Re: Learning a language

From: Ruud Harmsen (realemailseesite01_at_rudhar.com)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 17:24:22 +0200

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 14:24:44 GMT: "Rex F. May" <rex.may@comcast.net>: in
sci.lang:

>Speaking of that, I'm curious. Pinyin 'i' sounds totally different in
>different contexts. xi v. shi.

After r, sh, ch, s, z, and c Pinyin 'i' is not a vowel, but a voiced
continuation of the previous consonant. So si sounds like [sz:], ci
like [tshz:], shi [SZ:], zi [tsz:], zhi [tSZ:], chi [tShZ:] etc.
I've heard native speakers vehemently deny it, but to me it is obvious
when listening to the samples. I got this idea from an explanation of
PinYin (there's a link somewhere on my site), and then "the quarter
fell". (Is that an expression? It is in Dutch).

And from what I hear in my local Chinese restaurant, it looks like
Cantonese has something similar too. 

-- 
Ruud Harmsen <rha@rudhar.com> - http://rudhar.com

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