5.2.4 PKS -w- clusters
Shared innovations in PKS -w- onset clusters provide solid evidence for grouping Yang’an with Kam and for subgrouping the four Southern Sui lects into their own cluster distinct from the rest of Sandong
dialect. A common development in non-Yang’an Sui is for PKS -w- clusters to have merged with their corresponding fricative series via lenition. Southern Sui has undergone further lenition with xw- w-
cf. Central Sui f- and pw- v- w-. Kam and Yang’an Sui in particular BL have lost the medial - w- and the subsequent onsets have merged with plain voiceless stops.
Liang and Zhang 1996 reconstruct PTK pw- or bw- for almost all words in this section, but their proposed onset voicing does not always match the tones in Kam-Sui due to different tone reflexes in the
Tai branch. pu- bu- f-, as seen in many of these words, is a well attested sound change in Chinese, for example 方 ‘direction’ EMC
puaŋ
A
faːŋ¹ Mandarin, fɔːŋ¹ Cantonese; 逢
‘to meet’ EMC buawŋ
A
f ɤŋ² Mandarin, fuŋ² Cantonese; etc. However, Liang and Zhang’s reconstruction does not account
either for contrasting p- and f- reflexes within Yang’an Sui and Kam or for contrasting f- and v- reflexes within Sandong and Pandong Sui.
5.2.4.1 PKS
kʰw-, xw-, ɣw- These proto onsets see considerable variation when they occur with
yīn tones see table 5.19 and less variation when occurring with yáng tones see table 5.20. PKS
kʰw- has merged with f- or its equivalent in all Sui dialects note that ‘pine’ has an unexpected reflex in Kam,
pʰaːk⁹, and ‘tired’ seems to have been reconstructed incorrectly, see Castro, 2011. PKS xw- has merged with plain bilabial stops in
Yang’an Sui and Kam, voiceless fricatives in Central, Western, Eastern and Pandong Sui and voiced fricatives in Southern Sui.
Zeng 1994 generally reconstructs Thurgood’s PKS kʰw- and xw- as PS pj- yīn tones and PKS
ɣw- as PSbj- yáng tones. Thurgood’s PKS xw- and ɣw- square better with Mulam kw- reflexes for the words such as ‘rain’ kw
ən¹ and ‘bamboo’ kwan¹ in table 5.19. Liang and Zhang 1996 reconstruct the PTK etymon for ‘millet’ as plw
ɯaŋ
C
. ‘Cloud’ Northern Kam kwa³ is possibly an ancient Chinese loanword from
雨 ‘rain’ OC C.
ɡʷaʔ Baxter and Sagart 2011.
Table 5.19. Sandong Sui f- yīn tones. Stop initials indicated by double lines,
voiced initials shaded in grey Sandong
Pandong Yang’an
Kam Central Eastern
Southern Gloss
PKS SD
DJ JQ
SY PD
JL TN
BL ‘maple’
- fu¹
- fu¹
- hiu¹
- -
- -
‘kerchief’ - -
fja³ ɸja³
fa³ hia³
fiɛ³ fja³ -
- ‘pine’
- faːk⁷
faːk⁷ faːk⁷
faːk⁷ hwaːk⁷ faːʔ⁷ faːk⁷
fwaːk⁷ pʰaːk⁹ ‘wide’ †
khwa ːŋ
C
fa ːŋ³
-
fa ːŋ³
-
hwa ːŋ³
- faːŋ³
- kʰwaːŋ³
‘sweet’ k
hwaːn
A
faːn¹ -
faːn¹ faːn¹
- -
- -
kʰwaːn¹ ‘delayed’ khwe
A
fɛ¹ fɛ¹
fɛ¹ fɛ¹
- fæ¹ fɛ¹
fɛ¹ we¹
‘tired’ khwe
C
fe³ fɛ³
we³ wɛ³
- -
- -
- ‘right’
hwa
A
fa¹ fa¹
hwa¹ hwa¹ wa¹ va¹ fa¹
fw a¹
wa¹ ‘cloud’
m-xwa
C
fa³ fa³
wa³ wa³
hwa³ fa³
fa³ fwa³
ma³ ‘palm’
phwa
C
- -
wa³ wa³
hwa³ -
- -
pa³ ‘to feel’
- fjaːm⁵ fjaːm⁵
ɸjaːm⁵ vjaːm⁵ - -
pjaːm⁵ fjaːm⁵ pjaːm⁵ ‘pod’
xwak
D
‡ fɐk⁷
fak⁷ wɐk⁷ wɐk⁷ hwak⁷ fɐk⁷ pak⁷
- pak⁷
‘rain’ xwin
A
fən¹ fən¹
wən¹ wən¹ hwən¹ fən¹ pjen¹ pjɪn¹ pjən¹
‘bamboo’ xwan
A
fɐn¹ fan¹
wɐn¹ wɐn¹ hwən¹ fɐn¹ pan¹ pɐn¹
pan¹ ‘millet’
- fjaːŋ³
fjaːŋ³ pjaːŋ³ pjaːŋ³ hiəŋ³
fiəŋ³ pjaːŋ³ pjaːŋ³ pjaːŋ³ † Zeng 2004. PKS is ours.
