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The Phonetic Comparison Between the Yi Language and English
Abstract:People in Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefecture speakthe Yi Language, which is a completely different language from English. The writer of this paper carried out a research to make a comparison and a contrast of the two languages in phonetics, for the purpose that the result of the research could not only help Yi students to understand the phonetic characteristics of the two languages and clear the obstacles in learning English, but also help English teachers in Liangshan design some scientific teaching methods and improve the foreign language teaching conditions there. The writer has been to middle schools in Puge County, Liangshan Prefect. to do some investigation with questionnaires and mini-type meetings, where she discussed the differences of the phonetics in the two languages and the difficulties Yi students face, from which she has got precious first-hand materials. The writer found that, apart from the different phonetic symbols in the two languages, some more differences exist in their intonation, tune and phoneme. As the writer focuses on the difference of phonetic symbols, she will discuss in this paper the following points: 1. some phonetics symbols intheYilanguage and English are the same both in form and pronunciation; 2. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language and English are the same in form but different in pronunciation; 3. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language and English are different in form but the same in pronunciation; 4. apart from vowels and consonants,the Yi language has some initial consonants andvowels；5. English has some diphthongs，but the Yi language hasn’t. Finally, the writer proposes a few constructive suggestions to the English teaching in Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture.
Key words:English; the Yi language; phonetics; comparison; constructive suggestions for teaching
摘要：凉山彝族自治州的多数居民说的彝语是和英语完全不同的一门语言。为了提高彝族学生的英语水平，提高彝族地区的英语教学质量，本文作者对彝语和英语的语音进行了对比，目的是找出两种语言在语音方面的异同，帮助彝族学生认识两种语言，扫清英语学习障碍；同时帮助彝族地区的英语教师制定出科学的教学方法，改进凉山州目前的英语教学落后状况。本文作者到彝族地区普格县对中学生做了问卷调查，并开了小型座谈会与彝族学生面对面交流，获取了第一手资料。作者发现，英语和彝语的语音除了可以在音标上比较异同，还可从语调、声调、音素组成入手进行阐述。音标上存在以下差异：1彝语和英语音标写法与发音均相同；2彝语和英语音标写法相同而发音不同；3彝语和英语音标写法不同而发音相同；4彝语语音除元音和辅音外，还存在声母和韵母；5英语语音中存在双元音，而彝语中没有。最后，作者对彝族地区的英语教学提出了一些建设性的建议。
关键字: 英语； 彝语； 语音； 对比； 教学
Ⅰ. Introduction
Yi language belongs to theYi language branchofSino-Tibetanlanguage system, andis quitedifferent from English either in origin or in phoneme. For many reasons, the English teaching in Yi area is backward compared to the interior areafor a long time, which becomes one of the biggest obstacles in the process of Yi students’ study. Many talented and diligent Yi students are refused by many top universitiesin Chinajust becauseoftheir poor English. In addition to the reasons of study environment, study condition and teaching method, the differencesof speech organs and speech habitsbetween English and Yi language are also theobstacles of English-learningof Yi students. And all of these obstacles result in inevitable influence in English learningin Yi area.
In order to offer useful information to the English teachers and Yi studentsin Yi area, the research team first made an thorough research of the English and Yi language phonetics and then penetratethe middle schools of Yi area( Puge countyof Liangshan Yi people autonomous prefecture)and communicate with the Yi students face to face to obtain the first-hand materials.
Throughmeans of investigate-questionnaire and the mini-symposium, wecommunicatedwith the local Yi students, acquired the first-hand materials, and finally find out the similarities and differences between English and Yi language in phoneticsand the common problemsthat the Yi students facein English-learning. And I hope the research would have some help in improving the English teaching in Yi area and inimproving the Yi students’ English ability.
Ⅱ. Phonetic symbols of the two languages
English contains 26 phonetic symbols, of all these phonetic symbols, there are 5 vowels and 21 consonants. Every phonetic symbol has one or more than one sound. Thus, English totally has 44 phonemes, if take [ts],[dz],[tr],[dr] into consideration, then there are 48 phonemesin English. The written form of phoneme is phonemic alphabet,that is phonemic symbol. One phonemic alphabet stands for one phoneme. English totally contains 12 monophthongs, 8 diphthongs, and 24 consonants.
