Re: THEORY: Mandarin vowel phonology

John Cowan wrote:

>Initial consonants are quite varied, and will not be considered here.
>Final consonants are zero or "n" /n/ or "ng", which can be a full /N/ or
>a nasalization.  They will not be considered here either.  Neither will
>tones.
>There is also syllabic retroflexion, written in Pinyin by adding "-r"
>to the syllable.  This has complex effects which I am ignoring.
Well, you have a problem if you ignore the final nasal, because it changes
the vowel.  For example, <ia> is [ja], but <ian> is [jEn].  <o> is [@]
(actually baby gamma), but <ong> is [UN].  Also, <i> takes on different
allophones depending on the surrounding consonants:

<i> after <j q x y> = [i]
<in ing> = [In] [IN]
<i> after <z c s> = [i-] (centralized i)
<i> after <zh ch sh> = [@`] (vocalic retroflex continuant)
  (*ri is romanized <er>)

It's all confusing, I know.  The old Wade system is a real piece of work.
Honestly, I've had better luck with BoPoMoFo.  That is, if I only knew any
Chinese!

Danny

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