Re: Questions (mostly about phonemics)

--- MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:

> In a message dated 1/20/2007 5:38:39 PM Central
> Standard Time,
> leon_math@YAHOO.COM writes:
>
>
> > 2.2. After repeating the 4th tone over and over, I
> still do not see how it
> > 'falls'. It just seems to be a shorter version of
> the 1st tone, sort of like
> > the difference in the length of the a's in "man"
> and "hat".
>
> I think you need to hear the two tones together
> more, then, to learn how
> different they sound.  They are quite distinct.
>
> stevo
>
Not in actual speech.  Well, not like they are in
isolation, or in a phonetics classroom.  I lived in
Taiwan for three years, and 1st and 4th tones were
definitely the most difficult to tell apart.  Not
difficult to produce on command, but difficult to
remember when looking something up in a dictionary
frex.  And it wasn't just me.  I'd ask Chinese
teachers and they'd often have to think a moment to be
sure they were giving correct info, unlike second and
third tones which always seemed to get an immediate
response (and sometimes the "poor foreigner" look).

Adam

11 Ed ingredjandu ad il bedi, videruns al credura simu al Maja, il seu marri; ad
caderuns ed adoruns sivi, ed abriruns uls sustrus tesorus ed eviruns al jura,
ul crisu djul Livanunu, ed murra.

Machu 2:11