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How to Teach
the Segmental Structure of the Mandarin Syllable
普通话音节音段结构：
普通话音节音段结构：教学方法
Hana Triskova 廖敏
Czech Academy of Sciences, Oriental Institute, Prague
lecture presented at the Institute of Linguistics, CASS, Beijing
October 11, 2010
Introduction
引言
The aim of this lecture is to introduce some of the major conceptual points of my Ph.D.
dissertation “Segmentální struktura čínské slabiky“ [Segmental Structure of Mandarin
Syllable] defended less than two weeks ago (on September 23, 2010) at Charles University,
Prague (Třísková 2010). The dissertation concerns itself with the isolated segmental syllable
of putonghua, that is of Standard Chinese as codified in the P.R.C. (leaving aside the aspect of
tone). It deals with all major topics related to the phonological and phonetic representation of
the isolated Mandarin syllables (such as the zero initial, the phonological status of the alveolopalatal consonants, the phonological analysis and phonetic transcription of the diphthongs and
triphthongs etc.), exploring the ways they are treated in broad literature – both Chinese and
Western. The text is divided into five major parts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
About Chinese
The syllable structure
The initials
The finals
The inventory of segmental syllables
It is a commonplace that the treatments of the Mandarin sound system explain the syllable
structure only after dealing with the initials and the finals. The reason why I adopted a
different order will be explained soon.
The dissertation approaches the subject with a special respect to teaching Chinese as a
second language (TCSL). Out of the range of existing treatments of particular topics the
solutions benefitial for the purposes of TCSL are chosen, while sticking to hanyu pinyin is
recommended. Why is an adequate description of Mandarin syllable of a high importance in
TCSL? Mandarin syllabary comprises of about 400 segmental syllables and 1300 tonic
syllables. Mastering the basic syllabary is a crucial step in mastering the spoken language as a
whole. Poor command of the pronunciation of the isolated syllables at the very beginning of
studies can seriously inflict the student´s spoken language competence in the future.
Consequently the subject is worth a profound study. The text is intended to serve as a guide to
the university teachers dealing with Mandarin phonetics and phonology, as well as to the
compilers of various teaching materials of the university level. The university students of
Sinology may benefit from the text in particular. The phoneticians or general linguists may
consult it as well.
The dissertation introduces some new approaches and methodologies applicable to TCSL. I
will attempt to acquaint you with some of them in today´s presentation.
1
Why hanyu pinyin ?
为什么要
为什么要用汉语拼音?
用汉语拼音
I did not strive to establish any new phonological interpretation of Mandarin syllable different
from hanyu pinyin (although I made certain suggestions in this respect and reviewed
numerous non-pinyin analyses). The reason is this: as mentioned before, the text should be
utilizable for the purposes of teaching / learning Mandarin pronunciation in some way. I
believe that for these purposes the only feasible phonological frame is hanyu pinyin. Why?
First, studying Chinese is much more complex then studying any European language:
– the student has to handle the complicated Chinese script
– Chinese is a tone language – the student has to learn the tones of particular morphemes
Second, to learn Mandarin pronunciation (as well as the pronunciation of any other language)
satisfactorily, at least rough knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is
inevitable. Further it goes without saying that every student has to learn hanyu pinyin
(occassionally abbreviated as PY below).
Let us suppose we have developed a specific system of phonological representation different
from hanyu pinyin; such representation would be presumably based on the IPA. In such case
there would be four forms to be learned for each morpheme. Let us take the monosyllabic
word “electricity“ as an example:
Chinese
character
hanyu pinyin
电
diàn
phonological
representation
in the IPA
/tian/4
pronunciation in
the IPA
[djn]4
That´s quite a lot to learn for a beginner; not to mention a danger of confusing the third form
with the fourth one, as both of them are based on the IPA. Fortunately enough it appears that
we can get along with hanyu pinyin quite well for phonological representation:
Chinese
character
hanyu pinyin
对
diàn
phonological
representation
in hanyu pinyin
/dian/4
pronunciation in
the IPA
[tw]4
The second and the third form is conveniently identical. That´s the way it works for the
majority of syllables. However, there are exceptions. Hanyu pinyin does not have the
properties of a consistent phonological transcription, since it was not developed directly for
the purposes of phonological analysis – it serves many other functions in the society.
