Page:An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect.djvu/27



It appears from Table III, and its note of explanation that there are 90 final syllables, which (as belonging to the eng initial) are also independent words or vocables. They may be arranged alphabetically as follows:—

a, á, aë, aëh, aëk, aëng, ah, áh, ai, aih, aik, aing, aiu, aiuh, ak, ang, au, auh, auk, aung, e, ë, eh, ëh, ek, ëk, eng, ëng, eu, ëü, euh, ëüh, ëük, ëüng, i, iă, (yă), iăh, (yăh), iăk (yăk), iăng, (yăng), ié, iéh, iék, (yék), iéng, (yéng), ieu, (yéu), ieuh, (yeuh), ih, ik, ing, io, (yo), ioh (yoh), iok (yok), iong, (yong), iu, iuh, o, ó, oh, óh, oi, ói, oih, óih, ok, ong, u, ü, uh, üh, ui, uí, uk, ük, ung, üng, wa, wah, wai, waih, wak, wang, wi, wí, wih, wíh, wo, woh, woí, woíh, wok, wong.

The tables II and III also furnish the data for ascertaining the number of vocables produced by the combination of initials with finals and the modification by tones. The whole number is (15×33×7) 3465. Besides these, there are two words not strictly referable to the table of initial and final sounds, viz., the semi-vocal nasal (no, not) on p. 393, and the word, on p. 610, composed of the initial ng and a final compouned of i, and au,—making the whole number of vocables 3467. But probably less than half of these are in actual use. This paucity of vocables or monosyllabic words is largely compensated by the very frequent union of two or more words, virtually forming polysyllables, to express simple ideas. Thus the number of words is in effect increased to several thousands, which give to this dialect "a richness and variety of expression but little inferior to that of many alphabetic languages".

Chinese phrases as foot notes. The expedient of placing the Chinese characters at the foot of the page was adopted because, while the dictionary was going through the press, we found it impracticable to combine our English and Chinese fonts of type in the same text. A fixed portion of the lower part of each page was, therefore, set apart for Chinese, the design being to place there the characters for the most important phrases occurring on the page. A new font of English type, which we could combine with the Chinese, arrived just in time to be used in printing the Introduction.