574 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers
In both the older and younger speaker’s speech the phones [e], [ D], and [] seem to vary
freely. Also, [ h] and [h=] vary, as do [hD] and [h=]. This variation often occurs on a single
morpheme when produced on different lexical items, which indicates simple free variation. In the older person’s speech i
→ [H]__C stop. This does not occur in the younger
person’s speech. The final k has disappeared in this lect, though on most words that final k would
normally occur on, the older speaker produces [ f]. The younger speaker produced [f] in this
environment much less than the older speaker. This is an indication that the older speaker is still preserving this phoneme, whereas the younger speaker is not. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘vegetable’ oh`f oh`24
‘to fall’ snf24 sn24
‘to steal’ Y`f11 Y`200
‘to wash clothes’ S`f11 r[`200
‘girl’ faX=f24 lX=24
On two words where the older speaker produced a final [t], the younger speaker produced a glottal ‘seven’ [
bDf24] and ‘eight’ [oDf24]. It is difficult to tell if this is simple a coincidence or not.
4. With regard to tones, most of the difference between the speech of the younger and older
person occurs on tones 2 and 8. For the 2
nd
tone, the older person most often produces a dipping tone, [312][313][314]. The rising part of this tone is sometimes cut off when followed
by another syllable in rapid speech. Second tone in the younger person’s speech generally has a [31] pitch value. However, a few words with this tone had a pitch value like [311] where the
end part of the tone was drawn out level, as in ‘snake’ [ MX=200].
The 8
th
tone has two pitch values, a high falling and a low even pitch. In both the younger and older speaker’s speech the low even pitch varies significantly, randomly varying between
even, rising and falling pitches. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘glutinous rice’ bTs12 bTs13
‘claw’ Yho11 YDo11
‘ant’ lBs02 lns12
‘ink’ l`f13 l`f200
6.1.7. Shuicheng Fa’er
In studying the speech of the older and younger speaker of Shuicheng Fa’er, we found the following differences:
6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 575
1. For some lexical items ‘bear’, ‘net’, ‘story’, ‘1 p. plural incl.’, ‘bow’, ‘arrow’, ‘speak’, etc.,
the younger speaker used Chinese, whereas the older speaker used Bouyei. 2.
For the initial z, the older speaker mainly has the allophones [z] and [Y], with a few instances of [
y[]. The younger speaker mainly produced [z], producing [y[] less frequently and producing [
Y] even less frequently. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘dry field’ yDh5 yDh5
‘root’ y`5 y`5
‘stinkbug’ Yt=s5 yt=s5
‘bird nest’ YnM1YBj7 y[nM1y[nj7
‘bright’ YnM5 YnM5
There is an abundance of labialized initials in the older person’s speech Mv, jv, Fv, sv,
rv, and gv; the younger speaker only has three Mv, wv, and jv. Some of the labialized initials in the older person’s speech are vocalized in the younger person’s speech. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘day’ Mv`m1 Mv`m1
‘pig pen’ jv`M5 jvBM5
‘to pass over’ jv`4 jv`4
‘sand’ m`M5rvDh1 mM5rtDh1
‘lake’ fvnM1s=M5 FnM1s=M5
‘bowl’ svDh3 stDh3
The number of instances of labialization in the younger speaker’s speech is about half that of the older speaker’s speech.
The older speaker’s speech has a rather unique initial [ oe], for which the younger speaker
simply produces [f]:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘mountain’ oet0 et0
‘clothes’ oet5 et5
‘to blow’ oet4 et4
‘father’ oet5 et5
These particular lexical items have a p initial and a [o] nucleus in the 1
st
and 2
nd
lectal areas. In addition to these words, there is one additional example which does not occur in other lects:
‘navel’ [ oenM22 fc=M22] older versus [enM20 fc=M22] younger. There is one other
576 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers
unique initial in the older person’s speech, [wh], which occurs on one lexical item: ‘rain’ [
vg=m0] older versus [wt=m0] younger. Some other variation in initials between the older and younger person include [j] and [
I], [j] and [
fi], [n] and [¯], and [sb] and [ts]. There are very few of these examples, and the variation seems random. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘lightning’ fkH=M2o’`f2 kh=M2o’`2
‘roof’ mht4
¯ht4 ‘table’
sbBM1 srnM1 ‘hoe’
fi`f6 i`f6 ‘to have’
I`t4 it4 ‘one’
ihs6 fhs6 ‘to be’
s’D0 sD0 With regard to vowels on open syllables, there is very little difference, and the differences
occur infrequently. The main differences in the older and younger person’s simple vowels in open syllables are between
•
[ C] and [a]
•
[ X] and [L] or [L=]
•
[ D] and [hD]
•
[u] and [ T]
•
[o] and [ B] or [tB], and
•
[i] and [y]. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘iron’ uC1 u`1
‘river’ sC5 s`5
‘rainbow’ MX1rC0 ML1r`0
‘dry’ wX4 wL=4
‘big’ kn2 ktB3
‘rabbit’ kt4 kT4
‘right’ bh0 bx0
The older speaker only produced [ C] in open syllables. The younger speaker almost never
produces this phone.
