Nanjing dialect

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Nanjing dialect
Chinese: 南京話
Native to People's Republic of China
Region Nanjing, Jiangsu province
Ethnicity Nanjing People (Han Chinese)
Native speakers
(no estimate available)
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3

Nanjing dialect or Nanjing Mandarin is a dialect of Jianghuai Mandarin which is spoken in the city of Nanjing in China.[1]

Family

Nanjing dialect is a dialect of Jianghuai Mandarin, which belongs to the broader Mandarin Chinese family, which is a Sinitic language like all other Chinese languages.

Phonology

Nanjing Jianghuai Mandarin maintains the glottal stop final and the entering tone which Northern Mandarin or Southwestern Mandarin likely had until recently as well. Like Northern Mandarin, it has preserved the retroflex initials of Middle Chinese.[2]

In Jianghuai Mandarin, the /n/ initial does not exist. Ancestral /n/ initials are pronounced /l/. The opposite has occurred in Southwestern Mandarin. Northern Mandarin on the other hand, retains distinct /l/ and /n/ initials. Jianghuai, like Northern Mandarin, also distinguishes between /f/ and /ɕ/ initials, while in Southwestern Mandarin, /ɕ/ and /f/ have merged. In Jianghuai, /əŋ/ has "merged" into /iŋ/, while the opposite has occurred in Southwestern Mandarin, Northern Mandarin keeps both as separate sounds.[3]

The two finals /ŋ/ and /n/ are the only ones that exist in typical dialects of Mandarin. The three syllable final obstruents merged into a glottal stop in Jianghuai Mandarin, while they are not present in the majority of Southwestern Mandarin. Northern and Northwest Mandarin dialects have undergone both changes. Nanjing Mandarin, along with eastern Shanxi and some southwest Mandarin dialects, is an exception to the Mandarin norm of possessing three distinct medials /i/, /y/, and /u/.[4]

Prominence

Jianghuai Mandarin, of which Nanjing dialect is a member of, was possibly the native language of the founding Emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang and many of his military and civil officials.[5]

The "Guanhua koine" of the early Ming era was based on Jianghuai Guanhua (Jianghuai Mandarin). Western missionaries and Korean Hangul writings of the Ming Guanhua and Nanjing dialect showed differences, which pointed to the Guanhua being a koine and mixture of various dialects strongly based on Jianghuai.[6]

Some linguists have studied the influence which Nanjing Jianghuai Mandarin had on Ming dynasty guanhua/Mandarin.[7] Although the early Ming dynasty Mandarin/Guanhua was a koine based on Nanjing dialect, it was not entirely identical to it, with some non Jianghuai characteristics being found in it. Francisco Varo advised that to learn Chinese one must acquire it from "Not just any Chinese, but only those who have the natural gift of speaking the Mandarin language well, such as those natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well.[8]

Expansion

The earliest dialect of Nanjing was an ancient Wu dialect during the Eastern Jin. After the Wu Hu uprising, the Jin Emperor and many northern Chinese fled south, establishing the new capital Jiankang in what is modern day Nanjing. It was during this time that the ancient Wu of Nanjing was replaced by Jianghuai Mandarin. Further events occurred, such as Hou Jing's rebellions during the Liang dynasty, the Sui dynasty invasion of the Chen dynasty which resulted in Jiankang's destruction, Ming Taizu's relocation of southerners from below Yangtze to his newly established capital Nanjing, and the establishment of Nanjing as the capital of the Taiping Kingdom during the Taiping rebellion which resulted in a significant decrease in the city's population. These events all played in role in forming the Nanjing dialect of today.[9]

Debate over position of Nanjing dialect vs Beijing dialect

A debate by western sinologists over whether they should study Beijing or Nanjing Mandarin pointed out deficiencies in the opposing dialects they were advocating against.

Leipzig based Professor Gabelentz criticized the Beijing dialect. A more suitable Chinese dialect in Gabelentz's view for science was the Nanjing dialect rather than Beijing.[10]

Only in recent times has the northern dialect, pek-kuān-hoá, in the form [spoken] in the capital, kīng-hoá, begun to strive for general acceptance, and the struggle seems to be decided in its favor. It is preferred by the officials and studied by the European diplomats. Scholarship must not follow this practise. The Peking dialect is phonetically the poorest of all dialects and therefore has the most homophones. This is why it is most unsuitable for scientific purposes.[11]

Chinesische Grammatik, Professor Georg von Der Gabelentz (1881)

The originally Japanese book "Mandarin Compass" (官话指南) was modified with Nanjing dialect's tones and published with French commentary by Jiangnan based French missionary Henri Boucher.[12][13]

Calvin W. Mateer attempted to compromise between Northern and Southern Mandarin in his book "A Course of Mandarin Lessons", published in 1892[14][15][16]

Study of the Nanjing dialect

Important works written on the Nanjing dialect include "Syllabar des Nankingdialektes oder der correkten Aussprache sammt Vocabular" by Franz Kühnert,[17] and "Die Nanking Kuanhua" by K. Hemeling.[18][19][20][21][22] The "English & Chinese vocabulary in the court dialect" by Samuel Wells Williams was based on the Nanjing dialect, rather than the Beijing dialect.[23]

Williams also described the differences between Nanjing and Beijing Mandarin in the same book, and noted the ways in which the Peking dialect differs from the Nanjing dialect, such as "changing k before e and i, into ch, and sometimes into ts...etc." Williams also stated "These changes are tolerably regular and uniform, so that it is not difficult in speaking to adopt either the one pronunciation or the other. The soft and lengthened sounds are more pleasing to the ear; and to a person accustomed to speak English, require less effort than the short tones. F and p, nw and lw, sh and ch, ts and ch, are occasionally used for each other. The varieties now spoken of, are varieties of what in Europe is called the mandarin tongue.”[24]

