by Zhang JuLi
The three methods
This list collaborates with the dictionary listed at the head section. Introduction to the dictionary works well for this list, too. Modern standard Chinese is a highly homophonous language. A sound can be shared by up to dozens of words. Their meanings are not distinguished by sounds, but by written forms. In A Chinese-English Dictionary which contains 6,000 or so characters, the sound yi4 is shared by 51 characters, bi4 by 37, and shi4 by 30. Each character is a morpheme, most of them are words. The ideographic writing (HanZi) represents such a homophonous language effectively. A phonetic writing must carry the merits of ideographic writing with it to succeed.Same as the dictionary, three methods, namely, synonymy, heterography and homography are adopted in this list, to expand the language and writing. Following table from the list typically presents these three methods:
| Typing | Listing |
|---|---|
| chan2 | chan2谗馋. cham2单婵蝉. chann2缠. |
| ann=an. | |
In above table, the spelling cham2 is a new sound, thus belongs to the category of synonymy. The 'chann2' is not a new sound but a variant spelling for the sound of 'chan2'. It is in the category of heterrgraphy. And the spelling 'chan2' is used for two words. This method is homography. Of the three methods, synonymy should be given prior consideration, as it helps expand the language. It is worth noting that the methods of synonymy and heterography are not taken into consideration at all in the standard PinYin system. All the homophonous Chinese characters in preceding table share the spelling chan2. That's it.
The reader can ignore the terms 'Typing' and 'Listing' in above table. This list will also work with another project in which these terms make sense. Word spellings in this list are often different from those in the dictionary. This list appears more than four years after the dictionary which will be updated soon to eliminate the inconsistency.
Supreme status of PinYin spellings
Because many new sounds and heterographic spellings are added, this list looks and sounds much more complex than the standard PinYin system. In terms of writing, it is an expansion or extension of the PinYin. It is necessary to point out that standard PinYin spellings have supreme status over other spellings for characters. If the writer dislikes or doesn't remember the spelling designated to a particular word, they can always write the standard PinYin for it. The language has been written with the ideographs for thousands of years. Adoption of a phonetic writing takes time and efforts. The PinYin language is based, grows and expands on the PinYin.Ideographic characters are grouped by their phonetic elements in the list. It is assumed that characters sharing a phonetic element would sound same. Otherwise they sound different. But the real picture is far from perfect. There are too many exceptions. Lots of phonetic elements have been lost from the language, which in turn caused disappearance of distinctions. Therefore, many words not sharing phonetic elements have become homophonic. Following example from the list displays the irregularity in this regard:
| Typing | Listing |
|---|---|
| shi4 | shi4是嗜世氏示似释适侍. shr4事. shei4市柿饰. shhi4士仕. shhr4势誓逝. shhei4试式. xei4室. xay4视. |
| shh=sh. shr=shi. shhr=shi. xay=xei=[çei]. | |
Differentiating homophonous words as in preceding table with an alphabetic writing seems an impossible task. So many homophonous characters do not share phonetic element with one another. On the other hand, however, in early historical stages of Chinese language, these characters were represented by at least following distinct sounds or their approximants: şɨ, şi, şε sẓ, şṛ, çi, şət, şit, çɨ, çiə, çit, çip, dʐi, dʐɨ, dʐiə, dʐik, çik, ʐik, şɦiajk, şɦit, şɦip, şiə, şɨh/şih, şɦi, siək, şɦiək, şɦia, şɦz, şɦṛ, şɦiaj, şiajk, dʐik, ʐiah, ʐi, ʐɨ, dʐiajk, ʐiajk, dʐip, ʐit. At present all the sounds have disappeared except the first one şɨ. Therefore, Chinese language has potentials to become more phonetically diverse, as it used to be. When a new sound appears, it will be fixed by its distinct phonetic spelling, rather than becoming another homophonous word. The standard PinYin is of course not perfect. There is plenty of room for improvement. But there must always be a standard PinYin.
In most cases, the characters are grouped by the simplified form. But the traditional form will be considered when it makes the grouping more consistent. In cases as such, both the simplified and traditional characters would be included in parentheses. Following is an example:
| Typing | Listing |
|---|---|
| chang3 | chang3(厂廠)敞. change3场. |
| ange=ang. | |
Tone Change
Changing tone of a word to obtain a new sound belongs to the category of synonymy. This method is widely employed in this list, to diversify the language. There were four different tones in earlier stages of the language. They were ping2sheng1, shang4sheng1, qu4sheng1 and ru4sheng1. Later on, the ru4sheng1 tone was lost, and the ping2sheng1 tone was divided into two tones, yin1ping2 and yang2ping2. Therefore, the four tones in modern standard Chinese are yin1ping2 (YIP), yang2ping2(YAP), shang4sheng1(SS) and qu4sheng1(QS). These four tones are also conveniently referred to as tone 1 through tone 4.Upon examining the tones of Chinese characters, it's easy to see that many YAP sounds do not have written forms in the ideographic script. In contrast, their YIP counterparts are quite favored. Much fewer YIP sounds have no ideographic written forms. A strategy in developing this list is to change tone of some YIP characters to YAP tone. Rationale for the change is that YIP and YAP used to be one single tone. Switch between them would be more acceptable to the speakers. Following table presents such a change:
| Typing | Listing |
|---|---|
| kai1 | kai1开. kai2揩. |
| Tone change. | |
Tone change between any other two tones is possible, too. But such changes are proposed with more caution in this list, because for speakers of some dialects, changing tones is perceived same as changing phonemes, even though tones are generally more ambiguous than phonemes in most of mandarin dialects. Following is a case with this respect:
| Typing | Listing |
|---|---|
| nie4 | nie4聂蹑镊. nye4孽. nie2涅. nie3镍. |
| nye=nie. Tone change. | |
In above table, the tones of two characters are changed. When changes are explicitly represented by phonetic spellings, their existences are legitimized, which makes the language phonetically more diverse.
References
Copyright © 2009 by Zhang JuLi.