Comparative study of Mandarin phonology and English phonology

This chapter discusses the phonological systems of Mandarin and English. There are particular terms in traditional Mandarin phonology that need to be taken into consideration: initials and finals. The chapter explains the Mandarin phonological system in the order of consonants, vowels, syllable structures, phonotactic constraints, and tones. Mandarin syllables not only have consonants and vowels that are segmental elements but also tones that are suprasegmentals. The structure of English segments which can be placed in each part of the syllable is much more complicated than the structure of Mandarin segments. Mandarin and English consonants can be compared with five types according to the places of articulation: plosive, fricative, affricate, approximant, and nasal. Both Mandarin tone and English stress are “not inherent properties of single consonants or vowels but can be associated with a span of more than one segment”.