Labialised onsets From onsets to rimes: Palatalisation, labialisation and glides

particularly rare. 22 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. 22 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 23 , 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. 23 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