Romanization

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, romanization of Mandarin consisted of both Beijing and Nanjing pronunciations. "The Chinese recorder and missionary journal, Volume 36" explained how using both Nanjing and Beijing dialect in the Standard System of romanization was beneficial, and gave the following instructions: "Sometimes two words having the same sound in your locality will have two spellings. This is because those words are[25] pronounced differently elsewhere. For example, 希 and 西 are both xī in Beijing, but in Nanjing the latter is si. The Standard System retains the two spellings, thus providing a spelling for the two distinct sounds as heard in Nanking. This is not only no hindrance to the use of the system in Beijing, but, on the contrary, is a decided gain. The teacher can explain that the two syllables si and Asi, which are pronounced alike in this locality, have different meanings. And that the possibility of confusing those homophonous Asi^s is thus reduced by one-half. Another example: 官 and 光 are both pronounced gwan in Nanjing, but in Beijing the latter is guāng. Here again the Standard System retains both spellings as not only spelling the Nanjing sounds more accurately, but also enriching the Nanjing dialect by distinguishing between two words having the same sounds and different meanings."[26]

History

"The only old sound tables, I know of, assumed to give the pronunciation of Nanking are the "Hungwu cheng yun" published by order of the Emperor Hungwu (1368—1398), the founder of the Ming-dynasty, the ruins of whose tomb lie a mile outside the east gate of Nanking. But these tables themselves do not give any information as to the dialect rendered, and as, Nanking not having been Hungwu's sole residence *— he also resided sometimes at K'aifengfu, styled by him "northern capital" —, the only valid argument which can by adduced in favour of this supposition, is the fact that Hungwu was a native of Nanking, albeit of low extraction, they cannot be considered as a basis of scientific researches. As, again, the numerous tonic dictionaries of the Chinese language covering the time since about 500 A. D. are of no help in laying down the historic lines of change of this dialect, we are unable to draw a connected picture of its historic development and must restrict ourselves to comparing some details of modern Nankingese pronunciation with that of the old Chinese language generally."[27]

The ascendancy doubtless gained by the Nanking Kuanhua over other "Mandarin" dialects during the epochs when Nanking was the Capital of the Chinese Empire * and probably retained for some time after the removal of the central government to Peking in 1421 A. D. by Emperor Yunglo, had in the course of centuries, since gone by, gradually lost ground. It received its death-blow through the massacres, nearly extirpating the inhabitants of the unfortunate Nanking, perpetrated after its capture by the T'aip'ing rebels whose Capital it subsequently was from 1853—1864, and again in a worse degree by the Imperial forces when recapturing it. The few handfuls of old resident families that escaped destruction being insufficient to absorb the rush of immigrants from other parts of China after the suppression of the rebellion, the standard pronunciation cultivated by them could not penetrate throughout this city, and even to this day the number of its inhabitants speaking a pure and unadulterated Nanking Kuanhua is comparatively small. The days of splendour are gone never to return. The Kuanhua of Nanking is no longer a serious rival for supremacy of that of Peking: the latter, purified of its localisms, is at present the only standard spoken language recognised throughout the whole Empire, a fact not to be wondered at, if one takes into consideration that Peking has been uninterruptedly the Capital of the Chinese Empire since 1421 A. D.

Sinologes in Germany have been slow to reconcile themselves to this fact. As late as 1881 VON DER GABELENTZ in his large Chinese grammar (§ 37), while reluctantly admitting the victory of the Peking dialect in practice, calls it a fashion which science must not follow. He recommends the adoption for scientific purposes of the "Mandarin" dialect reproduced in the writings of the Jesuits of the 17th and 18th centuries which he considers to have been that of Nanking but which Arendt (Handbuch der Nordchinesischen Umgangssprache, Stuttgart und Berlin 1891; § 208—212) believes to be rather an old form of "Mandarin" dialect in general. As far as I know, Arendt (1. 1.) is the first German champion of the absolute supremacy of the Peking dialect. I cannot but agree with his remark (1. 1. § 203) that the real Nanking dialect of today is more exposed to justified objections than that of Peking.

But, even so, the Kuanhua of Nanking retains a certain superiority over its sister "Mandarin" dialects on account of, in some respects, purer and more consistent preservation of the old Chinese pronunciation. Bearing, for the same reason, a closer relationship than these to the dialects spoken on the coast of MiddleChina and in the south of China which have retained the old sounds much more faithfully than the "Mandarin" dialects, it forms in a way the connecting link between the Chinese dialects of the South and those of the North and West, and thus possesses the elements necessary for rendering it intelligible over a wider area than any other Chinese dialect.

The range of the spoken Nanking Kuanhua is not extensive. As is the case with all other Chinese dialects, the pure form of it is restricted to the intellectual centre of its sphere of domination, i. e. the city of Nanking, and does not even there prevail throughout as has been seen above. It extends with often large deviations over the greater part of northern Kiangsu and over the province of Anhui the dialects of which regions may be classed as varieties of it.[28][29]

Grammar

Tones

The old Chinese language which distinguished four classes of tones (shēng): píng (平 - even), shàng (上 - rising), qù (去 - departing) and rù (入 - entering), each subdivided into an upper (shang) and a lower (hsia) series, i. e. eight tones in all (Dr. A. CONRADY, Eine Indochinesische CausativDenominativbildung und ihr Zusammenhang mit den Tonaccenten, Leipzig, 1896), has also at Nanking exhibited its peculiar tendency towards simplification. In the course of centuries three tones have gradually disappeared. The first was lost by the coalescence of the upper and lower "rising" tones which took place before the 13th or 14th centuries of our era (CoNRADY, 1.1. p. 182). Two more tones vanished later, probably by the fusion of the upper and lower series of the "departing" and "entering" tones, so that modern Nankingese distinguishes only the following five tones: upper-even (shang-p'ing), lower-even (hsia-p'ing), rising (shang), departing (ch'ü) and entering (ju). While the characters have at Nanking substantially retained the theoretical tones given in the old native tonic dictionaries, the nature of the tones themselves has undergone change.

The Nanking shang-p'ing (upper - even) is a low, falling tone, drawling and slowly evanescent, pronounced with a dull voice. The hsia-p'ing (lower-even) commences at a high pitch, falls suddenly and rises again, and is pronounced with a clear voice. The rising shêng is a soft, drawling, higher tone, rising smoothly with a small interval. The departing tone is high, rapidly falling, and is enunciated with a clear voice.

