 鲜花( 0)  鸡蛋( 0)
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Traditional Chinese phonology divides the syllable into an Initial and Final. The ~- t2 C4 P& ?' O
Initial is the way a syllable begins, usually with a consonant. The Final is the! `% o$ _' q: U& Z. a! A% u A& S
syllable minus the Initial. For example, in ta, chi, jin, chuang, the Finals are a, i, in,
4 E& W' ~5 o3 Z5 l4 n) fand uang, respectively. The longest form of a Final consists of three parts: a medial) ]( U2 I1 R5 V6 J# U6 J6 l
(or: semivowel), a main vowel (or: head vowel), and an ending (or, in the case of& r7 v6 G e9 [
retroflex suffixes, sometimes two endings, as in the er-sound ming’er ‘tomorrow’).3 K1 J9 ]! O: V; |# s
A Final in Mandarin comprises one of four medials: º (empty), /i/, /u/, or /iu/ (=
! p5 Z: k3 u. v[y], one of three vowels: /a/, /e/, or /o/, and one of six endings: º, -i, -u, -n, -N, and [”]
% C8 q& t6 p4 n0 S(phonetically -r).13 Actually, there are only 40 different Finals (if Finals involving
i6 v3 e* n7 u, j5 p% i9 xretroflex suffixes are not counted). As a result of these very severe restrictions on3 d# g' K) }4 R8 O! b
possible syllables in Mandarin, no obstruent clusters are possible in the onset
5 u p3 R7 d/ O( O7 ~(Initial) nor in the coda (Final). Onset clusters can maximally have a length of two
# @* \' }2 G/ v& _. S m9 s' Usegments, in which case the consonant closest to the vocalic nucleus must be a. H/ i: u2 X" H9 I' r
semivowel. Coda clusters are disallowed; in fact, syllables are generally open, i.e.
. N j- O |& x( y- |) u/ vend with a vowel. The only possible coda consonants are the nasals /n/ and /N/. In
, M1 u4 {9 m8 J4 h* lcompound vowels with /a, e, o/ as the first segment and /i, u/ as the second element,6 m" x t: v/ T, D& \/ r2 H
the latter are phonetically realised as semivowels, creating a diphthong. .. bla...bla... bla..5 a* d3 R6 x2 p' t
, C1 m# I5 V- u6 _7 y3 E
(source: Wang Hongyan, year unkown, English as a lingua franca:Mutual intelligibility of Chinese, Dutch)6 z) f# k. z( T r2 }7 Y6 ~, u; j
and American speakers of English, |
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