Consequently, there exists a number of phonological mismatches between the PY orthography
and the phonological structure. For instance:
2
Chinese
character
hanyu pinyin
对
duì
phonological
representation
in hanyu pinyin
/duei/4
pronunciation in
the IPA
[tw]4
You can see the main vowel /e/ is missing in standard PY notation: duì. The authors of PY
decided to spare one letter here. There are a few other cases of discrepancy between the
standard PY orthography and the phonological structure (liu = /liou/, sun = /suen/, song =
/sung/ etc.), yet these are rather sparse. One can cope with them without much troubles; it just
takes a little explanation.
Sticking to hanyu pinyin is actually a common practice in TCSL. Most of the authors just take
hanyu pinyin as it, presenting the syllables in their standard PY orthography. They do not
offer any underlying phonological representation whatsoever. Out of those authors who do
only few introduce a phonological representation different from hanyu pinyin in their
(text)books, e.g. Chao 1968, Dow 1972, Speshnev 1980, or Lin 2007. In spite of that it is
useful to mention there may be other options next to hanyu pinyin; it should not be taken for
granted.
Syllable structure
音节结构
Nowadays the linguists accept the view that a syllable is not a linear sequence of segments
chained together like the beads on a string, but rather a hierarchically organized structure.
The structure of Mandarin syllable has certain specific features which make it different from
the syllable of many European languages. To make a comparison let us introduce briefly a
syllable of Czech, which is my mother tongue.
– Czech abounds in consonant clusters – both in the onset (zvrat “a turn”) and in the coda
(zábst “to feel cold”).
– Czech has two syllabic consonants: /l/ (plst “felt”) and /r/ (trn “a thorn”)
– Czech does not allow the velar nasal [
] at the end of a phonological syllable. Thus the
Mandarin syllables such as wang or song are difficult to pronounce for the Czech students.
– Czech does not have any indigenous diphthongs except for one: /ou/. Consequently the
Czech students often break the Mandarin syllables containing diphthongs or triphthongs into
two or even three syllables, erroneously making up an extra peak of sonority (they pronounce
mie as mi-je etc.).
– Czech abounds in coda consonants. These are properly articulated in standard
pronunciation, any drastic articulatory weakening not being acceptable. Thus the Czech
students have troubles with the ending element /n/ in the syllables such as man, bian etc.:
they are consistently trying to reach the articulatory target properly, which does not sound
natural (while a “hypercorect” pronunciation with an explosion is overtly wrong). The same
holds for the ending elements /i/, /u/, e.g. in the syllables mai, mao etc.
For interest´s sake let us mention one important difference between a syllable in both
languages concerning the domain of suprasegmental (not segmental) features: unlike
Mandarin which is a stress-timed language, Czech is a syllable-timed language. In standard
pronunciation of Czech nothing as considerable syllable shortening (and segmental reduction)
happens in the unstressed syllables. This fact causes big problems to the Czech students
3
attempting to grasp the natural speech rhythm of Mandarin – they are reluctant to manipulate
with the duration of the syllables freely to express the amount of stress. Note that short and
long vowels are distinctive in Czech (dal “gave”, dál “further”).
To sum up, Mandarin syllable is a rather unusual thing for both the ears and the mouths of the
Czech students, as well for the ears and mouth of students speaking many other mother
tongues. A lot of the perceived “syllable peculiarities” is rooted in a dissimilar syllable
structure.
Two major models of Mandarin Syllable
There are two basic models of Mandarin syllable, that is two basic ways of looking at its
structure (Li 1999:75):
声母—韵母样式
节首—韵基样式
a) Initial-Final model
b) Onset-Rime model
shēngmǔ – yùnmǔ yàngshì
jiéshǒu – yùnjī yàngshì
Let us take a closer look at them.
