I found the discussions of the various writing systems extremely interesting. I especially enjoyed Leping's explanation of the Chinese writing system because it gave me some insight on what seems to be such a mysterious language, and I say this even after having studied Chinese for a year.
The explanation of the quiz at the end of class was very useful. I have been struggling somewhat with distinguishing phonemes from allophones by using minimal pairs but the in class discussion really shed some light on this topic. I have since gone back and looked over the quiz and felt a bit closer in understanding where I went wrong, although I will need to review this material again before I feel entirely confident with it.
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Hi Jason! I am glad to hear that I am not the only one that struggles with the distinction of allophones from phonemes. I liked hearing Leping talk about the Chinese writing system too!
ReplyDeleteJason, I have to look up the same terms each semester - I sometimes wonder what my 'block' is about. It's odd because I usually memorize things easily, but the lingusitic terms often do not stick! I enjoyed the Chinese character discussion also - It is so interesting to see how language can have many forms. jillian
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