Page:First Lessons in the Swatow Dialect.djvu/10

2 TONES.

Every Chinese word has a tone, inseparable from its pronunciation. In the Tie Ciu dialect there are eight tones, which can be acquired only from a living teacher. Many Chinese teachers know no names for the tones; and different teachers place them in different orders. The following order is perhaps most usual.

These names do not express the relative sounds of the tones, but appear to be purely arbitrary. Words in the entering tones always end in the sound of h, k, p, or t. In speaking, the tone of a word is greatly modified by its relation to other words in the sentence, and all are obscure except that of the most emphatic word, which has its tone fully enunciated. The same syllable is seldom found in all the eight tones.