missionaries or merchants, for example, whose special duties or transactions are connected with special districts will naturally learn and use the dialects of those districts; but as a means of intercommunication generally between natives of different provinces, or between natives and foreigners, the Court language seems likely to continue in use and to spread more and more over the whole country.  It is to this that the following remarks apply.

The essentials of correct pronunciation of Chinese are accuracy of sound, tone, and rhythm.

Sound

Vowels and Diphthongs

a as in father.

ai as in Italian amai.

ao.  Italian ao in Aosta:  sometimes a-oo, the au in cauto.

e in eh, en, as in yet, lens.

ei.  Nearly ey in grey, but more as in Italian lei, contei.

e.  The vowel-sound in lurk.

ei.  The foregoing e followed enclitically by y. Money without the n = mei.

erh. The urr in purr.

i.  As a single or final syllable the vowel-sound in ease, tree; in ih, in, ing, as in chick, thing.

ia generally as in the Italian Maria.

iai.  The iai in the Italian vecchiaia.

iao as in ia and ao, with the terminal peculiarity of the latter.

ie as in the Italian siesta.

io.  The French io in pioche.

iu as a final, longer than the English ew.  In liu, niu, almost leyew, neyew.  In chiung, hsiung, iung, is eeyong (o in roll).

o. Between vowel-sound in awe and that in roll.

ou. Really eo; ou in round.

ue. The vowel-sound in the French tu, eut.

uea. Only in uean, which in some tones is ueen.  The u as above; the an as in antic.

uee.  The vowel-sounds in the French tu es.

ueo.  A disputed sound, used, if at all, interchangeably with io in certain syllables.

u.  The oo in too; in un and ung as in the Italian punto.

ua.  Nearly ooa, in many instances contracting to wa.

uai as in the Italian guai.

uei. The vowel-sounds in the French jouer.

ue. Only in final uen = u-un; frequently wen or wun.

ui. The vowel-sounds in screwy; in some tones uei.