Page:Primary Lessons In Swatow Grammar.djvu/13

Rh

Now it is true that in certain words the Chinese themselves do make two sounds coalesce, as hiēn or hīn, chiang or chang, kièn or kìⁿ, chiũ or chũ. If the foreigner could limit himself to the Chinese usage it would be all well enough, but he makes sounds to coalesce which Chinese do not, and the peculiarity is instantly noticed.

The prevention of this defect is easy and simple. The learner should at the outset, among other things, take short lessons daily in the pronunciation of syllables. At such lessons the attention should be given to that one thing, regardless for the time, of either the shape or the meaning of the character. The object, at such times, should be to drill the ear to a quick apprehension, and the tongue to a correct utterance of the tones. Only it is required that the tones should be marked for the benefit of the eye, and for this reason, Mr. Goddard’s Vocabulary or Miss Fielde’s Dictionary would be specially serviceable. Let the teacher pronounce the syllables very slowly, one at a time in what the Chinese call khan-tn̂g-siaⁿ, a long drawn voice. When this is done the learner will discover how the sounds of different vowels in the same syllable are separated so as to make it practically a dissyllable [sic]. It will be noticed further how the sound of the middle vowel more especially, is prolonged in quantity. In giving a lesson the teacher may exaggerate this a little, and the pupil will need to follow him. But when he comes to speak in ordinary conversation he will not be at all likely to drawl too much, while he will escape the huddling objected to. Some examples are given in illustration. The vowel is repeated to indicate the prolongation,