iukoan Taigi e /p t k/ khah seng Enggi e /p t k/ iah-si /b d g/ e bunte, ebin si goa iong tian-nau chhek-niu e kiat-ko. hou tak-ke chham-kho. ebin e soat-beng si sang hou gian-tho-hoe e tiah-iau, sou-i u khah te sio-khoa.

--Uibun
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Taiffalo's Eco-linguistics of Society
<http://ling.uta.edu/~taiffalo/>

Language and Nationalism in Asia
<http://home.kimo.com.tw/de-han/>

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Is Taiwanese bi Really the Same as English bee?



Taiwanese voiced stop consonants /b/ (e.g. bi米) and /g/ (e.g. gaie̍n̄) are phonologically classified as the same category as /b/ (bee) and /g/ (guy) in English, as listed in table 1. However, many Taiwanese learners of English perceive English /b d g/ as Taiwanese /p t k/. Consequently, there are two crucial different romanization schemes for transliterating the Taiwanese: 1) use roman letters b d g to represent /p t k/, and p t k to represent /ph th kh/. 2) use b g to represent /b g/, and p t k to represent /pt k/. This paper intend to answer why English stop consonants are perceived differently by different Taiwanese speakers in terms of Voice Onset Time (VOT).    

The measurements of VOT in Taiwanese were conducted with a 28-year-old maleTaiwanese speaker by using the software Signalyze. All Taiwanese stop consonants in table 1 were recorded and measured in the syllable structure of CV with 5 repetitions. The results of measurement were listed in table 2. The data of VOT in English is adopted from Lisker and Abramson (1964) for comparison here.

The results reveal three findings. First, unlike English, there are two VOTranges in Taiwanese voiceless stop consonants, which make distinction between aspirated and un-aspirated. Second, although segments such as /b/ are supposed to be the same phoneme in Taiwanese and English, they are phonetically not comparable to each other because they have different VOT ranges. Third, an overlap of VOT between English /b d g/and Taiwanese /p t k/ occurred and this phenomenon may cause misleading perceptions on consonants when Taiwanese speakers learn English.

Table 1. Stop consonants in Taiwanese and English.



Table 2. Voice Onset Time in Msec: Taiwanese



Table 3. Voice Onset Time in Msec: English




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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>iukoan Taigi e /p t k/ khah seng Enggi 
e /p t k/ iah-si /b d g/ e bunte, ebin si goa iong tian-nau chhek-niu e kiat-ko. 
hou tak-ke chham-kho. ebin e soat-beng si sang hou gian-tho-hoe e tiah-iau, 
sou-i u khah te sio-khoa.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>--Uibun</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT 
face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>Taiffalo's Eco-linguistics of 
Society<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp; <A 
href="<http://ling.uta.edu/~taiffalo/">;><http://ling.uta.edu/~taiffalo/></A></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>Language and Nationalism in 
Asia<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp; <A 
href="<http://home.kimo.com.tw/de-han/">;><http://home.kimo.com.tw/de-han/></A></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT 
face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</DIV>
<P align=center class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN 
lang=EN-US><STRONG>Is Taiwanese <I>bi</I> Really the Same as English 
<I>bee</I>?</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><B><SPAN 
lang=EN-US><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B>&nbsp;</P>
<P class=MsoNormal 
style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; TEXT-INDENT: 24pt; TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph"><SPAN 
lang=EN-US>Taiwanese voiced stop consonants /b/ (e.g. <I>bi</I></SPAN><SPAN 
style="FONT-FAMILY: æ°ç´°æé«; mso-ascii-font-family: 'TimesNew Roman'">ç±³</SPAN><SPAN 
lang=EN-US>) and /g/ (e.g. <I>gai</I></SPAN><SPAN 
style="FONT-FAMILY: æ°ç´°æé«; mso-ascii-font-family: 'TimesNew Roman'">e̍n̄</SPAN><SPAN 
lang=EN-US>) are phonologically classified as the same category as /b/ 
(<I>bee</I>) and /g/ (<I>guy</I>) in English, as listed in table 1. However, 
many Taiwanese learners of English perceive English /b d g/ as Taiwanese /pt 
k/. Consequently, there are two crucial different romanization schemes for 
transliterating the Taiwanese: 1) use roman letters <I>b d g</I> to represent /p 
t k/, and <I>p t k</I> to represent /p<SUP>h</SUP> t<SUP>h</SUP> k<SUP>h</SUP>/. 
2) use <I>b g</I> to represent /b g/, and <I>p t k</I> to represent /p t k/. 
This paper intend to answer why English stop consonants are perceived 
differently by different Taiwanese speakers in terms of Voice Onset Time 
(VOT).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal 
style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; TEXT-INDENT: 24pt; TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph"><SPAN 
lang=EN-US>The measurements of VOT in Taiwanese were conducted with a 
28-year-old male Taiwanese speaker by using the software Signalyze. All 
Taiwanese stop consonants in table 1 were recorded and measured in the syllable 
structure of CV with 5 repetitions. The results of measurement were listed in 
table 2. The data of VOT in English is adopted from Lisker and Abramson (1964) 
for comparison here.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal 
style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; TEXT-INDENT: 24pt; TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph"><SPAN 
lang=EN-US>The results reveal three findings. First, unlike English, there are 
two VOT ranges in Taiwanese voiceless stop consonants, which make distinction 
between aspirated and un-aspirated. Second, although segments such as /b/ are 
supposed to be the same phoneme in Taiwanese and English, they are phonetically 
not comparable to each other because they have different VOT ranges. Third,an 
overlap of VOT between English /b d g/and Taiwanese /p t k/ occurred and this 
phenomenon may cause misleading perceptions on consonants when Taiwanese 
speakers learn English.</SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoCaption 
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US>Table <SPAN 
style="mso-field-code: 'SEQ table \\* ARABIC'">1</SPAN>. Stop consonants in 
Taiwanese and English.</SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoCaption 
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US 
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><IMG height=94 
src="[cid:001a01c0cd33$8640e540$"](<https://web.archive.org/web/20060105032920/cid:001a01c0cd33$8640e540$">); 
style="HEIGHT: 103px; WIDTH: 354px" width=348 
v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoCaption 
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US 
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Table <SPAN 
style="mso-field-code: 'SEQ table \\* ARABIC'">2</SPAN>. Voice Onset Timein 
Msec: Taiwanese<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoCaption 
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US 
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><IMG height=66 
src="[cid:001b01c0cd33$8640e540$"](<https://web.archive.org/web/20060105032920/cid:001b01c0cd33$8640e540$">); 
style="HEIGHT: 73px; WIDTH: 524px" width=519 
v:shapes="_x0000_i1026"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoCaption 
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US 
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Table <SPAN 
style="mso-field-code: 'SEQ table \\* ARABIC'">3</SPAN>. Voice Onset Timein 
Msec: English<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P align=center class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN lang=EN-US><IMG 
height=65 src="[cid:001c01c0cd33$8640e540$"](<https://web.archive.org/web/20060105032920/cid:001c01c0cd33$8640e540$">); 
style="HEIGHT: 71px; WIDTH: 517px" width=512 
v:shapes="_x0000_i1027"></SPAN></P></FONT><FONT 
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></BODY></HTML>

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