idea of these meanings. As a general rule, one example of each use of a word has been given, and, in the translation, the different shades of meaning in its various connections have been indicated by italics. When an English word covers more ground than the Chinese word, only a part of the English word is italicized. A word may have other meanings in the classical language, but only such as are used in the spoken language are given.
Translation:—The rendering into English of the word to be illustrated sometimes entails a cumbrous or roundabout sentence. The aim has been to translate the word in each sentence correctly. The remaining words are often freely translated. In some instances the meaning is obvious but not translatable into idiomatic English, and, in a few cases, the derivation, or reference, is quite obscure.
No doubt, in many instances, the characters did not originally bear all the meanings given, but, owing to the scarcity of characters of a certain sound or tone, one character has, in time, come to do duty for many and varied meanings; e. g., 巴 pa, page 195.
Emphasis sometimes alters the meaning; e. g., page 117, line 26, "hao ta ti sï," with the emphasis on "ta," means "How big is the affair?"; "What a big affair!", either really or sarcastically.
The student should be careful to discriminate between phrases that are similar in sound but quite different in meaning; e. g., 乘轎子 and 陞轎子, or 你門興不興 and 你門信不信, etc.
Tones:—The tones are marked in the usual order from 1 to 5. In Western Mandarin the tones differ from Northern Mandarin on the one hand, and from Southern Mandarin on the other. The names of the tones are the same, but the sounds are different. The 1st tone in Western Mandarin is similar to the 3rd in Southern Mandarin, the 2nd like the 1st, the 3rd like the 4th, and the 4th like the 2nd. The 5th tone is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the 2nd, being less abrupt than the 5th tone in Southern Mandarin. Still, it is a distinct tone and is not confounded with the other four tones as in Northern Mandarin. In double words, such as 娃娃, etc., the second word usually rises in tone.
Duplicates:—Where one character may be written in two or more forms, that form which is commonly used has been adopted. Where two forms are commonly written, both have been inserted;
