Williams' later Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1874) was an
attempt to combine and synthesize the achievements of Western lexicography in
China, in particular the method of dialect comparison (a field in which 'the
natives have done nothing'), while making extensive use of Chinese reference
works and traditional lexicographic sources. Thus Williams describes the Wufang
Yuanyin or 'Original Sounds of the Five Regions' (1700) as 'the
groundwork of the present dictionary'. The Syllabic Dictionary represents
an ambitious attempt to compress into one work as far as possible all the
information 'to satisfy all the needs of a foreigner', including information
about 'general and vernacular' readings of characters, aspects of the etymology
and history of characters and variant 'authorized and colloquial' meanings.
Subsequently, additional indices were produced such as John C. Gibson's A
Swatow Index to the Syllabic Dictionary of Chinese by S. Wells Williams and
to the Dictionary of the Vernacular of Amoy by Carstairs Douglas (1886)
and James Acheson's An Index to Dr. Williams' 'Syllabic Dictionary of the
Chinese Language', Arranged According to Sir Thomas Wade's System of Orthography (1879).
