General Chinese
Encyclopedia
General Chinese is a diaphonemic orthography invented by Yuen Ren Chao to represent the pronunciations of all major varieties of Chinese simultaneously. It is "the most complete genuine Chinese diasystem yet published". It can also be used for the Korean
, Japanese, and Vietnamese pronunciations of Chinese characters
, and challenges the claim that Chinese character
s are required for interdialectal communication in written Chinese.
General Chinese is not specifically a romanization system, but two alternate systems: one uses Chinese characters phonetically (Tung-dzih Xonn-dzih), as a syllabary
of 2082 glyphs, and the other is an alphabetic romanization system with similar sound values and tone spellings to Gwoyeu Romatzyh
(Tung-dzih Lo-maa-dzih).
in any of the control varieties of Chinese, which consist of several dialects of Mandarin, Wu, Min, Hakka, and Yue. That is, a single syllabic character will only correspond to more than one logographic character when these are homonym
s in all control dialects. In effect, General Chinese is a syllabic reconstruction of the pronunciation of Middle Chinese
, less distinctions which have been dropped nearly everywhere.
The result is a syllabary of 2082 syllables, about 80% of which are single morphemes—that is, in 80% of cases there is no difference between GC and standard written Chinese, and in running text, that figure rises to 90–95%, as the most common morphemes tend to be uniquely identified. For example, kai can only mean 開 kāi 'open', and sam can only mean 三 sān 'three'. Chao notes, "These syllables then are morphemes, or words with definite meanings, or clusters of meanings related by extensions. About 20 percent of the syllables are homophones under each of which there will be more than one morpheme, [which are traditionally] usually written with different characters [...] The degree of homophony is so low that it will be possible to write text either in literary or colloquial Chinese with the same character for each syllable [...] as has been tested in texts of various styles." Chao compares General Chinese to how Chinese was written when the writing system was still productive: "This amounts to a 100 percent use of writing Chinese by 'phonetic loan' [...] The situation is that when the ancients wrote a character by sound regardless of meaning, it was a 'loan character', whereas if a modern schoolboy writes one, he is punished for writing the wrong character!"
Taking a telegraphic code-book of about 10,000 characters as a representative list of characters in modern use, Chao notes that General Chinese results in a reduction of 80% in the number of characters needing to be learned.
In the 20% of cases where a syllable corresponded to more than one word, Chao generally selected the graphically most basic traditional character for General Chinese, as long as it wasn't unduly rare. However, when that character had strong semantic connotations that would have interfered with a phonetic reading, he selected a more neutral character. This phenomenon is familiar from Chinese transcriptions of foreign names.
, and a few trigraphs) and the rimes distinguished by any of the control dialects. For example, it retains the final consonants p, t, k, and the distinction between final m and n, as these are found in several modern dialects, such as Cantonese. General Chinese also maintains the "round-sharp" distinction, such as sia vs. hia, though those are both xia in Beijing Mandarin. It also indicates the "muddy" (voiced) stops
of Shanghainese
. Indeed, Chao characterized GC as having "the initial consonants of the Wu dialects [...], the vowels of Mandarin, and the endings of Cantonese. It can, however, be pronounced in any dialect, and it is meant to be, by a relatively short list of rules of pronunciation."
Like Chao's other invention, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, romanized General Chinese uses tone spelling. However, the system is somewhat different. The difference between the yin and yang tones
is indicated by the voicing
of the initial consonant
, which is possible because the original voicing distinctions are retained. Given that some tones are indicated by changing rather than adding letters, writing tone requires on average only one additional letter for every three syllables of text.
The digraphs are not reliably featural
; for example, the digraphs for the voiced stops do not all follow the same pattern. This is because Chao ran frequency tests, and used single letters for the most common consonants and vowels, while restricting digraphs and trigraphs to the more infrequent ones. Overall, syllables in the texts he transliterated averaged under 3½ letters apiece.
An example of Romanized General Chinese can be illustrated with Chao's name:
All the General Chinese initials here are voiced: The h in dh shows that this is a "muddy" consonant, and the q in qiuan represents an initial ng- (becoming g in Japanese). This voicing shows up in the Cantonese yang tones, which are represented by aitches in Yale romanization. "Heavy" codas, such as remm, indicate the "departing" (去) tone, as in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Similarly, the spelling ao in dhyao indicates the "rising" (上) tone, but because of the voiced initial, it merges with "departing" in Mandarin and literary Cantonese (though not in colloquial Cantonese). The y in dhyao indicates that the initial is a stop in Min, Japanese, and Vietnamese, but otherwise an affricate. Cantonese and Korean retain the final m of remm. These pronunciations are all predictable given the General Chinese transcription, though it was not designed with the Sinopheric languages specifically in mind. Both the pre-war and post-war Japanese orthographies are recoverable.
In every control dialect, some syllables with different spellings will be pronounced the same. However, which these are differs from dialect to dialect. There are some irregular correlations: Often a particular variety will have a pronunciation for a syllable that is not what one would expect from other syllables with similar spellings, due to irregular developments in that variety. This is especially true with the voicing of Japanese consonants, which has evolved idiosyncratically in different compound words. However, except for Japanese voicing, the system is phonetic about 90% of the time.