Initial-Final model 声母—韵母样式
The Initial-Final model is the traditional one. It draws on the traditions of the medieval
Chinese phonology. Hanyu pinyin is based on this model. It works with two major units:
the initial, shēngmǔ 声母, and
the final, yùnmǔ 韵母
In this model the syllable can be portrayed as an upside down tree of the following form (cf.
e.g. Lin 2007; she does not accept it though, choosing the Onset-Rime model instead):
σ syllable 音节
initial 声母
final 韵母
medial 韵头
rime 韵
σ = syllable
C = consonant
G = glide
V = vowel
X = consonat or vowel
nucleus 韵腹
C
s
k
G
w
w
V
a
a
ending 韵尾
X
n
i
4
The same model can be represented in a form of a table (Cheng 1973:11):
tone
final
rime
initial
medial
nucleus
ending
vocalic / consonantal
At the level of segments four components can be found:
C
G
V
X
声母
韵头
韵腹
韵尾
shēngmǔ
yùntóu, 介音 jièyīn
yùnfù
yùnwěi
the initial
the medial
the nucleus, or main vowel, or central
the ending, or terminal
The English translation of the terms shēngmǔ and yùntóu is quite simple – the terms “initial”
(or “the initial consonant”) and “medial” (or “the medial vowel”, glide) are broadly used.
They are specifically employed in the description of the Chinese syllable.
There is a problem with the English translation of remaining two terms, though – yùnfù and
yùnwěi. The common translantions are “the nucleus” for yùnfù and “the ending” for yùnwěi.
Let us take a closer look at them.
• First, the Chinese term yùnfù is understood as a main vowel of the Chinese syllable. It has
to be a vowel, and it has to be a single segment. Its English equivalent “the nucleus” has
certain disadvantages. It is a general term used in a theory of syllable. It is not specifically
related to the Chinese syllable, where yùnfù is understood as a single vowel segment. Yet a
nucleus of a syllable in many languages does not always have to be a vowel – it can be a
syllabic consonant. E.g. in Czech words krk, vlk. Furthermore, if a language has falling
diphthong, such as /ai/, or /au/, they are usually analyzed as belonging to the nucleus of a
syllable. In such case the nucleus contains two segments, not just one. To sum up, the
correspondence between the general term “nucleus”, and the term yùnfù does not work
unreservedly – “nucleus” is clearly a broader term.
• Second, the Chinese term yùnwěi is translated as “the ending” into English. The term
“ending” is o.k.: it does not specify whether the segment is a consonant (C), or a vowel, (V).
This is exactly what is needed – recall that yùnwěi may be either C, or V. Yet it must not be
confused with the term “coda”, yīnjié wěi 音节尾. This, again, is a general term used in a
theory of syllable. A coda is regularly understood as a consonantal segment. Thus, some
authors analyzing Chinese syllable allow only a nasal consonant to show up in a coda slot.
What do they do with the falling diphthongs (for instance /ai/, /ei/) then? They place the
whole diphthong into the nucleus of the syllable (which is a common “Western” solution).
The coda is left empty. Consequently, we cannot posit a correspondence between “the coda”
and yùnwěi, because for some syllables it simply does not work. The unspecific term “ending”
is more advantageous, if we are looking for the most pertinent English translation of yùnwěi.
The Russian phonologist proposed yet another option for the translations of the Chinese terms
yùnfù and yùnwěi:
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централъ, i.e. “the central” (as a noun)
терминалъ, i.e. “the terminal” (as a noun)
yùnfù 韵腹
yùnwěi 韵尾
These terms were coined by a Russian phonologist V. B. Kasevich in the 1960s. They have
couple of advantages: they are clear, unambiguous, and they are language specific: they refer
to the components of a Chinese syllable, not of a general abstract syllable scheme. The term
“the terminal” seems to be quite handy, therefore I use it. The term “central” has a little
disadvantage, though: it might be confused with a position of the tongue during the
articulation of a vowel, as in the terms “central vowel” – “front vowel” – “back vowel”.
Consequently I propose another term to be used for yùnfù: that is “the main vowel”.
Let me remind another useful term: “a subfinal”. It corresponds with yùn 韵, or rime. It was
coined as субфиналъ by another Russian linguist – A. A. Moskalev (also in the 1960s).
Again – it is good that it is language specific, while “rime” is general. I accept it in my
description of Mandarin syllable.
