The Triglot Vocabulary
The
Trigot Vocabulary
English
Malay
Chinese
Hok-kien
Hak-ka
Character
Sixth Edition
Twentieth Thousand
Singapore
Methodist Publishing House
1913
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
The second edition of 1000 copies of this vocabulary baring sold out within less than two years, it was felt that the steady demand for a cheap vocabulary of this kind would justify the publishers in making an effort to improve and add to the work, with a view to giving it a wider field of usefulness. For this purpose two new columns have heen added, giving the colloquial sounds of the Chinese in the two chief dialects spoken in the Straits Settlements and the Native States, namely the Hok-kien or Amoy dialect, and the Hak-ka dialect. The name "Triglot vocabulary" has been retained, the Chinese being considered as one language. An appendix giving some of the most common terms used by native Christians has been added.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
A Fourth Edition of this cheap and useful pocket Vocabulary is demanded by its steady sales. New type has been used for the Chinese character in this edition, and other improvements made to retain its favour with the public. The selection of words cannot be improved upon for a collection of this size and price.
PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
A Fifth Edition of the Triglot Vocabulary being required, we have taken the opportunity to change the spelling and tonal marks of the Romanised Hak-ka in order to make it harmonise with MacIver's Hak-ka Dictionary, which has been published since our last edition.
Pronunciation and Orthography.
In this Vocabulary the same system of romanisation is used for the Malay as for the Hok-kien and Hak-ka Chinese. The advantage of having one system of spelling for the three columns is obvious. As far as Malay is concerned, this romanisation has heen used in all the previous editions of this work, and also in the Straits Vocabulary, Straits Dialogues, Malay and English School Primer, Malay First Book, Practical Malay Grammar, Malay-English Vocabulary, Pilgrim's Progress, and all the other Malay publications of the Methodist Publishing House. In the third edition the two columns for romanised Hok-kien and Hak-ka were added. As regards the spelling of the Hok-kien dialect there was no difficulty, our Malay system of romanisation being indentical with that used in the Hok-kien dictionaries of Douglas, MacGowan and Talmage, and in all other romanised books printed in that dialect of Chinese; as regards the Hak-ka dialect we made the experiment of printing it according to the same system as the Hok-kien dialect, though up to that time, as far as we know, the Hak-ka dialect had only been spelt according to the German system; since that time, however, MacIver's dictionary of the Hak-ka dialect has been published, and follows very closely the Hok-kien system of romanisation, which is now in general use for all the principal dialects of South China, and bids fair to become the universal spelling for the whole of China. The five vowels have the continental sounds:―
a as in father o as in hole e as the ey in they u as in rude i as in ravine
In addition to the above sounds, there is in the Hok-kien and Hak-ka dialects, as well as in Malay, another simple vowel sound which is often called "the short vowel sound," In other systems of romanisation this vowel sound has been variously represented by a a e ě u and u but all of these different methods of representing this vowel sound are open to the great ohjection that they mislead both Europeans and natives into giving it an incorrect pronunciation. Experience has shown that the best way to spell words containing the short vowel sound with a view to helping the reader to a correct pronunciation, is to omit the vowel altogether. The exact sound of this "short vowel" can best he learnt by ear; it does not occur in any English word of one syllable, but is almost identical with the half-vowel sound in the first syllable of such words as "machine" and "balloon."
In Hok-kien Chinese, the short vowel occurs chiefly in words ending in ng, such as sng, kng, etc. It is also found in ng.
In the Hak-ka dialect the m sound occurs, and the short vowel is also found in the pecu- liar sounds represented by s, ts, and ths and in the nasal ng.
In Malay, when two consonants come together without a vowel between, the first consonant must be considered as having the short or inherent vowel sound, and is therefore sounded separately, as, l-kas, t-pi, b-bal, etc. The double consonants ch, kh and sh are of course exceptions to this rule, as they stand for single sounds. Where the single consonants k and h, or s and h would come together, the vowel a is inserted to avoid confusion with the double consonants kh, sh, as in kahandak, sahaja, etc. When three consonants come together, the first two usually form a closed syllable, and the third commences the second syllable, as in the words mm-baik-i, rn-dah, pn-ja-ra; in a few cases, however, each consonant must be given its inherent vowel sound, as, m-l-top p-n-bus, s-d-kah, but such words are so few in number that they present very little difficulty.
