Page:The China Review, Or, Notes and Queries on the Far East, Volume 22 1RZBAQAAMAAJ.pdf/105

 ꜂ngo. Yau꜄ ꜂mín ꜂ngo-tí꜄ ko꜄ hím꜄-hú꜄, ꜂ho-꜂ts'í ꜂ngo-tí꜄ ꜂mín-꜀háú ꜁yan hím꜄-hú꜄ ꜂ngo ko꜄. Môí꜄ (bet. moí and muí) ꜂yan ꜂ngo-ti꜄ yap꜇ eí꜄-wák꜇, ꜂ts'ang kaú꜄ ꜂ngo ts'at꜆ tsôí꜄ (bet. tsoí and tsuí) ok꜆. ꜀Yan-waí꜄, kok꜆ á꜄, ꜁k'ün á꜄, ꜁ang áá꜄ [sic], ꜀káí haí꜄ ꜂ni ꜂yau tsi꜄ to꜄ saí꜄ saí꜄. ꜁Sang ꜀sam ꜂so ngún꜄.

In this specimen will be noticed the change of the initial to h which happens before the vowel u; the initial y changed to ng; the dropping of the h in sh and of w in kw; the y introduced after the initial k which happens in a few instances; the substitution of short a for í a very marked and universal trait of the dialect; the peculiar pronunciation of the ôí, between oí and uí&mdash;neither the one nor the other, but about midway between both; the employment of í instead of z as the use of long í (double ee) for éí, in Cantonese a final, and the use of au instead of íú in the sign of the past tense, híú which becomes háú; the change of ai in ꜃moú into the peculiar môí (between oí and uí) noticed above; the short u sound represented in Williams' system of orthography by short a, which short u (a) is used instead of the longer u in the word ch'ut in Cantonese; the repugnance to the w was shown already in k alone for kw, but even more marked when it is omitted entirely from the word ꜁wing, the further transposing of the vowel in this word already noticed almost puts the word beyond recognition when first heard; the sharper sound of ts for ch; and finally the employment of ko꜄ for the possessive.&mdash;All make up a sum total of changes not to be despised by any means, and when the tones come into play as well, the peculiarity and individuality of the dialect becomes most pronounced.

The Lord's prayer, as given above, contains ninety-three words and there are nearly half of the words pronounced differently from what they are in pure Cantonese, viz. forty-five. Again counting the same word only once (not counting it when it reappears), there are fifty-nine separate words and the words that are differently pronounced and used from what they are in Canton are twenty-five. A comparison like this may probably give a better idea of the great amount of the difference there is in some of these dialects from Cantonese, than a mere counting of the number of words which are represented by a different spelling from lists compiled for the purpose would show; for, if one only thinks about it, it is the whole body of the speech that differs, and this whole body of the speech is made up of many words; and a large proportion of the words which differ happen to be common words which occur over and over again in everyday speech, while some of the words that do not differ may be less used; ergo a comparison of the language as it is used is more likely to give a better idea of the differences.

Comparative syllabary of Cantonese and Höng Shán sounds.