--- suzmccarth <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "John H. Jenkins"
> <jenkins@...> wrote:
>
> > Cantonese-speakers rarely use phonetic input
> because they're not
> > trained in school to do a phonetic analysis of the
> sounds they make
> > when they speak, so it's very difficult for them.
> They find shape-
> > based systems easier to manage.
> >
>
> So the phonetic analysis required to use the
> alphabet has to be learned
> in school? That is what I also believe.

My Taiwanese friend was a teacher of Chinese
and English. He told me that he learned bopomofo
in shcool and only learned pinyin at university.

I didn't ask him about learning phonetic analysis
but it seems logical that would've been part of the
teaching of bopomofo.

Andrew Dunbar.

> Suzanne
>
>
>
>

http://en.wiktionary.org -- http://linguaphile.sf.net/cgi-bin/translator.pl



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