Week Seven & Eight: More Research and Practice on Vowels and Consonants

I kept this posts updated because I noticed that the vowels in Wuhan dialect changes with the consonants in front of it. Here I will list some useful links and simple description of how it helped me to learn the vowels better.

1. Here is a Wuhaner discuss his/her own discovery about the phonological features (esp the vowels in Wuhan dialect).
  http://bbs.club.sohu.com/read_elite.php?b=wuhan&a=1658915
In this forum, the author introduce the merge of vowels in Wuhan dialect:
e.g. 六 (lju)，绿(ly)，炉(lu)，楼(lou) in Wuhan dialect shared the same vowel sound:/ou/ and even the same tone! I tried to find some similar merging groups to make my practice accurate and rule-based. Furthermore, the author also mentioned the nasalized sound merge in some utterance. e.g. some particles ending after a nasalized syllble will be omitted and left with a nasal "stop".

2. Wuhanese Learning Journal:http://q.sohu.com/q/23152/t/56055367
Interestingly, someone in China is also working on Wuhan dialect and keeping a journal entry for it, Here is her "Quik intro" to the rules I introduced in the previous posts. (I mark the )

1. No palatal affricates
2. No "back" nasals
3. Changes for consonats https://www.dropbox.com/s/ea8lqmnnbthqxkn/vowels%20clusters%201.wma

•  n→l     奶奶→lailai、牛奶→liulai、姑娘→guliang、那多→la多、美女→meilv
•  r→l     热→le、突然→toulan

4. Changes for vowels:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1p0knv32dvk44f7/vowels%20clusters%202.wma 

•  u→ou，肚子→douzi、绿豆→loudou、马路→malou、兔子→touzi、阻力→zouli、促进→coujin、速度→soudu
• e→uo，帅哥→suaiguo、合作→huozuo、一个→yiguo
•  ui→ei，对头→deidou、退步→teibu、嘴巴→zeiba、璀璨→ceican、随便→seibian

       ue→iuo，确实→qiuosi、学习→xiuoxi, (just for q、x)
5、Vowels lead to consonant changes:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hkm9ut35ljz8xq4/vowels%20clusters%203.wma 

• u：

      zhu→ju， 猪头→居头；但是 祝贺→zouhuo
      chu→qu 处理→曲理；但是 初中→couzong
      shu→xu，书包→需包；但是 数学→souxiuo。
      ru→yu， 如 如果→于果

• un：

      zhun→jun，如 准备→junbei
      chun→qun，如 三五醇→sanwuqun
      shun→xun，如 顺利→xunli
      run→yun，如 滋润→ziyun

6. Set pairs:uan→an， 集团→jitan、锻炼→danlian

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vg89lscrdy92mho/vowels%20clusters%204.wma 7. Special Ones:
  去，发音为ke
  巷，发音为hang
  六，发音为lou

Here is my demo:
In the upcoming week (week 8-9) for my practice, I will try to apply these rules and gradually achieve a new "comfortzone" for my practice.

In addition to the speaking practice, I also try to do some "listening comprehension" questions on the Wuhan dialect to enhance my perception of the target language.