LOLO-ENGLISH

Proceeding from syllable inventory to phonemic inventory in the analysis of Liangshan Yi

By Eatough Andy.

Book information

Language
lolo-english
Format
PDF
Filesize
51 kB (52021 bytes)
Pages
\9
Topic
Linguistics Foreign
Library
twirpx
Time added
2017-08-07 07:01:42
Языки и языкознание;Лолойские языки

Description

The syllable is a phonological notion rather than a purely phonetic notion. Though certain phonetic definitions work well for many languages, none has been proposed which works perfectly for every language. Therefore, we must determine some reasonable criteria for determining what is a syllable in Yi. Most of the syllables in most of the world’s languages have one sonority peak; the most common syllable type worldwide is CV, an onset consisting of one consonant followed by a rhyme of one vowel. There are many clear cases of CV syllables in Yi, so let us look first at some of them to see what criteria there might be in Yi for deciding what is a syllable in the less clear cases. In the following fairly close transcription, underlining indicates a tight throat (raised larynx and/or retracted tongue root, resulting in a smaller pharyngeal cavity). The vowels other than may, in slow speech or pre-pausally, be pronounced with slight diphthongization, gliding from a slightly closer vowel to a slightly more open vowel.

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