The Phonetic Comparison Between the Yi Language and English

Abstract: People in Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefecture speak the 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 followindowsg points: 1. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language 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 and vowels；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办法，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 the Yi language branch of Sino-Tibetan language system, and is quite different from English either in origin or in phoneme. For many reasons, the English teaching in Yi area is backward compared to the interior area for 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 universities in China just because of their poor English. In addition to the reasons of study environment, study condition and teaching method, the differences of speech organs and speech habits between English and Yi language are also the obstacles of English-learning of Yi students. And all of these obstacles result in inevitable influence in English learning in Yi area.

In order to offer useful information to the English teachers and Yi students in Yi area, the research team first made an thorough research of the English and Yi language phonetics and then penetrate the middle schools of Yi area ( Puge county of Liangshan Yi people autonomous prefecture) and communicate with the Yi students face to face to obtain the first-hand materials.

Through means of investigate-questionnaire and the mini-symposium, we communicated with the local Yi students, acquired the first-hand materials, and finally find out the similarities and differences between English and Yi language in phonetics and the common problems that the Yi students face in English-learning. And I hope the research would have some help in improving the English teaching in Yi area and in improving 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 phonemes in 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 character language, that is to say, one character stands for one syllable in Yi language. Yi language totally has 10 vowels and 43 consonants. The comparison between the two languages is as followindowsg.

According to the analysis of the materials that we collected, we can know that there are many phonetic similarities and differences between English and Yi language, mainly prominent as followindowsg:

ⅰ. the phonetic symbols that have similar written form and pronunciation in the two languages

ⅱ. the phonetic symbols that have same written form but different pronunciation in the two languages

ⅲ. the phonetic symbols that have the same pronunciation but different written form in the two languages

Ⅲ. The other differences between the two languages

Yi language and English belong to totally different language systems, Yi language belongs to Sino-Tibetan language system, while English belongs to Indo-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 distinguish different 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 plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. English has four basic 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 followindowsg 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 consonants and 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 beginning of 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 I want 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 the English diphthongs include [ei] [ai] [au] [] [] [] [] [] [].

ⅴ. both languages have some phonetic symbols which do not exist in the other language.

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 pronounce the 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:

Ⅴ. Means to improve

Through series of investigation, comparison and analysis, we can find that there are still some phonetic problems in English teaching which must be solved quickly. If you want to improve the teaching quality, learn a language and use it to communicate, phonology is crucial. If you cannot pronounce it correctly, 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 throughout the process, corrected again and again, and finally overcome the mother-tongue remove influence, and we can speak an influent and correct sentence. Here are some advice we give according to the existent problems.

ⅰ. improve English teacher’s English ability

Through the investigation, we found that some English teachers, even themselves cannot articulate the phonetic symbols. For example, in this investigation, there is one class of grade two, when asked “Compare with the tape, does your teacher’s pronunciation correct?”. The 49 students’ answers are as followindowsg: 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 Yi area should first learn English very well themselves. All of us know that speech and writing are the two media or substances used by natural languages vehicles for communication. And of the two media of language, speech is more basic than writing for the reason that language is first perceived through its sounds, and writing system of any language is always “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Thus the study of sounds is of great importance in language learning. So if the teachers have not had the standard pronunciation, then they would mislead the students through the process of teaching. And the result would be serious and cannot be solved during a short time.

ⅱ. improve the teaching method

we should develop the advantage of Yi students’ ability of  imitation, and compare the phonetics between English and Yi language, through this way to let the students understand the differences of phoneme, tone, and intonation. Of course, in order to achieve this, the teachers should pay much attention to it. We found teachers can teach students through 4 differences. First, compare the phonetic symbols which have the same writing form and same pronunciation in both languages. For example, [i]. Second, compare the phonetic symbols which have the same writing form but different pronunciation. For example, [e]. Third, compare the phonetic symbols which have different writing form but same pronunciation. For example, [y] in Yi language and [i] in English. And last, compare the phonetic symbols which contained only in one language.

ⅲ. cultivate the students’ interests in English, stimulate their study motivation

There is one class of grade one, when asked “when you encounter the 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 deduce a conclusion from the students’ answers that most of the students have no motivation to learn English, and thus when they encounter the difficulties, they would always choose to give up. So, from this point, in order to improve the students’ English, we should 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 all depends upon the teachers right guidance. The only motivation to enter higher school 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. But we found that 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 Yi area should try to build language lab, make sure that the students learn standard phonology, what’s more, to stimulate their motivation to learn English.

Ⅵ. Conclusion

The Yi students’ difficult to learn English has limited the improvement of Yi area’s education quality in general for a long time. And this problem becomes more prominent nowadays, when the government proposes to 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 on the 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. The comparison between English and the Yi language has a long influence in Yi area’s improvement of education and economy. We sincerely hope that this paper have some value in this process.

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