Remarks on the Phonological Structure of Mandarin Chinese Author: Lillian M. Huang(Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University)

Abstract：

In this paper, we will discuss the phonological structure of Mandarin Chinese in four categories: (1) the phonemes and their phonetic realization, (2) the phono-logical components, (3) the morphophonemes, and (4) phonotactics. Here we pro-pose that Mandarin Chinese has 19 phonemic consonants and 5 distinctive vowels, in addition to 4 tones plus a neutral tone. We analyze each phoneme into their respective phonological components. Then we discuss the morphophonemic alternants. Finally we utilize some diagrams to illustrate the possible sequences and combina-tions of sounds in the language.

《Full Text》