‡ PKS ours, along the lines of Thurgood see Castro 2011. PKS xw’s voiced counterpart
ɣw- has lost its voicing in all Sui dialects including Southern see table 5.20. Thus Southern Sui exhibits the unlikely phenomenon of voiceless f- bearing yáng tones and
voiced w- bearing yīn tones.
Table 5.20. Sandong Sui f- yáng tones. Stop initials indicated by double lines Sandong
Pandong Yang’an
Kam Central
Eastern Southern
Gloss PKS
SD DJ
JQ SY
PD JL
TN BL
‘to say’ -
fɐn² fan²
fɐn² fɐn²
hwan ²
fɐn² fan² fɐn² - ‘goat’ †
- fa²
fa² hwa²
fa² huə² fɯə² -
- -
‘elder sister’ -
fe² fɛ²
fɛ² fɛ²
ȶe⁶ fæ² - -
pwa²‡ ‘elder
brother’§ ɣwaːi
C
faːi⁴ faːi⁴
hwaːi⁴ faːi⁴ hwaːi⁴ faːi⁴ tjaːi⁴ tjaːi⁴ ȶaːi⁴ ‘chaff’
- fa⁶
fa⁶ hwa⁶
pja⁶ huə⁶ fɯə⁵ pa⁶ pa⁶ pa⁶ ‘crucian
carp’ -
fiːt⁸ fiːk⁸
ɸiːk⁸ fik⁸ fit⁸
- piːk⁸
piːt⁸ pik⁸ † Yang’an Sui and Kam say
lje³, not cognate with fa². ‡ Southern Kam Dayun, western Rongshui county. Most Kam dialects use the non-cognate word
ȶaːi⁴ mjek⁹, literally ‘female elder sibling’.
§ In Yang’an Sui and Kam, tjaːi⁴ is a general word for elder sibling. In some places it means ‘elder sister’
and faːi⁴ is retained for ‘elder brother’ tjaːi⁴ is also used to refer to an older cousin of either sex. The tj-
onset is unexpected and indicates an alveolar or palatal element in PKS. 5.2.4.2
PKS pw- , pʰw-
As shown in table 5.21, PKS pw- has lost the labial offglide and merged with plain bilabial stops in Kam and BL Yang’an. Our data from TN and LW show that other Yang’an areas have undergone lenition
pw- v- in common with the rest of Sui. However PKS pw’s aspirated counterpart pʰw- has merged
with aspirated stops in all the Yang’an data points. There is a general tendency for v to be pronounced w- in Southern Sui areas, but this does not constitute strong evidence for a CentralSouthern Sui dialect
division, because w- has been observed among some speakers in other Sui areas. RL Eastern Sui consistently had w- for most of these words.
The even-numbered tones on ‘to toss away’ and ‘top’ are unusual for this onset and probably occur only because these are onomatopoeic words which did not descend from proto forms with labialised stop
onsets.
Table 5.21. Sandong Sui v-. Stop initials indicated by double lines, words with approximant onsets shaded in grey
Sandong Pandong
Yang’an Kam
Central Eastern Southern
Gloss PKS
SD DJ
JQ SY
PD JL
TN BL
‘rice grass’
mpwaːŋ
A
vaːŋ¹ vaːŋ¹
w aːŋ¹ waːŋ¹ waːŋ¹ vaːŋ¹
vaːŋ¹ paːŋ¹ paːŋ¹ ‘leaf’
pwa
B
va⁵ va⁵
wa⁵ wa⁵
wa⁵ va⁵
va⁵ pa⁵
pa⁵ ‘seed’
pwan
A
vɐn¹ -
wɐn¹ wɐn¹ - -
van¹ pɐn¹ pan¹
‘fire’ pwai
A
vi¹ vi¹
ɥi¹ vi¹
ɥi¹ vi¹
vi¹ pəi¹
pui¹ ‘dream’
pwjan
A
vjaːn¹ vjɜn¹
vjɐn¹ vjɜn¹ vjen¹ vjɜn¹ vjen¹ pjɜn¹ pjan¹
‘tooth’ pwjan
A
vjɜn¹ vjɜn¹
- -
vjen¹ vjɜn¹ vjen¹ pjɜn¹ pjan¹
‘tall’ -
vaːŋ¹ vaːŋ¹
waːŋ¹ waːŋ¹ vuəŋ¹ vuəŋ¹ pʰaːŋ¹ pʰaːŋ¹ pʰaːŋ¹ ‘ashes’
phwuːk
D
vʊk⁷ vʊk⁷
vʊk⁷ ɣʊk⁷ vok⁷ vuɐk⁷ pʰʊp⁷ pʰuk⁷ pʰuk⁹ ‘day’
hŋwan
A
vɐn¹ van¹
wɐn¹ wɐn¹ wan¹ vɐn¹ van¹
pɐn¹ man¹† ‘to fly’
- vjɪn³
vjɪn³ vjɪn³ vjin³ vjen³ vjɜn³
vjen³ vjɪn³ pən³ ‘to
smear’ -
vjaːt⁷ vjaːt⁷
vjaːt⁷ vjaːt⁷ - -
- -
ȶaːt⁹ ‘to toss’
- vət⁸
vət⁸ vət⁸
wət⁸ wət⁸ vət⁸ vət⁸
vət⁸ pʰjit⁹
‘top game’
- vu⁴
vu⁴ vu⁴
- -
- v
u⁴ vu⁴
ɕa¹ † Baojing Northern Kam pronunciation is
pan¹. 5.2.4.3
PKS kw-, ɡw-
These onsets have merged with q- in Southern Sui and p- in all other Sui dialects as well as standard Southern Kam, Maonan and Then, providing further grounds for a Southern Sui subgrouping.
