Notes Dushan Shuiyan 1. Phone and phoneme inventory

2. Phonology of data points 121

2.6.2. Notes

• Both [ts] and [ sb] occur before a wide range of vowels, including [i] and [u]. These two sounds are each phonemic. See minimal pairs . • [v] only occurs on three lexical items. All other items that often have the [v] initial in other lects have a [w] initial here. [v] is largely merged with [w]. There is not a single occurrence of [f]. Though [v] seems to be merging with [w], the occurrences of [v] are not pronounced similar to [w], but are rather distinct. The morpheme for ‘fire’ [ uh1] occurs three times throughout the data, and each time the initial is distinctly [v]. For these reasons, though [v] is merging with [w], [v] is not considered an allophonic variation of [w], but as phonemic. • [ p] only occurs once and is seen here to be a phonetic variation of [z]. Both [z] and [y[] occur about the same number of times and the pronunciation of these phones actually ranges anywhere between [z] and [ y[]. Some items were pronounced the majority of times with fronted or unfronted [z], but there was some variation. For these reasons, these two phones are not distinct phonemically. • [s] and [ r[] both occur a number of times, and the situation with these two phones is the same as that with [z] and [ y[]. They are not considered distinct. • [ Y] occurs before both rounded and unrounded vowels. It does not, however, occur before high front vowels. There is inconsistent pronunciation of the morpheme ‘water’. 5 However, the pronunciation of [ Y] rarely fluctuates with [z]. Therefore, [Y] is taken to be distinct with [z][ y[]. See minimal pairs . • [ b] only occurs on four items: two of these occurrences are before [i] and [b] also occurs before [ D] and [=]. [s] does not occur before [i], occurs two times before [ D], and never before [=]. [ b] is viewed as an allophone of [s] before [i], and as an allophonic variation elsewhere. • [x] occurs numerous times in a wide range of environments and there is no doubt it is phonemic. There are no occurrences of [ F], [h], or [G], as in other lects. • [ ¯] occurs on nine lexical items before the vowels [i], [u], [a], [D], and [o] and is phonemic. [n] occurs before [u] and [i], though only a few times. See minimal pairs with [n]. • [j] occurs on 10 lexical items, and the pronunciation is fairly distinct. Note that the lexeme for ‘blink’ in 259 ‘to blink’ [ fio6 s`0] is pronounced without a glottal in 2 ‘lightning’ [i`o6 oi`2]. [ fi] is not phonemic. It only occurs two times, and on one of the lexical items fluctuates with [j]. • [pj] occurs on 11 lexical items: before [a], [o], and [ ]. [pi] + u occurs two times. The palatalization is distinct from the more vowel-like sound in [pi] + u. The two times that [pi] occurs is viewed here as an allophonic variation of [pj]. 5 That is, 11 ‘water’ [ y[`l3], 23 ‘mistfog’ [y`l3 ln4], 199 ‘ink’ [Yl3 l`f7], and 286 ‘to swim’ [ vt1 Y`l3] 122 2.6.3. Minimal pairs