泥 and 娘 are both transcribed ⟨n⟩, as these are not distinct in modern dialects. 喻, a conflation of two older initials, 云 hy~hw and 以 y~w, is transcribed ⟨h⟩ or ∅ according to modern rather than ancient forms; when palatalization is lost, it is transcribed ⟨w⟩. The palatal and retroflex fricatives 照穿牀審禪 fell together early on in the rime tables of Classical Chinese, but are still distinguished in some modern dialects, and so are distinguished here. The convention ⟨q⟩ for nasal 疑, which drops in many dialects, is repeated in the finals, where it represents *[ŋ] with a departing tone.
Although to some extent systematic—the retroflex series are digraphs ending in ⟨r⟩, for example—this is overridden in many cases by the principal of using short transcriptions for common sounds. Thus ⟨z⟩ is used for 精 rather than for the less common 邪, where it might also be expected; ⟨f⟩ is used for frequent 微 rather than for 奉; and ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩, for the high-frequency 見 and 羣, have the additional benefit of being familiar in their palatalized forms (Peking ~ Beijing for example is ⟨-cieng⟩) from English words like cello and gem.
Velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩ are palatalized to affricates before ⟨i⟩, ⟨iu⟩ (the high-front vowels [i], [y]) apart from Min and Yue, where they remain stops before all vowels; ⟨x⟩, ⟨h⟩ also palatalize, but remain fricatives. For instance in Mandarin, they are g, k, h before non-palatalizing vowels and j, q, x before palatalizing vowels, whereas in Cantonese they remain g, k, h everywhere. (Compare the alternate spellings of Beijing and Peking.) The alveolar sibilants ⟨z⟩, ⟨ts⟩, ⟨dz⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨sz⟩ (Mandarin z, c, s) are also generally palatalized before ⟨i⟩, ⟨iu⟩ (to Mandarin j, q, x), collapsing with the palatalized velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨h⟩ in dialects which have lost the "round-sharp" distinction so important to Peking opera.
The palatal stops ⟨dy⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨dhy⟩ remain stops only in Min among the Chinese lects (though also in Japanese and Vietnamese loan words); elsewhere they are conflated with the affricates. The palatal and retroflex sibilants are generally conflated; in Yue and Min, as well as in much of Wu and Mandarin, they are further conflated with the alveolar sibilants. This contrast remains in Beijing, where [sán] 'three' is distinct from [ʂán] 'mountain'; both are [sán] in Sichuanese and Taiwanese Mandarin.
There are numerous more sporadic correlations. For instance, the alveolar affricates ⟨z⟩, ⟨ts⟩, ⟨dz⟩ become stops [t], [tʰ] in Taishan Yue, whereas the alveolar stops are debuccalized
to [ʔ], [h], as in Hoisaan for Cantonese Toisaan (Taishan). In Yüchi, Yunan, it is the velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩ which are debuccalized, to [ʔ], [ʔʰ]. In the Min dialects, ⟨f⟩, ⟨fv⟩ become [h] or [ʍ]. In Xi'an Mandarin, the fricatives ⟨sh⟩, ⟨sr⟩, ⟨zh⟩, ⟨zr⟩ are rounded to [f] before rounded vowels, as in [fêi] 'water' (Beijing shuǐ [ʂwèi]).
s are reduced to the four medials of modern Chinese, plus an intermediate type ⟨e⟩:
In Cantonese, medial ⟨i⟩ can be ignored after sibilants, as palatalization has been lost in these series. That is, sao, siao, shao are read the same.
Rimes consist of a nucleus (the main vowel) and optionally a coda. They need to be considered as a unit because of a strong historical interaction between vowel and coda in Chinese dialects. The following combinations occur (note that the vowel ⟨iu⟩ is treated as medial ⟨i⟩ plus nucleus ⟨u⟩):
and Minjiang
dialects of Mandarin, these codas conflate to glottal stop
/ʔ/. In others, such as Gan, they are reduced to [t], [k], while Yue dialects, Hakka, and Old Xiang maintain the original [p], [t], [k] system.
Nasal codas are also reduced in many dialects. Mandarin and Wu do not distinguish between ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩, with them being reduced to [n] or nasal vowels, or in some cases dropped altogether. In Shanghainese many instances of ⟨nɡ⟩ have conflated as well, or been dropped, but a phonemic distinction is maintained.
In Mandarin, an additional coda is found, -er [ɻ], from GC ⟨ri⟩.
In Cantonese, the simple vowels i u iu o a e are [iː uː yː ɔː aː ɛː], apart from ⟨i⟩ and ⟨iu⟩ after velars, which open to diphthongs, as in ci [kei] and ciu [kɵy]. Diphthongs may vary markedly depending on initial and medial, as in cau [kou], ceau [kaːu], ciau [kiːu], though both ceu ~ cieu are [kɐu], following the general pattern of ⟨e⟩ before a coda (cf. cen [kɐn] vs can [kaːn]). Cantonese does not have medials, apart from gw, kw, though sometimes it is the nuclear vowel which drops: giung [kʰoŋ], xiong [hoŋ], but giuan [kʰyːn].
