wo3 zai4 xue2 xi2 pu3tong1hua4
Feb. 26th, 2009 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslJust for the heck of it / because I'm so high on myself, I decided to show up at Level II Mandarin (which one typically qualifies for after 6 90-minute lessons). I found it much more interesting than Level I, and more interactive (only 7 students besides me; rather than 27). It's a kind of firehose that I'm ok with: unlike science classes, I let it slide when I don't understand. I'm quite willing to let my brain get soaked with the new language, without trying too hard / getting caught up when I don't understand what is said. In fact, I've been setting my radio to a Chinese station, despite understanding absolutely nothing.
... and surprisingly the teacher invited me to stay at Level II!! ...as long as I study a bit. She didn't have anything to say about my tones, only smiles and thumbs-up. But this may not mean much.
What I've learned so far, about the phonetics of Mandarin:
* Pinyin does not map very directly to IPA:
"i" can sound like [ɘ] (perhaps in similar contexts as Germanic languages schwa-ize their "e"s) "ni" is [ni], but "shi" is [ʃɘ] or even [ʃɘɹ].
"en" sounds like [ʌ~] (similar to some French sounds)
"z" is [ts]
"r" can be similar to a Czech "ř" but apparently it can disappear into the vowel too (as in Germanic languages)
* I find Wade-Giles much more intuitive, but I think the web disagrees with me (just Google for "zai jian"(Pinyin) vs "tsai chien"(WG) ).
* Mandarin apparently has no voiced consonants other than the nasal ones, although Pinyin might make you think otherwise. (Pinyin uses voiceless consonants to indicate aspiration),
* The realization of the tones is dependent on surrounding tones (any phoneticist would say duh!), but I'm still figuring out how, though mostly unconsciously.
UPDATE:
I understand it when they say Jianada!
... and surprisingly the teacher invited me to stay at Level II!! ...as long as I study a bit. She didn't have anything to say about my tones, only smiles and thumbs-up. But this may not mean much.
What I've learned so far, about the phonetics of Mandarin:
* Pinyin does not map very directly to IPA:
"i" can sound like [ɘ] (perhaps in similar contexts as Germanic languages schwa-ize their "e"s) "ni" is [ni], but "shi" is [ʃɘ] or even [ʃɘɹ].
"en" sounds like [ʌ~] (similar to some French sounds)
"z" is [ts]
"r" can be similar to a Czech "ř" but apparently it can disappear into the vowel too (as in Germanic languages)
* I find Wade-Giles much more intuitive, but I think the web disagrees with me (just Google for "zai jian"(Pinyin) vs "tsai chien"(WG) ).
* Mandarin apparently has no voiced consonants other than the nasal ones, although Pinyin might make you think otherwise. (Pinyin uses voiceless consonants to indicate aspiration),
* The realization of the tones is dependent on surrounding tones (any phoneticist would say duh!), but I'm still figuring out how, though mostly unconsciously.
UPDATE:
I understand it when they say Jianada!