Mooc: Traditional Chinese Phonology

[Luxi 663]

Another one from 中国大学 Mooc

中国传统音韵学 - China's Traditional Phonology

https://www.icourse163.org/course/SISU-1003361045  

From: Shanghai International Studies University

 

Currently on its 5th week out of 13 but the previous 2 sessions are accessible for view without registering for the course (after registering with 中国大学 Mooc)

 

The course deals with the historical evolution of Chinese pronunciation, much of it based on ancient poetry's rhyme and rythm; the analysis brings  方言, other East Asian languages and even Sanskrit into the picture (and the ppts are in traditional characters). Spellbinding!

 

It's too advanced for me, but the lectures are so clear and so well delivered that even I can get quite a bit out of them.  I can only judge based on auditing the first couple of videos, but it feels like linguistic Heaven already.

 

 

 

[mungouk 439]

Wow... definitely way, way above my level but the link to the "seeing speech" website is really interesting, especially since it seems to include a wide range of phonemes and not just those used in English.

 

https://www.seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=3&speaker=1 has the option to click on an IPA symbol and to watch a video of a real-time animation, an MRI or an ultrasound of someone producing the sound. (The videos are very low resolution but the animations are pretty good.)

 

Which brings to me to a nagging doubt I've had for a while... which sounds in standard Mandarin are meant to be retroflex?

 

I always had a presumption that the vowel sound in words like 是 ，只 are supposed to be retroflex but I don't remember ever discussing that level of detail with my teacher.

 

I've tried having a look at the Standard Chinese phonology page on wikipedia but it's too technical in most places for me.  Any suggestions for better sources?

 

2 hours ago, Luxi said:

even Sanskrit

 

Really?  Presumably via Buddhism. Wow again.

[Luxi 663]

40 minutes ago, mungouk said:

but I don't remember ever discussing that level of detail with my teacher.

This is the best resource for pronunciation, another mooc!

普实训与测试  (Putonghua Training and Testing)

https://www.icourse163.org/course/SCU-1003501002?tid=1003754003

It is a course for Chinese people preparing for the official putonghua test. You'll have all putonghua sounds described, most in detail. It's in very clear Chinese with simplified Chinese subtitles and very well illustrated. After that, all you have to do is practice.

 

Forgot to say: no session right now, but you can check the previous session.

[mungouk 439]

Thanks @Luxi!

 

[jobm 58]

Wow, thank you for this. I major in Historical Chinese phonology and Sino-Korean phonology so this is like a review for me. So happy~

[mungouk 439]

Regarding retroflex sounds, I'd forgotten about Chinese Pronunciation Wiki.

 

According to https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/Retroflex it's just ch-, zh-, sh-, r- and -er

 

(and presumably by implication whichever vowel follows the initial.)

 

 

[Dawei3 127]

On 10/8/2019 at 9:47 AM, Luxi said:

It is a course for Chinese people preparing for the official putonghua test

What is this?  I've never heard of this before.  (one of the reasons I like this website is the discussions cover so many different topics about China & Chinese).  

[Luxi 663]

3 hours ago, Dawei3 said:

What is this?

 

It is an exam that Chinese broadcasters, teachers and others have to take to prove they speak correct standard 普通话 (and is set up by the government organization in charge of determining what is 'correct standard 普通话')

 

普通话考试的官网网址是什么？
https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1866522191235493627.html

 

普通话水平测试网址
http://www.cltt.org/

 

I found the mooc from Sezhuan University enjoyable and extremely helpful even without intending to sit the exam, I still revise parts of it now and then. It is another very well designed and delivered course from 中国大学 Moocs , and it is 100% free and open to all.