Page:The China Review, Or, Notes and Queries on the Far East, Volume 22 1RZBAQAAMAAJ.pdf/98

 there is only one 去, höü sheng, in the Höng Shán Dialect, and this is a little lower in musical pitch than the Cantonese tone and shorter in duration of pronunciation.

The 下入, há yap, lower entering tone, is higher in musical pitch than the Cantonese, being between the Cantonese 中入, chung yap, middle entering tone, and the Cantonese 下入 há yap; and much nearer to the former than to the latter. In short the 下入, há yap, is higher than the Cantonese 下入, há yap, and a little lower than the Cantonese 中入, chung yap. Here we may notice that the word 嚇 hakhák [sic] becomes a 上入 shöng yap, upper entering tone, in the Höng Shán dialect.

We come next to the three extra tones; the higher shöng p'ing as illustrated in Cantonese by the word 孫 sün, grandchild, third rising or colloquial rising tone and the 中入, chung yap, middle entering tone.

The higher, or upper shöng p'ing, is almost apt to be overlooked at first, for it is not so distinct from the ordinary 上平, shöng p'ing, upper even tone, as in CantonneseCantonese [sic], and besides it does not appear to be as largely used as in Cantonese. Out of a list of twenty-one words in it in Cantonese, five, or say one-fourth, seem in the Höng Shán dialect to be used in the ordinary 上平, shöng p'ing. This upper shöng p'ing then in the Höng Shán dialect is not so sharp and shrill as in Cantonese, nor is there such a musical interval in space between it and the ordinary 上平 shöng p'ing, as there is in Cantonese. In other words it is not nearly such a high tone as the pure Cantonese higher 上平 shöng p'ing; it is only a little higher than the ordinary 上平 shöng ping; but it appears to be the same tone as the Cantonese 上平 shöng p'ing, the ordinary 上平 shöng p'ing in Höng Shán being lower than that tone is in Cantonese. The third, or colloquial, rising tone, playing such an important part in pure Cantonese in the matter of tense, emphasis, and meaning of the word, as well as being used when the word is used alone or singly, is of much less importance in the Höng Shán dialect. It is used as a sign of the past tense, as for example in 做, ꜂tsò, done, and 吃 ꜂yák, eaten, 來 ꜂lôí came; and, as far as can be discovered at present, in no other way. For example it is not used in 邊誰, pín shúí? Who? (this phrase being commonly used for the mat shöü? of Cantonese) for the 誰 shúí retains its tone; nor is it used in the phrases 慢慢 mán꜅ ꜂mán, slowly, or 耐耐 noí꜅ ꜂noí, now and then. Again the third word in the phrase 唱木魚 ch'öng꜄ múk꜁ ꜂yü, to sing songs in dialect does not take the third rising tone, as it does in Cantonese; nor does a picture 一幅畫 pronounced yat꜆ fúk꜆ ꜂wá for wá꜅ retain its book-language tone; neither does 妹 múï꜅ in 姊妹 ꜂tsz ꜂möíí go into the third rising tone as it often does in Cantonese; nor does 錢 ꜂ts'ín in 銀錢 ꜁ngan ꜂ts'ín, dollars, take this colloquial rising tone as it usually does in conversation in Cantonese; nor is 名 ming꜅ in 堂名 ꜁t'ong ꜁meng in this tone as it would often be in Cantonese. Again it is not used as an emphatic as in 唔 ꜂m I wo'nt, in Cantonese. There is again the loss of the distinctive use of the third rising tone in conveying a different meaning to a word, as in the employment of it with the word 話 wá꜅ in Cantonese to denote a dialect or language, this tone in Cantonese distinguishing this character when so used from the primary meaning of the word which means a word, &c. This is entirely wanting in the Höng Shan dialect where 話 wá꜅ retains its original tone and 聲 ꜀sheng is employed often where it would be used; but even where it (話 wá꜅) is used in this sense, it retains its original tone. The third rising tone in the Höng Shán dialect is shorter in duration of utterance, i.e. it passes through a shorter space in utterance than the Cantonese similar tone; and consequently this leads to its being possibly not quite so well pronounced