Description
Students of Chinese have repeatedly called attention to the urgent need for a concise English-Chinese dictionary that gives both Mandarin and Cantonese romanizations and pronunciations along with the Chinese characters. Here at last is a dictionary designed to fill that need and to provide, in a book of handy size, a vocabulary of 15,000 words that will be sufficient for everyday conversation.
The dictionary follows an eminently practical four-column arrangement: 1) the English word, 2) the Chinese character or characters with Chinese phonetics, 3) the romanization in Mandarin with tone signs, 4) the romanization in Cantonese with tone signs. Great care has been taken to make the entries as comprehensive as possible and thereby to avoid the time-consuming device of cross references. A quick, simplified method of indicating tones and sounds has also been employed, and comparative tables of systems of romanization have been included.
For the specialized needs of missionaries and military personnel, the dictionary furnishes appendices of religious words and phrases and military terms. Other valuable appendices include a list of simplified Chinese characters, a numerical list of radicals, a chart of Chinese dynasties, and information concerning Chinese
family names and relationships.