Double cells show discrepancies between analysis and orthography. For instance, Chao analyzes ieng, iueng as part of the aeng series rather than the eng series, and ien as part of the an series. Though not apparent from the chart, eng-ing-ueng-iuing, ung-ong-iung-iong, and en-in-un-iun are similar series. The discrepancies are due to an effort to keep frequent syllables short: en-in-un-iun rather than *en-ien-uen-iuen, for example; as well as a reflection of some of the more widespread phonological changes in the rimes.
Min dialects are similar, but in certain tones ⟨i⟩ and ⟨iu⟩ become diphthongs rather that their usual [i], [y]. For example, in Fuzhou, even-tone 星 sieng is [siŋ] but going-tone 性 sieq is [seiŋ].
In Yunnan Mandarin, ⟨iu⟩ is pronounced as ⟨i⟩, so that the name of the province, yunnom, is [inna] rather than [ynnan] as in Beijing.
In Nanking, ⟨ien⟩ metathesizes
to [ein] after alveolars, as in 天 [tʰein] for Beijing tian [tʰiɛn].
'Lighter' means that a vowel coda is made more open (⟨i⟩ → ⟨e⟩, ⟨u⟩ → ⟨o⟩); 'heavier' means that a vowel coda is made more close (⟨i⟩ → ⟨y⟩, ⟨u⟩ → ⟨w⟩) and a nasal coda (⟨n⟩, ⟨m⟩) is doubled. The nasal ⟨ng⟩ is 'lightened' to ⟨g⟩ (as in many Polynesian languages) and made heavier as ⟨q⟩ (as in the GC initial).
One consequence of this is that the rimes -e and -ei in the even tone conflate to ⟨ee⟩ in the rising tone. However, since there are no such syllables which begin with the same consonant and medial, no syllables are actually conflated.
The difference between yin and yang tones is indicated by the voicing of the consonant. A zero consonant is treated as voiceless (it is sometimes reconstructed as a glottal stop
), so i, iem, uon, iuan are ping yin (Mandarin yī, yān, wān, yuān), whereas yi, yem, won, yuan are ping yang (Mandarin yí, yán, wán, yuán). In a few cases, the effect that voiced ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨r⟩ have on tone needs to be negated to achieve a ping yin tone. This is accomplished by spelling them ⟨mh⟩, ⟨nh⟩, ⟨lh⟩, ⟨rh⟩.
To mark the toneless Mandarin syllable ma, a centered dot is used: ⟨·ma⟩. The dot is omitted for toneless ⟨me, de, te, ne, le⟩, as tonic me, de, te, ne, le do not exist.
for details. In Beijing Mandarin, for example, even tone is split according to voicing, with muddy consonants becoming aspirates: ba, pa, ma, bha → bā, pā, má, pá (and mha → mā). Going tone is not split, and muddy consonants become tenuis: bah, pah, mah, bhah → bà, pà, mà, bà. Rising tone splits, not along voicing, but with muddy-consonant syllables conflating with going tone: baa, paa, maa, bhaa → bǎ, pǎ, mǎ, bà. That is, bhaa and bhah are homonyms in Beijing, as indeed they are in all of Mandarin, in Wu apart from Wenzhounese, in Hakka, and in reading pronunciations of Cantonese. Entering tone is likewise split: mat, bhat → mà, bá.
However, the realization of entering tones in Beijing dialect, and thus in Standard Chinese, is not predictable when a syllable has a voiceless initial such as bat or pat. In such cases even syllables with the same GC spelling may have different tones in Beijing, though they remain homonyms in other Mandarin dialects, such as Xian and Sichuanese. This is due to historical dialect mixing in the Chinese capital that resulted in unavoidably idiosyncratic correspondences.
In Yue, there is a straightforward split according to consonant voicing, with a postvocalic ⟨h⟩ in Yale romanization for the latter. Muddy onsets become aspirates in even and rising tones, but tenuis in going and entering tones: ba, pa, ma, bha → bā, pā, māh, pāh; baa, paa, maa, bhaa → bá, pá, máh, páh; bah, pah, mah, bhah → ba, pa, mah, bah; bat, pat, mat, bhat → baat, paat, maht, baht. In addition, there is an additional split in entering tone according to vowel length, with Cantonese mid entering tone for short vowels like bāt, pāt. In reading pronunciations, however, rising tone syllables with muddy onsets are treated as going tone: bhaa → bah rather than → páh.
There is also an unpredictable split in the even ping yin tone which indicates diminutives or a change in part of speech, but this is not written in all Cantonese romanizations (Yale, but not Jyutping).
Hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
, Japanese, and Vietnamese pronunciations of Chinese characters
Sinoxenic
Sino-Xenic refers to the pronunciations given to Chinese characters in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese – none of which have accepted genetic relatedness to Sinitic languages – in the Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean, and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies...
, and challenges the claim that Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s are required for interdialectal communication in written Chinese.
