for choosing the SD lect, which belongs to the Central dialect cluster and is historically closely related to the Western, Eastern and Pandong dialects, as a standard to represent the whole of Sui.
6.6 Conclusion
Our lexical comparison of Kam and Sui dialects showed that all varieties of Sui, including Yang’an which historical analysis shows belongs to the Kam branch of Kam-Sui, form a distinct and separate
cluster from Kam. Nevertheless, Yang’an shares more cognates with Kam than any other Sui dialect does. Many of these words appear to be shared lexical innovations, supporting the notion that Yang’an Sui
historically belongs to the Kam branch.
Our lexical comparison of all sixteen Sui dialects showed that Pandong is by far the most “divergent” dialect when it comes to lexicon, with almost 20 of its vocabulary being non-cognate with
the rest of Sui. The source of this non-cognate vocabulary is unclear and warrants further investigation. We also showed that most of Yang’an’s distinctive dialectal variants are cognate with Kam, supporting
the Kam-Yang’an hypothesis, and that many of Southern Sui’s dialectal variants may be old loanwords from Bouyei.
Clustering analysis showed that, from the synchronic perspective of shared lexicon, there are four distinct Sui dialect clusters. Expressed in terms of the dialect appellations already established in chapters
3 to 5, these clusters are: 1 Sandong Central, Western, Eastern; 2 Sandong Southern; 3 Yang’an; and 4 Pandong. Furthermore, the two easternmost Eastern Sui dialects, SJ and RL, both spoken in
Rongjiang county, share some distinctive lexical items which set them slightly apart from the other dialects in the Central-Western-Eastern Sandong cluster.
We also looked at some of the semantic differences which exist among the Sui dialects. The differences that we found are enough to confirm the fact that every village-lect and every clan-lect has
its own distinctive words, each with its own distinctive semantic range and usage. No one dialect is the same. There can be no other word which provides more compelling evidence in support of this than the
word ‘dipping sauce’. We recorded no fewer than ten different ways of saying ‘dipping sauce’ in Sui, listed here in table 6.19. This single word reminds us of the amazing capriciousness and colour to be
found amongst the dialects of the world’s languages and is indeed a tribute to the creativity and individuality of all human communities. And yet the word ‘dipping sauce’ also reminds us of the cultural
unity of the Sui people, who all love to sit around the sour fish hotpot, clicking their chopsticks, dipping their food in the sauce and shooting the breeze, regardless of dialect or accent.
Table 6.19. Dialectal variants for ‘dipping sauce’ Word
Locations used Source or literal meaning
tui⁴+ tsim⁵, ȶim⁵,
tsjum⁵ TZ, AT both Western,
DJ Eastern, JQ Southern,
PD Pandong, TN, BL both Yang’an
Old Chinese loanword from 蘸
‘to dip’ EMC tʂɛːm
C
, often preceded by the word
tui⁴ ‘small bowl’. tsaːn¹
SD Central Modern Chinese loanword from
蘸 ‘to dip’
lu⁵ tsaːn¹ ZH Central
‘dipping soup’ modern Chinese loan for ‘dipping’
nam³ tsəm⁵ JL Pandong
‘dipping water’ old Chinese loan for ‘dipping’ lu⁵ tsim⁵
TP Western ‘dipping soup’ old Chinese loan for ‘dipping’
lu⁵ ljaːn⁵ RL Eastern
‘chilli pepper soup’ lu⁵ tsjup⁷
JR Southern ‘soup for picking up food’
lu⁵ sup⁷ SW Southern
‘soup for briefly immersing’ ljaːn⁵ sup⁷
SJ Eastern ‘chilli pepper for briefly immersing’
lu⁵ kwa¹ SY Southern
‘salt soup’
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7 Phonetic Distance
Melissa Partida, Andy Castro
7.1 Introduction
