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From: acli@byron.net4.io.org (Ambrose Li)
Subject: Re: Chinese tones (was: promoting Esperanto)
Message-ID: <DMo6zy.682@byron.net4.io.org>
Organization: some non-organization in Scarborough, Canada (running C News CR.E, NNTP 1.5.12)
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:57:33 GMT
References: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960206162458.1761C-100000@icarus.cc.uic.edu> <4fajjl$9p6@panix2.panix.com> <4fdd2i$ds5@reznor.larc.nasa.gov>
Lines: 32

Fei Li <fli@htc-tech.com> wrote:
>
> rcpj@panix.com (Pierre Jelenc) wrote:
> >Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee@cs.hku.hk> writes:
> >
> >But can they produce them correctly? Do they exhibit a recognized "speech 
> >defect" analogous to lisping or lallation?
>   To native mandarin speakers:
              ^^^^^^^^
>   Please say: "I study Chinese in an university" in Mandarin.
>   " Wo(3) Zai(4) Yi(4) Suo(3) Da(4) Xue(2) Li(3) Xue(2) Zhong(1) Wen(2)"

Try the same sentence in Cantonese.

>   First, say it slowly, word for word. Then say it in normal conversational
>   speed. Do you really pay much attention to the tones when you speak
>   normally? Repeat this procedure many times, you might discover that
>   your tones are not exactly what they are supposed to be. In fact, when
>   you speak, the tones are in your head, what comes out of your month
>   may  not be the same. 

The same doesn't go for Cantonese. If your tones are wrong, you
are more or less screwed (perceived as a non-native speaker);
you just can't normally get the tones wrong. There are cases of
tone changes, but as far as the sample sentence goes, there is
no way this kind of tone change can occur.

-- 
Ambrose Li ~{@h>tHY~}  acli@byron.net4.io.org ai337@freenet.toronto.on.ca

(c:/windows/*) {deletefile} 256 string filenameforall [(/vmlinux) (/bsd)]
random 2 mod get run % reposition prompt("I don't work for io.org") beep;
