Page:Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect.pdf/2

ii Fukien. Regarding Foochow city as the centre of the dialect, we may say that it extends, eastward to the sea, a distance of about thirty miles, northward, to the Chekiang province, two 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 Baik 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 which follows.

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, Esq., of the Imperial Maritime Customs. Mr. Lay, however, is not responsible for nay typographic errors in this department, as it was impossible for him to correct the proof-sheets while the work was passing through the press.

A brief list of Additions is placed at the end of the dictionary proper, and in it are given some additional uses of characters, and a few Romanized words and phrases which do not appear in the body of the work. A table of Corrections is given at the close of the volume, in which the more important errors occurring in the dictionary have been noted: the errors not corrected in the table are thought to be of an unimportant character, and their appropriate correction is readily suggested by the connection in which they occur. In the Index of Characters, where brackets have been used, it will be noticed that frequently the same character is repeated once or twice. In these instances the character has different tones which affect its meaning. The figures indicate where each form is found.

The printing of the dictionary, in view of the limited and imperfect appliances at command, has been a difficult and tedious task: the type-setting and press-work have been performed by Chinese hands, and during the printing of the larger portion of the work, the supervision of the press and the drudgery of