The entering shêng is extremely high and short, and ends abruptly with a sudden closure of the glottis (without a following explosion). The sound remaining when leaving off the final t in pronouncing words like cut, lit, etc., is the nearest approach to this tone I could find, an example, however, which is deficient in as much as it wants the jerked quickness of enunciation characteristic of this Nanking tone. Whereas the final oral stop of the old Chinese ju shêng is completely preserved in the dialect of Canton in which all ju shêng syllables still maintain the old explosive finals k, p, t, and whereas it prevails in the Swatow, Amoy and Foochow dialects, but is in the Shanghai dialect only retained in the final к, it has been entirely replaced by a glottal stop in the dialect of Nanking as also in that of Ningpo. The Nanking entering tone words thus never end in a consonant (the h in the finals eh, ieh, üeh and ih which I have taken over with Wade's romanisation and which might as well be omitted, merely serves as a mark of shortness for the vowel sounds immediately preceding it, these, therefore, being the real finals) nor in the vowel sounds ao, iao, ou, iai, iu, ui, ei and й; they terminate in the vowels a, i, о, u, ü, ê, ih, eh, the diphthongs ai, iu, uo, io, üeh, ieh (h as above) and the triphthong uai. In Western and Northern "Mandarin" dialects which have not preserved this tone, entering tone words are distributed over the four tone classes recognised there (shang-p'ing, hsia-p'ing, shang, and civil). In Pekingese they appear chiefly in the hsia-p'ing *.

The romanisation chosen by me being based on the pronunciation in the upper - even tone as the most natural one, does of course not apply equally well to that of the same syllable in the other tones, above all not to that in the entering tone, in the short and abrupt ejaculation of which the fundamental sound is often even unrecognisable. The most striking illustration of this observation is the diphthong ai, as in ai, lai, kuai, etc., which sounds in the ju sheng like the English u of but (mid-back-narrow of the English phoneticians). I have abstained from a special transcription of such entering tone sounds and have not counted them as separate syllables as doing so in a "Sound and Tone Table" like mine would be incompatible with the inherent inseparability of the enunciations of the same sound the five tones (cf. preface p. VI).[30][31][32]

Initials

The most characteristic feature of the Nanking dialect to be drawn attention to under this heading is, that the distinction between k, ¥ and ts, ts' on the one hand, and h and s on the other, is, as in the old language, carried consistently through also before the

Ealatal vowels i and u (likewise when in combinations ke ia, iung, iieh, etc., but not when in the guttural ih) and that the distribution of the words over these initials agrees substantially with that of the old dictionaries. But while the ts and ts' have preserved their old pronunciation, the guttural k and ¥ (before i and ii) have retained their old sound only in the vulgar tongue and not even there throughout. In the language of the educated classes of Nanking, the following palatal vowels have influenced them so as to make them turn into the mixed sound described below on p. 24, 25, the only exception being the word "to give" (Nr. 125 of the Sound Table) which is colloquially always pronounced kis (in reading chib). I have retained the ch of Wade's transcription for this more modern initial, though well aware that it is quite different from the historic original ch preceding a, e, o, ou, u and ih which contains a distinct sh. The Nanking k before t and ii for the romanisation of which I have taken over Wade's hs, likewise seems to have lost its old pronunciation under the influence of the following palatal vowels: it is, at the present time, the palatal spirant corresponding to the guttural spirant before a, e, o and w. In Western and Northern "Mandarin" dialects the initial k, ft' and ts, ts' have fused into ch, ch', and the initial h and s into hs before the palatal vowels i and ii, the pronunciation of the sounds thus formed approaching very nearly, or agreeing with, that of the Nanking Kuanhua.

The advantages as regards lessening of homophones and augmentation of different sounds gained in the Nanking dialect by the retention of the entering tone and of the distinction between the old initials before the palatal vowels are to a large extent counterbalanced by two glaring defects not recognised by any native dictionary — confusion of initial w and I, and of final dental and guttural nasals — in which this dialect exhibits the peculiar tendency to homophony characteristic of all "Mandarin" dialects, defects, however, which to the Chinese ear, untrained as it is in phonology, appear much less important than they do to the foreigner. Only the former of these faults is properly discussed in this place, the latter appertaining to the next paragraph. The confusion of initial « and I into a nasalised alveolar I takes place before all vowels: all groups beginning with w in the native standard dictionaries form at Nanking one with the corresponding I groups. While this coalescence is met with in Northern "Mandarin" only in rare exceptions e.g. in Pekingese, where lung "to make" is often pronounced nung, and chi-liang "spine" chi-niang, it takes place regularly in Western "Mandarin" before all vowels except i and ii.

The changing pronunciation of initial j at Nanking swill be described in the "diacritic marks" in Part II.

The old Chinese initial guttural ng which is still heard at Peking has been lost in Nankingese: the old wan, wfa, "'on are pronounced an, en, ou. Similarly has the initial w disappeared in Nanking: the syllables wo and wu have become o and u.[33][34]

Finals

The vowel parts of the finals have undergone so many and such complete changes since the olden times that it would carry too far to enter into their details here. Four vowel compounds occurring in the Nanking finals might, however, be drawn attention to because they are not found in Pekingese and because distinctly savouring of the old Chinese language viz.: ui after n, I and ts (in Peking passed into ei), iai after ch (turned into ieh in Peking), Hen (changed into Han in Peking) and ah, an (English a of sane; cf. diacritic marks) after I, ni, n, p, s, t and ts (also when aspirated), for which Wade's Transcriptions ien, ieh have been retained, as the corresponding sounds after ch and hs are distinctly enunciated ieh, ien in Nankingese.

Peculiarities of vowel pronunciations which apparently are neither standard nor general as, for instance, pronouncing mou as mei, che as chai, chle as chlai, she as shai, practised especially in the northern part of Nanking city — need not he commented on here since they are beyond the scope of this dissertation.

