particularly rare.
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A similar lengthening of -j- to - iː- as seen with nasal finals is evident. In TZ and AT, -
a- raises to - ɛ- or -e-, as with Cjaː.
Again, it is likely that -eC developed secondarily from Chinese loanwords, cf. ‘along the road’ 貼
EMC tʰɛp
D
; ‘plate’ 碟
EMC d ɛp
D
; ‘to bear fruit’ 結
EMC k ɛt
D
. As with their nasal coda counterparts, words with bilabial voiceless stop onsets have not undergone -j- lengthening in any dialect,
perhaps because the palatalisation in ‘blood’ and ‘forehead’ originates in PKS phl- and pr- respectively rather than in PKS palatalised onsets cf. ‘female’ PKS
ɓjaːk
D
. Table 5.41. -j- lengthening to -i- on -
jaːC first six words and -jeC final four words, -i- lengthening indicated by double lines, words showing loss of original vowel nucleus shaded in grey
Sandong Pandong
Yang’an Kam
Eastern Central
Western Gloss
DJ SD
TZ TP
AT PD
JL BL
‘blood’ pʰjaːt⁷
pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷ pʰjaːt⁷
pʰaːt⁹ ‘forehead’
pjaːk⁷ pjaːk⁷
pjaːk⁷ pjaːk⁷
pjaːk⁷ pjaːt⁷ pjaːk⁷ pjaːk⁷
pjaːk⁹ ‘to smear’
vjaːt⁷ vjaːt⁷
viet⁷ -
- -
- -
ȶaːt⁹ ‘female’
ᵐbjaːk⁷ ʔbjaːk⁷ ʔmiek⁷ ʔbiːak⁷ ʔbiɛk⁷ ᵐbiɐk⁷ ᵐbiɛʔ⁷ mjaːk⁷
mjek⁹ ‘to lick’
ljaːk⁷ ljaːk⁷
liek⁷ liːak⁷
liɛk⁷ liɐk⁷
liɛʔ⁷ -
- ‘hungry’
ʔjaːk⁷ ʔjaːk⁷
ʔiek⁷ ʔiːak⁷
ʔiɛk⁷ jiɐk⁷
jiɛ⁵ jaːk⁷
jaːk⁹ ‘along’
- tʰjeːp⁷
tʰiːp⁷ tʰiːap⁷ ȶɛːp⁷
tʰjeːp⁷ - tʰiːp⁷
- ‘plate’
tj ɛːp⁸
tjeːp⁸ -
- -
- -
- -
‘to bear fruit’
ȶɛːt⁷ ȶeːt⁷
ȶet⁷ ȶiːɛt⁷
ȶɛːt⁷ ȶeːt⁷
hiɛt⁷ ȶeːt⁷
- ‘to turn
pages’ siɛt⁷
sjeːt⁷ siet⁷
- siɛt⁷
- -
- -
When Cj- is followed by a short vowel, a back vowel or a diphthong, no -j- lengthening occurs. Here are a few words by way of illustration: ‘a long time’
tjaŋ¹, ‘bamboo hat’ tjum¹, ‘shallow’ ʔdjai⁵, ‘strength’ lj
ək⁸, ‘to steal’ ljak⁷, ‘narrow’ ʔnjap⁷, ‘to buy’ ⁿdjai³, ‘place’ ⁿdjoŋ³ etc. All these words exhibit palatalised onsets and their rimes are identical in all Sui dialects.
5.3.2 Labialised onsets
Labialised onsets are far rarer and could equally be analysed as consonant + glide + vowel. When followed by -
a or -aː-, -w- undergoes a similar lengthening to -j- discussed in section 5.3.1 in AT Western, TP Western and Pandong, again supporting a Western-Pandong subgrouping.
Correspondences are shown in table 5.42. Note that the labiodental fricative onsets in ‘chaff’, ‘goat’, ‘tall’ and ‘slow’ originate in PKS
ɣw-, pw- and hw- see sections 5.2.4.1, 5.2.4.2 and tables 5.19 and 5.20 above.
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although they do all exist in SD. Examples of Cjaːp and Cjeːk include ‘chink, crack’ ljaːp⁷ and ‘to hire’ sjeːk⁷
respectively.
