Vowels Nong Phonemic Inventory

3.7 Nong Phonemic Inventory

We lack adequate data to confidently propose an exhaustive phonemic inventory for Min Zhuang, but for Nong Zhuang we propose the following vowel and consonant phonemes:

3.7.1 Vowels

We have identified eight phonemic vowels; two of which differ from each other only in phonemic length and this contrast is only found in the environment preceding sonorant codas, that is, nasals and semivowels. In addition to these eight, there is also a phoneme ɤ which occurs primarily as the Nong pronunciation of ə in Chinese loanwords, but also in a few words that look to be of Taic origin. In at least one of these, [ ɤ²²] to carry a child on the back, this may be a development from PT ɯa, ʔɯa C1 to carry a child on the back. Front Unrounded Back Unrounded Rounded Close i ɯ u Close-Mid e ɤ o Mid Open-Mid ɛ ɔ Open short: a before nasals only long: a ː Although, thus far, we have considered diphthongs and tripthongs as sequences of vowels following Li, when considering the Nong language synchronically, it is also possible to treat them as vowel-semivowel combinations, as does Gedney in his fieldnotes on “Western Nung.” This treatment would eliminate any diphthongs or tripthongs. The syllable structure, thus, would require only a single vowel slot, but require the capacity for consonant clusters as initials, though not as finals, as all of the potential vowel + semi-vowel combinations only occur as syllable codas, never before nasal or oral plosive codas. However, arguing against such a treatment is the fact that we do have phonemic contrasts between semi-vowel+vowel syllables not preceded by any glottal construction and vowel+vowel syllables, in which the first vowel is phonetically longer and is preceded by glottal closer, for example, [ ʔuːa¹¹] ‘stupid’ versus [wa¹¹] ‘broom.’ As we will see in the final section, the government-approved Zhuang orthography, has chosen to write these as vocalic diphthongs and tripthongs. The following table includes both possible analyses: Front Unrounded Back Rounded outer phonemes treated as vowels outer phonemes treated as semi-vowels outer phonemes treated as vowels outer phonemes treated as semi-vowels Close iau jaw ua wa Close-Mid eu eo ew oi oj Mid Open-Mid Open short: au, ai, a ɯ aw, aj, a ɰ long: a ːu, aːi, aːw, aːj The fact that there is no a length contrast in the diphthong a ɯ is explained by the fact that this modern diphthong developed from the PT əɯ and PT eɛɯ, but Li did not reconstruct any a ɯ to develop into aːɯ in contrast to au  aːu and ai  aːi. The above table contains no palatalized or labialized onset diphthongs, as we are treating these by proposing palatalized or labialized consonant phonemes. Most of these result from the simplification of consonant clusters, although a few, such as m ʲ, which is mostly found in Chinese loan words, do not.

3.7.2 Consonants