Yang’an shares a few words with Western Sui varieties such as ‘broken’ ȶʰot⁷ Sandong pʰa⁵, ‘frog’
ʔi¹ Sandong qup⁷ and ‘head’ kaːu³ku³ Sandong qam⁴, but most of these are also shared with Pandong and are catalogued in section 6.4.3 below. It also shares some lexical variants with Southern Sui such as
‘stinky’ ȵən¹ Sandong ȵ̥u¹.
The two Yang’an dialects surveyed, TN and BL, were strikingly homogenous in terms of lexicon, with only a few words unique to one or the other. Some examples are ‘cloud’
tam⁵ BL, ‘you
SG
’ ŋ̩² TN
and ‘every’ pjaːi² TN.
6.4.3 Dialect variants shared by Pandong and Yang’an Sui
Table 6.14 shows some shared dialect variants used in both Pandong and Yang’an areas. Most of these are used in both Pandong villages PD and JL and both Yang’an villages TN, BL. Many of them are
also shared with other dialects, shown in the right-hand column.
Table 6.14. Dialect variants shared by Pandong and Yangan Sui English
Sandong SD Pandong and
Yang’an variant Data points sharing this variant
‘thunder’ qum⁴+ ʔȵa³ pja³
TN, BL, PD ‘rock, stone’
tin² pja¹
a
TN, BL, PD, JL ‘top of rice stalk’
ȵ̥aːŋ³ ⁿdaːŋ¹ PD,
qaːŋ¹ BL
b
BL, PD, JL ‘wok, pot’
tseŋ⁶ taːu¹
TN, BL, PD, JL ‘to sweat’
ljuk⁷ tun¹
TN, BL, PD, JL ‘sharp’
tau⁶ tsan²
TN, BL, PD, JL ‘clear sky’
liŋ³ miŋ⁴
TN, BL, PD, JL ‘not old, not new’
m̥jan³ h̃waːt⁷
TN, PD ‘head’
qam⁴ ku³ Pandong,
kaːu³ Yang’an TN, BL, PD, JL, AT
‘to swim’ lui²
faːi¹ Pandong, faːi² Yang’an
TN, BL, PD, JL, SY waːi¹ ‘crab’
kaːm⁶ ȶai⁶
TN, BL, PD, JQ, SW, JR, SY ‘to face upwards’
ʔŋwa³ ʔŋaːŋ³
TN, BL, PD, JL, JQ, SW, JR ‘to weave’
lja¹ haːn¹
TN, BL, PD, JL, JQ, JR, SY, TP ‘leech’
ᵐbi³, ᵐbum⁶ ᵐbi³
miŋ² Pandong, sɿ³ miŋ² Yang’an
TN, BL, PD, JL, ZH, TZ, TP, AT ‘dipping sauce’
tsaːn¹ tsim⁵
c
TN, BL, PD, JL, TZ, TP, AT, DJ ‘short-tempered’
sup⁷ lup⁸, loŋ² ⁿdjən³
qun⁴ TN, BL, PD, JL,
DJ qon⁴, SJ qon⁴ ‘frog’
qup⁷ ʔi¹ PD,
ji¹ JL, TN, BL TN, BL, PD, JL, TP, AT
a
In many Sui dialects pja¹ refers specifically to ‘cliff’ or ‘boulder’. In Southern Sui it means ‘mountain’.
Pandong and Yang’an are the only dialects not to use tin² for the countable noun ‘stone’.
b
These two words are cognate see chapter 5, section 5.2.5.2, table 5.24.
c
There are numerous variants for ‘dipping sauce’, see Section 6.6 ‘Conclusion’ below.
6.4.4 Southern Sui dialect variants
Dialect variants which are commonly used in the Southern Sui area are shown in table 6.15. Our list supplements the small number of Southern Sui dialect variants documented by Pan and Wei 2004:390.
Most of these words are used in all Southern Sui lects. Some are restricted to two or three locations, often just the Libo county dialects SY and JR.
