words as “similar”. ‘Dew’ is pronounced ȵi² in Central Sui SD and mɛ¹ in Yang’an TN, BL. Again, we
counted these as similar because they are clearly historical cognates. If two words are pronounced differently and the difference in pronunciation could not be explained
by regular diachronic sound changes, we counted the words as “dissimilar”. For example, in most dialects the word for ‘mouth’ is
paːk⁷. However, in Yang’an it is mup⁷. We counted these two words as dissimilar because there are no regular sound change rules which can account for the different onset and
rime. Similarly, the word for ‘rope’ is
laːk⁷ in most Sui dialects, whereas it is lɛ¹ in Yang’an. Although these two words look similar both have a lateral onset followed by a front non-high vowel and may be
cognate, we found no regular sound changes which could explain the different onset and tone. Therefore we counted these two forms as “dissimilar”.
It would be inaccurate to describe our lexical similarity counts as historical cognate counts since we only compared words which were semantically equivalent. Simple cognate counts would result in much
higher percentages because language varieties often share historical cognates even though their meaning or usage is different. For example, Kam tends to use the word
kaːu³ for ‘head’ whereas Sui particularly Central, Eastern and Southern Sui uses the word
qam⁴. These words are not historical cognates and we therefore counted them as dissimilar. However, all varieties of Sui do use a word cognate with Kam
kaːu³, usually pronounced
ku³, in a slightly different sense, viz. the “head” or “end” of a bridge, road, etc. We used computer software developed by Taylor University, WordSurv 7 White and Colgan 2012
to conduct lexical comparisons and calculate lexical similarity percentages. WordSurv calculates tallies of cognates as designated by the user and then displays either the cognate count, the percentage of
identical cognate forms, or a difference ratio, between every possible pair of villages. For our 594-word multiple Sui dialect comparison, we imported the lexical similarity percentages calculated by Wordsurv
into Gabmap, an on-line dialectology software package Nerbonne et al., 2011; see chapter 8 for more information, in order to perform cluster analysis. This is described in more detail in section 6.3.2.
6.3 Lexical similarity counts
6.3.1 Sui and Kam
In this section we show that from a synchronic perspective, Yang’an dialect groups with the other Sui dialects and that Sui as a whole is lexically distinct from Kam. We also show that Yang’an Sui shares a
significant number of lexical innovations with Kam, providing strong evidence that Yang’an Sui historically belongs to the Kam cluster.
For the comparison between Sui and Kam dialects, we compared a total of 393 words which occurred in both our Sui wordlists and in Shi and Strange’s 2004 Kam wordlists. In this comparison, we
only included glosses for which we had elicited forms in all Sui locations. Thus every pairwise comparison comprised the same 393 lexical items. Identifying cognates was relatively straightforward
because we had already analysed historical phonological innovations in Sui and Kam in considerable depth. Our results are given in table 6.1.
At a lexical similarity threshold of 80 all Sui dialects, including Yang’an, group together. At a threshold of 76, the three Kam dialects group together. Of all the Sui dialects, Yang’an shares the most
number of lexical items with Kam. Interestingly, Yang’an shows almost the same lexical similarity with Southern Kam Chejiang, 75 as Northern Kam does with Southern Kam 76. Thus although our
results support grouping Yang’an with the rest of Sui, they also show that Yang’an dialect bears a strong resemblance to Kam.
Table 6.1. Lexical similarity between Sui and Kam dialects based on 393 words Sui
Kam SD
C en
tr al
JQ So
u th
er n
T N
Y an
g’ an
P D
P an
d on
g
C h
eji an
g So u
th er
n
Y an
d on
g So
u th
er n
Shidong Northern 95
87 84
82 81
80 70
70 75
69 69
69 73
66 92
62 63
67 61
76 76
In table 6.2 we list words which are shared by most Sui dialects but not by Kam. These words illustrate the overall lexical homogeneity of Sui. Around half of these words are retentions from Proto-
Tai-Kadai. A few others, for example ‘earth’ hum⁵, ‘ox’ po⁴, ‘dragon’ ka¹ and ‘to speak’ fan², correspond to
ancient Chinese loans in Kam and are therefore possibly lexical retentions from Proto-Kam-Sui. As with all the vocabulary tables in this chapter, words are written in a phonemicised version of IPA in order to
make historical cognates more obvious.
Table 6.2. Sui vocabulary not cognate with Kam, indicated by double lines. Pandong dialect words which are not cognate with Sandong and Yang’an are shaded in grey. Probable ancient Chinese loanwords are
marked by a single asterisk . Words used in Bouyei which are probable Proto-Tai-Kadai retentions are marked by a double asterisk .