All Russian terms I have mentioned appear for instance in the Russian textbook of Mandarin
phonetics by A. N. Speshnev (published in 1972, 1980 and 2003).
We can review the proposed English names of the components at the level of segments now:
the initial, the medial, the main vowel, and the terminal.
The second model of the Chinese syllable I have mentioned was the Onset-Rime model.
Onset-Rime model 节首—韵基样式
It is much more recent, being accepted by many modern phonologists (e.g. Li 1989, Duanmu
2002, Lin 2007). It is showed in the diagram below:
σ
O = onset
O
R
R = rime
N = nucleus
N
Co
Co = coda
C = consonant
G = glide
V = vowel
C
G
V
X
s
w
a
n
X = consonant or glide
The major difference from the Initial-Final model introduced earlier is the following: in the
the Onset-Rime model the glide belongs to the onset of a syllable. Consequently, there is no
such unit as the final.
You can observe the glide has its own slot within the onset. However, some authors are even
more radical – they argue that the glide should not have a separate slot within the onset
(Duanmu 1990, 2002, 2009):
6
σ
O
R
O = onset (C or CG)
R = rime
N
Co
N = nucleus
Co = coda = X (C or G)
CG
V
X
w
a
n
s
In this view, G still does have a status of a phoneme at the underlying level. However, on the
phonetic level it is only a secondary articulation to C (e.g. [sw]). Thus the underlying
combination of two phonemes CG is pronounced as a single sound. For instance suan is
pronounced as [swan], not as [swan]; the lips are rounded already during the articulation of s.
This is a different situation than in the English word “swan”.
There is one more argument going on: the authors accepting the Onset-Rime model disagree
about the coda part of the Mandarin syllable. This problem was already touched upon earlier.
Let us deal with it in more detail.
σ
σ
O
R
O
N
Co
R
N
C
G
V
C
C
G
V
V
s
w
a
n
s
w
e
i
The ending elements (terminals) of Mandarin are four: the nasal terminals (bíyīn yùnwěi 鼻音
韵尾) /n/, /
/ (as in suan, huang), and the vocalic terminals (yuányīn yùnwěi 元音韵尾) /i/, /u/
(as in sui, hao). The analysis of the nasal terminals /n/, /
/ does not make a problem – they
are basically always placed into a coda slot (see the left scheme). However, there is a
disagreement about the vowel terminals /i/, /u/. Some authors treat them the same way as /n/,
/
/: they put them into a coda slot. This analysis goes along the lines of the Chinese
phonological tradition (equalling the coda with yùnwěi). Other authors place /i/, /u/ into the
nucleus of a syllable (see the right scheme). It follows that if the syllable contains a falling
diphthong, the nucleus has two slots and the coda is empty. This analysis represents the
Western phonological approach. An unreserved correspondence between “the coda” and
yùnwěi does not work here. Also an unreserved correspondence between “the nucleus” and
yùnfù does not work.
7
Which model is better?
哪一个样式好？
哪一个样式好？
Now – which one of these two models, i.e. Initial-Final and Onset-Rime – is more useful for
language teaching? In case we decide to accept hanyu pinyin, we actually have no choice: we
are bound to accept the Initial-Final model. Fortunately there are many good reasons to stick
to the Initial-Final model. Let us try to review them:
The Initial-Final model works with the unit called the final. This unit has many advantages:
It makes possible to accept the rising diphthongs and triphthongs. These concepts are
quite useful – at least in language teaching. On the other hand, the Onset-Rime model can
accept only the falling diphthongs (because the glide belongs to the onset of the syllable, the
components of a rising diphthongs become split apart).
The Initial-Final model makes possible to employ the traditional Chinese terms
shēngmǔ (the initial), yùntóu (the medial), yùnfù (the main vowel), yùnwěi (the terminal).
They are short, unnambiguous, specific for the Chinese syllable, they directly refer to a
particular position of a segment within a syllable, and they do not signal a C or V character of
a segment. On the other hand, the general terms such as “consonant”, “vowel”, “glide”,
“nucleus”, or “coda” may be ambiguous or may cause various other problems in the analysis.
