Page:Manual of the Foochow dialect.pdf/25

11 TABLE I. The initials and the finals, with the characters used in the Paik Ing to represent them, and their alphabetic value in Roman letters.

. The 11th initial (eng) denotes simply the absence of any initial consonant, hence the blank on the right in the column of alphabetic values.

. Much difficulty is experienced in Romanizing some of the final sounds.

(a) Some would write the pwí final pwe; others prefer the form pwoi.

(b) Some give to the kwo final an additional slight a or ë sound, writing it kwoa or kwoë.

(c) Some would write the kio final küo; others prefer the form kioa or kioë. Perhaps none of these forms fully represent the required sounds, which are accurately learned only by imitating the native mode of pronunciation.

(d) The vowel sounds of the ch‘iu and sieu finals are often confounded–by teachers as well as others–especially in the suburbs and country. The same remark holds in reference to the pwí and hwi finals, the tendency being to use wi instead of wi [sic].