6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 577
Most of the variation in the nucleus occurs on complex vowels and closed syllables. There is variation between [a:], [a], and [
]. There are a total of seven examples of [a:] in the older speaker’s data, and for most of these examples the younger speaker produced [
]. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘water’ y`:M2 y[M2
‘dirt’ m`:M5 mM5
‘sugar cane’ v`:h2 vh3
‘skin’ m`:M0 mM0
The younger speaker seems to be losing vowel length. There are several examples of differences between [a] and [
], and a few instances of other phones in that vowel space as well:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘early’ jv`m4 jt?m4
‘rice’ F`t3 Ft3
‘evening meal’ s`t1 st1
‘thorn’ v? m0 v`m0
‘chicken’ jh4 j`h4
‘ant’ l? s7 ls7
The younger speaker produced the phone [ ?] less frequently than the older speaker. The
older speaker produced phones in the vowel space between [ ?] and [`_], whereas the younger
speaker’s vowel for these examples was between [a] and [ `_], with few exceptions.
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘village’ fa? m3 fa`m3
‘building’ y? m1 y`_m1
‘rice’ Ft3 r? m3 Ft3 r`m0
‘axe’ u`_m0 u`M1
‘ghost’ u`_M0 u`M1
‘grandchild’ k`m0 k? m0
On a few lexical items the older speaker produced the vowel [ ], whereas the younger
speaker produced [ =], though on one item this was switched:
578 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘sunlight’ fcs6 fc=s6
‘to close’ fj6 f=j6
‘empty’ o=t4 ot4
‘ten’ srj7 sr=j7
The variation between the phones [a], [a:], [ ?], [], and [=] often seems random.
There is variation in the speech of the older and younger person between [ =] and various
other phones [ H=], [=], [D], and []:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘star’ fcn0 fcdh4 fcn0 fc=h4
‘rain’ vg=m0 wt=m0
‘stone’ rDm0 r=m0
‘gold’ sb=M0 sbH=M0
‘person’ uDm1 u=m1
‘two’ M`h5 MDh5
The variation of D in the older and younger person’s speech mainly involves allophones
[e], [ h], and [hD]:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘money’ sbDm1 sbhDm1
‘brass drum’ ¯Dm1 mdm1
‘flat’ faDm0 fahDm0
‘dirty’ ¯Dm5
¯H=m5 The final [
nM] in the older person’s speech was often pronounced as [tM] in the younger person’s speech:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘spider’ jvnM4 jvB0 jtM4 jvB0
‘belly’ snM2 stM2
‘to mend’ wnM0 wtM0
‘to breathe’ srnM4 rtDh0 srtM4 rtDh0
‘loose’ rnM4 rtM4
In addition to these differences in the nucleus, a few other variations occur such as [ t=]
versus [ T=], [B] versus [o], etc., but there are few examples of these.
6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 579
3. The older speaker produced [44] for tone 5, just a bit higher than the [33] pitch of tone 1. The
younger speaker produced a higher pitch for tone 5, [45] or [55]. Examples:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘well’ ut33 ut34
‘stool’ s`M33 s`M34
‘cotton’ eD33 eD44
‘pot’ sbn33 sbn44
There are a few instances where the younger speaker produced [44] for the 5
th
tone, such as ‘heart’ [
st`M33]. Sometimes the pitch on the 7
th
tone was rising on one speaker’s word, and level on the other speaker’s word:
English Older speaker
Younger speaker
‘sunlight’ fa=m22 fcs24 fc=s44 sb=t44
‘tiger’ jnj33 jnj34
‘flea’ fcDh33 ls24 l`s34
‘lungs’ e=s33 e=s34
The pitches on the other tone categories had very little variation between the speech of the older and younger speaker. Most of the variation occurs in the initial and nucleus, with the
tonal differences being minimal.
6.1.8. Wangmo Fuxing