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A comment on Interactive IPA Chart. Parent comment

Re:Interactive IPA Chart by rahimnathwani on Thursday May 06, 2021 @04:46PM (#27068852)
The same happens with foreigners learning Mandarin Chinese. The consonants are easy, but each vowel can be pronounced with one of 4 different tones (or 5 if you count the 'neutral' tone).

If you get a tone wrong, sometimes people will understand the erroneous word due to surrounding context. But pretty often you'll just elicit a blank stare. This is especially the case for short phrases, e.g. when you're asking for directions.

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Re:Interactive IPA Chart by chalcolithic on Thursday May 06, 2021 @05:34PM (#27069316)
>The consonants are easy

I wish. My teachers have no problem telling apart my j and q, but I rarely hear the difference despite all the cosonants in my native language coming in palatalized/non-palatalized pairs.

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Re:Interactive IPA Chart by rahimnathwani on Friday May 07, 2021 @12:15AM (#27072056)
I forgot that English speakers often have difficulty with these pairs of consonant sounds in Mandarin:

j / zh

q / ch (the former is further forward in the mouth than 'ch' in English, and the latter further back, with a fully clenched mouth)

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