English Sui Sandong
Sui Pandong Sui Yang’an
Kam ‘earth’
hum⁵ Central, qʰum⁵ Southern hum⁵
hum⁵ mak⁸
‘year’ ᵐbe¹
ᵐbe¹ ᵐbe¹
ȵin², njin² ‘fish’
mom⁶ mom⁶
mum⁶ pa¹
a
‘duck’ ʔep⁷
ʔep⁷ ʔep⁷
pət⁷ ‘ox’
po⁴ Central, mo⁴ Southern
po⁴ po⁴
sən² ‘dragon’
ka¹ ka¹
ka¹ ljoŋ²
‘breast’ tju⁴
tju⁴ tju⁴
me³ , ȵo⁴ ‘oil’
man² man²
man² lau² , ju²
‘drum’ tam²
tam² tam²
kuŋ² ‘village’
ʔbaːn³ ᵐbaːn³
maːn³ sən¹
‘to have’ ʔnaŋ¹
b
naŋ¹ naŋ¹
li³ , me² ‘to speak’
fan² hwan²
fan² wa⁶ , qaːŋ³
‘to sing’ ɕip⁸
ȶiəŋ⁵ hip⁸
ʔa¹, qa¹ ‘to exchange’
lik⁷ ljik⁷
lik⁷ waːn⁶
‘to vomit’ kun⁵
juək⁷ qo⁴ kun⁵
wen³, fen³ ‘to fear’
ho¹ hiu¹
ɕu¹ TN, kʰu¹ BL
jaːu³
English Sui Sandong
Sui Pandong Sui Yang’an
Kam ‘to cover’
qum⁵ qum⁵
qum⁵ ɕa¹, ȶa¹
Southern
c
‘to warm by fire’
pʰjaːu¹ pʰjaːu⁵
pʰjaːu¹ pʰjeŋ¹
‘dry’ siu⁵ Central,
kʰiu⁵ Western kʰiu⁵
kʰiu⁵ so³
‘cold’ ʔȵit⁷
ȵit⁷ ȵit⁷
ljak⁷ ‘hot’
ⁿdu³ ⁿdu³
laːu³ tun¹, ljoŋ⁴
‘small’ ti³
ti³ ti³
ni⁵
d
‘few’ sjeu³
sjeu³ ɕiəu³
jun³ ‘narrow’
ʔnjap⁷ njap⁷
njap⁷ sok⁷, ȶʰok⁷
‘sharp’ ɕa¹
hia¹ ɕa¹ TN,
kʰa¹ BL ɕo⁵ Southern
e
‘steep’ ȶʰən³
laŋ⁵ PD , ɕan³ JL
kʰaːn³ BL, xjaːn³ TN
saːk⁷ ‘large’
laːu⁴ qaːŋ⁴ PD,
laːu⁴ JL laːu⁴
maːk⁹
f
‘not’ me²
me² me²
kwe² Northern
g
a
Southern Kam Dayun, Rongshui county is m əm⁶, cognate with Sui.
b
Eastern Sui in Rongjiang county say ⁿdai³, cognate with Sui ‘to get’ and the same word, li³, used in Kam.
c
Northern Kam is qum⁵, the same as Sui.
d
Southern Kam Dayun, Rongshui county is ti³, the same as Sui.
e
Northern Kam is ȶa¹, cognate with Sui.
f
Southern Kam Tongdao county is laːu⁴, the same as Sui.
g
Southern Kam Chejiang, Rongjiang county is me², the same as Sui. The data in this table brings out two things in addition to showing the general synchronic
homogeneity of Sui dialects. Firstly, Pandong dialect is particularly distinctive in terms of its lexicon. This point is demonstrated even more clearly in sections 6.3.2.2 and 6.4.1 of this chapter. Whilst
Pandong’s sound system shows that it is closely related to Western Sui varieties see chapters 4 and 5, its lexicon has diverged significantly, due either to lexical borrowings perhaps from Miao, with which
Pandong dialect speakers have close contact or lexical innovations.
Secondly, some Kam dialects share more vocabulary with Sui than others do. A thorough investigation of Kam lexicon across all 17 dialects surveyed by Shi and Strange 2004 reveals that for
every Kam word which is usually different from Sui, there is almost always at least one location where Kam uses the same word as Sui. The authors found that Southern Kam spoken in Dayun, Rongshui
county Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is particularly close to Sui, sharing such words as ‘grass’
ȶəŋ¹, ‘fish’ məm⁶, ‘mouth’ paːk⁹, ‘elder sister’ pwa², ‘rope’ ɬe¹, ‘village’ maːn³, ‘wok stand’ ȶoŋ², ‘drum’ təm², ‘medicine’ sa², ‘shadow’ t
əu¹, ‘to listen’ li¹, ‘to fear’ lo¹, ‘cold’ ŋaːŋ⁵, ‘steep’ jaːn³, ‘near’ pʰjəi⁵, ‘few’ ɕeu³, ‘expensive’ p
əŋ¹ and ‘poor’ ho³. Although not immediately apparent, these words are all cognate with Sui. Other Kam dialects tend to use either Taic words or old Chinese loans for these lexical items. The
authors also found some tone allocations common to both Dayun Kam and Sui see chapter 4, section 4.3.5, table 4.13.
