Re: yet another new lang sketch (sorry) [ + pitch-stress, + Welsh]
| From: | Matt Pearson <jmpearson@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, November 2, 1999, 0:48 |
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Nik Taylor wrote:
>John Cowan wrote:
>> Too strong. Mandarin has many toneless syllables, especially
>> grammatical particles (their pitch is determined in a complex way
>> by the tones of surrounding syllables).
>
>Ah, so these "toneless" syllables carry a tone determined solely by
>their environment? Never knew that. Still, are there any lexical items
>that are toneless?
I believe that some lexical roots lose their inherent tone when they
appear in compounds, but I could be wrong. It's been a few years
since I studied Mandarin...
Matt.