Correspondences are given in table 5.22. Mak and Ai-Cham exhibit k- for ‘leg’ and ‘horn’ and
ȶ- for ‘to sell’. The word for ‘ox’ is given by way of comparison, consistently showing
mo⁴ in Southern Sui but po⁴ elsewhere, perhaps due to a former nasal prefix in the Southern Sui area. This is the only word we have found that has a p- m- alternation.
Table 5.22. PKS ɡw-, kw-. Uvular stops indicated by double lines, m- shaded in grey
Sandong Pandong
Yang’an Kam
Central Eastern
Southern English
PKS SD
DJ JQ
SY JL
BL ‘to sharpen’
ɡwan
A
† pɐn²
pan² pɐn²
pɐn² pɐn²
pɐn² pan²
‘dove’ ɡwau
A
pɔu² pou²
qɐu² qɐu²
pau² pɐu²
pəu² ‘leg’
kwa
A
pa¹ pa¹
qa¹ qa¹
pa¹ pa¹
pa¹ ‡ ‘to sell’
kwe
A
pɛ¹ pɛ¹
qɛ¹ qɛ¹
pæ¹ pɛ¹
pe¹ ‡ ‘horn’
m- kwaːu
A
paːu¹ paːu¹
qaːu¹ qaːu¹
paːu¹ paːu¹
paːu¹ ‡ ‘ox’
- pɔ⁴
pɔ⁴ mo⁴
mo⁴ pɔ⁴
pɔ⁴ -
† The Mulam for ‘to sharpen’, kwan², leads Thurgood to this etymon. Data for Southern Sui indicates a different Proto-Kam-Sui onset.
‡ Northern Kam Baojing, Zhenyuan county realises these onsets as q-; some other Kam varieties show k-, kw- or w-.
The authors have found two other words exhibiting the p- q- alternation: ‘to praise’ qau³
Southern, pau³ Central; and ‘small bamboo shoot’ qau¹ Southern, pau¹ Central Li Fang-kuei
2008:147. Words with similar rimes such as ‘silkworm’ qaːu³ and ‘to look at’ qau⁵ have uvular onsets in
all Sui dialects. Li Fang-kuei 1965:156 suggests a series of labialised post-velars in Proto-Kam-Sui to explain this p-
q- alternation. Zeng 1994:26–28 proposes pq- or pk- for Proto-Sui or possibly a pre-syllable p-, thus p-k- or p-q-, citing ancient Chinese rhyming books which indicate that a similar sound could have
existed in Old Chinese, for example 鬓 ‘hair on the temples’, 绠
‘well-rope’, 鴔
‘hoopoe’, 駮
‘piebald horse’ and
皀 ‘kernel’. Zhengzhang Shangfeng
郑张尚芳 and Pan Wuyun
潘悟云 reconstruct Old Chinese
p-q- and pk- respectively for the latter two characters.
8
Pittayaporn 2009 suggests the same solution in his recent reconstruction of Proto-Tai, for example Proto-Tai
p.qa:
A
‘leg’ and p.qa:j
D
‘to sell’. In a later publication, Zeng 2004:53 revised her Proto-Sui reconstruction for these words to q-,
claiming that there is little evidence for an earlier p- pre-syllable because cognates for these words exhibit a single initial k- in almost all Taic languages. She says that the k-p- alternation in Kam and Sui
dialects is the result of a sporadic sound change which occasionally occurred in Sino-Tibetan languages when there was lip rounding on the rhyme. A more appealing reconstruction is Thurgood’s PKS kw- and
Liang and Zhang’s PTK xkw- as lip-rounding could cause a p- reflex, although the strong likelihood of a series of uvular stops in PKS see sections 5.2.5.2, 5.2.5.3 and 5.2.7.2 makes Zeng’s original hypothesis
of PKS p.q- equally attractive.
5.2.5 PKS stop-lateral