Oral final Consonant System

PT h-, PCT h- Li 1977, §13.2 English Ch. PT Form Tone WSMLW YSKX GNBH MGXZ wjgwn MLPJD XCGJ WSLHL GNSFZ GNXGN FNBL npdgl five 姓 ha C1 ha²² ha²² ha²² ha²² haa²² ha²² xa²² ha²² ha²² ha²² xa²² ha³³ give, to 给姓 həɯ C1 ʔo³³jai⁵⁵ haɯ²² haɯ²² haɯ²² haɰ²² həɯ²² haɯ²² ʔau²²jaːi⁵⁵ haɯ²² həɯ²² hɯ²² hɯ³³ yellow 黄姓 hen C1 xeːn²² xien²² heːn²² xien²² hen²² heːn²² xiɛn²² hiɛn³³ xiɛn²² hɛːn²² xeːn²² heːn³³ to do 做姓 het D1S hʷɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hɔak⁵⁵ xɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ xɛt¹¹ hɛt̚⁵⁵ In Nong and Min Zhuang, the PT h- initial remains an h phoneme sometimes with a velar fricative allophone [x], as is the case for most modern Taic languages according to Li 1977:249.

3.4.13 Oral final

consonants It is debatable whether syllable final consonants should be dealt with in a section on consonants as opposed to vowels, or whether a division between onsets and codas including vowel final and consonant final codas is a more appropriate reflection of the intrinsic nature of the language. We have seen how oral consonant final syllables behave differently, in terms of tone, than do those ending in a vowel or nasal, and how some Central Taic languages, such as Dai Zhuang, have virtually done away with final consonants, the rest of the coda including tone and nasalization of vowels being sufficient to maintain lexical distinctions. But as one of our ultimate goals is to work out a viable writing system, as the decision to use the Roman script has already been made by various organs of the Chinese government, and as the Roman script is a system that seems to lend itself more to identifying phonemes in terms of vowel and consonant segments than in terms of onsets and codas unlike a syllabic script, for example, 33 34 we will include final consonants in our analysis of all consonant phonemes, before turning to vowel phonemes. In terms of oral final consonants, Nong and Min Zhuang, like most Taic languages Dai Zhuang being a notable exception have three phonemes, labial –p, dental –t, and velar –k. As mentioned earlier, syllables ending in one of these oral stops are believed to have belonged to the Proto-Tai tone category D, and their modern tone reflexes are, therefore, categorized as one of the tone categories that resulted from the two tone splits that are believed to have affected PT Tone D, one based on the voicing of the onset sound and the other based on the length of the medial vowel, though as we have noted above, some of these resulting categories have since merged with each other. The examples presented here to demonstrate the final consonants in Min and Nong Zhuang have already been presented above, organized by their onset phonemes. Additional examples of oral final consonants are also listed under the previous section on Nong Zhuang development of Proto-Tai Tone D. All final oral consonants in our data have no audible release, though we have not bothered to write them as “ p̚ t̚ k̚” in our data, as there is no contrast with any 33 34 Of course, it is possible to teach an orthography based on the Roman alphabet in terms of intials and finals, or onsets and codas. This is usually the way the Pinyin Romanization system for Mandarin Chinese is taught in China, with students learning all the possible single and double letter syllable initial forms, and then learning all the possible syllable final spellings. released final oral consonants. The phonetic quality of the final oral stops in our data and that of Gedney is the same as those of the Guangxi Min, data where the unreleased diacritic was added to each transcription by our colleagues. PT -p; -t; -k, PCT -p; -t; -k English Ch. PT Form Tone WSMLW YSKX GNBH MGXZ wjgwn MLPJD XCGJ WSLHL GNSFZ GNXGN FNBL npdgl to bathe in a river 洗澡姓进在 河 面远姓 ʔap D1L ʔap¹¹ ta³¹ ʔap¹¹ta³¹ ʔap¹¹ta³¹ ʔap¹¹ta³¹ ʔaap²¹taa³¹, ʔaap²¹nam⁵⁵ ʔap¹¹taː³¹ ʔap¹¹ta³¹ ʔap¹¹ ta³¹ ʔaːp¹¹ ta³¹ ʔɑːp¹³tɑ³¹; ʔam¹³ta³¹ ʔap¹¹ta⁵³ θaːu⁵⁵ʔdaŋ²⁴ to bite 咬姓 xep D1S kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰap⁵⁵ kʰɔap⁵⁵ kʰɔp¹¹ kʰɔːp̚²² ten 十姓 sip D1S θip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ θip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ θip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ θip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ sip⁵⁵ θip⁵⁵ θɪp̚⁵⁵ to do 做姓 het D1S hʷɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hɔak⁵⁵ xɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hʷɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ hɔk⁵⁵ xɛt¹¹ hɛt̚⁵⁵ hot; warm 热进水远姓 ʔdɯat D1L ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹¹ daat²¹ ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹¹ nam⁵⁵ ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹¹ ʔdat¹³ ʔdət¹¹ ʔdʊːt̚⁵⁵ blood 血姓 lɯet D2L lɯt³³ lət³³ lɯt³³ lɯt³¹ lɤt³¹ lɯt³¹ lət³¹ lit³³ lɯt³¹ lɯt³¹ lɯt³¹ lɯːt̚³¹ to dig 挖姓 xut D1S ʔou²² kʰɯt⁵⁵ kʰɯt⁵⁵ kʰɯt⁵⁵ kʰau³³, pɯt⁵⁵ baak²¹, kʰaw⁵⁵, kʰut⁵⁵ kʰwət⁵⁵ kʰɯt⁵⁵ kʰuət⁵⁵ ʔbɯt³³ ʔbɯt³³ kʰut³³ wa²⁴ cf. Ch. 挖 chest 胸脯姓 ʔu̥ɯk D1S ʔak⁵⁵ pa²²ʔak⁵⁵ na³³ʔak⁵⁵ pak¹¹ʔak⁵⁵ naa²²ʔak⁵⁵ pak¹¹ʔak⁵⁵ pak¹¹ʔak⁵⁵ nɔ³³ ʔak⁵⁵ pak¹¹ ʔak⁵⁵ na²²ʔak⁵⁵ pak¹¹ʔək⁵⁵ ʔʊk̚⁵⁵ brain 子姓 ʔuk D1S ʔɔk¹¹ ʔɔk¹¹ ʔoak¹¹ ʔɔk¹¹ ʔɔk²¹ ʔɔk¹¹, tʰu²⁴ʔɔk¹¹ tʰu²⁴ʔɔk¹¹ tɕəɯ²⁴ ʔok¹¹ ʔɔk¹¹ ʔɔk⁵⁵aːi³³ ʔok̚⁵⁵ʔaːi²² hungry 饿姓 ʔjɯ̥ak D1L jak¹¹ jak¹¹ jak¹¹ jak¹¹ yaak²¹kʰaw²², toŋ⁵⁵yaak²¹ jak¹¹ jak¹¹ toŋ⁵⁵ jak¹¹ jak¹¹ jak¹³ jak¹¹ jaːk̚²² As the above examples demonstrate, for the most part, Nong and Min Zhuang final consonants have not changed from Li’s Proto-Tai forms. Though the Nong reflexes for “to do” show a velar stop instead of a dental stop in the coda in all locations, all other PT forms ending in -t in our data show a t phoneme in Nong Zhuang, as does the Min Zhuang reflex for “to do.” The -k reflex in Nong for this word appears to be an isolated case; possibly the Nong forms descend from a different etymon than Li’s PT het.

3.4.14 Nasal final consonants