On the contrary, Yi language is a syllable characterlanguage, that is to say, one character stands for one syllablein Yi language. Yi language totally has 10 vowels and 43 consonants. The comparison between the two languages is as following.
| vowel | consonant | ||
| English | Monophthong | Diphthong | Stops[p][t][k][b][d][g] Fricatives[f][][s][][h] [v][][z][] Affricates[][] Liquids[l][r] Nasals[m][n][] Glides[w][j] |
| Front vowels [i:][i][e][]Central vowels [][][]Back vowels [][][][][] | [ei][][ai][au] [][][][] | ||
| Yi language | [ie] [i] [a] [uo] [o] [e] [u] [ur] [y] [yr] | Bilabial[b] [bb] [nb] [p] [hm] [m] Labio-dental[f] [v] Glottal[hx] Front apical sound [z] [c] [zz] [nz] [s] [ss] Central apical sound [d] [t] [dd] [nd] [hn] [n] [hl] [l] Back apical sound [zh] [ch] [rr] [nr] [sh] [r] Velar [g] [k] [gg] [mg] [ng] [h] [w] Palatal [j] [q] [jj] [nj] [ny] [x] [y] | |
According to the analysis of the materialsthat we collected, we can know that there are many phonetic similarities and differences between English and Yi language, mainly prominent as following:
ⅰ. the phonetic symbols that have similar written form and pronunciation in the two languages
| Phonetic symbols | Yi language | English |
| i | Iqi(head) idix(clothes) | Sit miss |
| p | Pbbo(flag) polix(barn) | Port pay |
| n | Nekop(mile) neddu(cushion) | Not nice |
| f | Taxkefo(altar)futma (six) | Fine fail |
| v | Vosy(snow) voco(human) | Save vote |
| t | Tekop(time) tebbo(pineapple) | Toe top |
| l | Lezhyp(rope)leho(corral) | Life long |
| k | Keddiho(northwest)kebbo(ratify) | Key kill |
| h | Hevat(pot)hexjjy(fine) | Hat have |
| s | Syke(cucumber) saxle(cotton) | Sip seal |
| r | Ryyi(hut)roxjy(economize) | Red raw |
ⅱ.the phonetic symbols that have same written form but different pronunciation in the two languages
| Phonetic symbols | Yi language | English |
| e | sheddu(iorn) ne(you) | bed dead |
| b | bosimv(protection) bowzhyw(strong) | back bad |
| d | bvdex(praise) depshe(welcome) | dad dark |
| g | geapmop(great) getlv(technology) | game great |
| w | wega(effort) wejjip(victory) | what why |
| z | zyly(bell) zytmop (hoe) | zip zone |
| j | jibbv(aside) jipxi(relatives) | yet yellow |
ⅲ. the phonetic symbols that have the same pronunciation but different written form in the two languages
| Yi language phonetic symbols | Examples | English phonetic symbols | examples |
| y | jjossy(forever) | i: | eat |
| ie | ieqip(duck egg) | e | dead |
| o | obbu(smart) | sort | |
| uo | uoma(head) | fox | |
| u | wu(intestines) | u | book |
| e | ssheddu(iron) | about | |
| bb | bborrox(delegate) | b | back |
| gg | ggeddu(information) | g | game |
| x | tatxi(should) | mission |
Ⅲ.The other differences between the two languages
Yi language and English belong to totally different language systems, Yi language belongs to Sino-Tibetanlanguage system, while English belongs toIndo-European language system. So, we can compare the phonetic differences not only in phonetic symbols, but also in tone, intonation, formation of pronunciation, diphthong, consonant and vowels.
ⅰ. the tone of Yi language
Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variation can distinguish meaning just like phonemes; therefore, the tone is a suprasegmental feature. The meaning-distinctive function of the tone is especially important in what we call tone languages. English is not a tone language. Yi language, however, is a typical tone language. It has four tones. And the role of the tone can be well illustrated by pronouncing the same sound combination such as‘o’in the four different tones.
Ot(under) ox(have done) o(kidney) op(goose)
In Yi language, a syllable can be pronounced in different ways, thus result in different meanings. This is the definition of tone in Yi language which can distinguishdifferent meanings through different pronunciation.
The Yi language in Liangshan , a syllable stands for a character, and a character consists of consonant, vowel, and tone.
In addition to distinguish the meaning of word, the tone also has grammatical function. For example:
xit(bite) nga shep(I look for) nga mo ox(I have seen)
xix(what) nga shex(look for me) nagx mo ox(have seen me)
Liangshan Yi language has four tones, that is .
ⅱ. the intonation of English
When pitch, stress sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation playsan important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. English has fourbasic types of intonation, known as the four tones: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone, and the rise-fall tone. The most frequently used are the first three. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said. Compare the following three different ways of saying the same sentence:
1. ‘That’s ‘not the ‘book he ‘wants.
2. ‘That’s ‘not the ‘book he,wants.
3. ‘That’s,not the book he,wants.
Spoken in the falling-tone, version1 simply states a fact, i.e., the book in question is not the one he wants. Version2, said in the rising tone, indicates uncertainty on the part of the speaker; he is asking the question: is that not the book he wants? Version3, spoken in the fall-rise tone indicates that apart from what is said literally, there is an implied message, i.e., besides telling the listener that the book in question is not the one he wants.
