Проблемы китайского и общего языкознания. К 90-летию С. Е. Яхонтова

 644  Hana Třísková   a centraleme ( yùnfù wèi ) / i C / with a single allophone [i] , and a terminaleme ( yùnw i wèi ) / i T / with a single allophone [ɪ]. The proposed analysis is seeming- ly less economical (as it needs to posit three phonological units), and less ac- ceptable in the eyes of a Western phonologist (all three units are in comple- mentary distribution). On the other hand, its advantage is that it gets rid of the troublesome allophonic variations of high vowel segments conditioned by the position within a syllable. Grasping hold of these variations might be hard for a beginner in the language. A solution of the sort “one phonological unit — one allophone” might be more transparent. (The “only” allophonic variations of the segments within a final which are left to be solved are those of the non-high vowels; they are caused by an assimilation to the following terminal segment, e. g. ban  [pan], bang  [pɑŋ].)A legitimate objection to a proposed model is that it complicates a phonological notation of syllables. For example, for mi it would be / m i C /, for mie it would be / m i M e /, for mai it would be / ma i T /. We could think of another, non- pinyin notation, using the IPA symbols: / i M /  /j/ / i C /  / i / / i T /  /ɪ/ / u M /  / w / / u C /  / u / / u T /  /ʊ/ / M /  /ɥ/ / C /  / / / n I /  / n / / n T /  / N / The above mentioned syllables would be then written as / m i /, / m j e /, / ma ɪ/. It is not clear whether the suggested analysis is plausible for classroom usage. However, it may be potentially inspiring in some respects, as it offers an alternative interpretation of the Mandarin syllable, drawing on traditional concepts. Types of pronunciation errors We can now sum up the preceding discussion. Initial learners of Mandarin come from many different countries. They may misread the isolated Pīnyīn syllables in various ways and for various reasons. The major types of seg- mental mistake may be caused by: • The difficulty of a particular segment. This concerns primarily the ini- tials , e. g. the initials / zh / , / ch / , / r / , / q / , / x / etc. A difficult segment be- longing to a final part is / ng / . All of these mistakes can be removed by proper instruction about the articulation of the segment in question. • Traps associated with the Pīnyīn orthography. These mistakes can be eliminated mostly by mechanical training and dictation drills.