[COMPLETE] English and Cantonese Dictionary, by John Chalmers - availle

[silverquill]

This is most interesting!

I've marked this PL OK.

Just one suggestion -- Saying "Section Zero" sound a bit odd, so we usually say something like, "Preface of" instead. This is a little different since there is more. You could use something like, "Prefaces, notes an pronunciation Guide." Or, just "Front Matter of" And, we usually don't read all of the title page and so forth that goes before the preface. You certainly may include it if you wish -- your solo! And, you can keep "Section Zero" as well, This just gives you an alternative.

Everything else is perfectly fine.

Question: You mentioned something about revising some of the sections already recorded.
Should I continue my PL where I left off, or should I wait?

Just let me know and I'll continue on.

[DavidReader]

Hi Larry,
Yes, I agree with you that saying "Section Zero" is a bit odd, but as all the rest are divided into "sections", I just want it to be all consistent. If you think it is better to be changed, then I will certainly comply; otherwise, I will not like to bother you with re-PLing it further. As for my revisions of the uploaded clips, I think you can ignore what I was doing, and do your PLing work in whatever pace that fits you.
Thanks again.

[silverquill]

Sounds good to me!
So, I'll press forward.

[DavidReader]

Hi Larry,
BTW, see if you can solve this Audacity bug for me:
I am not sure which combination of keystrokes that I have inadvertently pressed, the silent portions of the waveform line suddenly become thickened, so much so that the minute wriggles of background noise become mostly obliterated. As yet, not able to find any solution after some Google searches.
Any help?

[Availle]

Sounds like you've zoomed into the waveform?

On the left side, where the +1 / -1 window is, right click on the center line until the window shows +1 / -1 again (or whatever you had before).

[DavidReader]

Hi Ava,
Yes, it works, but a bit erratically (maybe there is some nuances of the technique that elude me); sometimes the clicking of "+" or "-" will only result in the zooming in or out of the entire waveform, but not the thickness of the silent line, but occasionally, I can get the desired result.
Anyway, I now know where to do the tinkering, thanks.

[silverquill]

Section 10 is PL OK.

[DavidReader]

Hi Larry,
I have just uploaded the very last section of the whole work. What a relief! In the coming days, I will be reviewing what I have done, and post here some concluding remarks on some issues that I have encountered during the recording, from which a summary may hopefully be extracted at the end as a note to this project.
Once again, I have to thank you for your generosity of volunteering to PL for me, without which this project may not be able to get off the ground in the first place.

[Availle]

Impressive! Absolutely impressive!

Well done David!

[silverquill]

Impressive, indeed!!

Well, I'll have to keep the headphones on so we can give it to the public.
But, really, your recordings are flawless.
Through 14 all PL OK.

[DavidReader]

My interest in embarking on this project is mainly due to the apparent scantiness of similar work concerning the Cantonese language and the fact that Cantonese happens to be my native tongue, so as to enable me to contribute to a rather niche addition to the Librivox corpus of recordings. I hope that the recording of this work may also introduce to English-speaking people who are curious as to how Cantonese sounds for synonymous English words.

The reason I choose a dictionary is that, unlike ordinary books of fiction or non-fiction, it provides a more comprehensive and systematic manner to treat the subject, though in a more dry and tedious manner. With the limitation of materials in the public domain, I think the availability of similar works to allow such treatment can be counted with the fingers of one hand, so that this work provides a rare opportunity for this purpose. But shortly after I begin to proceed on the text, I realize that my original aim must be substantially modified. The compiler of the dictionary was not a native Cantonese speaker but was instead a Scottish missionary; his knowledge on the Chinese language in general, and on the Cantonese dialect in particular was not expected to be intimate and complete. This fact was borne out as I am progressing through the work itself. Thus, for those who are totally ignorant of Cantonese, they will likely be led astray if he or she were to rely on this work as a reference to learn the language correctly. To me as a native Cantonese speaker, the problems found in this work are numerous, some blatant and some subtle. The scope of this issue is quite impossible for me to describe them fully here (due to the great amount of effort needed as well as my insufficient knowledge), I will nevertheless try to describe some major problems that I think are important for future listeners (if there is any) to know. Some of the problems might not even be the faults of Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Dealy; the long lapse of years that had passed when this work was published and the time when Cantonese is currently use, means that the usage and/or pronunciation of some of the words might have changed. Also, I suspect that many of the expressions incorporated into the dictionary may not be the ‘orthodox’ Cantonese spoken in the City of Canton, but expressions spoken by people from various districts in the Kwangtung province or beyond, who happened to have migrated into Hong Kong, such as the Hakka and Tanka people, etc., as I find many strange expressions that are rather unfamiliar. Therefore, it seems that this work may have a more historical and/or cultural significance than a helpful learning reference to the language.

My approach to the reading of this text, despite of what I have described above, is to try as much as possible to stick to what was depicted by the compilers. This is because, in general, as a Librivox reader, one should respect what was depicted in its original text (so-called warts and all), and avoid altering it according to the whims of different readers. However, I was much tempted to deviate from what was indicated in some instances as I feel them to be most probably genuine mistakes. On other occasions, especially in regard to the different tones that a Cantonese word should be read, I might inadvertently deviate from what was denoted to be read and slip into reading them as I used to, despite the commitment stated previously. Therefore, I feel this tension pulling from opposite directions, and I find myself at the end stranded in the middle of the sea between these two shores (as a Chinese idiom goes), and the final product is a dismal hotchpotch of (mine and the compilers’) errors and my half-measured attempt in trying to reconcile them. Fortunately, as a small consolation, I also discover specks of gold as I am sorting out this mass of material, such as: previously unrealized provenance of terms that I have been using daily, forgotten idioms and (now very politically-incorrect) double entendres. Though they are few and far between, their occasional encounters are sometimes worth the whole tedious endeavor.

Though there is no obligation for me as a reader to do so, I feel something was amiss if I did not say a bit about the problems that I encountered. I am going to discuss them in a few coming posts in this forum, and I hope that a summary may be extracted at the end as an appending note to this to-be-published recording.

[Availle]

Larry,

how's it going with this one?

I know this is not the most exciting project to listen to even if you do speak the language (sorry David, probably not to record either ) but it would be really great if we could wrap this up and get this into the catalog by the end of the year.
Do you think this would be feasible?

[silverquill]

Larry,

how's it going with this one?

I know this is not the most exciting project to listen to even if you do speak the language (sorry David, probably not to record either ) but it would be really great if we could wrap this up and get this into the catalog by the end of the year.
Do you think this would be feasible?

Oh, I would sure like to, and I do keep this in front of me.
This is just such a busy time for me-- s lot of extra hours at work and more family obligations, so my LV time is really curtailed. Just a couple more weeks, but realistically, I won't get this finished in the 3 weeks remaining.

[DavidReader]

Hi Ava and Larry,
Though I would like to see my project published soon, I don't prefer things to be rushed. How about setting a more realistic target date by the end of March next year?

[silverquill]

Hi Ava and Larry,
Though I would like to see my project published soon, I don't prefer things to be rushed. How about setting a more realistic target date by the end of March next year?

Oh, I think I can do better than that.
Surely by the end of next month.
I'll set a regular schedule to set an easy pace to meet that or sooner.