Abstract:Phonetic evolution has its rules as well as exceptions. In early ancient times,the vowels of 你我他 elonged to vowel ge ,while their initial consonants belonged to the phonemes of Ni (/n/) Yi (/Y/) and T...Phonetic evolution has its rules as well as exceptions. In early ancient times,the vowels of 你我他 elonged to vowel ge ,while their initial consonants belonged to the phonemes of Ni (/n/) Yi (/Y/) and Tou (/th/) respectively. The difference lies in the original character of 你 —— 尔 ,which consisted of a head vowel while the other two did not. In the medieval period,according to the regulation of phonetic evolution 尔 evolved into the form of consonant ri plus the vowel zhi,我 into consonant /Y/ plus the vowel ge,他 into consonant /th/ plus the vowel ge ,the descending character of 尔 ,i.e. 你 ,as an exception to it,evolved into the form of the consonant /n/ plus the vowel zhi. In the period of Putonghua,你 evolved into /ni/,尔 into /er/,我 into /wo/,which is an exception,and 他 ,too,into /ta/. Those changes took place in the process of people's using,perceiving and hearing the sound,to which the language experts are supposed to pay enough attention.Read More
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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