Although Yang’an dialect is lexically very close to Sandong Sui, it still shares more vocabulary with Kam than other Sui dialects do. Some distinctive vocabulary items shared by Yang’an and Kam are given
in table 6.3. Four of these words are also shared by Pandong dialect.
Table 6.3. Vocabulary shared by Yangan dialect and Kam, indicated by double lines English
Sui Sandong Sui Pandong Sui Yang’an Kam Bouyei
a
‘kiwi fruit’ ʔnon⁵
faŋ¹ mon⁶
b
jaːu¹ toŋ¹ toŋ¹
mi⁴ həɯ⁴ tʰaːu⁴ ‘goat’
fa² huə²
lje³ lje³
joŋ² ‘fly insect’
ljaːn³ ljaːn³
ȵuŋ⁴ ȵoŋ⁴, mjuŋ⁴ ȵaŋ²
‘river snail’ qʰui¹
kʰui¹ lau⁵
ləu⁵ sai¹
‘shrimp’ ʔȵoŋ⁵
ȵoŋ⁵ ȵo²
ȵo² ȵaːu⁶
‘mouth’ paːk⁷
paːk⁷ məp⁷
məp⁷ ‘gums’
c
paːk⁷ ‘salt’
ʔdwa¹ ⁿduə¹
paːu² paːu²
d
ku¹, tɕu¹ ‘rope’
laːk⁷ laːm⁶
le¹ se¹ ‘thread’
e
ɕa⁶, ɕaːk⁸ ‘elder sister’
fe² fe²
tjaːi⁴ mjaːk⁷ ȶaːi⁴ mjek⁹
pi⁴ ‘friend’
ȶiu⁵
f
naːu⁵ tsau⁶ paːn⁴
g
paːn⁴
g
voi⁵ tɕi⁵ ‘to hear’
ŋ̥ai¹ h̃jai¹
tʰiŋ⁵ ȶʰiŋ⁵
ȵi¹ ‘to consider’
n̥i³, fa³, ʔan⁵
h
huən⁵ h
aŋ⁵ ɕaŋ⁵
ʔdip⁷, nɯ⁶ ‘to plant’
o
ho⁴ ho⁴
to³ to³
teːm³ ‘to steam’
o
ⁿdaːu³ ⁿdaːu³
h̃wai¹ məi¹
naŋ³ ‘to warm
clothes by fire’
sjaːŋ⁴ ɕiəŋ⁴
ljo⁶ ljo⁶
i
poi⁶ ‘red’
haːn³ haːn³
xa⁵ TN, kʰa⁵ BL
ja⁵, xa⁵ ʔdiŋ¹
‘raw’ ʔdjup⁷
ⁿdjup⁷ seŋ¹
ɕeŋ¹ lip⁷
‘shallow’ ʔdjai⁵
ⁿdjai⁵ lin⁵
lin⁵ ʔbok⁷
‘3S he, she’ man¹
man¹ mo⁶
maːu⁶ te¹
‘frog’ qup
⁷ ʔi¹
ji¹ je¹
k we³, kop⁷
‘crab’ kaːm⁶
ȶai⁶
j
ȶai⁶ ȶəi⁶
pau¹ ‘head’
qam⁴ ku³
k
kaːu³ kaːu³
tɕaːu³, kaːu³ ‘leech’
ᵐbi³
l
miŋ² miŋ²
mjiŋ², miŋ² piŋ¹ ‘grass’
kaŋ¹ kaŋ¹
ȵ̥aːŋ³ ȵaːŋ³
ȵa³ ‘far’
ʔdi¹ ⁿdi¹
ljaːi¹ TN, kaːi¹ BL
ljaːi¹, kaːi¹ tɕai¹, kaːi¹
‘to know’ ɕau³
hjau³ JL, ɣo⁴ PD
ɣo⁴
m
wo⁴ ðo⁴
‘to lick’ ljaːk⁷
n
ljaːk⁷ lja²
lja² zie²
‘to bail’
o
ɣon¹ -
peu⁶ peu⁶
pjeu⁶
a
Bouyei data is from Wu et al., 2007 and Wu et al., 2012.
b
Literally means ‘monkey peach’, related to the Chinese for the same word, 猕猴桃
‘rhesus monkey peach’. Also used in Western Sui, e.g. TP, TZ and AT.
c
m əp⁷ is also the general word for ‘mouth’ in some Kam dialects. Note that the Central Sui for ‘gums’ is ʔȵaːk⁷,
clearly not cognate with m əp⁷.
d
Northern Kam and one variety of Southern Kam near Chejiang township, Rongjiang county. Other varieties of Southern Kam use ko¹ or ka¹ cognate with Sui ʔdwa¹.
e
Southern Kam Shuikou. Other Sou thern Kam varieties tend to use laːm⁶ cognate with Pandong Sui.
