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| Do you often enunciate the "t" in often? |
| Yes, I enunciate the "t" |
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50% |
[ 9 ] |
| No, I don't enunciate the "t" |
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50% |
[ 9 ] |
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| Total Votes : 18 |
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| Author |
Message |
lf_aristotle69
Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 546
Location: HangZhou, China
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 Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| Lorean wrote: |
http://baike.baidu.com/view/1220371.htm
| Quote: |
| w 音与u相同,用来跟后面的韵母拼成音节 |
Translation: 'w' is the same as 'u' It is combined with the final following it to make a syllable.
No native speakers pronounce 五 as /wu/. It is pronounced /u/. |
Thanks for your patience Lorean! 
I see now that putting down all the fundamental Chinese language texts a couple of weeks after I bought them (6+ years ago) was slightly premature...
After picking them up again just now I can see that the 'y' and 'w' used in writing PinYin are simply substitutes for 'i' and 'u', respectively, when they are used as a kind of "initial" at the beginning of a Chinese syllable.
In fact the 'y' and 'w' are NOT real initials and, as you and others are saying, DO NOT have the same pronunciation as the English 'y' in "yet" or 'w' in "wet".
Wow, I could have sworn, over the past 6 years, that that's what I've been hearing the locals pronouncing them as! Well, (pointing to myself) you know what they say about 'assumptions'!
For the Chinese "yu" it should be pronounced as "iu", which is what it, in fact, truely is. It's just a rule when writing PinYin to change the "i" to a "y".
Hence, "Wu" and "Yi" are special cases.
I hearby stand thoroughly corrected.
LFA |
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11:59
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 632
Location: Hong Kong: The 'Pearl of the Orient'
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| I'd be interested to know how many of those who say they do pronounce the silent 't' in 'often' pronounce the very similar word 'soften'. What percentage also pronounce the 't' in that word? |
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kev7161
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 5880
Location: Suzhou, China
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:26 am Post subject: |
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| Wait . . . what happened to the "often" debate? |
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