As regards the consonantal discrepancies between the modern Nanking finals and those of the old language, I have already referred to the loss of the explosive entering tone final tenues k, t, p (p. 4), and there thus remain only the final nasals to be treated of. While one of the three final nasals — dental, guttural and labial, i.e. n, ng and m — distinguished by the old Chinese language and still preserved in the Canton and Foochow dialects, was lost in the "Mandarin" dialects according to Edkins (1. 1. p. 90.) in the 14th century by the passing of the labial (m) into the dental (n) nasal, the Nanking Kuanhua — as also that of Western China — shows distinct inclination to losing another final nasal, in as much as its final dental (front) and guttural (back) nasals are confused after the vowels a, e, i. With inexplicable inconsistency they are distinguished throughout after u (as in un, ung). The numerous groups of sounds ending in ang, eng, ing thus coalesce with the corresponding groups terminating in an, en, in. While as a matter of fact in the pronunciation of these finals the dental nasal appears to be heard oftener than the guttural nasal, euphony seems the only law regulating their interchange, the same person unconscious of it himself and unable to detect the difference, sometimes pronouncing the same word with a dental nasal when uttering it by itself and with a guttural nasal when enunciating it in combination with other words. In the present transient stage of the dialect it would of course be idle speculation to predict the ultimate fate of the two nasals.[35][36]

