Miscellanea I. A Phonological Study of Near-/i/ Vowels Across Languages

Pressed for time and unable to think of anything else to write, I’ll jot down some random thoughts related to linguistics. My focus in linguistics is mainly on phonetics and language differences; I have little interest in areas like grammar, so it’s fair to say my knowledge is quite superficial.

After some shallow exploration, I once presumptuously drew a conclusion: a person’s pronunciation and perception of specific phonemes are almost entirely shaped and solidified by their linguistic environment, to an extent that is nearly indistinguishable from innate differences.

Additional Notes:

This touches upon the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and the Critical Period Hypothesis in second language acquisition. Adult learners often struggle to perceive subtle phonemic contrasts that do not exist in their native language. The brain automatically "categorizes" unfamiliar speech sounds received through hearing into the most similar existing phonemic categories in the native language—a phenomenon known as "phonological filtering."

An example is six phonetically similar phonemes, denoted in IPA as $\text{/i/}$, $\text{/ɪ/}$, $\text{/iː/}$, $\text{/j/}$, $\text{/ɨ/}$, and $\text{/ɯ/}$. At first listen, all sound similar to the Mandarin pronunciation of "一" (yī).

Additional Notes:

The phonetic distinctions between these six phonemes are as follows:

• $\text{/i/}$: Close front unrounded vowel (Cardinal Vowel No. 1).

• $\text{/ɪ/}$: Near-close near-front unrounded vowel (lax vowel), with a tongue position slightly lower and further back than /i/.

• $\text{/iː/}$: Long vowel counterpart of /i/, usually accompanied by greater muscular tension.

• $\text{/j/}$: Palatal approximant (semivowel), with a narrower airflow channel than a vowel but no turbulence formed.

• $\text{/ɨ/}$: Close central unrounded vowel, with the tongue positioned in the middle.

• $\text{/ɯ/}$: Close back unrounded vowel, with the same tongue position as /u/ but unrounded lips.

In fact, we come into contact with the first five almost every day: the Mandarin "i" is close to $\text{/i/}$; the final sound of the "i" in the English word library is $\text{/ɪ/}$; "y" in English is $\text{/i/}$; and $\text{/iː/}$ is even more common. $\text{/j/}$ is a semivowel.

Additional Notes:

Regarding the final sound of the English word library ($\text{/ˈlaɪbrəri/}$), in modern Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), the final y has actually undergone a phenomenon known as Happy Tensing. That is to say, older pronunciations may tend toward the lax vowel $\text{/ɪ/}$, but in many modern accents, the quality of this final sound is very close to the tense vowel $\text{/i/}$, differing only in its shorter duration.

However, when it comes to Russian, I cannot distinguish them at all. The three Russian sounds "и", "й", and "ы" are actually pronounced as $\text{/i/}$, $\text{/j/}$, and $\text{/ɨ/}$—all of which have corresponding phonemes in Mandarin—but their occurrence patterns in Russian are vastly different. I never realized that $\text{/ɨ/}$ is the same as the final sound in Mandarin characters like "思" (sī) and "字" (zì), because in Russian, it is often combined with consonants such as $\text{/s/}$, $\text{/t/}$, and $\text{/d/}$.

Additional Notes:

• Russian "ы" ($\text{/ɨ/}$): It is indeed a close central vowel.

• Mandarin "思" (sī) and "字" (zì): In Chinese linguistics, these are usually referred to as apical front vowels, often transcribed in Sinological IPA as $\text{/ɿ/}$ or as syllabic fricatives $/$z̩$/$. Although perceptually similar to Russian $\text{/ɨ/}$ (both have a fricative quality and a tongue position that is neither front nor back), strictly phonetically, the Mandarin sound is typically analyzed as an extension of a consonant, while the Russian "ы" is a true vowel. Their perceptual similarity is indeed real.

Even though all Chinese speakers can pronounce the Mandarin $\text{/ɨ/}$, they cannot "analogize" it to the Russian $\text{/ɨ/}$—and the same goes for native Russian speakers. Naturally, they cannot perceive the difference either.

Furthermore, the familiar $\text{/j/}$, when placed in the Russian word Вологодский (pronounced $\text{/vəvɔudskʲɪj/}$), often leads learners to mispronounce $\text{/ɪj/}$ as $\text{/iː/}$. Our confidence in pronouncing these "familiar" sounds actually stems from the constant exposure to our linguistic environment. But when detached from familiar spelling combinations, these sounds become unrecognizable.

Additional Notes:

The ending -ский in the Russian word Вологодский (Vologodskiy) is pronounced $\text{/skʲɪj/}$. It includes:

0. The palatalized consonant $\text{/kʲ/}$.

1. The reduced vowel $\text{/ɪ/}$.

2. The final short semivowel $\text{/j/}$.

Learners often overlook the short, abrupt ending of $\text{/j/}$ and directly pronounce the entire final syllable as the lengthened English $\text{/iː/}$ (like in ski), thus losing the unique charm of the Russian "palatalized consonant + glide" structure.

Naturally, when it comes to the Romanized Japanese sound "su", which we have no exposure to in Mandarin, we often mispronounce it as the Mandarin "思" (sī); in reality, its phonetic transcription $\text{/sɯ/}$ is closer to the Mandarin "苏" (sū). As fellow East Asians, it is hard to attribute this to genetic innate differences—so we can only conclude that it is the result of acquired linguistic environment influences.

Additional Notes:

• Japanese "su" (す): The vowel is not rounded and protruding like the Mandarin "苏" ($\text{/u/}$); instead, the lips are compressed but unrounded, transcribed in IPA as $\text{/ɯ/}$ or more precisely $\text{/ɯᵝ/}$ (compressed).

• Two common mistakes made by Chinese learners:

  1. Pronouncing it as the Mandarin "思" ($\text{/sɿ/}$, an apical sound), influenced by the contrast between Pinyin si and su.

  2. Pronouncing it as the Mandarin "苏" ($\text{/su/}$, strongly rounded), which sounds closer to Japanese than "思" but has an exaggerated lip movement.

• The intuition that it is "actually close to '苏'" is justified: essentially, it has the same tongue position as "苏" but without the rounded lip movement.