The Romanized Transcription of a Cantonese Dialect Reported by a German Naturalist in 1822 and Its Phonological System

Abstract

In volume 11 of Isis, a well-known periodical of the nineteenth century, in an article the existing literature on linguistics has paid scant attention to are more than 950 Cantonese syllables written in the Roman alphabet by German naturalist Lorenz Oken with the assistance of a Chinese informant named Aho. This paper examines the Romanized transcription for Cantonese pronunciation in this historical text, analyzes the phonological system, and then specifies the basic dialect for it to show that it combines distinguished features found today in only the Dongguan-Bao’an group dialects. The paper concludes Aho’s hometown was Huangpu of Xiangshan County.