General Chinese is not specifically a romanization system, but two alternate systems: one uses Chinese characters phonetically (Tung-dzih Xonn-dzih), as a syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
of 2082 glyphs, and the other is an alphabetic romanization system with similar sound values and tone spellings to Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh , abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Y.R. Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself later published influential works in linguistics using GR...
(Tung-dzih Lo-maa-dzih).
Character-based General Chinese
The character version of General Chinese uses distinct characters for any traditional characters that are distinguished phonemicallyPhoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
in any of the control varieties of Chinese, which consist of several dialects of Mandarin, Wu, Min, Hakka, and Yue. That is, a single syllabic character will only correspond to more than one logographic character when these are homonym
Homonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...
s in all control dialects. In effect, General Chinese is a syllabic reconstruction of the pronunciation of Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
, less distinctions which have been dropped nearly everywhere.
The result is a syllabary of 2082 syllables, about 80% of which are single morphemes—that is, in 80% of cases there is no difference between GC and standard written Chinese, and in running text, that figure rises to 90–95%, as the most common morphemes tend to be uniquely identified. For example, kai can only mean 開 kāi 'open', and sam can only mean 三 sān 'three'. Chao notes, "These syllables then are morphemes, or words with definite meanings, or clusters of meanings related by extensions. About 20 percent of the syllables are homophones under each of which there will be more than one morpheme, [which are traditionally] usually written with different characters [...] The degree of homophony is so low that it will be possible to write text either in literary or colloquial Chinese with the same character for each syllable [...] as has been tested in texts of various styles." Chao compares General Chinese to how Chinese was written when the writing system was still productive: "This amounts to a 100 percent use of writing Chinese by 'phonetic loan' [...] The situation is that when the ancients wrote a character by sound regardless of meaning, it was a 'loan character', whereas if a modern schoolboy writes one, he is punished for writing the wrong character!"
Taking a telegraphic code-book of about 10,000 characters as a representative list of characters in modern use, Chao notes that General Chinese results in a reduction of 80% in the number of characters needing to be learned.
In the 20% of cases where a syllable corresponded to more than one word, Chao generally selected the graphically most basic traditional character for General Chinese, as long as it wasn't unduly rare. However, when that character had strong semantic connotations that would have interfered with a phonetic reading, he selected a more neutral character. This phenomenon is familiar from Chinese transcriptions of foreign names.
Romanized General Chinese
Romanized General Chinese has distinct symbols for the onsets (many of them digraphsDigraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
, and a few trigraphs) and the rimes distinguished by any of the control dialects. For example, it retains the final consonants p, t, k, and the distinction between final m and n, as these are found in several modern dialects, such as Cantonese. General Chinese also maintains the "round-sharp" distinction, such as sia vs. hia, though those are both xia in Beijing Mandarin. It also indicates the "muddy" (voiced) stops
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
of Shanghainese
Shanghainese
Shanghainese , or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties...
. Indeed, Chao characterized GC as having "the initial consonants of the Wu dialects [...], the vowels of Mandarin, and the endings of Cantonese. It can, however, be pronounced in any dialect, and it is meant to be, by a relatively short list of rules of pronunciation."
Like Chao's other invention, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, romanized General Chinese uses tone spelling. However, the system is somewhat different. The difference between the yin and yang tones
Four tones
The four tones of Chinese phonology are four traditional tone-classes of words derived from the four phonemic tones of Middle Chinese. They are even level , rising , going departing , and entering checked .-Names:In Middle Chinese, each of the tone names carries the tone it identifies: 平 even ,...
is indicated by the voicing
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
of the initial consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
, which is possible because the original voicing distinctions are retained. Given that some tones are indicated by changing rather than adding letters, writing tone requires on average only one additional letter for every three syllables of text.
The digraphs are not reliably featural
Distinctive feature
In linguistics, a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonological structure that may be analyzed in phonological theory.Distinctive features are grouped into categories according to the natural classes of segments they describe: major class features, laryngeal features, manner features,...
; for example, the digraphs for the voiced stops do not all follow the same pattern. This is because Chao ran frequency tests, and used single letters for the most common consonants and vowels, while restricting digraphs and trigraphs to the more infrequent ones. Overall, syllables in the texts he transliterated averaged under 3½ letters apiece.
An example of Romanized General Chinese can be illustrated with Chao's name:
| Traditional characters |
趙 | 元 | 任 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Chinese | dhyao | qiuan | remm | |
| Mandarin (Pinyin) | zhào | yuán | rèn | |
| Cantonese (Yale) | jiuh | yùhn | yahm | |
| Wu (Shanghainese) | dzau | gnioe | gnin | |
| Japanese, go'on Go-on are one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period... reading |
deu | gwan | nin | post-WWII: jō gan nin |
| Japanese, kan'on Kan-on is one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century.... reading |
teu | gen | zin | post-WWII: chō gen jin |
| Korean | jo | won | im | |
| Vietnamese | triệu | nguyên | nhâm | |
All the General Chinese initials here are voiced: The h in dh shows that this is a "muddy" consonant, and the q in qiuan represents an initial ng- (becoming g in Japanese). This voicing shows up in the Cantonese yang tones, which are represented by aitches in Yale romanization. "Heavy" codas, such as remm, indicate the "departing" (去) tone, as in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Similarly, the spelling ao in dhyao indicates the "rising" (上) tone, but because of the voiced initial, it merges with "departing" in Mandarin and literary Cantonese (though not in colloquial Cantonese). The y in dhyao indicates that the initial is a stop in Min, Japanese, and Vietnamese, but otherwise an affricate. Cantonese and Korean retain the final m of remm. These pronunciations are all predictable given the General Chinese transcription, though it was not designed with the Sinopheric languages specifically in mind. Both the pre-war and post-war Japanese orthographies are recoverable.
