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The Zero Initial and the Zero Syllabic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Fang-Kuei Li
Fang-Kuei Li*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Extract

In 1948, Y. R. Chao suggested that the voiced velar fricative of Mandarin might be regarded as an initial; but since he found that there was little chance of minimal contrasts, we might, for practical purposes, leave this phoneme unmarked. In the present paper I intend to list additional examples of contrast involving this initial, and to comment on its patterning with other initials.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 42 , Issue 2: April-June , June 1966 , pp. 300 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Y. R. Chao, ‘The voiced velar fricative as an initial in Mandarin’, Le maître phonétique no. 89 (1948).

2 In the phonetic transcriptions, tone marks have been omitted for typographical reasons. They are in every case the same as in the immediately preceding italic notation.

3 Samuel E. Martin, ‘Problems of hierarchy and indeterminacy in Mandarin phonology’, BIHP 29.209–29 (1957).

4 Charles F. Hockett, ‘Peiping phonology’, JAOS 67.253–67 (1947).

5 Hockett, ‘Peiping morphophonemics’, Lg. 26.63–85 (1950).

6 Lawton M. Hartman III, ‘The segmental phonemes of the Peiping dialect’, Lg. 20.28–42 (1944).