Intonation can make a certain part of sentence especially prominent by placing the nucleus it. Nucleus refers to the major pitch change in an intonation unit. Within one intonation unit, the nucleus normally falls on the last stressed syllabe. Shifting the nucleus to another syllable, normally stressed or unstressed, will cause difference in meaning.
ⅲ.in addition to consonants and vowels,there are initial consonantsand vowels(韵母) in Yi language
Consonants and vowels are classified in terms of manner of phoneme, while initial consonants and vowels(韵母) are classified in terms of the place of the phoneme in a syllable. Generally speaking, a syllable is divided into two part, the front part is initial consonants and the back part is vowel(韵母).
Initial consonant is the consonant of the beginningof a syllable, and the vowel(韵母) is the left part of a syllable. i.e., sso(study) and ma(bamboo), in these two syllables, ‘ss’and ‘m’are initial consonants, ‘o’and ‘a’are vowels(韵母).
But here what Iwant to point out is that consonants and initial consonants are different concepts, the same as vowels and vowels(韵母). All initial consonants are served by consonants, but not all consonants in the syllables are initial consonants. And though nearly every vowel can act as vowel(韵母), but the phonemes which are serves as vowels(韵母) are not limited in vowels. So, we can say that the scope of vowels is less than the scope of vowels(韵母).
ⅳ.the diphthongs that English phonetics has but Yi language does not
In English there are a number of diphthongs, which are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions.But in Yi language there aren’t diphthongs. And t theEnglishdiphthongs include[ei][ai][au][][][][][][].
ⅴ. both languages have some phonetic symbols which do not exist in the other language.
| The phonetic symbols which exist only in Yi language | The phonetic symbols which exist only in English | |
| vowels | [uo][ie][ur][y][yr] | |
| consonants | [bb][nb][hm][dd][nd] [hn][hl][gg][mg][hx] [ng][zz][nz][zh][ch] [rr][nr][sh][j][nj] [ny][x][y] |
Ⅳ. The difficulties of Yi students in pronunciation when learning English
Our investigate target includes the first grade and the second grade students of middle school in Puge county. Of the investigation about 120 Yi students in Puge middle school and Puge ethnic middle school, we find out most of the students, though cannot articulate some phonetic symbols, they can articulate the words which contain these phonetic symbols. From this point, we can figure out that the English teachers don’t pay much attention to the pronunciation of phonetic symbols, but to the pronunciation of the single word which cause the students cannot understand the phonemes and cannot pronouncethe word by themselves. And thus they can only rely upon teachers, without teachers, they would lose the ability of self-study. And some English teachers cannot articulate the phonetic symbols themselves, no speak of teaching the students. We also found that during the process of leaning English phonetic symbols, the students always try to find the English phonetic symbols’ counterparts in Yi phonetic symbols, if they cannot find the counterparts, they would guess the pronunciation without any scientific reasons, and always mistake[] into [s], and mistake [] into [z], and do not care the long vowels and the short vowels. The phonetic symbols that Yi students always make mistake are listed as follow:
| Phonetic symbols | Wrong pronunciation | the right pronunciation rate of phonetic symbols | the right pronunciation rate of words | Reasons of wrong pronunciation |
| [b] | Pronounce it into [b] in Yi language | 10% (12 students) | 81.1% (96 students) | There exist same writing form phonetic symbols in Yi language |
| [d] | Pronounce it into [d] in Yi language | 11.7% (14 students ) | 80% (96 students ) | There exist same writing form phonetic symbols in Yi language |
| [q] | Pronounce it into [q] in Yi language | 14.2% (11 students ) | 80% (96 students ) | There exist same writing form phonetic symbols in Yi language |
| [] | Pronounce it as [s] | 15% (18 students ) | 15% (18 students ) | The teacher didn’t emphasize |
| [] | Pronounce it as [z] | 12.5% (15 students) | 12.5% (15 students) | The teacher didn’t emphasize |
| [] | Pronounce it as [n] | 2.5% (3 students ) | 10% (12 students ) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [i] [] | There is no difference when pronounce them | 66.7% (80 students) | 60% (72 students) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [] [] | There is no difference when pronounce them | 70.8% (85 students) | 72.5% (87 students ) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [] [] | There is no difference when pronounce them | 48.3% (58 students ) | 71.7% (86 students ) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [j] | Pronounce it into [j] in Yi language | 40% (48 students) | 40% (48 students ) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [] [] [] | Retroflex the tongue when pronounce them | 40% (48 students) | 46.7% (56 students ) | Hadn’t distinguished it when learning |
| [l] | Pronounce it into[l] in Yi language | 14.2% (17 students ) | 46.7% (56 students) | There is the same writing form phonetic symbols in Yi language |
| [w] | Pronounce it into [w] in Yi language | 7.5% (8 students) | 8% (9 students) | There is the same writing form phonetic symbols in Yi language |
Ⅴ. Means to improve
Throughseriesofinvestigation, comparison and analysis, wecan find that there are still some phonetic problems in English teaching which mustbe solved quickly. If youwant to improve the teaching quality, learn alanguage anduse it to communicate,phonology is crucial. If you cannot pronounceitcorrectly, you cannot make yourself understood, then you did not reach the goal. So,we should put the phonetic study in an important place either in study or in teaching. What’s more, the phonetic teaching shouldn’t limited just in the first step but should throughouttheprocess, corrected again and again, and finally overcome themother-tongueremoveinfluence, andwecanspeakaninfluentand correctsentence. Here are some advice we give according to the existent problems.