References

  1. Anna Wierzbicka (2002). Cliff Goddard, Anna Wierzbicka, ed. Meaning and universal grammar: theory and empirical findings. Volume 60 of Studies in language Amsterdam / Companion series Volume 1 of Meaning and Universal Grammar (illustrated ed.). John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 244. ISBN 90-272-3063-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Table 5.1: Five main Mandarin dialect groupings Northern Mandarin Hebei, including Greater Beijing; ... Gansu; Qinghai; Ningxia Northwestern Mandarin areas of Gansu; Xinjiang and Ningxia dialects Jiang-Huai or Xiajiang Nanjing" 
  2. Graham Thurgood, Randy J. LaPolla, ed. (2003). The Sino-Tibetan languages. Volume 3 of Routledge language family series (illustrated ed.). Psychology Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-7007-1129-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "3 THE REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MANDARIN DIALECTS Mandarin dialects can be divided into three regions: Northern Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin and Jiang- Huai Mandarin. With Putonghua, the Chengdu dialect and the Nanjing dialect as"  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)
  3. Graham Thurgood, Randy J. LaPolla, ed. (2003). The Sino-Tibetan languages. Volume 3 of Routledge language family series (illustrated ed.). Psychology Press. p. 130. ISBN 0-7007-1129-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011.  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)
  4. Jerry Norman (1988). Chinese (illustrated, reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-521-29653-6. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "In the southwestern dialects they are totally lost in most areas; in the Jiang- Huai region (eastern Mandarin) they have mostly merged as glottal stop. In northwestern and northern Mandarin both types of development can be found." 
  5. Ming studies, Issue 56. Ming studies. 2007. p. 107. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "The first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang t^tcSj!, and a large number of his civil and military officials hailed from the Yangtze watershed and spoke dialects of the southern Mandarin or Jiang-Huai type, to which the dialect of Nanjing" 
  6. Ming studies, Issue 56. Ming studies. 2007. p. 108. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "missionary transcriptions and of fifteenth century Korean Guanhua transcriptions in the Hangul alphabet, the two syllable types are clearly distinguished. Guanhua and Nanjingese were clearly different here. Thus, we may suspect that the early Ming Guanhua koine was in reality a linguistic amalgam of some sort, though it certainly had deep roots in the Jiang -Huai dialects. In 1421 the Ming political and administrative capital was moved from" 
  7. 何大安 (2002). 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. 南北是非 : 漢語方言的差異與變化. Volume 7 of 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan di san jie guo ji han xue hui yi lun wen ji. Yu yan zu. 中央硏究院語言學硏究所. p. 27. ISBN 957-671-936-4. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "to consider how it may have been influenced by possible relationships and interactions with the Jiang-Huai dialects of the Nanking area. This, in our view , should be done by first undertaking historical studies of these dialects"  (the University of California)
  8. 何大安 (2002). 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. 南北是非 : 漢語方言的差異與變化. Volume 7 of 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan di san jie guo ji han xue hui yi lun wen ji. Yu yan zu. 中央硏究院語言學硏究所. p. 27. ISBN 957-671-936-4. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Reading system definitely possesses features which are not typical of the Jiang-Huai group as a whole (Coblin Ms. 1,3)/ Careful reading of early descriptions tends to confirm this conclusion. For example, Varo's association of his Mandarin phonology with Nankingese was not absolute and unequivocal. We should recall his counsel that Guanhua be learned from "natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well" [emphasis added]. We find a similar view in Morrison's accounts. On the one hand he says in his dictionary (1815:xviii), "The pronunciation in this work, is rather what the Chinese call the Nanking dialect, than the Peking."  (the University of California)
  9. Maria Kurpaska (2010). Chinese language(s): a look through the prism of The great dictionary of modern Chinese dialects. Volume 215 of Trends in linguistics: Studies and monographs (illustrated ed.). Walter de Gruyter. p. 161. ISBN 3-11-021914-X. Retrieved 23 September 2011. 
  10. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 70. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "By contrast, many Western sinologists and missionaries remained skeptical of the choice of the Beijing dialect. Henri Cordier (1848-1925) wrote in his obituary to Thomas Wade that he opposed this step.259 Georg von Der Gabelentz, professor of East Asian languages in Leipzig, whose Chinesische Grammatik publisheed in 1881 excluded the modern spoken language, wrote that the Nanjing dialect should be adopted for scientific purposes:" ()
  11. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 71. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "Only in recent times has the northern dialect, pek-kuÊn-hoá, in the form [spoken ] in the capital, kÒng-hoá, begun to strive for general acceptance, and the struggle seems to be decided in its favor. It is preferred by the ofÀcials and studied by the European diplomatcs. Scholarship must not follow this practise. The Peking dialect is phonetically the poorest of all dialects and therefore has the most homophones. This is why it is most unsuitable for scientific purposes.260" ()
  12. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 71. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "Henri Boucher, a missionary in Jiangnan, returned to" ()
  13. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 72. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "the tonal system of Nanjing/abstract Mandarin when he reprinted the Japanese textbook of the Chinese language, Mandarin Compass (Kanwa Shinan 官话指南), with French explanations.264" ()
  14. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 71. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "In 1892, the American missionary Calvin W. Mateer, the chairman of the Mandarin executive Committee who lived an taught in Dengzhou in Shandong province, in his A Course of Mandarin Lessons wrote in favor of northern Mandarin:" ()
  15. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 71. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "Northern Mandarin is largely dominated by Pekinese, which, being the court dialect, is the most fashionable, and is the accredited language of officials throughout the empire. Southern Mandarin is more widely used and is spoken by a larger number of people than Northern Mandarin. It is not, however, as homogeneous and includes more words and phrases which have no settled writing, being more or less allied to the non-Mandarin dialects of the south.262" ()
  16. Elisabeth Kaske (2008). The politics of language in Chinese education, 1895-1919. Volume 82 of Sinica Leidensia (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 71. ISBN 90-04-16367-0. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "Yet instead of favoring the Beijing Mandarin, which was not spoken in Shandong, he still relied on the Wufang Yuanyin in an attempt "to adapt the present course of lessons to both Northern and Southern Mandarin."263" ()
  17. Yu yan bian hua yu Han yu fang yan: Li Fanggui xian sheng ji nian lun wen ji. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan yu yan xue yan jiu suo chou bei chu. 2000. p. 74. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "Nankingese is the only dialect in the group for which pre-modern records exist. The two major sources are the following: (1) Franz Kühnert, Syllabar des Nankingdialektes oder der correkten Aussprache sammt Vocabular, Vienna. 1898. For interpretation of Kühnert's transcription, an earlier article (Kühnert 1894) was also used. The transcription, which is extremely involved and complex, has been slightly"  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)(the University of California)
