Hua Lin A Grammar of Mandarin Chinese 23 Chapter 2. Phonetics and Phonology The study of the sound system of language normally starts with phonetics followed by phonology. However, it is widely acknowledged that the two are not mutually exclusive: The quality of phonological modeling crucially depends on the understanding of phonetic details,

The focus is on the issue of phonetic weakening, instead of the issue of stress. The existence of word stress in Chinese is refused. The proposed hypothesis claims that in tonal Chinese, particularly in colloquial Mandarin of Beijing type, phonetic weakening plays a more important role than phonetic enhancement.

Key words: phonetics, phonation types, tone, Multiregister and Four-Level Model ‘Chinese phonetics’ refers to general phonetics pursued inside and outside of China, using data available and addressing issues arising from the languages of …

are more likely to undergo reduction than infrequent words (Bybee 2001). Because Chinese has fewer syllables than English, Chinese syllables are used more frequently, and so they are more likely to undergo reduction and loss of contrasts. In disyllabic English words and phrases, three kinds of stress differences can be distinguished.

To accurately capture Mandarin Chinese phonology, this study compares Pinyin symbols and IPA in describing Mandarin initials (consonant sounds) and finals (vowel sounds).