Re: Bopomofo and pinyin

On Tue, 25 Jan 2000 18:53:59 +0100, Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
wrote:

>The phoneme inventory is controversial.
>
>Do the palatals ( {q}, {j}, {x}; SAMPA [ts\_h], [ts\], [s\] ) form a
>separate set of phonemes?  They occur only before [i] and [y], and
>diphthongs & triphthongs beginning with the corresponding semivowels.
>
>On the other hand, the dental series ({c}, {z}, {s}; [ts_h], [ts], [s]),
>the retroflex series ({ch}, {zh}, {sh}; [ts`_h], [ts`], [s`]) and the velar
>series ({k}, {g}, {h}; [k_h], [k], [x]) occur before all vowels, diphthongs
>& triphthongs _except_ those beginning with [i], [y], [j] or [H].
>
>If the palatals are allophones of one of the three series in the preceeding
>paragraph, of which of the three series are they allophones?
What if they are perceived as separate phonemes just *because* it is
difficult to identify them with any particular series?

Historically they developed from dental sibilants and velars.


Basilius