The unit of final represents an important domain for various phonological and phonetic
processes and phenomena which take place within the Chinese syllable. Using this domain,
we can e.g. explain various kinds of assimilation – cf. Cheng 1973:18 and his backness rule:
“A non-high vowel is assimilated in backness to the immediately neighboring segment,
regressive assimilation being dominant over progressive assimilation”. For instance /ua/ [u], /uai/ [uai] (note that some authors do not except the first kind of assimilation). Cheng
has only one exception to this rule: the mid vowel does not exhibit backness harmony with the
nasal endings.
Another phonological phenomenon which can be explained with help of the Initial-Final
model are the phonotactic rules operating within a syllable. Four traditional categories of
finals – sì hū 四 呼 can be employed to map out the combinatorics of the initial consonants
with the finals (let me remind that sì hū categorizing is based on the first element of a final –
be it a main vowel, or a medial glide). For instance the initials z, c, s cannot combine with
qíchǐ hū 齐齿呼 and cuōkǒu hū 撮口呼, while the initials j, q, x cannot combine with
kāikǒu hū 开口呼 and hékǒu hū 合口 呼. In other words, the two consonantal rows are in
complementary distribution. With help of sì hū a basic pattern of the whole Mandarin
syllabary can be outlined. It may be visualised as a table combining the particular initials
with the particular finals. Such useful table of syllables appears in almost every textbook.
(Recall that the Onset-Rime model cannot employ the notion of sì hū, as it does not accept the
unit of final.)
Further, the sì hū categories prove to be quite useful concepts in yet other respects. For
instance they make possible to set up rules for the subtle modifications in pronunciation of
the initial consonants according to the following final. E.g. let us take the aspirated
consonants. Certain interval of friction following the closure release is characteristic for their
articulation. We may observe that the source of this friction (mócā shēngyuán 摩擦声源) is
different for the same consonant according to the hū of the following final. Let us take the
aspirated stops p [ph], t [th], k [kh]: if they are followed by a kāikǒu hū or hékǒu hū final, the
friction has a character of a velar fricative [x] (shégēn cāyīn 舌根擦音), of a uvular
fricative [], or of a glottal fricative [h] (hóu cāyīn 喉擦音). The examples are pà 怕 “to
8
fear”, téng 疼 “to hurt”, tóu 头 “head”, kǔ 苦 “bitter”. However, if p, t are followed by a qíchǐ
hū final, the source of the aspiration friction moves to the front, towards the place of
articulation of the vowel /i/ (it may be also accompanied by the friction at the very place of
articulation of the consonant). It can remind of the palatal fricative [] (ying´e cāyīn 硬腭擦
音), for instance in pí 皮 “skin”, or tiě 铁 “iron”.
The main point I want to make is this: many phonologists nowadays prefer the Onset-Rime
model. But in language teaching the hanyu pinyin (based on the traditional Inital-Final model
and the traditional syllable components) is in use all along. If one possibly decides to give this
type of analysis away in TCSL, such decision might have various negative consequences
(Třísková 2008:537,540). In fact, there is not any real “danger” to fight against, as there are
very few authors that suggest it – I know about the only one example: a textbook “The Sounds
of Chinese” for the advanced students by Yen-hwei Lin 2007 (Lin uses the Onset-Rime
model). Still I wanted to make this point clear, as hanyu pinyin is often taken as “gospel truth”
with no alternatives.
When to present the model of the syllable?
什么时候应该介绍
什么时候应该介绍音节结构
介绍音节结构？
音节结构？
Now let us find out at which point of the curriculum is appropriate to introduce the structure
of the Mandarin syllable to the students. The common practice in various treatments of the
putonghua sound system (be it of Chinese or Western provenance, be it a textbook or not) is
following. The introductory part of the book may chiefly contain a brief description of the
speech organs and the production of speech sounds, an introduction to hanyu pinyin, and an
overview of the putonghua segmental inventory (let me remind here that listing the vowel
and consonat phonemes of a language is commonly the first step taken in the description of
languages such as the European languages English, French, German, Czech etc.). After the
introductory parts the authors usually jump right into the survey of initials, finals and tones. If
you look for the information about the syllable structure, usually you can find it only later in
the book.
