Qi Lin Bayin

Qī Lín Bāyīn , sometimes translated as Book of Eight Sounds or Book of Eight Tones in , is a rime book of approximately ten thousand based on the earlier form of the Fuzhou dialect. First compiled in the 17th century, it is the pioneering work of all written sources for , and is widely quoted in modern academic research in Chinese phonology.

''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' is in fact a combination of two dictionaries Qī and Lín . The compilation date of the former antecedes that of the latter.

Authorship

The two ''Qī'' and ''Lín'' appearing on the title stand for Qi Jiguang and Lin Bishan , which might mislead people into thinking that they were the authors of this book. Since the famous military general Qi Jiguang was a native of Shandong Province and no records show he had mastered Fuzhou dialect within the short period of his stay in Fuzhou, the likelihood of his being one of the authors have been ruled out without doubt. In recent years, the authenticity of Lin Bishan being the other author has also been put into dispute. So far, the true authorship of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' still remains unknown.

Tones, initials, and rimes

Tones

The categories of Fuzhou dialect has remained stable since the time of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn''. In the book title, ''Bāyīn'' denotes eight tones, whose names are: 上平, 上上, 上去, 上入, 下平, 下上, 下去, and 下入. But the sixth tone 下上 is actually identical with the second one 上上 and therefore exists in theory only. In other words, Fuzhou dialect has seven rather than eight tones.

However, due to the lack of phonetic descriptions of the seven tones, the deduction of the tonal values of that time is considered beyond possibility.

Initials

In ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'', the fifteen are organized into a five-character , as follows:
:柳邊求氣低,
:波他曾日時,
:鶯蒙語出非,
:打掌與君知.

In spite of the perceptible confluence of and in modern Fuzhou dialect, the initial structure nowadays is by and large the same as it was in the time of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn''.

Rimes

Likewise, a is built up in ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' by all thirty-three in the then Fuzhou dialect , as follows:

:春花香,
:秋山開,
:嘉賓歡歌須金杯.
:孤燈光輝燒銀缸.
:之東郊,
:過西橋.
:雞聲催初天,
:奇梅歪遮溝.

The past couple of centuries witnessed three major changes in Fuzhou dialect. The first is the phenomenon of , by which the 上去, 上入 and 下去 characters shift its rime to its open form under certain circumstances; the second is the merger of and , as well as and ; and the last is the confusion of the coda and .

Role in early studies of Fuzhou dialect

For centuries, ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' had been utilized by local people as an authoritative reference book of the Foochow pronunciation. Furthermore, it also greatly assisted the earliest Western missionaries in Fuzhou in learning and studying the native language.

M. C. White, a Methodist from the United States, is the first missionary that attempted to ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'', as he specifically pointed out in his work: "... the system of initials and finals used in the 'Book of Eight Tones,' ... would form a complete alphabet for the Fuh Chau dialect. They have been so used by missionaries for writing colloquial phrases, in their private study of the language. Three of the gospels have been written out in this manner by Chinese teachers in the employment of missionaries." M.C. White made a careful analysis of all phonemes and romanized them by using the System of Sir William Jones. The scheme consists of fourteen consonants and nine vowels:

#Consonants
#:ch, ch', h, k, k', l, m, n, ng, p, p', s, t, t'
#Vowels
#:a, e, è, ?, i, o, ò, u, ü

William Jones Phonetic Alphabet had varied over time, and became standardized as Foochow Romanized several decades later.