Re: Gwoyeu Romatzyh marking the optional neutral tone

From: Christoph Burgmer (cburgmer@ira.uka.de)
Date: Mon Jul 13 2009 - 16:22:41 CDT

  • Next message: Leo Broukhis: "Re: Gwoyeu Romatzyh marking the optional neutral tone"

    Am Montag, 13. Juli 2009 schrieben Sie:
    > >>>>> "Christoph" == Christoph Burgmer <cburgmer@ira.uka.de> writes:
    >
    > Christoph> the optional tone is more rendered like a small Latin O, less
    > Christoph> roundish and with stronger sides
    >
    > Less roundish with stronger sides makes it sound more like a zero than
    > like an oh. Given that and George Gerrity’s followup¹ in this thread,
    > it is likely that U+2080 SUBSCRIPT ZERO »₀« is what you want. (Are
    > SUBSCRIPT ONE through SUBSCRIPE FOUR »₁₂₃₄« used for the other tones?
    > If so, that would be even more evidence for »₀«.)

    No, GR uses implicit rendering by changing the base syllable.
    While Mandarin tones are uniquely named 1-4, the neutral tone is special,
    mostly though named "fifth". And as Chao devides between .geh and "₀geh", I
    don't think that Zero is a good explanation, as this should be attributed to
    .geh which _is_ the neutral tone, while the optional indicates either neutral
    or the original/ethymological (i.e. 1-4).
    This doesn't touch the glyph argument though.
    -Christoph



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