| Phonological harmony is a common phenomenon among all the languages around the world. It can even be stated that phonological harmony is universal in all human languages. No matter which language one uses, he can always be sensitive to the harmonious beauty of sounds, due to the fact that such perception is a natural blessing. Phonological harmony can be divided into two categories: segment harmony and supra-segment harmony. Among the previous research for phonological harmony, it is common that most of them overviewed a particular phonological harmony phenomenon in particular languages. However, the research mentioned above did not use scientific method to reveal the nature of phonological harmony. As a result, this paper will do empirical study on phonological harmony with the help of PRAAT which is a phonetic analysis software, based on the theory of phonology and the principle of least effort. The research will be conducted from four aspects: phonological harmony study on vowels, phonological harmony study on consonants, phonological harmony study on passages and phonological harmony study on supra-segments. The aim of this research is to analyze phonological harmony phenomenon in an objective perspective and to proclaim the physical facts of phonological harmony with the help of scientific method(PRAAT). Research shows that phonological harmony plays the guidance role in phonological changes to meet the request from three aspects: economic principle, symmetry and fluency. |
PDF Full Text Request