Table 5.42. -w- lengthening to - uː-, lengthening indicated by double lines, words
showing merging of -w- and original vowel nucleus to -o- or - ɔ- shaded in grey
Sandong Pandong Yang’an
Kam Eastern Southern Central
Western Gloss
DJ JQ
SD TZ
AT TP
JL BL
‘salt’ ⁿdwa¹
kwa¹ ʔdwa¹
ʔdɔ¹ ʔduːə¹ ʔduːa¹ ⁿdɯə¹
- ko¹
‘boat’ lwa¹
ʔda¹ lwa¹
lɔ¹ luːə¹
luːa¹ lɯə¹
lɔ¹ lo¹
‘to rest’ lwa⁵
la⁵ lwa⁵
lɔ⁵ luːə⁵
luːa⁵ lɯə⁵
la⁵ sa⁵
‘Dwa festival’
twa³ ta³
twa³ tɔ³
tuːə³ tuːa³
tɯə³ tɔ³
- ‘chaff’
fa⁶ hwa⁶
fa⁶ fɔ⁶
fuːə⁶ fuːa⁶
fɯə⁵ pa⁶
pa⁶ ‘goat’
fa² hwa²
fa² fɔ²
fuːə² fuːa²
fɯə² fa²
- ‘axe’
kwaːn¹ kwaːn¹ kwaːn¹ kwaːn¹ kwaːn¹ kuːɐn¹ kuən¹
kwaːn¹ kwaːn¹ ‘hoe’
kwaːk⁷ - kwaːk⁷ kwaːk⁷ kwaːk⁷ kuːɐk⁷ kɔɐʔ⁷
ȶaːk⁷ -
‘to rest upon’
kwaːŋ⁶ kwaːŋ⁶ kwaːŋ⁶ kɔːŋ⁶
kuɐŋ⁶ kuːɐŋ⁶ - kwaːŋ⁶ -
‘side’ ʔwaːŋ⁵ -
ʔwaːŋ⁵ - ʔwɔːŋ⁵
ʔuːɐŋ⁵ vuɐŋ⁵
mjaːŋ⁵ paːŋ⁵
‘tall’ vaːŋ¹
waːŋ¹ vaːŋ¹
vɔːŋ¹ vaːŋ¹
vuːɐŋ¹ vuɐŋ¹
pʰaːŋ¹ pʰaːŋ¹
‘slow’ faːn¹
hwaːn¹ faːn¹
fɔːn¹ fuɐn¹
fuːɐn¹ - fuɔn¹
haːn¹ † Northern Kam Baojing, Zhenyuan county. Usually pronunced
ʔaːn¹ or qaːn¹ in other dialects. In TZ and sporadically in Yang’an and Kam, -
waː -oː merging with -oː due to transfer of lip- rounding from -w- to the final vowel. All traces of -w- have been lost for ‘boat’, ‘Dwa festival’ and ‘to
rest’ in Southern Sui, and also in Yang’an and Kam for ‘to rest’, ‘chaff’, ‘tall’ and ‘side’, but conditioning factors are unclear.
PKS Cwaː -uːa TP, -uːə AT, -ɯə JL and -ɔ TZ is not an entirely regular sound change.
Exceptions include ‘leaf’ PKS pwa
B
va⁵ or wa⁵ all dialects, ‘rice grass’ PKS pwaːŋ
A
vaːŋ¹ or waːŋ¹ all dialects, ‘to face upwards’ PKS
ʔŋwa
C
ours ʔŋwa³ all dialects and ‘grasshopper’ PKS ŋwaːŋ
B
ours ŋwaːŋ⁶ all dialects except for TZ
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, in addition to ‘axe’ and ‘hoe’ in table 5.42. As with their -j- counterparts, -w- does not undergo lengthening if the following rime is a short
vowel or a diphthong. Examples include ‘to speak’ fan² ɣwan
A
, ‘smoke’ kwan² ɢwan
A
ours, ‘to nod’
ʔŋwat⁷ ʔŋwat
D
ours and ‘elder brother’ faːi⁴ ɣwaːi
C
. Labialised consonants are very rarely followed by vowels other than -a. There are only two
examples in our wordlist: ‘road’ kʰwən¹, for which there is little variation in the rime and which is
auditorily virtually interchangeable with kʰun¹; and ‘wok stand, tripod’ kweŋ² most dialects, kiŋ² TN,
JL, ki əŋ² PD.
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In Tangzhou we recorded three different pronunciations for ‘grasshopper’: ŋɔːŋ⁶ 75 year old speaker; ŋwɐŋ⁶ 45
year old speaker; and ŋwaːŋ⁶ 25 year old speaker. This indicates that, as with corresponding words in Tangzhou,
PKS - waː originally became -ɔː, but a contact-induced shift back to the “regular” Sui pronunciation is occurring.
5.4 Rimes