Re: religion, etc
| From: | Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, September 26, 2001, 16:36 |
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On Sat, 22 Sep 2001 05:22:36 -0400, Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>
wrote:
>On a related note, how widespread is the pronunciation of the "a" in words
>like "san" (three) as /ae/ (a-e ligature) as in American English "cat"?
One
>of teachers consistantly pronounces /ae/ before final "n".
All books on Putonghua that I've read say that the vowel in -an is fronted
as compared to simple -a or, say, -ang. Interestingly, this fronted
vowel quality seems to be the only feature that differentiates -anr = -air
from -ar (with added rhotic suffix).
The vowel in -ian is actually [E] (some romanizations render this rhyme
as -ien). And historical -iai has merged with -ie (IIRC).
Basilius