A Research On The Mandarin Phonetic System Of A Syllabic Dictionary Of The Chinese Language

A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language was extremely popular after being published by Shanghai American Mission Press in Tongzhi years(1874). As a practical dictionary to help foreigners learn Chinese, the book records the pronunciations of Mandarin, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shantou and Yantai. These are the raw materials of the Chinese dialects in the 19th century, which provide a wide range of basic data for historical comparative linguistic study of modern Chinese language.About the Mandarin in Ming and Qing Dynasties there have always been a lot of controversy. The record of A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language just can provide the real evidence for these disputes. This paper chooses Mandarin phonetic system of A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language as the research topic, including the sound systems of southern Mandarin, Beijing and Yantai. Using listing, statistics, induction and the internal measurement methods, we sort out the sound systems it has recorded and at the same time, we refer to its ancient sound source and reconstruct its phonetic system according to Samuel Wells Williams phonetic system. The sound system of southern Mandarin in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language contains 20 consonants and 55 vowels among which there are 12 vowels with the entering tones and another 5 tones. Its sound system of Beijing dialect contains 23 consonants and 55 vowels among which there are 13 vowels with the entering tones and another 4 tones. Its sound system of Yantai dialect contains 18 consonants and 56 vowels among which there are 11 vowels with the entering tones.By means of comparison and elimination methods, we compare and contrast horizontally the local rhyming dictionaries and missionary dictionaries of the same time in order to clarify the nature of the sound system and vertically the modern dialects of different places to understand the evolution of these sounds in the last 100 years. The sound system of the southern Mandarin is mainly compared horizontally. The local rhyming dictionaries are respectively compared with the phonetic system in the Popular Table of Standard Pronunciation representative of the traditional official pronunciation and finally with German Karl Ernst Georg Hemeling's The Nanking Kuan Hua that reflects true Nanjing official language. Generally speaking, the southern official sound system in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language still belongs to the traditional official sound system, not the actual spoken Mandarin sound, nor the Nanjing sound. The horizontal comparison of Beijing speech sound system in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language is a comparison with the sound system in the British scholar Thomas Francis Wade's Yuyan Zierji representative of Beijing speech. According to its nature, what has been recorded by Samuel Wells Williams are surely Beijing sounds. However, judging from the features of the ancient sounds kept by the sound system, the Beijing sounds recorded by Samuel Wells Williams are relatively conservative. Thus, they are closer to the written Beijing speech, not the actual spoken sounds. Horizontal comparison: they are compared with the sound system of modern Beijing sounds of Research on Modern Beijing Dialect. Yantai speech sounds in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language were mainly compared vertically:compared with Yantai Dialect Report that reflects modern Yantai speech. From these features, Yantai sound system in Samuel Wells Williams' A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language is very close to the basic characteristics of Jiaoliao Mandarin summarized by scholars. It is certain that what Samuel Wells Williams recorded is actually the dialect of Yantai, Shandong Province.In short, the three sound systems of southern official language, Beijing, Zhifu(Yantai) recorded by Samuel Wells Williams in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language were the speech sounds at the time. However, by nature, they are more written sounds because they kept many ancient sounds, not the spoken speech in actual life. By means of summarizing and judging of the sound systems in A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, we expect to enrich and supplement the research results of modern Mandarin dialects and provide useful evidence for the discussion of Mandarin in Ming and Qing Dynasties.