In the process of trying to master Mandarin tone sandhi, I recently looked into the Wikipedia article of the same name. There I found the following interesting statement: "... tone sandhi is a phonemic and not just a phonetic change in tone."
My knowledge in this area is thin, but I have to say that doesn't make sense to me. If I understand these things correctly, sandhi, by definition, could only be a phonetic change. Why would anyone call sandhi -- any kind of sandhi -- a phonemic change?
If someone is able to clarify this for me, I may do some editing on the Wikipedia article to correct or improve this point.
My knowledge in this area is thin, but I have to say that doesn't make sense to me. If I understand these things correctly, sandhi, by definition, could only be a phonetic change. Why would anyone call sandhi -- any kind of sandhi -- a phonemic change?
If someone is able to clarify this for me, I may do some editing on the Wikipedia article to correct or improve this point.