Page:The Chinese language and how to learn it.djvu/42

24 of the symbols used by the people themselves. There is probably no short cut to a knowledge of any language, and certainly none to Chinese. If a student will not take the small amount of trouble necessary to master eight hundred to a thousand symbols he had better leave Chinese alone

The question of pronunciation must be faced at the outset. If the learner goes far wrong in his initial appreciation of the value of Chinese sounds he will find it difficult to correct his mistakes later on. Some Chinese sounds are incapable of production by any alphabetical combinations, and nothing but oral demonstration will make them clear, but, happily, these are few, and most of them can be spelt in such a way that any one should be able to pronounce them fairly correctly. If it were a question merely of inventing a vocabulary for the use of the English student alone the matter would be comparatively simple, but what has been aimed at by those who have tried to work out a system of spelling is to produce something of a cosmopolitan nature that shall be understood by all. The result has been that no one can understand any of the various systems elaborated without divesting himself of preconceived notions as to how certain combinations of letters should be pronounced, and beginners often go astray because they have not carefully studied the directions as to the way to read the vocabularies. Of these there are several, but the best system of transliteration is undoubtedly that elaborated by Sir Thomas Wade. It is, necessarily, not perfect, but it is probably as good as any that can be made, and in spite of much antagonism it has held its own and has outlived various systems which other scholars have endeavoured to force upon the public. All English- speaking people accept it, and though other nationalities spell many Chinese sounds in their own way, they have to fall back on the Wade system when writing for universal information.

The sounds as expressed in the Wade system are given below, and, in order to make them as intelligible as possible, alternative spellings in simple English form are added to each sound. If the reader will bear in mind that A is always pronounced ar, that I is ee or i as in French, and U oo, he will be saved much confusion. Other peculiarities will, to a certain extent, be indicated by the alternative spellings, and an attempt is made to show how the specially difficult sounds can be reproduced.