of semantic “change”. This is because, although all differences must be due to semantic “change”, it is often very difficult to ascertain the direction of change due to a lack of documentation of older forms of
the language. For example, Pandong dialect’s use of ȵam⁵ to mean ‘night’ as well as ‘evening’ could
constitute a case of semantic widening, in which the regular Sui word for ‘night’ saːn² has dropped out
of usage and the meaning of the word ȵam⁵ ‘evening’ has widened to include ‘night’. On the other hand,
the very same phenomenon could constitute semantic narrowing, in which the meaning ȵam⁵ ‘night,
evening’ has narrowed in Sandong Sui to refer specifically to ‘evening’ and a new word, saːn² ‘night’, has
been borrowed in possibly from Yang’an dialect and taken up the meaning slot for ‘night’. We do not have enough evidence to know what actually happened.
The semantic differences which we found generally fall into three categories: 1 differences in semantic range due to semantic widening or narrowing; 2 semantic shift due to lexical replacement
usually through borrowing; and 3 semantic differences due to differences in physical environment. After giving some examples in each of these categories, we conclude by showing how some regions, in
particular SD and JQ, seem to make more lexical distinctions than others due to cross-dialect borrowing. This adds weight to the argument for choosing the SD lect as a reference variety for standardisation. For
ease of description, we tend to use Sandong SD dialect as a point of reference for describing semantic differences in this section.
6.5.1 Differences in semantic range
In Sandong, pja¹ means ‘cliff’ or ‘boulder-type rock’ and tin² means a smaller ‘stone’ or ‘rock’. In
Pandong, however, tin² is not used at all and pja¹ covers both meanings. In Southern Sui, pja¹ is used
specifically to mean ‘mountain’ and nu² the Sandong word for ‘mountain’ is narrower in meaning, referring to a ‘hill’. Many Sandong and Yang’an varieties also have the word
ʔmau⁵, referring to an earthen hill or mound. Southern Sui uses
kʰan⁵ for ‘cliff’. In Southern Sui,
ʔa⁵ means ‘large branch’ and tsiŋ⁵ means ‘small branch’. Other Sui dialects do not differentiate between them and use
tsiŋ⁵ for any sized ‘branch’. Most Sandong dialects distinguish between ‘small knife’
mit⁸ and ‘large knife for cutting firewood or undergrowth’
tsum⁵. The Eastern Sui varieties RL and SJ use tsum⁵ for any type of ‘knife’ and do not use the word
mit⁸ at all. Central and Western Sandong varieties and Yang’an dialect distinguish between ‘to give birth to’
haːŋ⁴ and ‘to raise livestock’ sai⁶ or zai⁵. Southern and Eastern Sui, however, use haːŋ⁴ to cover both meanings.
Pandong dialect does not distinguish between ‘sweet in taste’ and ‘delicious’, using qʰan¹ for both.
In other Sui dialects, qʰan¹ only means ‘delicious’ and ljən⁶ Central or faːn¹ Southern means ‘sweet in
taste’ see also section 6.5.4 below for further discussion on this word. In an apparent case of semantic widening due to ‘tonal assimilation’, Sandong’s ljeu² ‘completed
action particle’ and liu⁴ ‘completely, wholesale verbal modifier’, whose meaning and usage are different
although their meaning is related, have merged in PD and are both pronounced li əu⁴.
Another example of apparent semantic widening can be found in JR Southern. All Sui dialects use to² for ‘one’ when counting ‘one, two, three etc.’ to²,
ɣa², haːm¹… The same word to² is also used as a general classifier for animals and inanimate objects. However, when using the numeral ‘one’ in
conjunction with a classifier, most Sui dialects use ti³ which also means ‘small’ in all Sui dialects. For
example, ‘one water buffalo’ is ti³ to² kui² ‘one’+CLF+‘water buffalo’. JR, however, has dropped the use
of ti³ for ‘one’ and has replaced it with to², thus ‘one water buffalo’ is to² to² kui², with duplication of to².
There are several differences in lexical semantic range between Yang’an Sui and other Sui dialects. For example, Yang’an does not distinguish between ‘to love’ and ‘to like’, using
maŋ⁴ to cover both meanings. Other Sui dialects have a separate word for ‘to love’ e.g.,
ᵐbjum¹ SD, mjət⁷ TZ, ɣai¹ Southern, pin² PD. Yang’an BL has a catch-all word for ‘elder sibling’,
tjaːi⁴, to which is added ‘male’ paːn¹ or ‘female’
mjaːk⁷ to specify ‘elder brother’ or ‘elder sister’ respectively. Other Sui dialects use faːi⁴ for ‘elder brother’ and fe² for ‘elder sister’.
Yang’an TN does not distinguish between ‘to tell sb., e.g., to reprimand’ and ‘to speak’, using fan² for both. Other Sui dialects use fan² as a general word for ‘to say, speak’ and
sot⁷ to specifically mean ‘to tell sb. sth.’ or ‘to reprimand’. Yang’an only has one word for ‘to know’
ŋo⁴, whereas other Sui dialects
distinguish between ‘to know a person’ ɣo⁴ and ‘to know a fact’ ɕau³ an old Chinese loan. Finally,
most Sandong dialects have a word for ‘to ascend’ sa⁵ and ‘to descend’ lui⁵. Yang’an BL speakers do not
use these words; rather, they say ‘to go up’ paːi¹ ʔu¹ and ‘to come down’ taŋ¹ te³ in lieu.
6.5.2 Semantic shift due to lexical replacement
