Who are you calling a homophone?

[Guest realmayo]

Just by chance today I was told that 理 and 力 have the same 声音。

[OneEye]

Do you know where can I read more (introductory level material) about this kind of thing?  I'm not looking to get into to it too deep, just to be aware of Middle Chinese and rhyming in Chinese poetry.

 

This is probably a good starting point. This too.

[CathaySpecific]

Great, thread - love the subject line too.

 

realmayo: "Just by chance today I was told that 理 and 力 have the same 声音"

 

Not sure who would say this and in what context.  They certainly have different 发音 (pronunciation) and 声调 (tone).

[歐博思]

 

 

the new-be didn't know

 

The new-bi didn't know?

[L-F-J]

I don't know about everyone else, but record vs record and conflict vs conflict aren't just a matter of stress for me. 

 

One record has a long vowel, the other has a short vowel. So, it's re-cord vs reckord.

 

And likewise con-flict vs cun-flict.

 

Different sounds.

[Demonic_Duck]

Just as you have 同义词 and 近义词, which are often both translated into English as "synonyms" (when really it should be "synonyms" vs. "near-synonyms"), you also have 同音字 and 谐音字, which I would say correspond to "homophones" and "near-homophones".

• 里 lǐ、李 lǐ、理 lǐ are 同音字/homophones.
• 里 lǐ、力 lì、离 lí are 谐音字/near-homphones.
• 真 zhēn、争 zhēng、称 chēng are also 谐音字/near-homphones.

I think you could also extend this to 同音词 and 谐音词, though I'm not sure how much these terms are used.

• 例子 lìzi and 栗子 lìzi are 同音词/homophones.
• 例子 lìzi、 离子 lízǐ、荔枝 lìzhī、离职 lízhí are all 谐音词/near-homophones.