In every control dialect, some syllables with different spellings will be pronounced the same. However, which these are differs from dialect to dialect. There are some irregular correlations: Often a particular variety will have a pronunciation for a syllable that is not what one would expect from other syllables with similar spellings, due to irregular developments in that variety. This is especially true with the voicing of Japanese consonants, which has evolved idiosyncratically in different compound words. However, except for Japanese voicing, the system is phonetic about 90% of the time.
Utility of romanized General Chinese vs. traditional characters
A common argument for retaining Chinese characters is that romanization systems are insufficient to unambiguously represent the Chinese language, due to the large number of homonyms. (However, the Chinese military has found pinyin to be sufficient to telegraph military communications, even without indicating tone.) Because General Chinese makes many distinctions that Pinyin does not, it has many fewer homonyms to confuse the reader. Combine this with the fact that many traditional Chinese characters are restricted to specific compounds, and that many homonymic characters distinguish meanings of what are historically the same word, and which are therefore understandable in context, Chao believed that General Chinese begins to approach the effectiveness of traditional characters in representing Chinese.Onsets and rhymes
Character GC has a separate character for each syllable. However, romanized GC has distinct onsets and rhymes. The onsets are as follows:Onsets
| Voiceless | Voiced | ||||
| Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
Aspirate Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Muddy Slack voice The term slack voice describes the pronunciation of consonant or vowels with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in modal voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced in the case of consonants... |
Sonorant Sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and... |
||
| Labials Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
*[p] ⟨b⟩ | *[pʰ] ⟨p⟩ | *[b̥] ⟨bh⟩ | *[m] ⟨m⟩ | |
| *[f] ⟨f⟩ | — | *[v̥] ⟨fv⟩ | *[w̃] ⟨v⟩ | ||
| Coronals Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... |
*[t] ⟨d⟩ | *[tʰ] ⟨t⟩ | *[d̥] ⟨dh⟩ | *[n] ⟨n⟩ | |
| *[ʈ] ⟨dy⟩ | *[ʈʰ] ⟨ty⟩ | *[ɖ̥] ⟨dhy⟩ | *[ɳ] ⟨n⟩ | ||
| Sibilants |
*[s] ⟨s⟩ *[ts] ⟨z⟩ |
*[tsʰ] ⟨ts⟩ |
*[z̥] ⟨sz⟩ *[d̥z] ⟨dz⟩ |
||
| *[ɕ] ⟨sh⟩ *[tɕ] ⟨j⟩ |
*[tɕʰ] ⟨ch⟩ |
*[ʑ̥] ⟨zh⟩ *[d̥ʑ] ⟨dj⟩ |
|||
| *[ʂ] ⟨sr⟩ *[tʂ] ⟨dr⟩ |
*[tʂʰ] ⟨tr⟩ |
*[ʐ̥] ⟨zr⟩ *[d̥ʐ] ⟨jr⟩ |
|||
| Velars Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
*[k] ⟨c⟩ | *[kʰ] ⟨k⟩ | *[ɡ̊] ⟨g⟩ | *[ŋ] ⟨q⟩ | |
| Gutturals Guttural consonant Guttural is a term used to describe any of several speech sounds whose primary place of articulation is near the back of the oral cavity. In some definitions this is restricted to pharyngeal consonants, but in others includes some but not all velar and uvular consonants... |
*[ʔ] ∅ *[x] ⟨x⟩ |
*[ɣ̊] ⟨h⟩ |
*[j] ⟨y, w, h⟩ | ||
| "" | *[l] ⟨l⟩ | ||||
| "" | *[ȷ̃] ⟨r⟩ | ||||
泥 and 娘 are both transcribed ⟨n⟩, as these are not distinct in modern dialects. 喻, a conflation of two older initials, 云 hy~hw and 以 y~w, is transcribed ⟨h⟩ or ∅ according to modern rather than ancient forms; when palatalization is lost, it is transcribed ⟨w⟩. The palatal and retroflex fricatives 照穿牀審禪 fell together early on in the rime tables of Classical Chinese, but are still distinguished in some modern dialects, and so are distinguished here. The convention ⟨q⟩ for nasal 疑, which drops in many dialects, is repeated in the finals, where it represents *[ŋ] with a departing tone.
Although to some extent systematic—the retroflex series are digraphs ending in ⟨r⟩, for example—this is overridden in many cases by the principal of using short transcriptions for common sounds. Thus ⟨z⟩ is used for 精 rather than for the less common 邪, where it might also be expected; ⟨f⟩ is used for frequent 微 rather than for 奉; and ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩, for the high-frequency 見 and 羣, have the additional benefit of being familiar in their palatalized forms (Peking ~ Beijing for example is ⟨-cieng⟩) from English words like cello and gem.
