Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect
DICTIONARY
OF THE
FOOCHOW DIALECT
BY
The Rev. R. S. MACLAY, D.D.
AND
The Rev. C. C. Baldwin, D.D.
REVISED AND ENLARGED
BY
The Rev. SAMUEL H. LEGER, Ph.D.
1929
KWANG HSÜEH PUBLISHING HOUSE
PREFACE
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
Nearly ten years ago the Second Edition of this Dictionary was exhausted. It was quite evident that a revision and the addition of new terms was needed if the third edition were to be as useful in its time as the first and second had been in theirs. The reviser began work after less than two years in China with no thought of publication, but merely as a “project” useful in his own language study. Gradually it became apparent that the work should be carried through for the benefit of other students of the Foochow Dialect as well. The preparation and revision of the manuscript and later the proof reading has absorbed most of the “marginal time” in the busy life of a missionary for nearly ten years. During that time practically all of the manuscript has been read over either three or four times, each time consulting various authorities on doubtful points. In addition practically all of it has been gone over at least once by other people familiar with the Foochow Dialect. The language itself has been continually growing and although a few new terms have even been added while proof reading, it has not been possible to bring the work as a whole entirely up to date. For example the early part of the work was printed before the Nationalist Movement with its new terminology came to Foochow. Nevertheless there are nearly twice as many phrases as in the second edition. The reviser is probably more conscious of mistakes and faults than most other readers, and can only hope that the book may be useful in spite of them.
It is impossible to mention all the persons who have assisted in this task. Such a list if inclusive would contain the names of nearly half the missionaries in the Foochow speaking area and an equal number of Chinese friends. I will only mention the Rev. D. MacGillivray, D.D., of Shanghai, who kindly gave permission to follow the arrangement of his Mandarin Dictionary, Mr. Iong Ung Gi of Foochow who did most of the clerical work of preparing the manuscript, the Rev. E. M. Norton of Foochow who gave special assistance in preparing the manuscript for the H-K section, Mr. Dūng Nguòng-cóng of Foochow, who spent one whole summer on the same section, and the Presbyterian Mission Press of Shanghai without whose efficient cooperation the publication of the work might have been impossible.
It is the sincere hope of the reviser that this work may help promote friendliness and mutual understanding between the people of East and West and bring nearer the day when “all within the four seas are brothers,” children of the same Father, working together with one another and with Him to achieve an ideal world.
Foochow, July 17, 1929
INTRODUCTION
ARRANGEMENT
The arrangement of the main body of this dictionary is strictly alphabetic except that ch and ng are treated as separate letters. The spelling follows the accepted spelling of Foochow Romanized which is described below. Each group of Romanized words identical in spelling is subdivided according to the tones, and within each tone group subdivided according to the different Chinese characters. The arrangement of the Chinese characters of the most phrases being first.
For each new character introduced the Romanized pronunciation is first given. If followed by “Coll.,” this is the colloquial and not the reading pronunciation. If followed by another Romanized word in parentheses, the same character will be found with that spelling elsewhere in the dictionary. Next comes the radical and then the character itself, sometimes in more than one form. The National (Mandarin) pronunciation then appears in the phonetic script. Tone marks are omitted but the proper Mandarin tone with rare exceptions can be calculated from the Foochow tone as follows: Foochow 1st tones become Mandarin 1st tones; Foochow 2nd tones become Mandarin 4th tones; Foochow 4th and 8th tones become Mandarin 5th tones; Foochow 5th tones become Mandarin 2nd tones. If the phonetic is followed by a small 文 this character and the phrases under it are literary and not used much, if at all, in spoken discourse. If on the other hand it is followed by a small 俗 the character itself and all its phrases are unused outside of Foochow. Such characters are of course not permitted in literary compositions even in Foochow. Next come the most important meanings of the character in English. Additional meanings are sometimes found under the phrases below. Additional Romanized words in parenthesis either after the single characters or after the phrases are to be taken as cross references. They may mean another word or phrase of equivalent or related meaning, or merely an important expression found elsewhere in which this character appears. All such cases are to be decided by looking up the expression in its proper place in the dictionary. Where no character is available, a circle takes its place. All such words are of course purely colloquial and limited to Foochow. S. indicates a surname; Num. indicates a numerative adjective or classifier; R. a radical.
