# Readings in Cantonese Colloquial

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
BY
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 with a Vocabulary,'
&c., &c.,
HONGKONG:
KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED,
AND AT
SHANGHAI, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE.
1894
(All Rights Reserved).
Registered in accordance with the provision of Ordinance No. 10 of 1888. at the Office of the Registrar General, Supreme Court House, Hongkong.
OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR :
In Course of Preparation. 'Tonic Exercises in Cantonese.'

## PREFACE.PREFACE.

Heralded some five years ago as in course of preparation, the pressure of other duties has prevented the appearance 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 prove 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 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.
​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 Chinese 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 book 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 from 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 k of the final chek is dropped; and the Author has also adopted, in this book, Mr. E. H. Parker's öü 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 ​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-cheung in looking over the Chinese proofs, &c.
J. DYER BALL.
1st June, 1894.