Category: Language & Communication

A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese, as Exhibited in the Shanghai Dialect

{Section} 1. Alphabet. Table of sounds. 1. 2. On the Chinese tones. Natural tones described. Tones of several dialects. 6. 3. On Shanghai tones. Tones in state of transition. Relation of tones to music and accents. 13. 4. Alphabetic elements of the sounds. The 36 initials of t...

Chapters

1. PART I.

{Section} 1. Alphabet. Table of sounds. 1. 2. On the Chinese tones. Natural tones described. Tones of several dialects. 6. 3. On Shanghai tones. Tones in state of transition. Re...

2. PART II.

{Section} 1. Native divisions. Division proposed by a native grammarian. 58. 2. Relation of the dialect to the written language, and to other dialects. Primitive words exemplifi...

3. PART III.

{Section} 1. On Government. 163. 2. Interchange of the Parts of Speech. Adjective as Substantive. Verb as Substantive, and as Adjective, &c. 164. 3. On Government of Words in Gr...

4. PART 1.

k’ a strongly aspirated sound 空 k’ung, {empty}. It is often mistaken by foreign ears when occurring before i and ü, for the aspirated c‘h but should be separated from that sound...

5. PART II.

83. Common teachers of the language in distinguishing words, only use two pairs of terms, viz. 實, 虛 zeh, h’ü, and 死, 活 ’sz, {w}eh. The former signifies words that have a meaning...

6. PART III.

336. The rules for the relative position of the parts of speech are few and simple. They will be first considered without reference to grouping, repetition, etc.; the syntax of...

7. Part 1. section 3. for remarks on the accent of three-word groups.

429. From this analysis it may be concluded, that much of Chinese prose falls spontaneously into groups of two, three and four words, with an accent of position to mark them; en...

8. l. Kóng 公, kí 基, kung 庚, kin 巾, kiün 鈞, kwáng 光, kwei 規, kwái 乖,

The remaining principal element of these tables is their arrangement according to tones; which are neither five, seven, nor eight, but always four. Thus, 東, 通, 同 are all in the...