Table 6.15. Southern Sui dialect variants English
Sandong SD Southern Sui
variant Data points sharing
this variant ‘skin, bark’
pi² ʁa¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘insect’
nui² ta¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘praying mantis’
ʔẽ³ zaːi³
SY, JR ‘tooth’
vjan¹ ɕiu³
a
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘knee’
qu⁵ tsoŋ⁵
b
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘table’
hi³ tjem⁶
SY, JR, SW ‘stool’
ʔun¹ taŋ⁵
SY, SW ‘glove’
tuk⁷ mja¹ fja³ mja¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘chicken coop’
kʰuŋ³ lok⁷
SY, JR ‘toilet’
kʰuŋ³ +qe⁴ laːu²
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘to stroll about’
qon⁶ ɣaːŋ⁶
JQ, SY, JR ‘to look for’
tʰaːu³ la⁶
SY, JR ‘to throw away with force’
peŋ⁵
c
qʰeu⁵ JQ, SY, JR, SW
‘to roll up’ tsaːp⁷, ljum³
ʔnjap⁷ JQ, SY, JR, SW
‘to love’ mjət⁷
ɣai¹ JQ, SY, JR, SW
‘to chat with friends’ ɕaːn³
qeu⁶ JQ, SY, JR, SW
‘to cook’ ɕuŋ¹
saːu³
d
JQ, SY, JR ‘to fry’
saːu³ kʰaːŋ¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘to sweat’
ljuk⁷ ʔaŋ¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘to throw up’
kun⁵ ⁿdaːk⁷
SY, JR ‘to scratch’
koi² tsut⁷
JQ, JR, SW ‘dark at night’
ⁿdjəŋ⁵ hup⁷
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘black color’
ʔnam¹ qam⁵
e
SY, JR, SW ‘narrow’
ʔnjap⁷ ʁep⁷
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘far’
ʔdi¹ haːn⁴
JQ, JR, SW ‘clever’
ʔdjup⁷, hut⁷, ɕai¹ kiŋ³
f
JQ, JR, SW ‘beautiful’
kiŋ³ qʰan⁵
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘insane’
ŋaːn⁵ ᵐbjoŋ¹
g
JQ, SY, JR ‘round, spherical’
qu⁰ lu⁵ qon²
h
JQ, SY, JR, SW ‘short-tempered’
sup⁷ lup⁸, loŋ² ⁿdjən³
ⁿdjəŋ⁵ JQ, SY, JR, SW
‘just now’ laŋ², sum³
vjau¹ JQ, JR, SW
‘completed action particle’ ljeu²
ɣaːŋ³
i
JQ, SY, JR, SW
a
Specifically refers to ‘canine tooth’ in SD.
b
Means ‘back of the knee’ in SD.
c
Some Western Sui dialects also use naŋ⁵.
d
Southern Sui use ljuŋ¹ cognate with SD ɕuŋ¹ solely in the sense of ‘to boil’.
e
Means ‘purple’ in SD.
f
Southern Sui also uses ʔdjup⁷ to mean ‘quick-witted’. Southern Sui also has the word ɕai¹, but it
means ‘obedient, well-behaved’ it also carries this meaning in SD in addition to ‘clever’.
g
Southern Sui also uses ŋaːn⁵.
h
Southern Sui also uses qo³ lo³ or qo³ lom⁶ for ‘round’ as in ‘circular’.
i
Western Sui parts of Tingpai TP and Hengfeng use a probable cognate ɣoŋ⁴ or woŋ⁴.
We found several Southern Sui dialect variants which are also used in one or two other Sui lects. These are given in table 6.16.
Table 6.16. Dialect variants shared by Southern Sui and other locations English
Sandong SD Southern Sui variant
Data points using this form ‘sticky rice’
ʔau⁴ ɕən¹ ʔau⁴ ʔdaːi¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW, PD ‘hoe’
kwaːk⁷ tsai⁴
JQ, SY, JR, SW, RL, SD ‘key’
mai⁴ fuŋ³ mai⁴ si² JQ, SW, hai³
si² JR, SY JQ, SY, JR, SW, RL, SJ
‘handkerchief’ ʔmaːn⁵
fja³ JQ, SY, JR, SW, RL, SJ, PD, JL
‘to scold’ ʔmui¹
si⁶, sje⁶, ɕi⁶
a
JQ, JR, SW, RL, SJ ‘to consider’
fa³ n̥i³
JQ, SY, JR, SW, SD ‘sweet’
ljən⁶ faːn¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW, RL, SD ‘stinky’
ȵ̥u¹ ʔȵən¹
JQ, SY, JR, SW, TN, BL ‘place’
ⁿdjoŋ³ tsjum²
SY, JR, PD
a
These variants are possibly cognate with Pandong’s ɕia⁶ PD, ha³ JL.
