A Study Of Tu 's Phonetic System

Using theories and methodology in acoustic phonetics, this paper gives acoustic descriptions to the segments and suprasegments in Monguor language, and at the same time analyses and build its phonology with phonology method.15 acoustic short vowels are contained in Monguor language:[e, [ε], [Λ], [e], [(?)], [i],[(?)],[o], [u], [o], [e], [e], [u], [u], [y], which belong to 5 phonemes:/e/, /e/, /i/,/o/, /u/; 7 long vowels are:[e:], [e:], [i:], [o:], [u:], [u:], [y:], which belong to 5 phonemes: /e:/,/e:/,/i:/,/o:/,/u:/; 17 compound vowels are [ei], [ee], [3i], [3e], [au], [au], [3u], [(?)], [Λu], [iu], [iu], [ue], [ue], [oi], [ui], [ui], [uei], which belong to 6 compound vowels phonemes:/3i/,/3u/,/iu/,/ue/,/ui/,/uei/.Among the vowels in Monguor language, central vowels are long and powerful, and then the low vowels, while the high vowels are short and weak.Regarding Monguor language, the difference between short vowel and long vowel mainly reflects in the physical length (except open syllable at the end of words).There are 31 consonants in Monguor, which are [p], [ph], [p], [t], [th], [k], [kh], [q], [f], [s], [s], [c], [x], [β], [φ], [γ], [(?)],[χ] [3], [3],[tch], [tch], [ts], [tsh], [m], [n], [η], [l], [f], [(?)], [j], all of which belong to 7 plosive phonemes:/p/,/p/,/t/,/th/,/k/,/kh/,/q/; 5 fricative phonemes:/f/,/s/,/s/,/c/,/x/; 4 affricate phonemes:;/tc/,/tch/,/ts/,/tsh/; 3 nasal phonemes:/m/,/n/,/η/; 1 lateral phoneme/l/; 1 flap phoneme /f/; and 2 glide phonemes:/(?)/ and /j/. Altogether there are 16 vowels,23 consonants and 39 segmental phonemes.There are 8 groups of compound consonants in Monguor language. The groups of light fricative and plosive, light fricative and affricate are more stable than other groups.Major sound changes in Monguor are fronting, abscission and lip-open. Abscission mainly happened in high vowels and short vowels at the beginning of word which can be a syllable on its own; Lip-open mainly happened on the vowel [u], fronting happened in back vowels and central vowels; sound changes in consonants consist of fricative and voiced sounds, including unaspirated plosives[p,k,q].There are 9 pairs of distinct features in segmental phonemes:vowel/non-vowel, consonant/non-consonant, temporary/sustain sound, aspirated/unaspirated sound, consentrated/dispersive sound, roughness/smoothness, tubbiness/sharpness, swelling/flatness, nasal/oral sound.The vowel harmony of Monguor language falls into two categories, that is the harmony of back vowals and harmony of rounded harmony. The harmony of back vowels includes same position harmony and harmony between the back vowals.has vowel harmony. Vowels are classified into two groups by tongue position. Front vowels are regarded as neutral vowels, and are harmonize with all the back vowels.The basic structure of syllables in Monguor language is (C)V(C). Vowel is the core of syllables and the essential phoneme that forms syllables. Consonant is marginal phonemes, which is dispensable. Depends on different conditions of the consonant, there are 4 basic structure types:V、VC、CV、CVC. Each syllable’s position and frequency varies based on the structure. Typical syllable for monosyllable words are CVC, while polysyllable words are CV.Length, intensity and pitch peak for Monguor all fall on the end of the word syllable. Syllables at the end of words are representative position of stress. Compound words, adverbs, loanwords, as well as when affix is added to the stem, stress position will move forward; length and intensity are greatly affected by the context, while pitched are less affected by the context. As a result, Monguor language is pitch accent in terms of stress.