Under each main character introduced the phrases are arranged alphabetically. The use of Coll. or 文 or 俗 is the same above. Words and phrases not marked are common to the written and spoken languages; N. was originally used to indicate new terms and O. for obsolescent terms belonging to the old regime, but it was found impracticable to always make such distinctions.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Chinese characters may be thought of as the result of combining two different and parallel “alphabets.” One “alphabets” consists of 214 “letters” or units, known as radicals or cê-buô 字部. A complete list of these is given with their chief meanings immediately following the main body of the dictionary. Most of these were probably originally crude pictures, and the resourceful students can usually find without difficulty some association which makes them not difficult to remember. In most Chinese dictionaries characters are arranged according to these radicals, as is done in the index of characters in the back of this dictionary. The student should begin with the very common radicals, which are easily located by noting which have the most characters listed under them in this index of characters. The common practice of memorizing the number of the radical with it is of doubtful utility. One should learn to recognize the radical whether separately or in combination, to know its meaning and what is generally indicates in the characters of which it forms a part. The radical used in a given character usually gives some clue – albeit often a vague one – to the meaning of the character.
The other “alphabet” consists of a larger number of “primitives” or “phonetics,” i.e., parts of a character which give a more or less distinct clue to the sound of the character which they form a part. There are said to be about 1,700 primitives in the whole language. For example the characters 愛 噯 曖 嬡 靉 僾 and 瞹 are all pronounced “ái” because they all have the same primitive which in this case is itself a character. They have different meanings, as shown by their different radicals. Comparison of the meanings as given in the dictionary is suggestive. Often the clue to the sound thus given is far from exact as the same primitive may be used to represent different tones or even different Romanization.
In short a radical may be a separate character or part of a character; a primitive likewise. The typical Chinese character is, however, made up of one radical and one primitive, the one giving an inexact clue to meaning and the other an inexact clue to sound. Books on character analysis, such as the pioneer work or Weiger, the work of Dr. Wilder and Dr. Ingram from the Peking Language School, and the work of Prof. R. B. Blakeney published by the Commercial Press help the student by analysis of characters to establish associations which make the characters easier to remember. The important thing in learning is that some kind of association is made, and no matter how ridiculous it may be, if it assists in connecting the sound, the meaning, and the visual image of the character, it is not to be despised. A comparative study of characters in the back of the dictionary and a comparative study of characters of like sound based on the main body of the dictionary is of real assistance to the student in making these associations.
The chief use of the Index of Characters is to enable the user of the dictionary to find the desired character from the radical in case the pronunciation is unknown. “Many of the most common characters are the most difficult to find in this Index; they are generally placed under the simple radicals, where they should be looked for first. For instance 以, 仝, 令, 仄, are all under 人; 井, 亞 are under 二; 兒, 先 are under 儿; all of which are referred to these radicals chiefly because they are prominent parts of the characters, and likely to catch the eye. Such anomalous instances amount to about two hundred, all of them primitives or “phonetics,” while the remainder will give less trouble in ascertaining the proper radical. About one half (108) of the radicals are places on the right or left of the primitive – constituting one half of the character and easily recognized. Others like 二, 勹, 匚, 匸, 囗, 行, 門 and 鬥 embrace the primitive and give no trouble. About forty of them are places on the top of the primitive, a few of which enter into combination with it, as in 奉, 夷, 彜 in such manner as to give some hesitation as to the radical; while others as 宀, 广, 疒, 爪, 穴, 竹, 囬, 艹, 虍 and 雨 are more apparent. For many of the remainder, where the radical is either in combination, or the character is formed of two or three radicals as 相, 聾 or 現 practice will soon give the necessary facility in finding. In counting the number of strokes in a character, the radical is not counted. After becoming familiar with the radicals themselves, and having a general acquaintance with the primitives, the number of strokes can be quickly ascertained by inspection. For instance the character 鬻 found under the radical 鬲 is made up of 弓, 米 and 弓, which severally number 3, 6, and 3 strokes, or 12 in all; the character 灔 placed under the radical 水 is composed of Ⅹ, 豆, 刀 and 巴 numbering 11, 7, 2, and 4 strokes or 24 in all. The number of characters formed of so many strokes as these is very few. In most case a glance at the word is sufficient to see how many make it.”
