Page:An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect.djvu/8



the work that is peculiar to the Foochow dialect has been carefully marked, so that the student cannot be misled on this point. The large number of Romanized words appearing in the dictionary, and for which the written language furnishes no characters, is an interesting feature of this dialect, and indicates that modern Chinese thought is outgrowing the stereotyped forms of this ancient language. The same feature appears in other dialects.

It is difficult to assign exact geographical limits to the Foochow dialect, or to estimate with precision the amount of the population by whom it is spoken. In Foochow city, the capital of the Fookien province, and throughout the Foochow and Fooning prefectures, it is, with considerable variations, the vernacular of the people. Beyond these limits, it is spoken only by the Foochow merchants, artisans, &c. &c. who reside in most of the important cities of Fookien. Regarding Foochow city as the center of the dialect, we may say that it extends, eastward to the sea, a distance of about thirty miles; northward, to the Chehkiang province, two hundred miles; westward, to the Yenping prefecture, one hundred miles; and southward, to the Hinghwa prefecture, seventy miles. It is probable the dialect is spoken by five millions of people. The only native work on the dialect is a small Tonic dictionary, named the Paik Ing (Eight Sounds), and containing about 10,000 characters, which are distributed, according to their tones, under what are called the Initials and finals of the dialect. The work is noticed more at length in the Introduction to this dictionary.

In the preparation of this dictionary, the results of the labors of Drs. Morrison, Medhurst, and Williams, in Anglo-Chinese lexicography, have been freely availed of, and this general acknowledgement of indebtedness is gratefully made. Sincere thanks are tendered to those members of the Missionary community in Foochow who have, in many ways, rendered valuable assistance—especially to the Rev. S. L. Baldwin, and Rev. L. N. Wheeler, whose opportune help made it possible to publish the work in Foochow, and under whose consecutive superintendence five hundred pages of it were printed. A large portion of the Mandarin sounds, which appear under the leading characters in the dictionary, were kindly furnished by Walter T. Lay