Let me name some foreign textbooks which adopt this arrangement: Dow 1972, Huang 1981,
Ma 1999, Chin 2006, Lin 2007. One of the exceptions is a Russian textbook Speshnev 1972,
which was already mentioned: the author introduces a syllable scheme at the very beginning
(note that his treatment of finals is based on the interesting concept of Dragunov &
Dragunova 1955). The same holds for the textbooks published in the P.R.C. Let me give an
example: the organization of chapters in several textbooks:
...Initials – Finals – Syllable – Tones... (Wu 1992)
...Initials – Finals – Tones – Syllable... (Huang & Liao 2002, Wang et al. 2002, Cao 2002)
...Initials – Finals – Tones – Modifications of sounds – Syllable... (Ma 2004)
As you can see, the explanation of the syllable structure and its components comes only later.
Out of many Chinese textbooks I have seen the only one which puts the chapter about syllable
structure before the chapters dealing with the initials and finals:
... Vowels – Consonants – Syllable – Initials – Finals – Tones... (Lin & Wang 2003)
Yet in the majority of textbooks the student learns about the inner structure of the finals only
after learning and exercising the whole inventory of syllables. Furthermore, the chapter
Syllable usually does not offer a lucid hierarchical scheme of the syllable structure. There is
usually some sort of a structured table (Wu 1992:128, Huang & Liao 2002:90, Cao 2002:103),
or even just a a verbal explanation. We can conclude that the Chinese textbooks do employ
9
traditional concepts and a traditional view of a syllable, they do employ the components of
initial, final etc., but – maybe surprisingly – the syllable structure is not the point of
departure for them. Numerous important notions and concepts tend to be taken for granted,
being employed sooner than explained (if they are explained at all).
Are there any reasons for introducting the syllable structure much earlier? In my view there
are. If a student has such preliminary knowledge, he/she is able to analyze correctly the final
of each newly acquired syllable and consequently make important judgements about its
pronunciation (the initals do not pose any “structural” problem, as they are single segments
with a fixed position). Namely it is important to view the particular segments in a tight
connection with their function within the final. The student should e.g. know that in the
syllable kuai the letter “u” represents a medial, while the letter “i” represents a terminal. What
is such knowledge good for? The function of a segment within the syllable fundamentally
predetermines its pronunciation (see below). For instance the articulation of all four
terminals is lax and frequently fails to reach the articulatory target: the terminal “i” in mai is
pronounced as [] or even [e]. On the other hand the medial “i” in mie can be hardly
pronounced this way: it sounds as [j] instead. Let us go to more detail now.
The components of a Chinese syllable at the level of segments
音节音段
音节音段成分
音段成分
There are two basic options for interpreting the components of the Mandarin syllable at the
level of segments. They may be viewed:
– Either as the consonant and vowel phonemes; this means that the description of the
Mandarin syllable has to begin with listing the segmental inventory.
– Or as the traditional elements shēngmǔ, yùntóu, yùnfù, yùnwěi, which means that the
description of the Mandarin syllable has to begin with explaining the syllable structure.
The first approach leads to viewing the segments composing a syllable as a sequence of hanyu
pinyin letters, or – to put it in another way – as “beads on a string”. The particular beads can
be either vowels (V; let us mark them by a black dot ●), or consonants (C; let us mark them
by an empty circle ○). For instance:
/kuan/1 = ○●●○, /kuai/1 = ○●●●
It seems that what matters in the first place is a consonantal or vocalic character of a
particular segment (represented by this or that letter). All black dots look the same, all white
circles look the same. Their position (function) within the whole arrangement may be
examined only next, if at all. However, the reality is more complicated than the standard PY
orthography (or the orthography of any language) suggests. The information about the
function of a segment within the syllable is actually as essential as the information about its C
or V character. Let us give a concrete example:
As mentioned before, Mandarin has four terminals, or ending elements: two nasal – /n/, /
/,
and two vocalic – /i/, /u/. The nasal ending /n/, as in kān 刊, and the vocalic ending /i/, as in
kāi 开, have quite a lot in common phonetically, regardless of the fact that /n/ is a consonant
(○) and /i/ is a vowel (●). Both are lax, their articulation often does not reach the target, and
both can possibly disappear completely in fast casual speech. Let us review their properties:
10
– In kāi the high vowel /i/ is more or less centralized to []; it may be sometimes pronounced
as close-mid [e]; the whole diphthong /ai/ can even become a monophthong in fast casual
speech if unstressed.