PRONUNCIATION
The traditional method of indicating the pronunciation in Chinese dictionaries (for example in Kang Hsi’s famous dictionary which was long the standard or in the Sṳ̀ Nguòng 辭源 published by the Commercial Press which is commonly accepted by Chinese scholars today), is by the use of two characters, the first of which gives the sound of the initial and the second the sound of the final parts of the character in question. Another character of the same sound and tone is usually added as an extra help, and still another character with which it rhymes to assist the person writing poetry according to the Chinese rules. Thus the character 己 in the Sṳ̀ Nguòng has after it in parenthesis 基 矣 切 音 紀 紙 韻 which means gĭ and é put together making gī 紀 and belonging to the 紙 rhymes. Sometimes the combination of the two characters gives a different tone from the character given as of the same sound, as in the example given above, where the two characters spell gé while the one character is gī which in this case is correct. When the student understands that such dictionaries are used throughout China and that various local dialects as well as the Mandarin commonly use this as a guide for pronunciation, he will not be surprised to know that the dictionary pronunciation and the traditional Foochow pronunciation sometimes differ.
In order to standardize pronunciation for all China, the National Board of Education has formally adopted a national phonetic system known in Foochow as the guók-ĭng-ció-ĭng-cê-mō̤ 國音注音字母. This is a scientifically constructed alphabet of thirty-nine letters. One, two, or at most three of these symbols will represent the sound of any Chinese character. An official dictionary giving the pronunciation of all common characters is available, and this phonetic is used widely in Foochow schools in promoting and standardizing the national (Mandarin) pronunciation.
Foochow scholars have long used a small tonic dictionary call chék lìng báik ĭng 戚林八音 to supplement the larger dictionaries in giving the Foochow local pronunciation. This is the work of two men Chék and Lìng, and has passed through many editions. It was in general the standard of pronunciation used in the first edition of this dictionary. In it the commonly used characters are systematically arranged according to their sounds. Each simple word has three elements, an initial sound, called cê-tàu 字頭, a final sound called cê-mō̤ 字母 and a tone. With two exceptions all words in the Foochow dialect are made up of an initial combined with a final, inflected into one of the eight tones. These exceptions are ng which is used separately without a final, and ngiau which uses two finals. With fifteen initials, thirty-three finals and seven tones in use, there are theoretically a possible 3,467 vocables or word sounds. Probably less than half this number are actually used. In the Báik-ĭng the characters are arranged under the 33 finals, each final being used with the different initials in turn, and each initial-final combination being inflected through the seven tones.
Foochow Romanized is a system of orthography adopted by the early missionaries to represent sounds heard in Foochow. It has varied at different times, but is now standardized. The letters can of course only represent an approximation to the real sound, and the system is quite unlike the international phonetic alphabet or the Romanized systems used elsewhere in China. The Bible, a hymnbook and quite a number of booklets and tracts are printed in the Romanized. This system is, however, little known outside of Church circles and is by no means universally understood even by Christians. While it may be a useful help in language study it is not to be taken as a substitute for learning the Chinese character itself. When used independently the Romanized system uses capitals and other punctuation marks the same as in English. In this Dictionary capitals have been omitted altogether in the interest of uniformity, since type was not available for capitals with tone marks above them.
Foochow Phonetic Script (ṳ̀ng-kiŏng-ció-ĭng-cê-mō̤ 榕腔注音字母) is an adaptation of the National Phonetic to represent Foochow sounds. With a few exceptions a given symbol represents the same sound in Foochow that it does in Mandarin. Part of the New Testament, an abridged hymnal and some tracts are printed in this form. The beginning student may find it useful in the representation of Foochow sounds and it is a useful stepping stone in learning the National Phonetic.
TABLE Ⅰ. INITIALS AND FINALS.
The Table gives first the name of the initial or final in Romanized and in the Character, then their approximate alphabetic value in Roman letters, and finally the Foochow Phonetic equivalent. The 11th initial (ĕng) denotes merely the absence of any initial consonant; hence the blank on the right in the column of alphabetic values.
TABLE Ⅱ. PRIMARY SYLLABLES OR WORDS, FORMED BY COMBINING EACH INITIAL WITH EACH FINAL.
PRONUNCIATION OF ROMANIZED WORDS
The letters used do not convey to the Western student an accurate idea of the Foochow sound. Many Western speakers of the Foochow Dialect have had wrong pronunciations permanently fixed in habit by too exclusive attention to the Romanized early in their language study. The sound should first be learned from the teacher. Only after it is heard and reproduced with some accuracy should the Romanized be learned.
The Initials require relatively less explanation, although the above caution applies. The sounds are quite similar to the sounds given the same letters in English, except for the 8th which is nearly like the English letter j as in jaw. The 13th may cause difficulty as most Western languages use the ng sound only as a final and not as an initial. By saying rapidly “singing” and then omitting the first two letters the right sound is approximated. Practice will soon make the sound seem less strange to the ear and vocal organs. The phonetic script if read according to the National (Mandarin) pronunciation will give the Foochow sounds with a fair degree of accuracy except in the 3rd, 4th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th, 21st, 28th, 29th and 30th finals in which the national pronunciation of the script must be more or less modified to fit the Foochow sounds. In the Wade system of Romanization in common use in the North, the second initial would be represented by p, the 3rd by k, the 4th by k’, the 5th by t, the 6th by p’, the 7th by t’, the 8th by ch, and the 14th by ch’.
