Introduction.
Lack of uniformity in the English spelling of the names of Chinese persons has been a prolific source of confusion to immigration officers and Federal Court officials, and of injury to the Chinese persons themselves whose rights have been jeopardized in many instances because the name of the same persons happened to be spelled in English in different ways on the official records. To remedy this evil by introducing a uniform system of English spelling of such names, a system which will be adopted by the United States Government has been the aim of the author of the present work.
The plan of the David Jones System is to follow as closely as possible the natural English method, dispensing with diacritical marks which have been used heretofore to indicate the sounds of the vowels and dipthongs. In this work will be found nearly all the clan names represented by the Chinese population in the United States, and they are spelled according to a uniform method.
The bulk of the Chinamen in the United States and Canada are from a farming section of the Kwangtung Province, about sixty to one hundred miles southwest of Canton. They speak what is called the Sz Yip dialect.
Most of the women and some of the merchants are from the city of Canton and immediate neighborhood. They speak what is called the Saam Yup dialect.
The names, spelled according to both dialects, are given in this work.
