Linking (连读) in Chinese

[kevinjamessmith]

Is there linking in Chinese? If so, what rules guide it? What are some examples? If not, why not?

I was teaching the rules for linking in English today (http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/linking.htm) and decided I'd try to prove to my students that linking in English is in fact very natural by demonstrating to them that linking occurs naturally in Chinese as well. I wrote on the board 天安，偶尔，南宁 to show that a consonant links to a vowel: tian_an, a vowel links to a vowel: ou_er, and a consonant links to a consonant when they are the same or very similar: nan_ning. I hadn't actually checked that this was officially true in Chinese, but after saying these words to myself a few times I decided that it sounded right.

However, my students completely rebelled against this comparison. They immediately argued that Chinese is not English and that there is no linking in Chinese. They pronounced each word carefully and individually 天－安，偶－尔，南－宁. I told them to say them at natural speed within the context of a sentence. They told me that I was not being scientific. I suggested that perhaps they should remember that English and Chinese are both languages and can and do share some similarities. They said that I didn't have a very good understanding of Chinese.

I suspect that (on top of the chance that I might just be completely wrong about whether or not there is linking in Chinese) my students resented me - a foreigner - telling them something about their own language.

Unfortunately, even after googling "chinese linking linguistics", "chinese pronunciation linking" and "chinese phonetics", checking through all the speaking and listening threads in Chinese-Forums.com and checking in all my Chinese text books, I still failed to find any information whatsoever on linking in Chinese.

So I pose these questions to the forum: Is there linking in Chinese? If so, what rules guide it? What are some examples? If not, why not?

[qrasy]

I would say that in 天安 there are no consonant linking. Before the 安 there are some sort of glottal stop, not continuous breath.

I'm not sure about the existence of glottal stop in 尔 of 偶尔 though. (尔 r is already an approximant for me). The 'y' and 'w' in Yi Wu Yu are not actually approximants, they are actually i u ü (with glottal stop).

Is there any consonant linking in 南宁? Of course a 'linking' naturally happens since 'n' is both ending of 南 and start of 宁.

Note that I've also lost a link to a site which says there are no linking in most words of Chinese. (the link also talk about Manchu)

[HashiriKata]

Try the following with both Chinese and English speakers:

"A name"

"An aim"

I'm pretty sure that native English speakers will pronounce the 2 in the same way. But then, when listening to a Chinese speaker saying these, you'll hear the difference between the 2 phrases.

(For Chinese speakers, there will be a glottal stop inserted between "an" and "aim" to separate the two)

PS:

Some more evidence for the difference between English and Chinese (in this connection):

- The fact that Chinese use the apostrophe ' to distinguish between xi'nan and xin'an, between qin'ai and qi'nai shows that the pronouncation of the members of the pairs are indeed different.

- In spite of English language teachers' effort in telling their students (Chinese) to link those English syllables, their students still failing to do so indicates that their is no such linking in their Chinese native tongue

- Again, try listening to Chinese speakers saying the pairs and detect the difference for yourself: xi'nan vs xin'an, qin'ai vs qi'nai.

[kevinjamessmith]

"A name"

"An aim"

I'm pretty sure that native English speakers will pronounce the 2 in the same way. But then, when listening to a Chinese speaker saying these, you'll hear the difference between the 2 phrases.

In English, a consonant sound links to a vowel sound, as in "an_aim" so that the two words are basically said together as one --> "anaim", but a vowel sound does not link to a consonant sound, as in "a_name" --> "a_name" (no change). I am a native speaker of English and I definitely do not say these two phrases the same - nor would any native speaker.

- The fact that Chinese use the apostrophe ' to distinguish between xi'nan and xin'an, between qin'ai and qi'nai shows that the pronouncation of the members of the pairs are indeed different.

Regardless of the rules of linking in English, however, the apostrophe in Chinese certainly presents an interesting argument in favor of there being no linking in Chinese. If I were to say the word xi'nan I would not stop my breath as I say the word, however, if I were to say the word xin'an, then I would stop my breath in between syllables, even saying it at full speed in the context of a sentence (I'll have to get a native Chinese speaker to say these words so I can double check). This seems to suggest that I am indeed mistaken about a consonant linking to a vowel sound in Chinese.

[roddy]

I am a native speaker of English and I definitely do not say these two phrases the same - nor would any native speaker.

I would dispute this, I reckon both 'an aim' and 'a name' could end up sounding the same - and I'd be careful about basing decisions on being a native speaker, as that's what your students are doing.

What you might want to do is find some similar examples of linked speech in Chinese, and get your students to try them out - ie. can they tell the difference between 拿宁 and 南宁 - if not, they're going to have to accept that it also exists in Chinese.

