Linguist Forum
Specializations => Phonetics and Phonology => Topic started by: YUNUS on July 01, 2017, 09:54:58 PM
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Hello guys I am new here, I have a question
In Mandarin Chinese the word [xao] means "good" and the word [gao] means "tall." Is this a minimal pair?
what is the status of the allophones - and [g] in Mandarin Chinese? Specifically, are
- and [g] allophones of the same phoneme, or are they allophones of different phonemes? Explain your answer.
thank you so much
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As written, this looks suspiciously like the question from an assignment...
What have you already figured out or what do you think so far?
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It's impossible to tell from your spelling. Chinese has tone, which you don't mark. A minimal pair is two distinct words which differ in only one sound. Without tone marks, you can't tell.