馬偕所編的English Romanized Dictionary of the Formosan Vernacular (《中西字典》)是最早用「臺灣語」做為書名的閩南語字典（參見賴永祥2001：67以及洪惟仁1996：304）。本文先概括的介紹這本辭書的音系，並將重要的相關例字、詞彙和其他辭書做比較，《中西字典》的主體音系是廈門音，而廈門音是當時編纂閩南話辭書所遵循的主體音系。

The English Romanized Dictionary of the Formosan Vernacular, edited by George Leslie Mackay (1891), was the first dictionary which adopted “Formosan vernacular” in its title. The current article aims to illustrate the sound system and the related issues witnessed in this dictionary. First I will provide a general description of the phonology it used. Then I will compare the example words and lexicon seen in this dictionary with those in others. The dictionary adopted the Amoy vernacular as its primary sound system, demonstrating a common practice for the compilation and editing of Southern Min Dialect dictionaries at that time.

音系; 廈門音; 閩南話辭書

Linguistic style; Phonology; Rhyme; News headline