Page:First lessons in Chinese (1871).djvu/10

 E final, and eⁿ nasal, long, as: 米 me, rice; 天 tʻeⁿ heaven. O final, and ō in composition, sounded as o in no, as: 茶 tso, tea; 木頭 mōh-deu, wood.

sounded as o in German, as in Goethe, as : a little boy, /J> Q s/aw no ; a little girl, /J> ^ staw no / a month, ^ nyoh. ij and u have sounds which the learnef will get better ffom a teacher than from ex- amples in English, as : § sii, a book ; ^ su, a tree ; p^ t/w, rain ; :|^ ^yii.tsz, a chair. ^w, sounded as in French, in monsieur, as : ^ ^ew, the head ; ^ seu, the hand. Au, sounded as in autuinn, as : J7/ tau, a knife or sword ; ^ J^ ^aw-Ze, doctrine. A small "" raised above the line indicates a nasal, as : ^ te", heaven ; "U g^ 8e^-deu, formerly. A final h shortens the preceeding vowel, as in the following words : ^ 7nah, wheat, the a sounded as a in what. ^ sa7i, to kill, the ci sounded as a in ^a«. ^^ fj^seh-t'eh, to lose, the e sounded as e in ;9e^. j^ |gj mih-t'eh, to destroy, the 2 sounded as i in sit. ^ g^ moh-deu, the o sounded as o in mote. ^ o/f, ^icked, the o sounded as o mj^ot. ^ nyoh, month, the 6 sounded as in German, but contracted by the final h. ^ muh, ink, the tt sounded as m in shut. A comma before the initial letters t and 2h contracts those letters into a sound between t and d, and p and b. Tone Marks.— -The JQ ^ sang-sung (so-called upper tone), is marked thus ^ at the beginning of the word. The =^ ^ chu-simg (departing tone), is marked thus ' at the end of the word. The ^ ^ ping-sung (even tone), is mdicated by no mark. The y ^ seh-sung (entering tone), is indicated by a final h.