As indicated by the cluster analysis in section 6.3.2.2, Shuiyao SY, Libo county is particularly innovative in its vocabulary. It has several dialect variants not used elsewhere, including: ‘near’
ɣau³, ‘far’
qaːi¹, ‘slow, slowly’ ɣai¹, ‘grey’ mjai¹, ‘yellow’ ko⁶, ‘bland, tasteless’ ljaːm⁶, ‘difficult’ qan⁶, ‘other, another’
ljeŋ⁶, ‘along’ ɕi², ‘to be’ ȶin¹, ‘to forget’ hoŋ¹, ‘to agree’ kʰən⁶, ‘large branch’ ʔa⁵, ‘shoes’ jaːi¹, ‘bamboo’
kwi¹, ‘crab’ ku⁶ kai³ or ku⁶ kwaːm⁴, ‘Han people’ ȶin¹, ‘just now’ ljem³ and ‘one’ ⁿdjeu¹. We suspect that many Southern Sui variants, especially those used in Libo county SY, JR, are old
loans from Bouyei. This is not surprising since Sui speakers in Libo have regular contact with Bouyei speakers. Table 6.17 lists some possible Bouyei loanwords in Southern Sui. The fact that various sound
changes have taken place since these words were borrowed shows that they are relatively old loans. ‘Table’, ‘stool’, ‘hat’ and ‘shoes’ were originally borrowed from Chinese, but whether they came into Sui
directly from Chinese or via Bouyei is impossible to tell.
Table 6.17. Possible Bouyei loanwords in Southern Sui cognates indicated by double lines English
Sandong SD Southern Sui
lects using variant Libo Bouyei
Wu et al., 2007 ‘table’
ɕi³ tjem⁶ SY, JR, SW
tɛm⁶ ‘stool’
ʔun¹ taŋ⁵ SY, SW
tɐŋ⁵ ‘hat’
ȵon⁴ maːu⁶ SY
a
maːu⁶ ‘shoes’
tsaːk⁷ ja
ːi¹ SY haːi²
b
‘to be’ ⁿdum³, dju²
ȶin¹ SY sin¹
‘to love’ ᵐbjum¹
ɣai¹ JQ, SY, JR, SW tɕɐi²
‘to look for’ tʰaːu³
la⁶ SY, JR ʒa¹
English Sandong SD
Southern Sui lects using variant
Libo Bouyei Wu et al., 2007
‘sweet’ ljən⁶
faːn¹ JQ, SY, JR, SW waːn¹
‘clever’ ɕai¹
kwaːi¹ SY kwaːi¹
‘far’ ʔdi¹
qaːi¹ SY tɕɐi¹
‘no problem’ me² kʰaːm³
me² ŋaːi⁶ SY mi² ŋaːi⁶
‘Han people’ ka⁴
ȶən¹ SY kuɐn¹
‘one’ ti³
ⁿdjeu¹ SY ʔdɛu¹
a
This variant is also used in Pandong and several Central and Eastern Sui dialects.
b
Bouyei Wangmo county pronunciation ILCRD 1996. No data available for Libo. The SY use of
ⁿdjeu¹ for ‘one’ is an example of grammatical as well as lexical borrowing. In Bouyei and SY Sui, ‘one’
ⁿdjeu¹ comes after the classifier and noun which it modifies, whereas ‘one’ ti³ in other Sui dialects comes before the classifier and noun in common with other numerals, for example: ‘one pig’
to² m̥u⁵ ⁿdjeu¹ SY, ti³ to² m̥u⁵ all other Sui dialects. Compare this with ‘three pigs’ haːm¹ to² m̥u⁵ all Sui
dialects including SY.
6.4.5 Rongjiang county dialect variants