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READINGS IN CANTONESE COLLOQUIAL: BEING SELECTIONS FROM BOOKS IN THE CANTONESE VERNACULAR WITH FREE AND LITERAL TRANSLATIONS OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER AND ROMANIZED SPELLING BT J. DYER BALL, m.r.a.s, &c. Author of ' Thincs Chinese,' ' CantoiVesi'; Made Easy,' ' How TO Speak Cantonese,' ' "^'he Caxtonese Made Easy VocABirLARY,' ' Eas'i: SENXEi.fES m the Hakka Dialect with a Vocabulaky.' &c., &o., HONGKONG: KELLY & V/ALSH, LIMITED, AND AT SHANGHAI, YOKOHAUA AND SINCAI'OHE. 1894 (All Ryhls nesermf). ..-1 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION ON CHINA AND THE CHINESE OLIN LIBRARY-CIRCULATION DATE DUE ^m—da Cornell University Library '^y. The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023427572 READINGS IN CANTONESE COLLOQUIAL. : READINGS IN CANTONESE COLLOQUIAL BEING SELECTIONS FROM BOOKS IN THE CANTONESE VERNACULAR WITH FREE AND LITERAL TRANSLATIONS OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER AND ROMANIZED SPELLING Br J. DYER BALL, m.r.a.s., &c. Author of ' Things Chinese,' ' Cantonese Made Easy,' ' How TO Speak Cantonese,' ' The Cantonese Made Easy Vocabulary,' ' Easy Sentences in the Hakka Dialect ^\ith a Vocabflary,' &c., &c. agoccooetepe HONGKONG KELLY & ^^^ALSH, LIMITED, AND AT SHANGHAI, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE. 1894 {All Rights Reserved.) RkGIHTKREI) in ACC'OTIHANOE WITH THE PROVIStOXS OF OrDIXANCE NO. 10 OF 1888» AT THE OfFII'E of THE REGISTRAR (tEXERAL, SiT'iiEMF. CorRT House, Hongkong. k/^ofo^jl.^' : OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR Prioe. "Cantonese M.uje Easy,' 2nd Edition $!3.00 ' How TO Speak Cantonese ' 3.00 'The Cantonese Made Easy Vocabulary,' 2nd Edition 1.00 ' An En'(^i.ish-Cantonese Pocket Vocabulary,' 2nd Edition 75 * : Easy Sentences in the Cantonese Dialect with a Vocabulary ' being the first part of ' Cantonese Made Easy ' and ' The Cantonese Made Easy Vocabulary,' bound in one volume 2.00 * Easy Sentences in the Hakka Dialect with a Vocabulary ' 1.00 ^ How to Weitb the Radicals' 75 ' How to Write Chinese,' Part 1 2.00 ' The San Wui Dialect ' 50 ' The Tung KwuN Dialect ' 50 ' The Anglo-Chinese CooKEEY Book ' 2.00 'Things Chinese,' 2nd Edition 3.50 Li Course of Preparation. ' Tonic JUxmxises in Cantonese.^ PREFACE Heralded some five years ago as in course of preparation, the pressure of other duties has prevented the appearaniie of this book at an earlier date. The inquiries that have been made for it, since it has been known that the work was in contemplation, may be taken as a sign that such a collection of colloquial, extracts will proA'-e useful to the student of Cantonese. It would have been an easier task to extract these passages from only one or two books ; but the Author has considered it better to make selections from nearly every work which was suitable. From some books, a number of selections were made and even prepared for printing, but, though admirable for the learner, many of these had to be laid aside, as otherwise the book would have become too large. It is hoped that the taste here given will incite the learner to excursions by himself into the paths of colloquial literature where, unaided by literal translations and an English orthography, he may cull the flowers of the purest colloquial at his own sweet will. An attempt has been made to graduate this course of lessons : the simplest colloquial will be found at the beginning of the book, and the mixed style, in which book-language words are more or less employed, towards the end. Where the English original could be obtained, the compiler has given it ; but in a few cases it has been necessary for the Author to translate back again from the Chinese into English. This explanation will prevent those who may chance to have the original English works from being at a loss to understand the difference between their own versions and some of those in this book. The cases where such a course has been necessary are in the extracts from ' Bible History for the Least and Lowest,' ' That Sweet Story of Old,' 'The King's Highway,' and 'the Four Character Book,' the last having" been written originally in Chinese. ; U PREFACE. ' The English version of the extract from The Sacred Edict ' is, with a few slight alterations, taken from Milne's translation. The Author is responsible for the English translation of the portion of the native story of ' Old Cross Sticks.' This last selection is given as a sample, of one of the nearest approaches that the Chinesfe seem able unaided to make towards the use of colloquial in books ; and the learner is hereby