80 2.4.1. Phone and phoneme inventory
2.4. Changshun Guyang 2.4.1. Phone and phoneme inventory
Initial consonants BiLab
LaDe Alv
PoAl AlPal
Pal Vel
Glo Plos
vl o, oi
s j
f, fi
PreGlo fa fc
Aff vl
sb
Fric vl
r b
vd u
[ y] Y
F [
G]
Nas vd
l, [li] m
¯ M, Mv
Lat vd
k
App vd
[ v]
i
Final consonants
o, s, f, l, m, M
Vowels Front
Central Back
unrd unrd
unrd rd
Close h
[ X]
[ L] t
Near-close
[ H]
Close-mid
n
Mid =, [=:]
Open-mid
D [B]
Near-open
[ ]
Open
`, `:
Tones Category
1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 9
8 10
Pitch value 13 21 22 41 25 44 34 21 33
2.4.2. Notes
•
[s] and [ b] are almost in complementary distribution, but for the examples cited in the minimal
pairs section. [s] occurs before [i] only twice and [
b] occurs before [i] only three times. [
b] occurs in the environment C__iVC a number of times, but only occurs in the environment C__VC where V
≠
[i] only once in 445 ‘inexpensive’ [ bM22]. In listening to
2. Phonology of data points 81
the [ b] words, in some cases it is difficult to distinguish [bVVC] from [biVVC], so
some of the [ biVVC] words could conceivably be [bVVC] instead.
•
[ Y] occurs most frequently, with [z] occurring on only 10 items. However, both occur before
front, mid, and back vowels, so they could be taken to be two separate phonemes. However, while transcribing the words with the speaker there seemed to be some sort of variation
between [z] and [ Y], with [Y] occurring in varying degrees of post-alveolar tongue position. So
we view these two sounds as one phoneme, occurring in some degree of free variation. [
Y] is taken as the phoneme.
•
[ F] and [G] do not occur before high front vowels.
[ G] occurs only on seven items and seems to be in free variation with [F].
[ F] occurs with varying degrees of “fricativeness” and is taken as the phoneme.
•
[w] and [v] seem to be variations of one phoneme. The speaker often used a sound that was a combination of the two sounds, sort of a labialized labiodental voiced fricative. This sound
sometimes was pronounced as [vw], sometimes as [v], and sometimes as [w]. [v] is taken as the phoneme.
•
[ fi] could be analyzed as being [fh-] phonemically, but on some lexical items it is strongly
palatalized, as opposed to being pronounced as glottal plus vowel. [
fi] occurs on five items. It is included in the phonemic inventory.
•
[ li] only occurs once. The palatalization is not really all that strong and is not considered
phonemic.
•
[ Mv] only occurs on the word 15 ‘day’. The labialization is pronounced distinctively, as
opposed to the words with Mt- i.e., 161 ‘reed’ [Mtn31] and 228 ‘nod one’s head’ [Mt20].
•
[ `] occurs very regularly as a long vowel, or as the last vowel of an open syllable.
[ ] occurs in complimentary distribution with [a]. See
allophonic rules below.
•
[ H] only occurs on two items, both in the environment ¯__ C__.
[ H] is considered a free variation form of i.
•
[ B] only occurs on five items and is considered an irregular variation of o.
•
[ =:] only occurs on one item and the length is not considered phonemic.
•
[ X] and [L] are considered variations of the same phoneme, even though minimal pairs can be
found for them in the data. This particular sound seems to occur anywhere in the vowel space from [
X] to [L], in varying degrees.
•
In general, [ =] does not occur in the environment CV__ except as the end of a diphthong,
whereas [ X] and [L] generally occur in that environment. There are only a few exceptions:
111 ‘ear’ [ Yv=20], 8 ‘wind’ [yX=l20], and 13 ‘afternoon’ [rLh00].
[ L] occurs in the environment Ci__f twice and [=] occurs in C__f once: 323 ‘women’
[ fa=f24].
[ X], [L], and [=] are considered as one phoneme, the [X] and [L] sounds occurring in
complimentary distribution with [ =] with only a few exceptions.
82 2.4.3. Minimal pairs