Dialectical correspondences
The voiced obstruents (the 濁 "muddy" column) are only distinct in Wu dialects. In Min, they are collapsed with the consonants of the tenuis column. Elsewhere they are generally collapsed with the aspirated column in the even tone, and with the tenuis column in other tones. An exception is Cantonese, where in the rising tone they are aspirated in colloquial speech, but tenuis in reading pronunciations. The sonorants do not vary much apart from ⟨v⟩, ⟨r⟩, which in Wu are nasals [m], [ɲ] colloquially but fricatives [v], [z] when read.Velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩ are palatalized to affricates before ⟨i⟩, ⟨iu⟩ (the high-front vowels [i], [y]) apart from Min and Yue, where they remain stops before all vowels; ⟨x⟩, ⟨h⟩ also palatalize, but remain fricatives. For instance in Mandarin, they are g, k, h before non-palatalizing vowels and j, q, x before palatalizing vowels, whereas in Cantonese they remain g, k, h everywhere. (Compare the alternate spellings of Beijing and Peking.) The alveolar sibilants ⟨z⟩, ⟨ts⟩, ⟨dz⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨sz⟩ (Mandarin z, c, s) are also generally palatalized before ⟨i⟩, ⟨iu⟩ (to Mandarin j, q, x), collapsing with the palatalized velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨h⟩ in dialects which have lost the "round-sharp" distinction so important to Peking opera.
The palatal stops ⟨dy⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨dhy⟩ remain stops only in Min among the Chinese lects (though also in Japanese and Vietnamese loan words); elsewhere they are conflated with the affricates. The palatal and retroflex sibilants are generally conflated; in Yue and Min, as well as in much of Wu and Mandarin, they are further conflated with the alveolar sibilants. This contrast remains in Beijing, where [sán] 'three' is distinct from [ʂán] 'mountain'; both are [sán] in Sichuanese and Taiwanese Mandarin.
There are numerous more sporadic correlations. For instance, the alveolar affricates ⟨z⟩, ⟨ts⟩, ⟨dz⟩ become stops [t], [tʰ] in Taishan Yue, whereas the alveolar stops are debuccalized
Debuccalization
Debuccalization is a sound change in which a consonant loses its original place of articulation and becomes or . The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration, but in phonetics aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a plosive...
to [ʔ], [h], as in Hoisaan for Cantonese Toisaan (Taishan). In Yüchi, Yunan, it is the velars ⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩ which are debuccalized, to [ʔ], [ʔʰ]. In the Min dialects, ⟨f⟩, ⟨fv⟩ become [h] or [ʍ]. In Xi'an Mandarin, the fricatives ⟨sh⟩, ⟨sr⟩, ⟨zh⟩, ⟨zr⟩ are rounded to [f] before rounded vowels, as in [fêi] 'water' (Beijing shuǐ [ʂwèi]).
Medials
The categories of the Late Middle Chinese rime tableRime table
A rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...
s are reduced to the four medials of modern Chinese, plus an intermediate type ⟨e⟩:
| Division I | | Division II | | Divisions III and IV | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| others | back initials | |||
| Open (開) | ∅ | ⟨e⟩ | ⟨i⟩ | |
| Closed (合) | ⟨u⟩ | ⟨iu⟩ | ||
Dialectical correspondences
The medial ⟨e⟩ is used for syllables which have a palatalizing medial [i] in Mandarin, but no medial in Yue. That is, in Mandarin ⟨e⟩ should be read as ⟨i⟩, with the same effect on consonants as ⟨i⟩ has, whereas in Cantonese it is silent. In Shanghainese both situations occur: ⟨e⟩ is equivalent to ⟨i⟩ in reading pronunciations, as [i] or [y], but is not found in colloquial speech.In Cantonese, medial ⟨i⟩ can be ignored after sibilants, as palatalization has been lost in these series. That is, sao, siao, shao are read the same.
Rimes
Chao uses the following rimes. They do not always correspond to the Middle Chinese rimes.Rimes consist of a nucleus (the main vowel) and optionally a coda. They need to be considered as a unit because of a strong historical interaction between vowel and coda in Chinese dialects. The following combinations occur (note that the vowel ⟨iu⟩ is treated as medial ⟨i⟩ plus nucleus ⟨u⟩):
| |coda | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -i | -u | -m | -n | -ng | ||
| nuc- leus | o | om | on | ong | ||
| a | ai | au | am | an | ang | |
| aeng | ||||||
| e | ei | eu | em | en | ||
| eng | ||||||
| i | im | in | ing | |||
| u | un | ung |
Dialectical correspondences
The most salient dialectical difference in rimes is perhaps the lack of the obstruent codas ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨c⟩ in most dialects of Mandarin and independently in the Wencheng dialect of Oujiang, though this has traditionally been seen as a loss of tone (see below). In Wu, Min (generally), New Xiang (Hunanese), Jin, and in the Lower YangtzeLower Yangtze Mandarin
Lower Yangtze or Xiajiang Mandarin. also called Jianghuai Mandarin after the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, is one of the most divergent of the Mandarin dialects, as it neighbors the Wu, Hui, and Gan Chinese languages.-Features and Location:...
and Minjiang
Minjiang dialect
Minjiang dialect , is a branch of Sichuanese, spoken mainly in the Minjiang River valley or along the Yangtze River in the southern and western parts of the Sichuan Basin...
dialects of Mandarin, these codas conflate to glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
/ʔ/. In others, such as Gan, they are reduced to [t], [k], while Yue dialects, Hakka, and Old Xiang maintain the original [p], [t], [k] system.
