彝语和英语的语音对比

The Phonetic Comparison Between the Yi Language and English

Abstract: People in Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefecture speak the Yi Language, which is a completely different language from English. The writer of this paper carried out a research to make a comparison and a contrast of the two languages in phonetics, for the purpose that the result of the research could not only help Yi students to understand the phonetic characteristics of the two languages and clear the obstacles in learning English, but also help English teachers in Liangshan design some scientific teaching methods and improve the foreign language teaching conditions there. The writer has been to middle schools in Puge County, Liangshan Prefect. to do some investigation with questionnaires and mini-type meetings, where she discussed the differences of the phonetics in the two languages and the difficulties Yi students face, from which she has got precious first-hand materials. The writer found that, apart from the different phonetic symbols in the two languages, some more differences exist in their intonation, tune and phoneme. As the writer focuses on the difference of phonetic symbols, she will discuss in this paper the following points: 1. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language and English are the same both in form and pronunciation; 2. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language and English are the same in form but different in pronunciation; 3. some phonetics symbols in the Yi language and English are different in form but the same in pronunciation; 4. apart from vowels and consonants, the Yi language has some initial consonants and vowels；5. English has some diphthongs，but the Yi language hasn’t. Finally, the writer proposes a few constructive suggestions to the English teaching in Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture.

Key words: English; the Yi language; phonetics; comparison; constructive suggestions for teaching

摘要： 凉山彝族自治州的多数居民说的彝语是和英语完全不同的一门语言。为了提高彝族学生的英语水平，提高彝族地区的英语教学质量，本文作者对彝语和英语的语音进行了对比，目的是找出两种语言在语音方面的异同，帮助彝族学生认识两种语言，扫清英语学习障碍；同时帮助彝族地区的英语教师制定出科学的教学方法，改进凉山州目前的英语教学落后状况。本文作者到彝族地区普格县对中学生做了问卷调查，并开了小型座谈会与彝族学生面对面交流，获取了第一手资料。作者发现，英语和彝语的语音除了可以在音标上比较异同，还可从语调、声调、音素组成入手进行阐述。音标上存在以下差异：1彝语和英语音标写法与发音均相同；2彝语和英语音标写法相同而发音不同；3彝语和英语音标写法不同而发音相同；4彝语语音除元音和辅音外，还存在声母和韵母；5英语语音中存在双元音，而彝语中没有。最后，作者对彝族地区的英语教学提出了一些建设性的建议。

关键字: 英语； 彝语；  语音；  对比；  教学

Ⅰ. Introduction

Yi language belongs to the Yi langua ……此处隐藏1606个字……to give up. So, from this point, in order to improve the students’ English, we should first cultivate the students’ interests in English, stimulate their motivation. Actually, the students have a strong curiosity in learning, but how to lead them to a useful way, it all depends upon the teachers right guidance. The only motivation to enter higher school is not enough.

ⅳ. increase facilities

The process of phonology is a process of continuous imitation. Thus, standard teaching tape and language lab become unnecessary through the process of English learning. But we found that both schools and students didn’t put much attention to it. In addition to have classes, only a few students have the chance to listen the original tapes and watch the original movies. The schools of Yi area should try to build language lab, make sure that the students learn standard phonology, what’s more, to stimulate their motivation to learn English.

Ⅵ. Conclusion

The Yi students’ difficult to learn English has limited the improvement of Yi area’s education quality in general for a long time. And this problem becomes more prominent nowadays, when the government proposes to improve Chinese people’s quality in general, and when the government proposes to improve the ethnic minority’s education in West China. This investigation focuses on the comparison between English and Yi phonology and find out the differences and similarities. And we hope that this paper can offer some useful information to the English teachers in Yi area and to the Yi students, too. And hope that the Yi students can benefit from this paper, and finally speak very influent English. The comparison between English and the Yi language has a long influence in Yi area’s improvement of education and economy. We sincerely hope that this paper have some value in this process.

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