 鲜花( 0)  鸡蛋( 0)
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Traditional Chinese phonology divides the syllable into an Initial and Final. The! s+ Q9 Z d3 s" O. B! i
Initial is the way a syllable begins, usually with a consonant. The Final is the
1 y- S+ D' X! Nsyllable minus the Initial. For example, in ta, chi, jin, chuang, the Finals are a, i, in,5 i4 d" s! P0 ]: O3 f7 q. W! S) n' S
and uang, respectively. The longest form of a Final consists of three parts: a medial; g* R. w; t- Q- M! R
(or: semivowel), a main vowel (or: head vowel), and an ending (or, in the case of5 H" X/ e9 R {3 X O j, [
retroflex suffixes, sometimes two endings, as in the er-sound ming’er ‘tomorrow’).
( [1 O* ^: ]9 sA Final in Mandarin comprises one of four medials: º (empty), /i/, /u/, or /iu/ (=
7 [* V: k) S. j. q[y], one of three vowels: /a/, /e/, or /o/, and one of six endings: º, -i, -u, -n, -N, and [”]
, Q! {# Z* J6 E0 H# R- N8 b$ q(phonetically -r).13 Actually, there are only 40 different Finals (if Finals involving' ]( U0 t/ O) e+ u B$ @5 w
retroflex suffixes are not counted). As a result of these very severe restrictions on) \# \" X4 U' U
possible syllables in Mandarin, no obstruent clusters are possible in the onset8 @* L5 G8 q% g0 \6 z
(Initial) nor in the coda (Final). Onset clusters can maximally have a length of two
/ {+ i5 e# E; qsegments, in which case the consonant closest to the vocalic nucleus must be a
& e$ A2 j" g0 E osemivowel. Coda clusters are disallowed; in fact, syllables are generally open, i.e.' f4 e/ W" Q) o) j; F* `# ?9 h8 ]
end with a vowel. The only possible coda consonants are the nasals /n/ and /N/. In
9 @7 M V& c* P8 o1 ocompound vowels with /a, e, o/ as the first segment and /i, u/ as the second element, p, k- }. S5 Q7 f& U) w1 }
the latter are phonetically realised as semivowels, creating a diphthong. .. bla...bla... bla..% a2 h. L* m# \" n% l( ]+ A; Z
2 G* ]# ~( [/ o" r* ](source: Wang Hongyan, year unkown, English as a lingua franca:Mutual intelligibility of Chinese, Dutch)
) q1 n+ W5 ?- T3 Yand American speakers of English, |
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