Could colleagues provide descriptive comparisons of English to the languages named? Including consonant, vowel inventories, examination of the tonal structure of Chinese languages and so forth?
Barbara Dodd and colleagues have examined speech disorders /development in Chinese - the reference lists to those articles may be help...
So, L & Dodd, B. (2007). Phonological Awareness Abilities of Cantonese-speaking Children with Phonological Disorder. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech Language and Hearing, 10, 189-204.
Zhu, H. & Dodd, B. (2001). Phonological development of a Putonghua-speaking child with prelingual hearing impairment: a longitudinal case study. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech Language and Hearing, 6, 197-213.
I assume the topic of your question, Nola, is that Yoruba and Standard Chinese (i.e. Mandarin) have tone and English doesn't. The major phonetic component of tone is F0 or fundamental frequency. English make differences in F0 as we speak, but lows or highs in F0 in English do not determine word meaning. In Chinese, by contrast, (55 means highest F0) ma55 'mother', ma35 (mid to high rising F0) means 'flax, hemp', etc, ma 51 (high to low) means 'to scold,, and ma 312 (mid-to-low- mid low) means 'horse'. English does not distinguish word meaning with F0.
Yoruba also has F0 differences. I am not very knowledgeable about Yoruba, but I have researched Kabiye of Togo. Kabiye has tones similar to Chinese. Is high and low tones, reflected in F0. High is 55 and Low is 21.
The vowels and consonants of Kabiye are not dissimilar to English, but vowels in Kabiye have a feature called ATR, which would take a while to discuss. The consonants and vowels of Chinese are quite different from any in English. If you want to know more ask again
Patricia and Jerold, thank you both for your input. I have emailed you a specific question, Jerold. Patricia, I plan to use the references you provide. I am developing a text book on phonetics and want to use a few limited illustrations from languages other than English to contrast the features that differ. I would also like audio samples.
I would recommend work by HANA TŘÍSKOVÁ, you can find her on academia. An example would be:
https://www.academia.edu/7968856/The_sounds_of_Chinese_and_how_to_teach_them
Hi Andrey. Although my wife is Chinese, I cannot contribute to this subject. I do not speak Yoruba, either. However, considering your incredibly wide range of interests in many sciences, I suggest you to take a look at my website named CorrectingWorldHistory. Also, I realized that many Philippine languages and some western African languages (west of the Yoruba speakers) have almost the same word for "good" (mabute, mbuti, etc.). Perhaps there are more similarities. If one could prove such relationship between the black (Melanesian) nations of the Philippines (or the Aborigines of Australia) and some of the African languages we may suggest that the same word existed in both continents before, say, 40,000 years B.P. Thus, the basic words of these languages are perhaps not only a few thousand years old but perhaps 50 thousand years old. I congratulate to your research papers and results. I am originally Hungarian who lives in Canada since 1976. Have a great weekend!!!
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