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Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc.

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Monday, August 25, 2008, 19:16
On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:38 PM, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> wrote:
> Yes, exactly. When I said /E/ doesn't occur before /n/ and tends > in borrowings to turn into /i/, I didn't mean that in native words it > diphthongizes (or maybe triphthongizes) like /&/ before /n/, I meant > it's realized as [I]; sorry I wasn't clear.
Ah, OK. I misunderstood. As I said, while I'm familiar with the phenomenon, it's not part of my 'lect. But I didn't realize it was exhaustive and that all /En/s came out as /In/s. I could have sworn the usual pronunciation in school was "[pIn] and [pEnsIl]", not "[pIn] and [pInsIl]". Nor do I recall female chickens being called [hIn]s. But I guess that could have been phonemic normalization at work in my brain. -- Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>