Page:L. Richard's ... Comprehensive geography of the Chinese empire and dependencies ... translated into English, revised and enlarged (IA lrichardscompreh00rich).pdf/14

VI

The Mandarin dialect lacks the initial letters b, d, g, q, r, v, x and z; and all words end by a vowel, semi-vowel, n or ng.

a. — as in father.

ai. — as in aye.

ao. — (final) as ow in how, but prolonged.

e. — as in men, yet.

ê. — as the vowel sound in earth.

eh. — short and abrupt.

ei. — as in height, or i in sigh (many English writers confound ai and ei).

eu. — as ou in souse (some write it ou or ow).

eul. — as ll in hull or skull, with an approximation to rl as in hurl. (English and American writers have transliterated this sound in the most bewildering manner, thus :


 * urh (Morrison).
 * ’rh (Williams).
 * êrh (Wade, Giles).
 * u̇r (Jenkings)
 * rh (Edkins).
 * rï (Ballard).

i. — as in pin.

ia. — as ya in yard.

iao. — i and ao sounded, but slightly coalescing into one second.

ie. — as in the Italian word siesta.

ieh. — shorter than ie.

ih. — short and abrupt, as the voewl sound in chick.

in. — as the vowel sound in chin, pin.

ing. — as in king, sing.

io. — i as y in yawn.

ioh. — short and abrupt.

iu. — as ew, in pew, yew.

o. — as o in long.

oh. — short and abrupt.

ow. — as ow in how (see eu).

u. — as oo in too, fool.

ü. — as u in abuse.

uh. — short and abrupt.

ui. — u as in too; i as in height, both slightly coalescing into one.

The aspirate is about the same sound as initial h in English, but often somewhat stronger. In English, the aspirate after a surd is a neglected sound, while in Chinese it is a substitute for the lack of the sonants b, d, g hard and g soft. The Mandarin dialect has 9 aspirates : the initial simple consonants k, p and t, and the compound consonants ch, chw, kw, shw, ts and tz.

A nasal sound is performed by closing the lips and causing the voice to pass into the nose.