Introduction e book 66 Castro Sui Dialect

53 Proto-Kam-Sui Proto-Sui-Maonan Proto-Kam-Mulam Maonan Ai-Cham Mak Proto-Kam-Yang’an Kam Yang’an Sui BL,TN,LW Western Sui TZ,TP,AT Proto-Central- Pandong Sui Southern Sui JQ,SW,JR,SY Mulam Then Eastern Sui DJ,SJ,RL Proto-Sui Pandong Sui PD,JL Central Sui SD,ZH 5 Historical Development of Onsets and Rimes Andy Castro

5.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the most salient diachronic innovations in onsets and rimes are described and examined. The vast majority of phonological divergence occurs in the onsets. The implications of historical onset splits and mergers for dialect subgrouping are significant. We show that an overall division of Sui into three dialect areas, viz. Sandong, Pandong and Yang’an, is slightly misleading. Some key sound changes which probably occurred early on in Sui history indicate that Southern Sui split off from Central at an earlier stage than Pandong. The notable phonetic distinctives of Pandong dialect as spoken today are due to relatively late sound changes which diffused areally across the northern and eastern Sui areas, affecting not just Pandong but also eastern Sui dialects. Figure 5.1 depicts our subgrouping of Sui dialects in relation to other Kam-Sui languages, based on shared historical sound changes. “Central”, “Eastern”, “Western” and Southern” Sui together form what is traditionally known as the “Sandong dialect”. We stress that this chart merely shows the likely historical relationship between the dialects and does not reflect the perceived levels of resemblance between them. Dialect intelligibility testing see chapter 8, for example, showed that Pandong Sui speakers have far more trouble understanding Central dialect than Southern Sui speakers do, even though Pandong is genetically “closer” to Central than Southern is. The positioning of Mulam, Then, Maonan, Ai-Cham and Mak is provisional. Further research is required to clarify their precise subgrouping. Figure 5.1. Proposed subgrouping of Sui dialects based on shared historical sound changes. Due to later sound changes which diffused throughout the Sui region, all dialects of Sui bear a certain degree of resemblance to each other and are distinct from other Kam-Sui languages see section 5.7 of this chapter. This, coupled with a strong sense of common ethnic identity, is why we continue to describe Yang’an Sui as a dialect of Sui rather than as a separate language or even as a dialect of Kam. All references to Proto-Kam-Sui are from Thurgood 1988 unless otherwise stated. We occasionally suggest alternative PKS reconstructions based on the extra evidence supplied by both our Sui dialect data and additional Kam-Sui data. In particular, we believe that a series of uvular onsets in PKS is likely given the range of regular correspondences for dorsals. Pittayaporn reconstructed three uvular consonants for Proto-Tai on the same basis. He says that “the velar series alone cannot account for the range of correspondences that involve dorsal onsets” Pittayaporn 2009:73. We do not attempt a comprehensive reconstruction of Proto-Kam-Sui because there is still a shortage of data from other Kam-Sui languages, in particular Mulam and Maonan, both of which have high dialectal diversity.

5.2 Onsets