Nasal codas are also reduced in many dialects. Mandarin and Wu do not distinguish between ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩, with them being reduced to [n] or nasal vowels, or in some cases dropped altogether. In Shanghainese many instances of ⟨nɡ⟩ have conflated as well, or been dropped, but a phonemic distinction is maintained.
In Mandarin, an additional coda is found, -er [ɻ], from GC ⟨ri⟩.
In Cantonese, the simple vowels i u iu o a e are [iː uː yː ɔː aː ɛː], apart from ⟨i⟩ and ⟨iu⟩ after velars, which open to diphthongs, as in ci [kei] and ciu [kɵy]. Diphthongs may vary markedly depending on initial and medial, as in cau [kou], ceau [kaːu], ciau [kiːu], though both ceu ~ cieu are [kɐu], following the general pattern of ⟨e⟩ before a coda (cf. cen [kɐn] vs can [kaːn]). Cantonese does not have medials, apart from gw, kw, though sometimes it is the nuclear vowel which drops: giung [kʰoŋ], xiong [hoŋ], but giuan [kʰyːn].
Combinations of medials and rimes
The following combinations of orthographic medials and rimes occur, taking -iu to be medial i + rime u :| o | a | e | ai | ei | i | u | au | eu | om | am | em | im | on | an | en | un | in | ang* | aeng | eng | ing | ung | ong* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e | ea | eai | eau | eam | ean | eang | eaeng‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| i | ia | ie | iu | iau | ieu | iem | ien | iun | iang | ieng | iung | iong | ||||||||||||
| u | uo | ua | uai | uei | ui | uon | uan | uang | uaeng | ueng | ||||||||||||||
| iu | iue | iuan§ | iueng | iuing | ||||||||||||||||||||
* In entering tone, ang (eang, iang, uang) changes to oc (eoc, ioc, uoc), and ong (iong) changes to ouc (iouc)- ‡ -eaeng is generally shortened to -aeng
- § In entering tone, iuan changes to iuet
Double cells show discrepancies between analysis and orthography. For instance, Chao analyzes ieng, iueng as part of the aeng series rather than the eng series, and ien as part of the an series. Though not apparent from the chart, eng-ing-ueng-iuing, ung-ong-iung-iong, and en-in-un-iun are similar series. The discrepancies are due to an effort to keep frequent syllables short: en-in-un-iun rather than *en-ien-uen-iuen, for example; as well as a reflection of some of the more widespread phonological changes in the rimes.
Dialectical correspondences
In Cantonese, after coronal stops and sibilants, rounded finals such as -on and -uan produce front rounded vowels, as in don [tyːn], and after velars, iung and iong lose their ⟨i⟩.Min dialects are similar, but in certain tones ⟨i⟩ and ⟨iu⟩ become diphthongs rather that their usual [i], [y]. For example, in Fuzhou, even-tone 星 sieng is [siŋ] but going-tone 性 sieq is [seiŋ].
In Yunnan Mandarin, ⟨iu⟩ is pronounced as ⟨i⟩, so that the name of the province, yunnom, is [inna] rather than [ynnan] as in Beijing.
In Nanking, ⟨ien⟩ metathesizes
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
to [ein] after alveolars, as in 天 [tʰein] for Beijing tian [tʰiɛn].
Tones
The basic spelling is used for the even 平 tone(s). For the rising 上 tone(s), the nucleus is doubled (with the vowel ⟨iu⟩ → ⟨iuu⟩, as that is treated as medial ⟨i⟩ + nucleus ⟨u⟩), or the coda is changed to a 'lighter' letter. For the going 去 tone(s), the coda is made 'heavier'; if there is no coda, add ⟨h⟩. For the entering 入 tone(s), a stop coda is used.'Lighter' means that a vowel coda is made more open (⟨i⟩ → ⟨e⟩, ⟨u⟩ → ⟨o⟩); 'heavier' means that a vowel coda is made more close (⟨i⟩ → ⟨y⟩, ⟨u⟩ → ⟨w⟩) and a nasal coda (⟨n⟩, ⟨m⟩) is doubled. The nasal ⟨ng⟩ is 'lightened' to ⟨g⟩ (as in many Polynesian languages) and made heavier as ⟨q⟩ (as in the GC initial).
| coda | even 平 | rising 上 | going 去 | entering 入 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (none) | ba | baa | bah | — |
| ciu | ciuu | ciuh | — | |
| -i | fui | fue | fuy | — |
| -u | cau | cao | caw | — |
| -m | lam | laam | lamm | lap |
| -n | ren | reen | renn | ret |
| -ng | jang | jag | jaq | joc |
One consequence of this is that the rimes -e and -ei in the even tone conflate to ⟨ee⟩ in the rising tone. However, since there are no such syllables which begin with the same consonant and medial, no syllables are actually conflated.