ⅰ. improve English teacher’s English ability
Throughtheinvestigation,wefoundthatsomeEnglish teachers,eventhemselvescannotarticulatethephoneticsymbols.Forexample, in this investigation, there isoneclassofgradetwo,whenasked“Compare withthetape,doesyourteacher’spronunciationcorrect?”. The 49 students’ answers are as following: 15 students’ thought that their teachers’ pronunciation is standard, 24 is just so so, and 10 is that they don’t know.
So, the English teachers in Yiareashouldfirst learn English very well themselves. All of usknowthat speechand writing are thetwo mediaorsubstancesusedbynaturallanguagesvehiclesfor communication. And of the two media oflanguage, speech is more basic thanwritingforthereasonthatlanguage is first perceived through its sounds, and writing system ofany language isalways “invented” byitsuserstorecordspeechwhentheneedarises. Thusthestudyofsoundsisof greatimportance in language learning. So if the teachers have not hadthe standard pronunciation, then they would mislead the students through the process of teaching. And the result would be seriousand cannot be solved during a short time.
ⅱ.improve the teaching method
we should develop theadvantageofYistudents’abilityofimitation,andcomparethephoneticsbetweenEnglishand Yi language, through this way to letthestudentsunderstandthedifferencesof phoneme, tone, and intonation. Of course, in ordertoachieve this, theteachers should pay much attention to it. We found teachers canteach studentsthrough 4differences.First, compare the phonetic symbols which have the same writing formandsamepronunciation in both languages. Forexample, [i]. Second, compare the phonetic symbols which have the same writing form but different pronunciation. For example, [e]. Third, compare thephonetic symbols which have different writingformbutsamepronunciation.For example, [y]in Yi language and [i] in English. And last, compare the phonetic symbols which contained only inone language.
ⅲ. cultivate the students’ interests in English, stimulate their study motivation
Thereisoneclassofgradeone, when asked“when youencounterthe English phonetic symbol you cannot find its counterpart in Yi language, what would you do?” 10 percent of the students’ answer is to ask for the teacher’s help, 90 percent of the students would give up, and nobody would consultant the electronic dictionary for help, the reason is that they don’t have the tool.
And we can deducea conclusionfrom the students’ answers that most of the students have no motivation to learn English, and thus when they encounterthe difficulties, they would always choose to give up. So, from this point, in order to improve the students’ English, weshould first cultivate the students’ interests in English, stimulate their motivation. Actually, the students have a strong curiosity in learning, but how to lead them to a useful way, it alldepends uponthe teachers right guidance.The only motivation to enter higherschool is not enough.
ⅳ.increase facilities
The process of phonology is a process of continuous imitation. Thus, standard teaching tape and language lab become unnecessary through the process of English learning.Butwefoundthat both schools and students didn’t put much attention to it. In addition to have classes, only a few students have the chance to listen the original tapes and watch the original movies. The schools of Yiarea should try to build language lab, make sure that the studentslearn standard phonology, what’s more, to stimulate their motivationto learn English.
Ⅵ. Conclusion
TheYistudents’difficulttolearnEnglishhaslimitedtheimprovement of Yi area’s education quality in general for a long time. And this problembecomesmoreprominent nowadays,whenthe government proposesto improve Chinese people’s quality in general, and when the government proposes to improve the ethnic minority’s education in West China. This investigation focuses onthe comparison between English and Yi phonology and find out the differences and similarities. And we hope that this paper can offer some useful information to the English teachers in Yi area and to the Yi students, too. And hope that the Yi students can benefit from this paper, and finally speak very influent English. Thecomparison between English and the Yi language has a long influenceinYiarea’s improvementofeducationandeconomy.We sincerelyhope that this paper have some value in this process.
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