In regard to the vowels a e i o and u, it may be remarked that in the two Chinese dialects as well as in Malay, the vowel sound has always a greater degree of intensity in open syllables than in closed syllables. For instance the a in ta is a much harder or heavier sound than the a in tan. In the Malay word gigit the i in gi has a stronger sound than in the second syllable git. Similarly in the words bodoh and turut there is more stress on the open syllables bo and tu than on the closed syllables doh and rut. Whereas in such words as pada, gigi, jodo, and susu, there is an equally heavy stress on both syllables and so also in such words as panjang, chinchin, pondok and bungkus, where both syllables are closed, the stress is equal on the two syllables, but is much lighter than in open syllables, and the vowel therefore appears to have a shorter sound.
English-speaking persons have a strong tendency to mispronounce the a sound described above, by giving it the short English sound; for instance, one often hears the Malay word api pronounced something like the English word "happy," only without the h, and the first syllable of panjang is often pronounced like the English word "pan," and the second syllable is pronounced so that it would rhyme with the English word "bang." Such short a sounds do not exist at all either in Malay or Chinese, and should be carefully avoided. The first syllable of panjang should be pronounced more like the English word "pun," and the second syllable should be made to rhyme with the English word "young."
When two vowels come together, both must be sounded, but the first must be run into the second; thus au becomes very nearly the sound of ow in "cow," and ai has almost the sound of the English i in "ice."
The consonants ng and ny have been formed into double letters, to help the reader to remember that each of them represents a single sound. In a monosyllabic language like the Chinese, there is no danger of anyone attempting to sound, say, the n and the g separately, but in Malay this mistake is frequently made by beginners; it should therefore be remembered that ng should be pronounced as in the English word "singer," never as in "single," the latter sound is represented in Malay by ngg; the two sounds can be compared in the Malay words singa and singgah.
ORTHOGRAPHICAL SIGNS IN MALAY.
The hyphen is used to separate from the words to which they are attached those prefixes, suffixes and other particles which do not form an integral part of the word itself. These are the preposition k-, the abbreviated numeral s-, the passive prefix di-, the pronominal suffixes -ku, -mu, and -nya, and the particles -lah, -kah, nah, -tah. The preposition di is distinguished from the passive prefix di- by the absence of the hyphen.
The inverted comma is used to represent the Arabic nasal letter ain, and will only be found in words of Arabic origin. A nasal sound must be given to the following vowel.
The apostrophe is used between two vowels to indicate that they should be pronounced separately, as, perkata'an mula'i. The apostrophe is also sometimes placed at the end of a word, taking the place of final k, which in Malay words is not sounded like a k, but indicates that the final syllable of the word must be pronounced very short indeed, and the breath drawn in to produce the shortening of the sound, as in the word tengok or tengo'. Final h has also the effect of shortening the last syllable, but not more than half as much as final k, and with a distinct aspiration.
THE ACCENTS AND SIGNS IN CHINESE.
In Hok-kien Chinese there are nominally eight tones, but as the 2nd and 6th are the same, there are really only seven. The following are the accents used to represent the seven tones :-
1st tone a (no accent), representing a high and perfectly level tone.
7th tone a, representing a lower, but also perfectly level tone.
2nd tone á, an explosive tone propelled forward, like a decided imperative in English, as one says "down" to a dog.
3rd tone à, a downward or falling tone, beginning at the 7th tone level and falling till the voice dies away.
5th tone â, the voice first falling and then rising again, as in a strongly marked interrogation in English, e.g., "You?"
The 4th and 8th tones are only used in syllables ending in h, k, p and t. Both of these tones are short, sharp, and almost explosive. Words ending in the above-mentioned letters which have no accent, are 4th tone, the 8th tone being indicated by a vertical accent, which is intended to suggest the peculiar upward jerk of this tone. The 4th tone on the other hand is a falling tone, so that when the two tones are pronounced one after the other the 4th tone sounds as if it were pitched much lower than the 8th.
When words are grouped together in sentences, great changes occur in tho pronunciation of the tones, which can only properly be learnt by ear. As a rough rule, however, it may he said that in a combination of two syllables, the second usually retains its primary tone, and the following changes take place in the first of the two syllables.
| first | tone | becomes | third |
| second | ,, | ,, | first |
| third | ,, | ,, | second |
| fourth | ,, | ,, | eigth |
| fifth | ,, | ,, | third |
| seventh | ,, | ,, | third |
| eigth | ,, | ,, | fourth |
The orthographical signs in the romanised Chinese are the nasal sign n, which shows that the syllable which it follows must be pronounced through the nose; the inverted full point following the letter o, thus on which gives the sound of aw in "law," "saw"; and the hyphen, which is used to join together those words which are pronounced together without pausing, like the syllables of a polysyllabic word.
THE MOST COMMON TERMS USED BY NATIVE CHRISTIAN
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