Roddy

[atitarev]

I learned not to assume anything (or at least, to double-check) based on a knowledge of one language when applying to another. German is one of the closest languages to English but there is no linkage! More than that, words spelled together may be pronounced with a clear glottal stop after prefixes or other parts of morphology.

am Abend [am 'a:bent] - in the evening

ausatmen [aus 'a:tmen] - breathe out. "aus" (read: owss) ) is a prefix.

Gastarbeiter [gast'arbaiter] - guest worker. The word is made of 2 words: Gast + Arbeiter.

I marked the glottal stop, not the accent with an apostrophe. [']

[HashiriKata]

One thing about native speakers' perception of their own speech is that they're often wrong, because they hardly, if ever, listen to their own speech in an objective, verifiable way. They simply assume they say things in a certain way, and therefore hear them in a certain way.

To find out if you do or do not do certain things in your speech, you should record yourself speaking in normal circumstances, without being conscious of what you're trying to find out. You can also record other speakers to analyse their speech, but do not let them know what you're really looking for.

(Please do not sit and repeat the same words or phrases 10 times to see which way you say them. Your brain will tell you to hear what you want to hear )

[nipponman]

"A name"

"An aim"

I almost say these the same. But I put more emphasis on the last part of "A name" than on "an aim". So, when I same them they sound alittle different.

[chenpv]

I ve never heard of any 'linking' within consecutive characters.

Notice the fact: Chinese english learners (including me), especially the tyros, tend to read every english word out clearly without linking, I think it is because we are influenced by our mother tongue.

[nipponman]

IMHO, when I hear chinese people speak, it sounds all run together and fused. But that is because I am a waiguoren.

[kevinjamessmith]

I tend to think that the reason Chinese students have such a problem linking words together in English is related to the way Chinese students study English. In my experience, students usually will try to remember long lists of English vocabulary, saying each word individually many times before ever trying it out in a sentence. Then, when it comes time to use the words in a sentence, they come out each as individual words, not as words that are linked together, because the habit of how to say that word has already been formed. If this is true, then it would still not exclude the possibility that there is linking in Chinese.

How about the expression 是呀? Is there linking when pronouncing these two characters together?

It seems to me that there is at least some linking in certain cases in Chinese: When two consonant sounds are the same, as in 南宁, that there is vowel to vowel linking in the expression 是呀 and other similar expressions adding 呀, and that there is consonant to vowel linking in certain 儿话, such as in 静儿. However, there may well not be consonant to vowel linking in most expressions, such as in 天安 and 心爱.

On a different topic, I asked my students to pronounce the words 拿宁 and 南宁 and discovered that they use different vowels for 拿 and 南, so it was impossible to check if these two words sound the same. The reason I mention this is that it brings up another question that I've had for a while. In Shandong, the vowel sounds in 山 and 安 are pronounced differently. The vowel in 山 sounds similar to the 'a' in 'cat', whereas the 'a' in 安 sounds like the 'o' in 'on'. Should the 'a' vowel sound in these two words be pronounced the same in Mandarin? I am led to think from my various books (and from listening to Chinese people from other parts of China speak Chinese) that there should be no difference in the vowel sound in these two words in Mandarin--that it is closest to the 'o' in 'on'--but my students insist that there is a difference.

[wai ming]

How about 啊 when preceded by certain sounds, eg:

好啊 --〉好哇

你真烦啊 --〉你真烦哪

好可惜啊 --〉好可惜呀

etc?

Is that what you mean by linking?

[chenpv]

I tend to think that the reason Chinese students have such a problem linking words together in English is related to the way Chinese students study English. In my experience, students usually will try to remember long lists of English vocabulary, saying each word individually many times before ever trying it out in a sentence. Then, when it comes time to use the words in a sentence, they come out each as individual words, not as words that are linked together, because the habit of how to say that word has already been formed. If this is true, then it would still not exclude the possibility that there is linking in Chinese.

Hehe, this might be true. however, the chinese english teachers will also teach us some simple rules for linking when reading english. I can clearly recall that my first english sentence - 'This is an apple.'- was taught like 'Thisisanapple' when i was 10. Rather than reading fluently with some proper smooth linkings, I am inclined to chop the linkings and read intermittently. I believe that people will refer to some certain rules and linguistic customs of their mother tongues consciously or unconsciously so as to help learn a second language IF there are some available.(Just like you are trying to refer to the 'linking' rules in english to help with your chinese.) So a similar linking rule, if it existed, in Chinese pronunciation would have definitely helped us with our english linkings in this sense, no matter how they remember english vocabulary. But unfortunately, the miserable appliance of linking in english reading suggests or evinces the non-existence of what-so-called linking in chinese.

How about the expression 是呀? Is there linking when pronouncing these two characters together?

