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four tones. Because there were more characters of the 'level tone' (?? ), they occupied two (? 'fascicle', 'scroll' or 'volume'), while the other three tones filled one volume each. The last category or 'entering tone' (?? ) consisted of words ending in stops -p, -t or -k, corresponding to words ending in nasals -m, -n and -ng in the other three tones. Today, these final stops are generally preserved in southern varieties of Chinese,

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