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Re: Chinese-based IAL?

From:Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Date:Thursday, February 22, 2001, 2:58
On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 23:02:11 +0100, Jörg Rhiemeier
<joerg.rhiemeier@...> wrote:

>I see quite a problem with using Chinese word roots in an IAL. > >The vast majority of Chinese roots is monosyllabic, extensively relying >on tones to distinguish meaning. But meaning-relevant tones (or >meaning-relevant suprasegmentals in general) are something I wouldn't >touch with a 10-feet pole when I was to design an IAL as language >learners tend to have difficulties getting them right.
From what I've seen, Mandarin Chinese uses a lot of two-syllable words. Sure, there are tons of words pronounced /shu/ (e.g.) in various tones, but not very many /laoshu/. Many of the Chinese words that have been borrowed into Japanese are bisyllabic: /qianbi/ (empitsu), /dongwu/ (doubutsu), /dianhua/ (denwa), and /riben/ (Nihon/Nippon) for example. Certainly there are issues with borrowing Chinese words. If you want to borrow /huayuan/ ("garden"), for instance, you first need to figure out what to do with the "yu" sound. The various /i/ vowel sounds are also troublesome, as are the distinctions between retroflex and post-alveolar sounds. But there are plenty of suitable Chinese words even when the distinctions between tones are ignored. -- languages of Azir------> ---<http://www.io.com/~hmiller/lang/index.html>--- hmiller (Herman Miller) "If all Printers were determin'd not to print any @io.com email password: thing till they were sure it would offend no body, \ "Subject: teamouse" / there would be very little printed." -Ben Franklin