Tonal "flip-flop" (reversal of pitch value in which a direct exchange of value between two items is necessarily involved) can be found in a significant number of modern Chinese dialects, where an opposite pitch pattern is observed for the traditional Yin/Yang dichotomy of tones. (Author/CB)

Discusses Tone sandhi, the tone changes undergone by tone-bearing syllables in juxtaposition, in several Chinese dialects. The tone group is examined as a syntatico-semantic unit in Fuzhou and Mandarin and as a syntactic boundary-marker in Shanghai and Xiamen. The theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed. (20 references) (JL)

One dialect of Yi spoken in Meigu County in the southern part of China's Sichuan Province is analyzed for its tone patterns, based on data provided by a bilingual native speaker. Consonant and vowel inventories are provided. Three contrastive tones are found. One has three allophones, which are conditioned by the preceding tone. Tonal allophony is…

The present volume comprises an introductory course to spoken siSwati, an African language of the Niger-Congo group, also referred to as Swazi. The materials have two principle components, "Understanding siSwati" and "Speaking siSwati," each consisting of a series of "Cycles." The purpose of the U.S. component is to give the student an opportunity…

This document describes the Shanghai dialect of Chinese. An introduction to the paper provides information on previous research on the dialect. Items covered in the phonological description include syllable structure, initials, finals, tones, tone change, and differences in initials and finals in the colloquial and literary forms. The morphemes of…

This document describes the Wen-ch'ang and Ting-an dialects of Chinese. Items covered in the phonological description of Wen-ch'ang include syllable structure, initials, finals, tones, tone change, and differences in the initials and finals in colloquial and literary forms. Initials, finals, and tones in the Ting-an dialect are also discussed. The…

This document provides a description of the Teng-xian dialect of Chinese. In the introduction, the author discusses the geographical location of the dialect and its relationship to other Chinese dialects; a map is provided. Items covered in the phonological description include syllable structure, initials, finals, tones, tone sandhi, combinations…

This paper reports on a case study of a Cantonese-speaking child age 2 and considers the implication of tone acquisition for tone studies in general, and Cantonese tonology in particular. (NCR)

Summarizes 10 presentations made at the workshop on a variety of topics including: classification of Chinese dialects; the importance of semantic units in tone sandhi; insights on Chinese character recognition among brain-damaged patients; and a cognitive approach to the study of Chinese grammar. (TR)

The visual exposure method for teaching tonal modulation can be used in the classroom where aural exposure time cannot be increased. The use of musical notation is a workable technique to begin with, using flashcards. Each flashcard has a character and the musical note that is linked with it. (CFM)

Presents a pair of innovations, originally developed and used for teaching Mandarin, that are now being applied to the teaching of Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Thai, involving a double system of representation to encourage easier pronunciation and long-term learning; and a special sequencing for presenting the tones. (36 references) (CB)

A study investigated the validity of three theories in predicting the structure of language tone systems containing level tones. The theories include the following: that (1) phonetic elements are arranged so they are maximally separated in a fixed phonetic space; (2) a system with a larger number of phonetic elements will use a larger phonetic…

This short dictionary is designed to accompany the work of Melzian (1937) for the benefit of scholars concerned with the place and function of the Nigerian Bini language in the structure of West African languages. The conventional orthography has been used, except in three cases. The body of the general word list contains the English meaning, the…

The use of computers makes possible analysis of the vast amount of data available in recent dialect dictionaries and surveys and in the ancient Chinese rhyme books, such as "Guang yun" and "Ji yun." Comparison of dialects can enable a historical study of Chinese, a major language group outside the Indo-European area, to offer…

The aim of this study is to identify and describe the tones of North Vietnamese in the context of single words and one frame sentence. One North Vietnamese male served for seven hours as the informant, the stimulus material being verbal items, illustrations and word lists in both English and Vietnamese. The description of each of the six tones…