I am sorry, but Nope.

When two consonant sounds are the same, as in 南宁, that there is vowel to vowel linking in the expression 是呀 and other similar expressions adding 呀, and that there is consonant to vowel linking in certain 儿话, such as in 静儿. However, there may well not be consonant to vowel linking in most expressions, such as in 天安 and 心爱.

What come to my mind are the examples below, which show the use of linking will cause confusion:

西安（xi1an1）the city of Xi'an ----------> 先（xian1）first

延安（yan2an1）the city of Yan'an-------------> 牙喃（ya2nan1）？延喃（yan2nan1）？烟（yan1）？they make no sense.

[chenpv]

I asked my students to pronounce the words 拿宁 and 南宁 and discovered that they use different vowels for 拿 and 南

Try to pronounce the english word 'are' as long as you can with no tune descent, and you will get a similar sound for 啊 in chinese. then try to pronounce the english word 'arn' with some stress on both 'ar' and 'n' and you will get a slowly-read sound for '安', practise it and try to make the prononciation at the normal speed. Add other consonant letters before that, you will get most of the pronunciations which sound like 'putonghua'.

PS: I dont know Shandong dialect and all these are based on my 20 years' understanding and practice of putonghua. If you dont believe it, never mind, throw it into dustbin.

[nipponman]

西安（xi1an1）the city of Xi'an ----------> 先（xian1）first

Would it cause confusion though? Because xi1an1 and xian1 would be pronounced differently, one as xi1 + an1 really fast, and another as xi+yan1 really fast. They sound different. Am I not understanding the question?

[kevinjamessmith]

What come to my mind are the examples below, which show the use of linking will cause confusion:

西安（xi1an1）the city of Xi'an ----------> 先（xian1）first

Would it cause confusion though? Because xi1an1 and xian1 would be pronounced differently

Linking between vowel sounds in English does not create a diphthong. If the word xi'an were read using the rules of linking in English a 'y' sound would be inserted where the apostrophe is, producing a word sounding like 'xiyan' (the 'ya' here should be pronounced like the German 'ja' which means yes, not like the 'ya' in 烟). The vowel sound in 'xian' however, is a diphthong, so the pronunciation of the two words would indeed be different.

[chenpv]

Would it cause confusion though? Because xi1an1 and xian1 would be pronounced differently, one as xi1 + an1 really fast, and another as xi+yan1 really fast. They sound different. Am I not understanding the question?

so the pronunciation of the two words would indeed be different.

I admit that these examples are really awkward and farfetched, but these are the only examples that I can conceive under a presumptive chinese linking system. If you can sense the differences between them, i think you will get no problem of the others if you emerse in the environment for a longer time.

[stephanhodges]

I can't speak for all English speakers around the world, but I would most definitely pronounce those two differently. Additionally, the tongue positioning and movement (both into and out of) the phrasings is different.

One needs to listen to the sound, the surrounding sounds, and the timing between sounds to hear more of the differences.

I'm from upper midwest United States, in case my accent is important to this discussion.

Is "linking" (a term I'd not heard before) the same as "sandhi"?

[RobAnt]

I am a native speaker of English and I definitely do not say these two phrases the same - nor would any native speaker.

"an_aim" or "a_name" - as a native English speaking Englishman by birth and descent, I can definitely say I would say these in exactly the same way in normal day to day speech. Only by context would someone listening to me be able to understand what I was saying.

Try saying out loud "So what's in an aim?", and making it come out any different than it should - or getting someone else to understand that you're not saying "So what's in a name?", without concentrating and inserting an unnatural gap..

(The correct common saying is "So what's in a name?")

[atitarev]

I can't speak for all English speakers around the world' date=' but I would most definitely pronounce those two differently. Additionally, the tongue positioning and movement (both into and out of) the phrasings is different.

One needs to listen to the sound, the surrounding sounds, and the timing between sounds to hear more of the differences.

I'm from upper midwest United States, in case my accent is important to this discussion.

Is "linking" (a term I'd not heard before) the same as "sandhi"?[/quote']

Linking is not the same as sandhi. Tone sandhi is the change of tone depending on the position - nǐhǎo becomes níhǎo.

I agree with other posters that English has linking - "an aim" and "a name" are pronounced the same way, if you speak naturally, you link the ending consonant of one word with the beginning of the next one. For the same reason even in British/Australian English when they say "your eyes" you hear "youreys" (-r is linked to the beginning of the next word) but in "your name" R is not pronounced (unlike in American/Canadian English). Of course, you can pronounce the words separately, it will still be OK - your...(pause) eyes.

Mandarin, on the other hand, according to posters and from what I've learned so far, doesn't have linking, all syllables are pronounced separately.