same in the different readings. When they are different, both the reading and definitions are usually given at the close of the paragraph or in the proper alphabetic place in the book. In the latter case reference is made to the different sound at the end of the general definitions.

The standard authority among native scholars for the readings of characters, as well as for their meanings, is Kanghi's Dictionary. The Paik Ing, a native tonic dictionary, is not classic authority, though prized as a convenient Manual of the Rudiments of this dialect and as furnishing brief definitions of characters. Usage however often disregards the readings of both these dictionaries. And in the present work such usage is frequently followed in assigning a character its Romanized alphabetic place, while the reading discarded by native usage is noted in the phrase "Read .... in the dictionaries" immediately following the character. The readings of the Paik Ing are mostly used to introduce colloquial words and phrases. But even in this respect there is no strict rule followed by native teachers. They use much liberty, often choosing, either for its sound or its sense, some classic character, simpler than the one found in the Paik Ing.

The phrases are distinguished into three classes: (1) those following the general definitions are classic or book phrases; (2) those under, are common to the written and spoken languages, and include many refined terms and some epistolary phrases; (3) those under , are such as, by reason of idiom, meaning, or colloquial characters used wholly or partly to represent them, may be more properly classed as colloquial phrases. The number of phrases in this dictionary is estimated at 30,000 to 35,000, of which $2⁄3$ or $3⁄4$ are comprised in the last two classes above mentioned, and are consequently used with more or less frequency in the ordinary business of life.

A slight acquaintance with the language will convince the student of the impossibility of making a thorough and perfect distinction of the phrases into such classes. The literary tastes, knowledge, mental habits, and modes of speaking of different native teachers, as also the conceptions of the same teacher at different times, all tend to make the limits of the three classes somewhat variable, as found by actual experience in our work. Still there is ground for the distinction, and we hope that it will be useful in showing generally what phrases are spoken and what are not.

It should also be remarked in reference to the definitions of many of the colloquial phrases that there is no very fixed standard by which to test them. Usage varies to some extent in different places, while teachers and others often fail to agree in their explanations. This is peculiarly the case in reference to proverbial phrases. Some are universally known and used. Others are local, and others still are differently explained and applied in different localities.