– In kān the closure (bìsè 闭塞) for the terminal /n/ is very often incomplete; even if it is
complete, it is never followed by an explosion (pòliè 破裂). The terminal can be drastically
reduced: it may be realized only as a nasalisation of a preceding vowel /k han/ [kha].
Obviously the consonantal character of the terminal /n/ is severly eroded. Shi Xiangdong
2004:218 writes about it: 早已受到严重的侵蚀.
In both cases, the syllable as a whole can be prolonged if it bears stress, the ending being
prolonged adequately, too. The roots of the similar features of the /i/ and /n/ described
above are related to the fact they share the same function in the syllable: both function as a
yùnwèi, terminal.
On the other hand, the same segmental phoneme may have very different phonetic features –
depending on the position within the syllable. Let us compare the terminal /i/ and the medial
/i/ to give an example:
– The terminal /i/ (as in kāi 开) has the features described before: it is lax, imperfectly
articulated, not reaching the articulatory target. It may even disappear. It can be rather long in
the stressed syllables.
– On the other hand, the articulation of the medial /i/ (as in miè 灭) more or less reaches the
position of the cardinal [i], the space between the tongue and the hard palate being quite
narrow. The tongue immediately leaves the position, making the sound very short. As a
whole, the sound has a character of an approximant (tōngyīn 通 音 ) [j]. Note that the
approximants are sounds which are considered to be consonants, not vowels.
It works in a similar way e.g. with the initial /n/, as in nào 闹, and the terminal /n/, as in bàn
办. Their features are quite different, since they show up in a different position within the
syllable.
If the student gets no such preliminary structural information, he/she tends to apprehend the
Chinese syllable mainly as a sequence of hanyu pinyin letters (i.e. of vowel and consonant
phonemes). Yet as we saw, this “orthographic image” is able to give only limited cues to
correct pronunciation. The students often go wrong while reading the PY notation. They
erroneously assume that, for instance, the letter „i“ in mi, mie, mai is pronounced more or less
the same. Another mistake arising from such assumptions is breaking one syllable in two,
creating one more syllabic peak: one can for instance hear: mi-je, ma-ji (or even two more
peaks: mi-ja-o).
What I am trying to say is this: the students learning a foreign language which uses the Latin
script often tend to assume wrongly that the sounds written by the same letter also sound
moreless similar. This intuitive assumption is of course wrong. Let´s take the letter “a” in
English words all, bat, ate, arrive. Its pronunciation is completely different in all cases. It
works in a similar way in any written language using a phonetic script – the script can never
mirror the phonetic reality faithfully. Hanyu pinyin (as a Romanization writing system) is no
exception. Its orthography works with the vowel and consonant letters, representing (more or
less pertinently) the vowel and consonant phonemes. Yet it does not reflect the “whole truth”.
The phonetic information offered by standard PY orthography may be considerably amplified
if supplemented with the information about the syllable structure.
11
Different sort of “emes”
另外一种“
另外一种“位”
We can think of establishing phonological elements different from the vowel and consonant
phonemes; cf. chapter 2.4.3 in my dissertation (Třísková 2010) – I was inspired by the article
You Rujie et al. 1980 where the following phonological elements are proposed:
– shēngwèi 声位
– yùnwèi 韵位
– diàowèi 调位
can be translated as “the initialemes”
can be translated as “the finalems”
can be translated as “the tonemes”
I tried to develop this concept a step further, suggesting the phonological analysis based on
the traditional Chinese concepts of the initial, medial, main vowel (“the central“) and
terminal. The following phonological elements, based primarilly on the function of a
segment within the syllable, can be posited:
“the initialemes”
“the medialemes”
“the centralemes”
“the terminalemes”
– 声母位 shēngmǔ wèi
– 韵头位 yùntóu wèi
– 韵腹位 yùnfù wèi
– 韵尾位 yùnwěi wèi
/p/, /ph/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /nI/, /l/ etc.