  18. Yu yan bian hua yu Han yu fang yan: Li Fanggui xian sheng ji nian lun wen ji. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan yu yan xue yan jiu suo chou bei chu. 2000. p. 74. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "(2) K. Hemeling, Die Nanking Kuanhua, Gottingen, 1907. This work is ostensibly a study of and syllabary for Nanking Guanhua, but in fact it deals with a spoken variety of the city dialect rather than the koine per se. Hemeling notes (1907: v-vi) that the Nankingese variety he records is different in certain respects from that studied by Kühnert. Somewhat earlier than these works is a set of random notes on the dialect by Edkins (1864:Cjap.4). All of these sources attest to archaic features no longer preserved in those forms"  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)(the University of California)
  19. Acta orientalia, Volumes 63-64. Munksgaard. 2002. p. 209. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "2) K. Hemeling, Die Nanking Kuanhua, Göttingen, 1907. This work is ostensibly a study of and syllabary for Nanking Guanhua, but in fact it deals with a spoken variety of the city dialect rather than the now defunct koine per se. Hemeling notes (1907: v-vi) that the Nankingese variety he records is different in certain respects from that studied by Kühnert."  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)()
  20. University of California, Berkeley. Project on Linguistic Analysis (2000). Journal of Chinese linguistics, Volume 28. Project on Linguistic Analysis. p. 54. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "2) K. Hemeling, Die Nanking Kuanhua, Gdttingen, 1907. This work is ostensibly a study of and syllabary for Nanking Guanhua, but in fact it deals with a spoken variety of the city dialect rather than the koine per se. Hemeling notes (1907: v-vi) that the Nankingese variety he records is different in certain respects from that studied by Kühnert." (the University of Virginia)
  21. Monumenta serica, Volume 48. H. Vetch. 2000. p. 271. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "2) K. Hemeling, Die Nanking Kuanhua, Gottingen, 1907. This work is ostensibly a study of and syllabary for Nanking Guanhua, but in fact it deals with a spoken variety of the city dialect rather than the koine per se. Hemeling notes (1907: v-vi) that the Nankingese variety he records is different in certain respects from that studied by Kühnert."  |coauthors= requires |author= (help)()
  22. Luzac & Co., firm, booksellers, London (JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1907). Luzac's oriental list and book review, Volume 18. VOL. XVIII. London LUZAC & CO. PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W. C.: Luzac & Co. p. 139. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "HEMELING (K.) — The Nanking Kuan Hua. 8vo. pp. 109. Leipsic, 1907. 4s."  (Princeton University)
  23. Samuel Wells Williams (1844). English & Chinese vocabulary in the court dialect. MACAO: PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE CHINESE REPOSITORY: Office of the Chinese Repository. p. xxvi. Retrieved 1 March 2012. (Lyon Public Library)(Digitized Jul 26, 2011)
  24. Samuel Wells Williams (1844). English & Chinese vocabulary in the court dialect. MACAO: PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE CHINESE REPOSITORY: Office of the Chinese Repository. p. xxvii. Retrieved 1 March 2012. (Lyon Public Library)(Digitized Jul 26, 2011)
  25. The Chinese recorder and missionary journal, Volume 36. VOLUME XXXVI. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. 1905. p. 144. Retrieved March 21, 2012. "Romanized Mandarin. I. Literature Now Ready:— 1. "The Standard System of Mandarin Romanization, Vol. I." An Introduction to the System, Sound Tables, and a Syllabary of 6,000 characters. Price 40 cents per copy. Presbyterian Mission Press. 2. "The Standard System of Mandarin Romanization, Vol. II." A Radical Index to the Syllabary in Vol. I, with the Romanized spelling placed opposite each character. Price 30 cents per copy. Presbyterian Mission Press. Vols. I and II bound together, 70 cents per copy. 3. "Primer." A course of progressive lessons by which Chi nese may learn to read and write in the Standard System. Price 10 cents per copy. Presbyterian Mission Press. 4. "Gospel according to St. Matthew." Price 10 cents per copy, post-paid. British and Foreign, or American Bible Society. 5. "Gospel according to St. Mark." Price 10 cents per copy, post-paid. British and Foreign, or American Bible Society. (The other Gospels will follow as soon as they can be prepared.) 6. Pa Tung Wen Bao. A monthly paper of eight pages, published in Romanized. First number, January, 1905. Price, single copies, 30 cents per annum; in clubs of ten or more, at 20 cents per copy per year, post-paid. Presbyterian Mission Press. II. HOW TO USE THE SYSTEM :— 1. Get the literature and begin with the Primer. 2. Teach by syllables, not by letters. Do not teach the English alphabetical value of the letters, but the Chinese sounds of the initials and finals as indicated by the Chinese characters given in the Primer as sound equivalents; also, teach those sound values as they are heard in your own locality. 3. Teach the finals first; there are only forty of them. Then take up the initials one by one and teach your students how to combine them with the finals into words. III. Note :— Sometimes two words having the same sound in your locality will have two spellings. This is because those words are" Published by The American Presbyterian Mission Press 18 Peking Road, Shanghai, China. Original from Harvard University Digitized Aug 20, 2007
  26. The Chinese recorder and missionary journal, Volume 36. VOLUME XXXVI. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. 1905. p. 145. Retrieved March 21, 2012. "pronounced differently elsewhere. For example, ift and "gf are both hsi in Peking, but in Nanking the latter is si. The Standard System retains the two spellings, thus providing a spelling for the two distinct sounds as heard in Nanking. This is not only no hindrance to the use of the system in Peking, but, on the contrary, is a decided gain. The teacher can explain that the two syllables si and Asi, which are pronounced alike in this locality, have different meanings. And that the possibility of confusing those homophonous Asi^s is thus reduced by one-half. Another example: ^ and % are both pronounced gwan in Nanking, but in Peking the latter is gwang. Here again the Standard System retains both spellings as not only spelling the Pekinese sounds more accurately, but also enriching the Nankinese by distinguishing between two words having the same sounds and different meanings. Triennial Meeting of the Educational Association of China. The Fifth Triennial Meeting is to be held May 17–20, 1003. THE programme is not yet completed, but will follow the general line of that published in the Recorder of last December. The following gentlemen and ladies have consented to make addresses or prepare papers:— Rev. Paul Bergen, D.D., of Wei-hsien. Rev. Ernest Box, of Shanghai. Miss J. Brown, of Foochow. Rev. Frederick Brown, F.R.G.S., of Tientsin. Mr. F. C. Cooper, of Shanghai. Rev. S. Couling, of Ching-chow-fu. Rev. Jno. Darroch, of Shanghai. Rev. Robt. F. Fitch, of Ningpo. Rev. Jas. Jackson, of Wuchang. Rev. H. H. Lowry, D.D., of Peking Rev. W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D. Rev. F. Ohlinger, of Shanghai. Rev. Gilbert Reid, D.D., of Shanghai. Rev. W. S. Sweet, of Hangchow. Prof. O. D. Wannamaker, M.A., of Canton. Miss M. C. White, of Soochow." Published by The American Presbyterian Mission Press 18 Peking Road, Shanghai, China. Original from Harvard University Digitized Aug 20, 2007
  27. Karl Hemeling (1907). Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=bC4OAAAAIAAJ&q=The+romanisation+chosen+by+me+being+based+on+the+pronunciation+in+the+upper+#v=onepage&q=The%20only%20old%20sound%20tables%2C%20I%20know%20of%2C%20assumed%20to%20give%20the%20pronunciation%20of%20Nanking%20are%20the%20%22Hungwu%20cheng%20yun%22%20published%20by%20order%20of%20the%20Emperor%20Hungwu%20(1368%E2%80%941398)%2C%20the%20founder%20of%20the%20Ming-dynasty%2C%20the%20ruins%20of%20whose%20tomb%20lie%20a%20mile%20outside%20the%20east%20gate%20of%20Nanking.&f=false. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "PART I. On Pronunciation Of Tbe Nanking Kvanhua Generally. (a.) Historic Development. The only old sound tables, I know of, assumed to give the pronunciation of Nanking are the "Hungwu cheng yun" published by order of the Emperor Hungwu (1368—1398), the founder of the Ming-dynasty, the ruins of whose tomb lie a mile outside the east gate of Nanking. But these tables themselves do not give any information as to the dialect rendered, and as, Nanking not having been Hungwu's sole residence *— he also resided sometimes at K'aifengfu, styled by him "northern capital" —, the only valid argument which can by adduced in favour of this supposition, is the fact that Hungwu was a native of Nanking, albeit of low extraction, they cannot be considered as a basis of scientific researches. As, again, the numerous tonic dictionaries of the Chinese language covering the time since about 500 A. D. are of no help in laying down the historic lines of change of this dialect, we are unable to draw a connected picture of its historic development and must restrict ourselves to comparing some details of modern Nankingese pronunciation with that of the old Chinese language generally.
