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Re: THEORY: Sandhi

From:Cheng Zhong Su <suchengzhong@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 4, 2001, 22:25
Weiben Wang wrote:  Chinese has what I've most often
seen called tone
> sandhi. The tones of some syllables can change in > juncture with other syllables. In Mandarin, it's > fairly simple. A third tone appearing before > another > third tone will change to second tone. If there are > more than two third tones in a row, all but the last > will change to second tone. Tone sandhi can be much > more complicated. In the Min dialects (of Fujian > and > Taiwan), almost every tone can change into another > tone in juncture. > > -Weiben >
Answer:Yes you are right, in some local dialoge they may change. According a Chinese linguist Zhang Shi Lu the Mandarin is just simplified from ancient Chinese and the southern part of China just herit ancient tradion. So the in fact both mandarin and southern languages have plenty drawbacks. And I dare not say that one of these languages would prevail the world, what I said is "a tone language will prevail the world." http://shopping.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Shopping - Get organised for Christmas early this year!