1 What is the greatest difference between vowels and consonants 中英文元音对比

Compare Articulation of Vowels between Chinese and EnglishVowels of ChineseChinese is known as tone language which changes in four forms, affecting the meanings of individual words. So in the sense of distinguishing the mean of a word, tone is vitally important to Chinese. For example, a syllable such as [ma] can have at least four meaning depending on the tone which it is spoken. In addition, more meanings are found if we consider the different characters with the same pronunciation and the tone form.In the study of phonetics, syllable, stress, tone and intonation have formed features which are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. Many languages use tone in a more limited way. Somali, for example, may only have one high tone per word. In Japanese, fewer than half of the words have drop in pitch; however, tone seems more important to Chinese in some way than any other languages. We can find some clues from the following three aspects.In the first place, Chinese is a tone language while English is not. Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. English and Chinese belong to two different language systems. A lot of linguists have done researches on the English and Chinese phonetics, but they hold different views on the concept of tone. So far as the English and Chinese languages are concerned, C.L. Wrench pointed out that Chinese is a tone languageand English is an into nation language on which Lian Shu’neng agrees with in his book Contrastive Studies of English and Chinese; Some even consider that both English and Chinese are tone languages; some think that Chinese is both a kind of tone language and intonation language, while English is intonation language in that the change of tone causes the change of characters and their meanings in Chinese, but almost has no influence on the meaning of the words in English. However, the change of intonation has an influence on the mood and the meaning of sentences in both English language and Chinese language. The third opinion is what I see eye to eye with.Secondly, the different tones in Chinese can also distinguish the part of speech of the same word. On the contrary, English, which is a non-tone language, the meaning of an English word which was uttered with various tones does not change at all.Thirdly, tones can interact in complex ways through a process known as tone sandhill. Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone. The reason for having these tones is probably that the Chinese language has very few possible syllables -- approximately 400 -- while English has about 12,000. Because of this, there may be more homophonic words, words with the same sound expressing different meanings, in Chinese than in most other languages. Apparently tones helpthe relatively small number of syllables to multiply and thereby alleviate but not completely solve the problem.Vowels of EnglishThere are four front vowels in English: /i:/, / i/, / e/ and three central vowels in English. It is because they tend to be produced at a point midway between the front and back vowels and between the high and low vowels.Also there are five back vowels in English. The tip of the tongue remains at the level of the lower teeth. The front and back vowels have several features in common as well as some differences.The duration of a diphthong is similar to that of a long vowel. English is usually described as having eight diphthongs. They all end with a glide towards a closer vowel. Because the second part of the diphthong is weak, they often do not reach a position that could be called close. The important thing is that a glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively more closer vowel is produced.About pronunciation difficulties with the diphthongs:Most Chinese EFL learners have little problem with most of the diphthongs,the following two are particularly important to ensure correct pronunciation.Conclusion:1. Make sure that you have a correct starting point. For example, start with an [ai:] which is neither [i:] nor [i]. It is a sound which is a little bit closer than /✋/ in big.2.Make sure that the diphthongs end with a glide. One of the problems with some of the learners is the production of pure vowels where a diphthong should be pronounced. For example, some learners find it difficult to make a clear distinction between /e/ and /e✋/.。