Re: Tone changes in my L1

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> I've been talking to E-Ching over email, and I've discovered that my L1,
> Hokkien, appears to have changed its tones from the original mainland
> Hokkien.
[snip]

> *Note: E-Ching pointed out that the tones 1&8 and tones 3&4 are probably
> different only in the presence of a stop, so perhaps that's why I can't
> hear the difference, since I regard stops as part of the consonantal
> structure rather than the tonal structure.
This is the same for me (though for me, it's 7&4 that sound the same).
However, keeping the clipped/non-clipped distinctions is useful since tone
sandhi rules may be different for your 1 and 3 than they are for 4 and 8
(they are for Taiwanese -- can't speak for Penang Hokkien).

> Any comments?
Well, this certainly explains a lot as to why your perceptions and mine were
so divergent.

Kou