Tidying up

If you have followed the modification rules exactly, you will notice that some syllables look particularly strange, unpronounceable or misleading. These intermediate results, shown in italics in the table, need to be given a final polish to make them readable:

  • Tone 2

    Final -y: add -i (eg shy becomes shyi).
    Must be changed because final -y stands for a different sound and tone in GR (eg shy = shi1), so xi2 must be written shyi.

    Final -w: add -u (eg chw becomes chwu)

  • Tones 3 and 4

    Initial e-, i-, o- and u-: modify as appropriate so that syllable begins y- or w- (as it would in PY), while retaining the "tonal clue" (eg eu, iaw, ii, iee, oang, uay, uh, uoo become yeu, yaw, yii, yee, woang, way, wuh, woo).

    True e- and o- are, of course, not modified: eg eel, enn, oh, oou, ow [er3, en4, o4, ou3, ou4].


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