/iM/, /uM/, /yM/
/a/, //, /iC/, /uC/, /yC/, /ï/, //
/iT/, /uT/, /nT/, /
/
The segments which can occur in several position are marked by an index letter: namely I (an
initial), M (a medial), C (a central) or T (a terminal).
Let me give an example. The following table offers the analysis of the high front unrounded
vowel: it compares the standard solution with the interpretation proposed above:
韵头 (the medial) i
/i/
standard analysis
suggested analysis
韵头位
[j]
/iM/ [j]
韵腹 (the central) i
/i/
韵尾 (the terminal) i
[i]
韵腹位 /iC/ [i]
/i/ []
韵尾位
/iT/ []
The standard analysis is rather economical: there is a single phoneme /i/ with three allophones
[j], [i], []. On the other hand the suggested analysis has also an advantage: we can get rid of
the allophonic variations of segments which are conditioned by the position within a
syllable. There are three distinct phonological elements, each with a single allophone:
yùntóu wèi (a medialeme) /iM/ with a single allophone [j]
yùnfù wèi (a centraleme) /iC/ with a single allophone [i]
yùnwěi wèi (a terminaleme) /iT/ with a single allophone []
The allophonic variations within a final which are left to solve are, of course, those caused by
assimilation (tónghuà 同化), cf. man [man] vs. mang [m]. These do not concern us now,
though.
Of course the proposed model is difficult to combine with hanyu pinyin, which works with
standard vowel and consonant phonemes. However, it might inspire a new insight into the
complexity of Mandarin syllable, as it approaches the segments from a different angle – that
is from the angle of their function within a syllable.
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Conclusion
结论
Let me sum up now. The treatments of the Mandarin sound system commonly depart from the
inventory of vowel and consonant phonemes. The syllable is chiefly presented as a string of
segments arranged according to a set of phonotactic rules (these rules do not have to be
explicitly mentioned, though). The syllable structure is usually explained rather late and
briefly. The traditional components (initial shēngmǔ – medial yùntóu – main vowel yùnfù –
terminal yùnwěi), although close at hand, are not systematically employed. Yet the knowledge
of the syllable structure may prove to be a powerful instrument in teaching Mandarin
pronunciation. I propose the following approach:
First, the point of departure should be the explanation of the hierarchical syllable structure.
Second, at the level of segments the major emphasis should be put on the traditional
components of a syllable, defined by their function / position within the syllable structure: that
is the initial, the medial, the central, and the terminal. The consonantal or vocalic status of
a segment should not be taken as of an absolute importance.
The third step is listing the inventories of particular segments for each position. The
process of constructing the Mandarin syllable than takes choosing the particular phonemes
from the inventories and inserting them into the four positions (while only the third
component is obligatory – the main vowel).
The fourth step is explaining the phonetic properties of the initial, the medial, the main
vowel, and the terminal.
The next step is giving an overview of the segments able to appear in more positions than one
(i.e. /n/, /i/, /u/, /ü/). The account of the different phonetic properties of one and the same
phoneme occurring in different positions should follow (e.g. the differences in pronunciation
of /i/ in the syllables mie, mi, mai).
This methodological approach to teaching Mandarin pronunciation is presumably able to
bring good results in teaching the speakers of languages with a very different syllable
structure, the Western students in particular. The structural knowledge may save the student
lots of efforts: it helps to make generalizations about pronunciation of Mandarin syllables –
instead of learning each new syllable as an entirely novel phonetic entity lacking inner logic.
Such toil can be compared to the attempts to copy the complex Chinese characters lacking the
knowledge of their inner composition and the basic strokes. It goes without saying that
nobody without a preliminary structural instruction can write a character correctly, let alone
finely. If we spend lots of time to teach the inner structure of Chinese characters, their basic
strokes and the radicals to the students, why don´t we spend some time to teach the inner
structure of the Mandarin syllable? It may prove to be equally benefitial. This assumption has
to be profoundly tested in classroom teaching, though.
Thank you for your attention
13
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