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CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MONOSYLLABLE STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH AND MANDARIN CHINESE
Author(s) -
Tiee Henry Hungyeh
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1969.tb00929.x
Subject(s) - mandarin chinese , syllabic verse , diphthong , linguistics , syllable , consonant , consonant cluster , voice , american english , mathematics , contrast (vision) , speech recognition , computer science , psychology , vowel , artificial intelligence , philosophy
The basic structure of any language is the individual syllable, that is, the concatenation of syllabic phonemes and nonsyllabic phonemes within minimal sequences of speech. The structure of monosyllables in the two languages can be described by the following formulas (N = nonsyllabic phoneme, S = syllabic phoneme);In English there are nineteen different permissible patterns in monosyllabic structures with many variations of nonsyllabic clusters in both initial and final position; the maximum number of nonsyllabics in these clusters is three in initial position, four in final. Mandarin, on the other hand, has only nine permissible combinations, with no consonant clusters. There are fourteen syllabic phonemes (11 simple vowels; 3 diphthongs) and twenty four nonsyllabics in English, whereas there are twenty syllabics (6 simple vowels, 9 diphthongs, and 5 triphthongs) and twenty two nonsyllabics in Mandarin. Each system has its significant features. The most important features to be considered in teaching either of the two languages are the contrasts between the tense‐lax contrast in English syllabics, noncontrast in Mandarin syllabics, voicing and aspiration in nonsyllabics, clustering in English nonsyllabics, allophones of English nonsyllabics, and allophones of Mandarin syllabics.