To the Reader.
THE following Lessons and Vocabulary are intended to assist those who wish to acquire quickly a temporary or superficial knowledge of the Chinese language as spoken in the northern provinces, and by educated people all over the Empire.
The orthography, if such it may be called, is an attempt to express, as far as possible, Chinese sounds in simple English.
The Chinese vowel-sound ü is the only one which cannot be even approximately expressed, and the reader is therefore requested to pronounce it like the French u, or the German ü.
With regard to words like shirt or sir, pronounce exactly as in English, stopping short at the italicised letters, i.e., not sounding them; and observe that, were it not for those italicised letters, si would be pronounced sigh and shi, shy. Thus ki is to be pronounced as the ki in kine; kwi as the qui in quite. So, whenever a occurs, followed by h, or by h and other letters, the sound must be always that of the exclamation ah! Remember, too, that as ow is pronounced throughout as in the words how and now, show must be read in the same manner, and not sho, which sound is already provided for. Again, to is to be pronounced like one's big toe, and not too; and in dzi, and all words ending in i, the i is to be read like the 9th letter of the alphabet, and not e or any fancy sound. Above all, not like the y in beauty, that sound being itself of frequent occurrence.
Be careful to aspirate where an aspirate is required.
But to multiply observations and rules is to do the very thing it is so desirable to avoid; I therefore leave the rest to the patience and common-sense of those for whom these sentences and vocabulary have been composed.
H. B. M.'s Consulate,