    • The name of Nanking i.e. Southern Capital — the only one under which this city is known in Europe, hut only one of the numerous names it has received since its first appearance in history in the 5th century B. C. — was given in the year 1368 by Hungwu shortly after assumption of the title "Emperor", in the same edict in which he declared K'aifengfu his northern capital. (Pere Louis Gaillard, Nankin d'alors et d'aujourd'hui, Changhai 1903; Vari&e's Sinologiques"  Missing or empty |title= (help)()
  28. Karl Hemeling (1907). Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=bC4OAAAAIAAJ&q=The+romanisation+chosen+by+me+being+based+on+the+pronunciation+in+the+upper+#v=onepage&q=The%20ascendancy%20doubtless%20gained%20by%20the%20Nanking%20Kuanh.ua%20over%20other%20%22Mandarin%22%20dialects%20during%20the%20epochs%20when%20Nanking%20was%20the%20Capital%20of%20the%20Chinese%20Empire%20&f=false. Retrieved 10th of February, 2012. "(b.) Standing And Range. The ascendancy doubtless gained by the Nanking Kuanh.ua over other "Mandarin" dialects during the epochs when Nanking was the Capital of the Chinese Empire * and probably retained for some time after the removal of the central government to Peking in 1421 A. D. by Emperor Yunglo, had in the course of centuries, since gone by, gradually lost ground. It received its death-blow through the massacres, nearly extirpating the inhabitants of the unfortunate Nanking, perpetrated after its capture by the T'aip'ing rebels whose Capital it subsequently was from 1853—1864, and again in a worse degree by the Imperial forces when recapturing it. The few handfuls of old resident families that escaped destruction being insufficient to absorb the rush of immigrants from other parts of China after the suppression of the rebellion, the standard pronunciation cultivated by them could not penetrate throughout this city, and even to this day the number of its inhabitants speaking a pure and unadulterated Nanking Kuanhua is comparatively small. The days of splendour are gone never to return. The Kuanhua of Nanking is no longer a serious rival for supremacy of that of Peking: the latter, purified of its localisms, is at present the only standard spoken language recognised throughout the whole Empire, a fact not to be wondered at, if one takes into consideration that Peking has been uninterruptedly the Capital of the Chinese Empire since 1421 A. D. Sinologes in Germany have been slow to reconcile themselves to this fact. As late as 1881 VON DER GABELENTZ in his large Chinese grammar (§ 37), while reluctantly admitting the victory of the Peking dialect in practice, calls it a fashion which science must not follow. He recommends the adoption for scientific purposes of the "Mandarin" dialect reproduced in the writings of the Jesuits of the 17th and 18th centuries which he considers to have been that of Nanking but which Arendt (Handbuch der Nordchinesischen Umgangssprache, Stuttgart und Berlin 1891; § 208—212)
    • Nanking has been a Capital four times: first from 229—280 A.D. Capital of Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms; from 317—589 A. D. the Eastern Chin, Sung, Ch'i, Liang and Ch'ên dynasties resided there; from 937—975 A. D. it was Capital of the Southern T'angs and finally again from 1368—1421 A.D. of the first Emperors of the Ming-dynasty"  Missing or empty |title= (help)()
  29. Karl Hemeling (1907). Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 3 http://books.google.com/books?id=bC4OAAAAIAAJ&q=The+romanisation+chosen+by+me+being+based+on+the+pronunciation+in+the+upper+#v=onepage&q=believes%20to%20be%20rather%20an%20old%20form%20of%20%22Mandarin%22%20dialect%20in%20general.&f=false. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "believes to be rather an old form of "Mandarin" dialect in general. As far as I know, Arendt (1. 1.) is the first German champion of the absolute supremacy of the Peking dialect. I cannot but agree with his remark (1. 1. § 203) that the real Nanking dialect of today is more exposed to justified objections than that of Peking.
    • Nanking has been a Capital four times: first from 229—280 A.D. Capital of Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms; from 317—589 A. D. the Eastern Chin, Sung, Ch'i, Liang and Ch'ên dynasties resided there; from 937—975 A. D. it was Capital of the Southern T'angs and finally again from 1368—1421 A.D. of the first Emperors of the Ming-dynasty.
    But, even so, the Kuanhua of Nanking retains a certain superiority over its sister "Mandarin" dialects on account of, in some respects, purer and more consistent preservation of the old Chinese pronunciation. Bearing, for the same reason, a closer relationship than these to the dialects spoken on the coast of MiddleChina and in the south of China which have retained the old sounds much more faithfully than the "Mandarin" dialects, it forms in a way the connecting link between the Chinese dialects of the South and those of the North and West, and thus possesses the elements necessary for rendering it intelligible over a wider area than any other Chinese dialect. The range of the spoken Nanking Kuanhua is not extensive. As is the case with all other Chinese dialects, the pure form of it is restricted to the intellectual centre of its sphere of domination, i. e. the city of Nanking, and does not even there prevail throughout as has been seen above. It extends with often large deviations over the greater part of northern Kiangsu and over the province of Anhui the dialects of which regions may be classed as varieties of it."
      Missing or empty |title= (help)()
  30. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 3. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "(c.) Tones. The old Chinese language which distinguished four classes of tones (sheng) viz. p'ing (even), shang (rising), ch'ii (departing) and ju (entering), each subdivided into an upper (shang) and a lower (hsia) series, i. e. eight tones in all (Dr. A. CONRADY, Eine Indochinesische CausativDenominativbildung und ihr Zusammenhang mit den Tonaccenten, Leipzig, 1896), has also at Nanking exhibited its peculiar tendency towards simplification. In the course of centuries three tones have gradually disappeared. The first was lost by the coalescence of the upper and lower "rising" tones which took place before the 13th or 14th centuries of our era (CoNRADY, 1.1. p. 182). Two more tones vanished later, probably" ()
  31. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 4. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "by the fusion of the upper and lower series of the "departing" and "entering" tones, so that modern Nankingese distinguishes only the following five tones: upper-even (shang-p'ing), lower-even (hsia-p'ing), rising (shang), departing (ch'ü) and entering (ju). While the characters have at Nanking substantially retained the theoretical tones given in the old native tonic dictionaries, the nature of the tones themselves has undergone change. The Nanking shang-p'ing (upper - even) is a low, falling tone, drawling and slowly evanescent, pronounced with a dull voice. The hsia-p'ing (lower-even) commences at a high pitch, falls suddenly and rises again, and is pronounced with a clear voice. The rising shêng is a soft, drawling, higher tone, rising smoothly with a small interval. The departing tone is high, rapidly falling, and is enunciated with a clear voice. The entering shêng is extremely high and short, and ends abruptly with a sudden closure of the glottis (without a following explosion). The sound remaining when leaving off the final t in pronouncing words like cut, lit, etc., is the nearest approach to this tone I could find, an example, however, which is deficient in as much as it wants the jerked quickness of enunciation characteristic of this Nanking tone. Whereas the final oral stop of the old Chinese ju shêng is completely preserved in the dialect of Canton in which all ju shêng syllables still maintain the old explosive finals k, p, t, and whereas it prevails in the Swatow, Amoy and Foochow dialects, but is in the Shanghai dialect only retained in the final к, it has been entirely replaced by a glottal stop in the dialect of Nanking as also in that of Ningpo. The Nanking entering tone words thus never end in a consonant (the h in the finals eh, ieh, üeh and ih which I have taken over with Wade's romanisation and which might as well be omitted, merely serves as a mark of shortness for the vowel sounds immediately preceding it, these, therefore, being the real finals) nor in the vowel sounds ao, iao, ou, iai, iu, ui, ei and й; they terminate in the vowels a, i, о, u, ü, ê, ih, eh, the diphthongs ai, iu, uo, io, üeh, ieh (h as above) and the triphthong uai. In Western and Northern "Mandarin" dialects which have not preserved this tone, entering tone words are distributed over the four tone classes recognised there (shang-p'ing, hsia-p'ing, shang," ()