The difference between yin and yang tones is indicated by the voicing of the consonant. A zero consonant is treated as voiceless (it is sometimes reconstructed as a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
), so i, iem, uon, iuan are ping yin (Mandarin yī, yān, wān, yuān), whereas yi, yem, won, yuan are ping yang (Mandarin yí, yán, wán, yuán). In a few cases, the effect that voiced ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨r⟩ have on tone needs to be negated to achieve a ping yin tone. This is accomplished by spelling them ⟨mh⟩, ⟨nh⟩, ⟨lh⟩, ⟨rh⟩.
To mark the toneless Mandarin syllable ma, a centered dot is used: ⟨·ma⟩. The dot is omitted for toneless ⟨me, de, te, ne, le⟩, as tonic me, de, te, ne, le do not exist.
Dialectical correspondences
The realization of the tones in the various varieties of Chinese is generally predictable; see Four tonesFour tones
The four tones of Chinese phonology are four traditional tone-classes of words derived from the four phonemic tones of Middle Chinese. They are even level , rising , going departing , and entering checked .-Names:In Middle Chinese, each of the tone names carries the tone it identifies: 平 even ,...
for details. In Beijing Mandarin, for example, even tone is split according to voicing, with muddy consonants becoming aspirates: ba, pa, ma, bha → bā, pā, má, pá (and mha → mā). Going tone is not split, and muddy consonants become tenuis: bah, pah, mah, bhah → bà, pà, mà, bà. Rising tone splits, not along voicing, but with muddy-consonant syllables conflating with going tone: baa, paa, maa, bhaa → bǎ, pǎ, mǎ, bà. That is, bhaa and bhah are homonyms in Beijing, as indeed they are in all of Mandarin, in Wu apart from Wenzhounese, in Hakka, and in reading pronunciations of Cantonese. Entering tone is likewise split: mat, bhat → mà, bá.
However, the realization of entering tones in Beijing dialect, and thus in Standard Chinese, is not predictable when a syllable has a voiceless initial such as bat or pat. In such cases even syllables with the same GC spelling may have different tones in Beijing, though they remain homonyms in other Mandarin dialects, such as Xian and Sichuanese. This is due to historical dialect mixing in the Chinese capital that resulted in unavoidably idiosyncratic correspondences.
In Yue, there is a straightforward split according to consonant voicing, with a postvocalic ⟨h⟩ in Yale romanization for the latter. Muddy onsets become aspirates in even and rising tones, but tenuis in going and entering tones: ba, pa, ma, bha → bā, pā, māh, pāh; baa, paa, maa, bhaa → bá, pá, máh, páh; bah, pah, mah, bhah → ba, pa, mah, bah; bat, pat, mat, bhat → baat, paat, maht, baht. In addition, there is an additional split in entering tone according to vowel length, with Cantonese mid entering tone for short vowels like bāt, pāt. In reading pronunciations, however, rising tone syllables with muddy onsets are treated as going tone: bhaa → bah rather than → páh.
There is also an unpredictable split in the even ping yin tone which indicates diminutives or a change in part of speech, but this is not written in all Cantonese romanizations (Yale, but not Jyutping).
Sample text
Chao provided this poem as an example. The character text is no different in GC and standard Chinese, apart from 裏 lǐ, which in any case has now been substituted with Chao's choice of 里 on the Mainland. Note that simplified characters like this would affect all of Chao's proposal, so that 對 below would become 对, etc. The only other difference is 他 tā for 'her', which may differ from contemporary written Chinese 她, but which follows Classical usage.| Romanized GC | Character GC | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ta Si Zuucuec Yee (Hu Shiec) |
他 思祖國也 （胡適） |
Tā Sī Zǔguó Yě (Hú Shì) |
Her Thinking of One's Own Country (Hu Shih) |
| Nii sim-lii ay ta, Moc shot but ay ta. |
你心里愛他， 莫說不愛他。 |
Nǐ xīnlǐ ài tā, Mò shuō bù ài tā. |
In your heart you love her, Don't say you don't love her. |
| Iaw konn nii ay ta, Tsiee deg ren hay ta. |
要看你愛他， 且等人害他。 |
Yào kàn nǐ ài tā, Qiě děng rén hài tā. |
Seeing that you love her, Yet you let one hurt her. |
| Tag yeo ren hay ta, Nii ruho duey ta? |
倘有人害他， 你如何對他？ |
Tǎng yǒu rén hài tā, Nǐ rúhé duì tā? |
If someone hurts her, How will you meet her? |
| Tag yeo ren ay ta, Caeq ruho dhay ta? |
倘有人愛他， 更如何待他？ |
Tǎng yǒu rén ài tā, Gèng rúhé dài tā? |
If someone loves her, How will you treat her? |
External links
- [DjVu
General Chinese (Chinese-English bilingual edition)] - A Chinese - General Chinese transcription table