Re: CHAT: Zhongwen (Chinese) Question

On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, laokou wrote:

> From: "Patrick Dunn"
>
> > Okay, so I have a pile of Chinese grammars, dictionaries, and phrase
> > books, and roughly half of them say that
> > b,g,d
> > are voiced stops and roughly half of them say that
> > b,g,d
> > are simply unaspirated stops.
>
> >So my question is -- how do I know if they're going
> > to be voiced, and how do I know if they're going to just be unaspirated?
>
> They're simply unaspirated stops. [p] vs. [p']
> etc.
>
> 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.
Ahh.  I see.

So ultimately, though, I'm going to have to learn to distinguish aspirated
from unaspirated stops.  *nods*  I guess I watch Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon a few more times.  Darn.  :)

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