warned to be very careful in his study of it not to be led into the idea that all he sees therein may be used as colloquial. When reading it, constant reference to his teacher, as to whether the words or sentences in that Chinese work are pure colloquial or not, will therefore be necessary.. » About a fifth of the bobk is from native sources, the 'Sacred ' Edict ' and Old Cross Sticks ' being Chinese works. The former originally appearing in the book-language, had a few pages of it rendered into colloquial under foreign supervision, and it is nearly the whole of this portion that appears in this book ; the latter, as will be gathered from what has been said above, is not in pure colloquial, nor is it in the book-language, but consists of a mixture of the two. This mixed style of product will therefore be seen to be a sufficient reason for no further extracts fi'om it or similar works being given, and the necessity therefore of selecting the majority of the passages from books which are translations from the English. The translators, it must be remembered, have had the assistance of good native speakers, consequently the Chinese teacher has left his imprint on the work that, has passed through his hands. The orthography employed is that used in the other books of ' the Cantonese Made Easy ' series, with these two exceptions : the Ic of the final ehelc is dropped ; and the Author has also adopted, in this book, Mr. E. H. Parker's bu instead of the ui previously used. The advantages accruing from the use of the present book, the Author believes, will be many. First it supplements the other phrase and sentence books in use gives the learner a larger ; vocabulary extends his knowledge of colloquial, carrying it up into the mixed style, without which his knowledge of Cantonese colloquial will be incomplete. It has further this advantage that the various books from which the extracts in Chinese are taken are the work of different men. By its use he therefore gets familiar with the style of speech of different Chinese speakers-^a most desirable consummation to be attained, as all who know anything of Chinese are aware. The PREFACE. lU extracts given, with, the exceptions noticed above, are in good idiomatic colloquial. The learner need therefore feel no fear of assimilating them to his own use. In conclusion, the Author may say that he himself, though speaking Chinese from infancy, has derived great assistance from a systematic use of books in colloquial, and he doubts not that many more will do so in the future. This book, he believes, will assist them in their efforts and with this belief he has prepared it. It only remains to acknowledge the assistance rendered to the Author by Mr. Mok MAN-CHEUXCf in looking over the Chinese proofs, &c. J. DYER BALL. 1st June, 1894. CONTENTS PliEKACK — ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS BOOK. ^\*Ot*%*\*\*\f^ Class. = Classifier. Lit. = Literally. * ladieates that the tone the word is marked in is different from the tone in the book language—the tone is a colloquial one. t Indicates that the pronuuciation of the word as given in this book is different from that given to it in the book language. the word is pronounced differently in colloquial. — — INTRODUCTION. I. Hints foe the Use of this Book. A few hints as to tlife method to be adopted iu the use of this book may not be amiss : Nothing is better in learning to read Chinese than to copy the Chinese. Let your teacher read over the passage to you, you following him clause by clause, imitating his every tone and inflexion of voice. Do not be content with reading a passage over once or twice or even a dozen tirqps, but keep on at it till you know it by heart, especially if it is a subject in which you are to be examined. Then make a point, if you can possibly get the time to do so, to memorise it a la Chinoise, so that if a sentence of it were given you without the book you could keep on with several sentences without looking at the book. The Author feels convinced from experience that this is one of the best ways to learn Chinese. It is splendid practice for the tones if rightly carried out. If you are to be examined in it, it gives you a confidence which is worth possessing. This method is of course mechanical to a certain extent and that alone will not suffice to get up one's subject. It must not be allowed to descend into a mere mechanical, unreasoning process, but must be supplemented by thought, a learning of the meaning, analysis of the composition of the sentences, &c., &c., which go to make up a right comprehension of what one is reading.

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