Re: CHAT: Zhongwen (Chinese) Question

>From: laokou <laokou@...>
>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:54:40 -0500
>
>From: "Patrick Dunn"
>
<snip>
>Some dialects have a [b], [p], [p'] distinction (Min and Wu), but that
>doesn't apply to Mandarin. To Western ears, the [p]/[p'] distinction of
>Mandarin sounds like [b]/[p'] so those letters (b,d,g,) make sense since
>they're available (for pinyin) and are close enough for government work. If
>a given dialect has the three-way, you have to do something like:
>b, p, ph     or    bb, b, p.
>
>Kou
The Taiwanese dialect is normally romanized using a system that renders
these phonemes b, p, ph.  Personally, I would prefer mb, b, p since the [b]
is so strongly voiced that it often seems to be prenasalized.  I came across
a Hakka (Kejia) Chinese page once that used <d>, <td>, <t> for the [d], [t],
[t'] distinction.  That kinda worked for me as well.  I just don't like the
<ph>, <th>, <kh> convention since I'm eternally trying to pronounce them as
fricatives!

Adam

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