Northern Kam varieties tend to use ȶaːu¹ cognate with Sui for ‘vine’. Central Sui for ‘thread’ is faːn⁶. In Southern Kam Dayun, Rongshui county, se¹ is used as a general word for ‘rope’, as in Yang’an Sui.
f
This is the original Sui word for ‘friend’. In many central dialects it specifically refers to a ‘girlfriend’ or even an ‘illicit lover’. These dialects borrow Chinese
朋友 for a regular ‘friend’ pʰəŋ⁴ jiu⁶.
g
This is an older Chinese loanword, from ‘companion’ 伴
EMC ban
C
the modern Sui tone category shows that it is not a recent loanword.
h
Western Sui varieties use fon⁵, a cognate with Pandong.
i
Also means ‘burn’, perhaps from 燎
EMC liaw
C
.
j
Also used in Southern Sui.
k
Also used by some Western Sui varieties, e.g. AT.
l
Western Sui varieties use s ɿ³ miŋ², a cognate with Pandong, Yang’an and Kam.
m
All Sui dialects use ɣo⁴ in the sense of ɣo⁴ ʔme¹ ‘to know, recognise a person’. Like Yang’an dialects, PD says
ɣo⁴ instead of ɕau³.
n
Southern Sui in JR and SW use a cognate with Kam: JR lja¹, SW ja¹.
o
Data from Zhang 1980:83, Zeng and Yao 1996, Zeng 2004 and Ou 2004. The lexical similarities between Yang’an Sui and Kam cannot be attributed to borrowing from Kam
to Yang’an or vice versa because the Yang’an region is geographically separated from Kam-speaking areas by a vast tract of Central Sui speakers. Neither can they be attributed to independent borrowing
from Chinese since very few are Chinese loans with the possible exceptions of ‘to hear’ and ‘raw’. Furthermore, most are not shared with Bouyei and do not appear to be retentions from Proto-Tai-Kadai.
Rather, they seem to be lexical innovations shared by both Yang’an Sui and Kam.
Thus these shared lexical items provide strong evidence for a close historical link between Yang’an dialect and Kam. We believe that the lexical similarities between Yang’an and other Sui dialects observed
above are either the result of shared retentions or of cross-dialect borrowings due to very close contact between Yang’an and Western Sui speakers in recent centuries.
Finally, we found some Kam words used by Pandong dialect speakers but not by speakers of other Sui dialects. These words are given in table 6.4. They provide very little evidence for a historical
connection between Pandong dialect and Kam. The first three words are old Chinese loans: ‘claw’ ɕiu³
‘claw’ 爪
EMC t ʂɛːw
B
; ‘rope’ laːm⁶ ‘cable’
纜 EMC lam
C
; and ‘round’ tun² ‘round, circular’ 團
EMC dwan
A
. The fourth word, ‘sweet’ qʰan¹, is actually used in all Sui varieties although the meaning is
slightly different. The fifth word, ‘to come’, could be a retention of PKS. In other Sui areas it was probably replaced by the word for ‘to arrive’
taŋ¹ because the original word for ‘to come’ ended up sounding identical to the word for ‘dog’ after a sound change on the latter word: ‘to come’ PKS hma
A
m̥a¹ SD, h̃a¹ PD; ‘dog’ PKS k-hma
A
m̥a¹ SD, h̃wa¹ PD. In these areas, ‘to arrive’ was replaced by the Chinese loanword
tʰau⁵ 到 EMC taw
C
in order to avoid homophony.
2
The origins of the final word, ‘to look at’, are unclear.
2
Avoidance of homophony is a well-documented factor in lexical replacement Campbell 2004:322.
Table 6.4. Vocabulary shared by Pandong dialect and Kam, indicated by double lines English
Sui Sandong Sui
Yang’an Sui Pandong
Kam ‘claw’
sim³ ȶim³
ɕim³ ɕim³
‘rope’ laːk⁷
le¹ laːm⁶
laːm⁶ ‘round’
qu⁰ lu⁵
a
qu⁵ lu⁵ tun²
ton² ‘sweet’
ljen⁶ ljen⁶
qʰan¹
b
kʰwan¹ ‘to come’
taŋ¹ taŋ¹
h̃a¹ ma¹
‘to look at’ qau⁵
qau⁵ h̃o⁵
nu⁵
a
Southern Sui also uses qon².
b
This word is used by other Sui dialects in the sense of ‘tasty’ or ‘delicious’.