Luodian Poqiu Differences of the speech of older speakers versus younger speakers in specific data points

572 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers There are other slight differences in the complex vowels and in closed syllables. The younger speaker at times produced a diphthong with [ =] as secondary vowel on words, where the older speaker produced only a simple vowel as in ‘wind’ [ yt=l113]. In addition, there is infrequent variation between [ =] and [], [=:] and [X=], and [i] and [H]. These variations are simply allophonic. 4. Tonal differences involve pitch difference only, and occur mainly on the 2 nd tone. For the 2 nd tone, the older speaker produced [13], whereas the younger speaker produced a dipping tone [213][214], or a kind of extended tone [223][224]. For the 6 th tone the older speaker produced a higher pitch overall [53] versus [42] that the younger speaker produced.

6.1.6. Luodian Poqiu

In studying the speech of the older and younger speaker of Luodian Poqiu, we found the following differences: 1. For a few lexical items such as ‘stinkbug’, ‘reed’, and ‘mortar’ the younger speaker used Chinese, whereas the older speaker used only Bouyei. There were also a total of 24 lexical items where the older and younger speaker used different Bouyei words, though some of these words are synonyms. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘soft grass’ ¯`13ft=m31 ¯h=22 ‘owl’ Yn20jt13Gt20 Yn20sbt22lhDt22 ‘sour’ sbDs24 r[nl22 ‘pot’ b`:m24 jnl24 ‘gift’ kh31 sn20ihM42 2. With regard to initials, there is not a great deal of difference. Only a few words had different initials. For example, ‘morning’ [ G`:s24] older versus [F`s24] younger and ‘girl’ [ faX=24] older versus [lX=24] younger. There are relatively few allophonic differences in the speech of this data point. For example, Y in the older person’s speech only has one instance each of [z] and [ y[]; r[ occurs as [S] and [s], though infrequently, and w occurs as [ G] once, ‘poor’ [vn22 Gn22]. 3. There is virtually no difference between the older and younger person’s speech with regard to the nucleus in open syllables, with only a few exceptions such as ‘sugar cane’ [ fB31] older versus [ fn31] younger or ‘to buy’ [bX31] older versus [bHX31]. Also, where [X] occurs in an open syllable in the older speaker’s speech, the younger speaker often produced [ X=] or [ h=]. The differences in the younger and older person’s speech with regard to complex vowels and the nucleus of closed syllables are more significant. 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 573 On some words the older speaker produced [a] but the younger speaker produced [a:]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘to sit’ m`M42 m`:M42 ‘to walk’ oi`h22 oi`:h22 ‘to carry with shoulder pole’ Y`o24 Y`:o24 ‘to close’ G`o24 G`:o24 ‘to open’ G`h13 G`:h13 ‘slanted’ jv`h22 jv`:h22 There are also a few instances where the older speaker produced [a:] and the younger speaker produced [a]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘morning’ G`:s24 F`s24 ‘like’ f`:M42 f`M24 ‘burn’ oi`:t13 oi`t13 On some items the older speaker produced [a] whereas the younger speaker produced [ ]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘back’ k`M13 kM13 ‘skin’ m`M3 mM13 ‘hook’ M`t24 Mt24 ‘to return’ s`t24 st24 On some words the older speaker produced [ ] but the younger speaker produced [a]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘lightning’ fio24 fi`o24 ‘stool’ sM24 s`M24 ‘rice’ G`t31 G`t31 ‘corner’ jt13 j`t13 For the phoneme u the older speaker generally produced the allophone [ T] when occur- ring before a nasal final as in ‘beard’ [ lTl42], whereas the younger speaker did not. On some words of this type the younger speaker produced [o], as in ‘black’ [ en:m31] younger versus [ eTm31] older. Also, there is no length distinction on o in the older speaker’s speech, but the younger speaker clearly does produce a lengthened vowel on a few words, as in ‘fragrant’ [ Gn:l]. 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