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The initial, also called the onset, or in Chinese shengmu (PY: shēngmǔ, TC: 聲母, SC: 声母), is an important concept in the phonological study of Chinese languages. It is also used in the study of some other Asian languages of these families: Hmong-Mien, Mon-Khmer, Tai-Kadai, Tibeto-Burman, etc.
The initial is the beginning consonant or consonant cluster of a syllable. If the syllable begins with a vowel, we say that the syllable has a null initial or zero initial. The rest of the syllable is called the final. Tonal languages has the third component for a syllable, the tone.
- syllable: C1(C2)V1(V2)(C3)(C4) = initial: C1(C2) + final: V1(V2)(C3)(C4)
- syllable: V1(V2)(C3)(C4) = initial: Ø (null) + final: V1(V2)(C3)(C4)
- (C = consonant, V = vowel, optional components are in parentheses.)
The initial was first called shēngniǔ (TC: 聲紐, SC: 声纽), or simply shēng or niǔ, in traditional phonological studies since the Jìn Dynasty. For each group of characters pronounced with the same initial consonant, one was picked to name the initial. One character was also picked from the group without an initial consonant, which was the beginning of the concept of the null initial.
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