Yang’an Shared diachronic innovations and Sui subgrouping

5.6 Shared diachronic innovations and Sui subgrouping

We conclude this chapter with a summary of shared innovations grouped by dialect cluster. The divergent historical developments of Yang’an dialect and Southern subdialect are unambiguous. They provide ample evidence for grouping Yang’an as a separate lect within the Kam branch albeit possessing similarities to Sui due to recent sound changes which diffused across the Sui region and for positing a separate Southern Sui cluster within the Sui branch. The subgrouping of Pandong dialect in relation to other Sandong dialects is open to interpretation. We take the view that Pandong and Western Sui varieties descended from the same “proto-dialect”, but there is also evidence that points to a subgrouping of Pandong with Eastern subdialect. From a purely synchronic perspective, Pandong and Eastern lects share many common phonemic traits, as do Western and Central varieties. Western Sui also shares Yang’an dialect’s distinctive pronunciation of a small number of lexical items presumably due to contact-induced diffusion. As an aside, from a historical comparative perspective, the choice of SD Sandong as a standard and representative lect for the whole of Sui is a good one. SD is a conservative lect belonging to the Central Sui cluster. It has not undergone any of the later innovations seen in Pandong, Western and Eastern varieties. Furthermore, it bears some resemblance to Southern Sui: a high Tone 6 see chapter 4, section 4.6.1 and some shared vocabulary see chapter 6. Both Central and Southern Sui varieties retain the most number of phonemic distinctions in onsets and rimes.

5.6.1 Yang’an

Yang’an dialect has undergone a series of sound changes almost all of them phonemic mergers that makes it divergent from other Sui lects. These are summarised in table 5.53. The vast majority are shared with Kam and support our grouping of Yang’an with the Kam branch of Kam-Sui. Yīn-yáng tone allocations see chapter 4 also suggest that Yang’an branched off with Kam from other Kam-Sui languages before the Great Tone Split occurred. It is possible that at some point in history there was a migration west of Kam-Sui peoples from the Kam heartland. Some of them settled in the Yang’an region and became Sui. Others continued west and settled in Pingtang county becoming speakers of what we now know as the Then language. Although the shared phonological developments of Kam, Yang’an Sui and Then support this theory, it is way beyond the scope of this work. Table 5.53. Divergent sound changes in Yang’an. Reflexes which are the result of shared sound changes are enclosed in double lines. PKS forms are ours unless indicated otherwise Sandong Yang’an Kam see Table PKS SD TN BL ʔb- ʔb- m- m- m- 5.2 ʔd- ʔd- l- l- l- 5.3 ʔr- ʔɣ- ɣ- ɣ- j- 5.4 ʔN- ʔN- N- N- N- 5.5 ʔj- ʔj- j- j- j- 5.6 N.tsʰr- ⁿd- tʰ- tʰ- tʰ- 5.14 hŋl- ɴɢ- q- q- q- ʔ-l- 5.17 xw- f- pj- pj- pj- 5.19 ɣw- f- tj-, p- tj-, p- ȶ- 5.20 pʰw- v- pʰ- pʰ- pʰ- 5.21 c- ts- ȶ- ȶ- ȶ- 5.27 tɕ- s z, ȶ-, tj- ts- , ȶ-, tj- ȶ- 5.33 kj- ȶ- k- , ȶ- k- , ȶ- q- ʔ-, ȶ- 5.29 kʰj- __i ȶʰ kʰ, ȶʰ- kʰ-, ȶʰ- kʰ, ȶʰ- 5.30 kʰj- elsewhere s-, z- kʰ, ȶʰ- kʰ-, ȶʰ- kʰ, ȶʰ- 5.31 -jen -en -in -in -in 5.40 -wa -wa - ɔ, -a, -wa -ɔ, -a, -wa -ɔ, -a, -wa 5.42 - əw -u - aːu - aːu - aːu 5.43 m̥V- m̥- hwṼ- hwṼ- m- , ŋw- 5.11 ʔdl̥- l- h- h- l- 5.23 kⁿs- Ferlus h- l- l- s- 5.36 ql- ʔd- l- q-, k- kw-, k- 5.24 qʰl- h- h- qʰ, h- kʰw-, kʰ- 5.25 m.p- ᵐb- ᵐb- p- p- 5.13 N.t- ⁿd- ⁿd- t- t- 5.14 N.tr- ⁿdj- ⁿdj- tj- t- 5.14 pw- v- v- p- p- 5.21 Banliang BL is clearly different from other Yang’an dialects TN, LW. It shares some sound changes with Kam which have not occurred in the other Yang’an lects the last four listed in table 5.53. These are possibly later sound changes which occurred independently. Alternatively, although rather improbably, they may indicate that Banliang speakers migrated from the Kam area later than other Yang’an Sui speakers, after Kam had undergone the same sound changes. Yang’an dialect has also undergone some sound changes which are not shared with Kam and which therefore presumably took place at a later stage, in particular m̥V- hwṼ-, ʔdl̥- h- and kⁿs- Ferlus l-. The first of these sound changes also occurred in Pandong and some Eastern Sui varieties. Furthermore, Yang’an has retained the palatalised alveolar series tj- , ⁿdj-, tsj-, ʔnj-, nj-, sj-, whereas these have merged with corresponding alveolopalatals ȶ-, ȵ-, ɕ- in most Kam dialects. We found only three sound changes consistently shared by both Yang’an and Sandong dialects but not by Kam. These are given in table 5.54 and are presumably later innovations. Table 5.54. Sound changes shared by Yang’an and Sandong. PKS forms are ours Sandong Yang’an Kam see Table PKS SD TN BL N.kr- ŋN- ŋ.kr-ble ŋŋ. h-, j- 5.16 kʰw- f- f- f- pʰ-, kʰw- 5.19 hl- l- l- l- s- 5.23

5.6.2 Southern