Duyun Fuxi Differences of the speech of older speakers versus younger speakers in specific data points

6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 559 English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘mosquito net’ pho6 ph=o6 ‘umbrella’ khM2 khM2 ‘to mend’ uX=M2 uXM0 ‘goat’ itM1 it=M1 ‘to borrow’ bhD4 bh=4 ‘blood’ khDs7 kh=s7 There are a few other examples of allophonic differences: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘to carry with hand’ pht2 phDt2 ‘quick’ pht1 ph=t1 ‘quickly’ phDt1mth5 pht1mnh5 ‘gold’ sbHl0 sbhl0 ‘money’ bdm1 bhm1 ‘bird’ pBj7 pnj7 ‘mosquito’ mhM1 md:M1 ‘sick’ ohM5 oHM5 ‘narrow’ bM1 bhm1 There is very little difference in production of tone in the younger person’s and older person’s speech, though random variations such as [33] versus [44] or [35] versus [24] do occur. In summary, variation occurs mainly in the nucleus. There is a tendency for younger speakers to produce [ tM], whereas older speakers produce [nM], and o in the older person’s speech often tends to u [ T] in the younger person’s speech.

6.1.2. Duyun Fuxi

In studying the speech of the older and younger speaker of Duyun Fuxi, we found the following differences: 1. For certain lexical items the older speakers used Chinese loans, having lost those items in their mother tongue. For example, ‘expensive’, ‘inexpensive’, ‘gift’, ‘peaceful’, ‘if’, etc. a total of about 4 percent of the data. Younger speakers borrowed Chinese at just a slightly higher percentage. Younger speakers borrowed Chinese for such items as ‘sugarcane’, ‘taro’, and ‘story’; items for which the older speakers used Bouyei. On a few of the Chinese loans, the older and younger speakers had slightly different pronunciation. For example: 560 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘peaceful’ [ r[hm24 rhm13] [ rhm22 rhM13] probably borrowing the word 清静 or qing 1 jing 4 ‘wrong’ [ srn13] [rn3] In comparison with the other data points, Duyun Fuxi has a greater difference between lexical items in older and younger speaker’s speech. Close to 10 percent of the data had different lexical items. For example: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘stinkbug’ [ kh=s33] [yho24] ‘bat’ [ oh24 ot22 oh`20] [ut24 u`:t22 oi`f20] ‘sour’ [ fc`s33] [s`:s24] 2. With regard to initials, the following differences were observed: z in the older person’s speech had the allophones [z], [ Y], and [y[], but this phoneme in the younger person’s speech was relatively stable. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘moon’ Yt`M5fchDm0 ytM5fchDm0 ‘road’ Yt`m0 ytm0 ‘stone’ y[hm0 yhm0 ‘dry field’ y[h5 yh5 ‘boat’ yt=1 yt=1 ‘water’ y`l3 yl3 Where the older speaker produced the voiced velar fricative [ F], the younger speaker often produced a voiced glottal fricative [ G]. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘rice’ F`t3 G`t3 ‘chin’ F`M1 G`:M1 ‘knee’ sbh`t2Fn4 sbit2Gn4 ‘to bite’ F`o7 G`o7 There was only one example of the older speaker producing [ G] ‘a kind of bamboo’ [uh3 GL1]. This example was not one of the word list items, but was elicited discussing the item ‘bamboo’. The younger speaker produced [ F] on only a few words: ‘morning’ [Fs6], ‘evening’ [ F`:l4], ‘a kind of bamboo’ [uh3 FX1], and ‘white rice’ [G`t3 F`:t0]. 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 561 Where the older speaker produced [w], the younger speaker most often produced [v]. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘tree’ v`h3 uh3 ‘cloud’ v=2 uX=2 ‘axe’ v`m0 u`:m0 ‘classifier for knife handle’ v`j7 u`j7 However, for a few examples both the older and younger speaker produced the same phone e.g., ‘cock’s crest’ [ v=m0] and ‘to hang’ [v`h2]. This phone in both older and younger speaker’s speech has an element of free variation. For example, in the older person’s speech, ‘tree’ is [ v`h3]. This lexeme occurs with a [v] in the ‘kind of bamboo’ example [uh3 FL1]. Both the older and younger speaker’s speech has some loss of palatalization and labialization, but the older speaker had fewer examples than the younger speaker. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘drunk’ fihl4 fhl4 ‘hungry’ fi=f4 fhDj33 ‘mother’ lD5 liD5 ‘vegetable’ oh`j6 oi`j6 ‘to warm by fire’ oht4 oiDt4 ‘to comb’ yth0 yvh0 ‘drum’ sbt`M0 sbvBM0 ‘Bouyei’ finh3 fivnh3 ‘afternoon’ jv`4khM1 jv`4khM1 There does not seem to be any regularity regarding the occurrence or nonoccurrence of pala- talization and labialization, but a free variation phenomenon. For the item ‘already’, the older speaker produced [ jt`4kh`t3]. The first morpheme was clearly not strongly labialized. The first morpheme has the meaning ‘to pass over’, which the older speaker pronounced in isolation as [ jv`4]. In addition, for ‘goat’, the older speaker produced the initial [j], while the younger speaker produced [ xtM1]. Where the younger speaker produced the initial [¯] e.g., ‘mosquito’ [ ¯M1], the older speaker produced [ni]. On a few words where the younger speaker produced the initial [ b], the older speaker produced [R] ‘stupid’ [Rth]. On some words where the older speaker produced the initial [ sb], the younger speaker produced [kj] or something like [ bi] e.g., ‘cold’ [jihDm3] or ‘near’ [bih2]. 562 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 3. Regarding the nucleus and final, there is not a great deal of difference between the simple vowels in open syllables of the younger and older speaker. Most of the differences lie in complex vowels or in syllables with a final. For many of the words which the older speaker produced with [a], the younger speaker produced [ ]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘lightning’ fi`o6oi`2 fio6oi`2 ‘morning’ F`s6 Fs6 ‘evening’ F`l5 F`:l5 ‘morning meal’ M`:h1 M`:h1 ‘water buffalo’ u`:h1 u`:h1 ‘leaf’ fa`h0 fah0 Where the older person produced [a] in the secondary nucleus position, the younger speaker produced [ ]. For example: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘moon’ Yt`M5fchDm0 ytM5fchDm0 ‘day’ Mt`m1 Mtm1 ‘road’ Yt`m0 ytm0 ‘strength’ y[h`M1 yhM1 The final [k] on lexical items was completely stable in the younger speaker’s speech, whereas for some of these lexical items the older speaker produced [ f]. Examples: English Older person Younger person ‘mouth’ o`f6 oi`j6 ‘bone’ fctf6 fctBj6 ‘pumpkin’ u`f7 uj7 ‘hungry’ fi=f6 fhDj6 ‘to vomit’ Yt=6 yt=j6 There is also variation between [i] and [ H], [u] and [T], [ua] and [n=], [ua] and [tB], and [o] and [uo]. These variations occur very infrequently and are irregular. 4. Tones 1, 4, and 6 are basically the same in the speech of the older and younger person. The differences involving the other tones are as follows: • The 3 rd tone of the younger speaker is noticeably shorter, and what should be open syl- lables with this tone can even end with a glottal stop. • The 5 th tone is [44] in the older person’s speech, with little tendency toward rising. This tone in the younger person’s speech is sometimes [35], however. In both the speech of the 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 563 younger and older person, a very few words with this proto-tone has a [33] pitch value. For example, ‘stool’ [ fc`M22] in the older person’s speech; ‘stool’ [fc`M22] and ‘big’ [ fct=l22] in the younger person’s speech. Other tonal differences were relatively insignificant. In summary, the initials, nucleus, and finals in Duyun Fuxi speech all have minor differences between younger and older speech. Much of the variation is due to random variation between allophones.

6.1.3. Dushan Shuiyan