Page:Easy sentences in the Hakka dialect.pdf/15

 words, (as far as their sounds were concerned) representing Chinese words, but with different meanings in the one language to what they have in the other. For instance, hay in Chinese would not be a noun and represent sun-dried grass, but an adverb, or a verb, viz. "yes," or "it is." It will, therefore, be necessary to call attention to a few sounds which the Englishman may find some difficulty in pronouncing, were no explanation given.

The sound ny can be learned by joining the final n in man to the initial letter of you and dropping the other letters of the two words, viz. (ma)ny(ou).

I is always pronounced as in the first personal pronoun I.

Loy is pronounced as in coy, and oy has the same sound throughout the sentences, whether in combination or alone, that it has in that word.

M is not pronounced as em in Emma, but as m in ma without the a. Words beginning with ng usually present considerable difficulty to a man who has been taught not to speak through his nose. Let him then throw all these instructions to the winds, and begin at once to practice speaking through his nose. An idea of the sound of this initial ng may be gained by attempting to pronounce the final sound in the English word sing without the first two letters.

If the reader can fancy a sound forming a cross between how and hue, he will get an idea of the Hakka word heu; and meu, of course, has the same sound as one might suppose to exist in English were a word to be formed midway in the transit of the voice from mow to mew.

Initial w should be pronounced as v; and n at the beginning of a word, in some of the Hakka Districts, is always changed to l, while other Hakkas clearly define the distinction between l and n at the commencement of words.

Initial ts is pronounced as ts in Whitsuntide. "The sounds tsz and sz are likewise unknown to Europeans, and care should be taken to attain a correct pronunciation. The latter sound (sz) will be obtained if in pronouncing the word dizzy the two letters di be changed to s."

Where the inverted apostrophe occurs after an initial letter the word is said to be aspirated, and it must be uttered with more force than it would be otherwise.