  32. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 5. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "nd civil). In Pekingese they appear chiefly in the hsia-p'ing *. The romanisation chosen by me being based on the pronunciation in the upper - even tone as the most natural one, does of course not apply equally well to that of the same syllable in the other tones, above all not to that in the entering tone, in the short and abrupt ejaculation of which the fundamental sound is often even unrecognisable. The most striking illustration of this observation is the diphthong ai, as in ai, lai, kuai, etc., which sounds in the ju sheng like the English u of but (mid-back-narrow of the English phoneticians). I have abstained from a special transcription of such entering tone sounds and have not counted them as separate syllables as doing so in a "Sound and Tone Table" like mine would be incompatible with the inherent inseparability of the enunciations of the same sound in the five tones (cf. preface p. VI)." ()
  33. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 5. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "(d.) Initial Sounds. The most characteristic feature of the Nanking dialect to be drawn attention to under this heading is, that the distinction between k, ¥ and ts, ts' on the one hand, and h and s on the other, is, as in the old language, carried consistently through also before the Ealatal vowels i and u (likewise when in combinations ke ia, iung, iieh, etc., but not when in the guttural ih) and that the distribution of the words over these initials agrees substantially with that of the old dictionaries. But while the ts and ts' have preserved their old pronunciation, the guttural k and ¥ (before i and ii) have retained their old sound only in the vulgar tongue and not even there throughout. In the language of the educated classes of Nanking, the following palatal vowels have influenced them so as to make them turn into the mixed sound described below on p. 24, 25, the only exception being the word "to give" (Nr. 125 of the Sound Table) which is colloquially always pronounced kis (in reading chib). I have retained
    • For details of distribution of entering tone words in Pekingese compare: J. Edkins, A Grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect, 2nd edition, Shanghai, 1864. p. 54—69; also Giles, English-Chinese dictionary (based on Pekingese) in which they are marked by an asterisk." ()
  34. Karl Hemeling (1907). 's%20transcription%20for%20this%20more%20modern%20initial%2C%20&f=false Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 6. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "the ch of Wade's transcription for this more modern initial, though well aware that it is quite different from the historic original ch preceding a, e, o, ou, u and ih which contains a distinct sh. The Nanking k before t and ii for the romanisation of which I have taken over Wade's hs, likewise seems to have lost its old pronunciation under the influence of the following palatal vowels: it is, at the present time, the palatal spirant corresponding to the guttural spirant before a, e, o and w. In Western and Northern "Mandarin" dialects the initial k, ft' and ts, ts' have fused into ch, ch', and the initial h and s into hs before the palatal vowels i and ii, the pronunciation of the sounds thus formed approaching very nearly, or agreeing with, that of the Nanking Kuanhua.
    • For details of distribution of entering tone words in Pekingese compare: J. Edkins, A Grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect, 2nd edition, Shanghai, 1864. p. 54—69; also Giles, English-Chinese dictionary (based on Pekingese) in which they are marked by an asterisk.
    The advantages as regards lessening of homophones and augmentation of different sounds gained in the Nanking dialect by the retention of the entering tone and of the distinction between the old initials before the palatal vowels are to a large extent counterbalanced by two glaring defects not recognised by any native dictionary — confusion of initial w and I, and of final dental and guttural nasals — in which this dialect exhibits the peculiar tendency to homophony characteristic of all "Mandarin" dialects, defects, however, which to the Chinese ear, untrained as it is in phonology, appear much less important than they do to the foreigner. Only the former of these faults is properly discussed in this place, the latter appertaining to the next paragraph. The confusion of initial « and I into a nasalised alveolar I takes place before all vowels: all groups beginning with w in the native standard dictionaries form at Nanking one with the corresponding I groups. While this coalescence is met with in Northern "Mandarin" only in rare exceptions e.g. in Pekingese, where lung "to make" is often pronounced nung, and chi-liang "spine" chi-niang, it takes place regularly in Western "Mandarin" before all vowels except i and ii. The changing pronunciation of initial j at Nanking swill be described in the "diacritic marks" in Part II. The old Chinese initial guttural ng which is still heard at Peking has been lost in Nankingese: the old wan, wfa, "'on are pronounced an, en, ou. Similarly has the initial w disappeared in Nanking: the syllables too and wu have become o and M."
     ()
  35. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 7. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "(e.) Final Sounds. The vowel parts of the finals have undergone so many and such complete changes since the olden times that it would carry too far to enter into their details here. Four vowel compounds occurring in the Nanking finals might, however, be drawn attention to because they are not found in Pekingese and because distinctly savouring of the old Chinese language viz.: ui after n, I and ts (in Peking passed into ei), iai after ch (turned into ieh in Peking), Hen (changed into Han in Peking) and ah, an (English a of sane; cf. diacritic marks) after I, ni, n, p, s, t and ts (also when aspirated), for which Wade's Transcriptions ien, ieh have been retained, as the corresponding sounds after ch and hs are distinctly enunciated ieh, ien in Nankingese. Peculiarities of vowel pronunciations which apparently are neither standard nor general as, for instance, pronouncing mou as mei, che as chai, chle as chlai, she as shai, practised especially in the northern part of Nanking city — need not he commented on here since they are beyond the scope of this dissertation. As regards the consonantal discrepancies between the modern Nanking finals and those of the old language, I have already referred to the loss of the explosive entering tone final tenues k, t, p (p. 4), and there thus remain only the final nasals to be treated of. While one of the three final nasals — dental, guttural and labial, i.e. n, ng and m — distinguished by the old Chinese language and still preserved in the Canton and Foochow dialects, was lost in the "Mandarin" dialects according to Edkins (1. 1. p. 90.) in the 14th century by the passing of the labial (m) into the dental (n) nasal, the Nanking Kuanhua — as also that of Western China — shows distinct inclination to losing another final nasal, in as much as its final dental (front) and guttural (back) nasals are confused after the vowels a, e, i. With inexplicable inconsistency they are distinguished throughout after u (as in un, ung). The numerous groups of sounds ending in ang, eng, ing thus coalesce with the corresponding groups terminating in an, en, in. While as a matter of fact in the pronunciation of these finals the dental nasal appears to be heard oftener than the guttural nasal, euphony seems the only law regulating their interchange, the same person unconscious of it himself and unable to detect the difference, sometimes pronouncing the same" ()
  36. Karl Hemeling (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. Göttingen. Druck der Dieterich'schen Univ.-Buchdruckerei (W. Fr. Kaestner).: Leipzig. p. 8. Retrieved 10 February 2012. "word with a dental nasal when uttering it by itself and with a guttural nasal when enunciating it in combination with other words. In the present transient stage of the dialect it would of course be idle speculation to predict the ultimate fate of the two nasals." ()

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