The thirty-three Finals make use of nine vowels which are sometimes followed by the ng or in the oblique[1] tones (3rd, 4th, and 7th tones) by k or h. The suggestions given below may assist the student but cannot take the place of drill with the teacher.
a is pronounced as in father, in No. 2, 5, 7, 9, 27, 31, and in the oblique tones of 21 and 29. Followed by i it forms a diphthong pronounced as ai in aisle in 6, 32 and oblique tones of 14. Followed by u it forms a diphthong au pronounced like ou in house in No. 22 and in the oblique tones of No. 19.
e is pronounced nearly as in men in No. 14, 26, 30, 33, and in oblique tone of No. 8. It is scarcely audible in 17 and approaches a as in say in the oblique tones of No. 4 and No. 20.
i is nearly the i in machine in No. 3, 4, 12, 16, 17, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31. In No. 8 it approaches i as in pin. For ai see above.
o is pronounced as in old in No. 3, 19, 28, and in the oblique tones of No. 1, 13, 16. It is scarcely audible in 12. It is more like u in up in No. 15, 23, and 25.
u is nearly like oo in moon in No. 1, 2, 4, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 32, 33, and in the oblique tones of No. 4 and 19.
a̤ is much like a in care (No. 24) but varies considerably in the oblique tones, approaching ae̤ where a is as in father and e̤ as in her.
e̤ is similar to e in her in No. 21 and 29. When followed by ṳ as in the oblique tones of No. 11 and 18, it requires special attention.
o̤ is like aw in law in No. 10 and in the oblique tone of No. 28.
ṳ is the French u in lune or German ü as in für, in No. 11 and 18. The organs of speech are in the same position as for e in he, except for the lips which are rounded as for o in go.
TONES
The tone is an essential part of every word in Chinese, and tones are even more important in the Foochow Dialect than in Mandarin. The most important elements in the tone are pitch, time, and inflection. The classification of characters into tone groups is practically uniform all over China, five such groups being universally recognized and utilized in poetic composition. The names given these are as follows:
- siông bìng 上平 or ĭng bìng 陰平 (Foochow 1st).
- hâ bìng 下平 or iòng bìng 陽平 (Foochow 5th).
- siōng 上 or 賞 (Foochow 2nd).
- ké̤ṳ 去 (Foochow 3rd and 7th).
- ĭk 入 (Foochow 4th and 8th).
It is noted that the first two of these are given as the upper and lower or masculine and feminine varieties of the bìng 平 tone. In similar fashion Foochow has two varieties each of the ké̤ṳ 去 and ĭk 入, and in theory recognizes two varieties of the siōng 上tone, the unused Foochow 6th tone being the one added.
The tones of Chinese characters are indicated in the Phonetic Script and sometimes on the character itself by a dot placed at the proper corner of the word. A dot at the lower left indicates the平 at upper left the 上 at upper right the 去 and at lower right the 入. In Mandarin the 1st tone omits the dot. In Foochow phonetic a dot is used for the first four tones and a dash for the last four.
In Foochow the eight tones are divided into what may be called a first series 上聲 and second series 下聲. The names may have been descriptive of the sounds once, but are no longer so. In order the names are (1) siông bìng 上平. (2) siông siông 上上. (3) siông ké̤ṳ 上去. (4) siông ĭk 上入. (5) hâ bìng 下平. (6) hâ siông (unused). (7) hâ ké̤ṳ 下去. (8) hâ ĭk 下入. The Romanized method of marking these tones and characters illustrating the tones are given below:
The Finals as modified by tones are given in Table Ⅲ.
The sound of the tones can only be learned from the living voice of the teacher. The following brief descriptions and diagrams on the musical staff are taken with slight modification from the Second Edition of the Dictionary. It is credited there for the most part to Rev. M. C. White, M.D., formerly of the Methodist Mission and to Rev. Charles Hartwell, formerly of the American Board Mission.
Footnotes
- ↑ In Chinese poetry the deflected or oblique tones (cáh siang 仄聲) are all except the 1st and 5th which are called bìng siang 平聲. The term “oblique” is here used for convenience in describing the tones where the vowels often change, which are 3rd, 4th, and 7th. See below.