Dushan Shuiyan Differences of the speech of older speakers versus younger speakers in specific data points

6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 563 younger and older person, a very few words with this proto-tone has a [33] pitch value. For example, ‘stool’ [ fc`M22] in the older person’s speech; ‘stool’ [fc`M22] and ‘big’ [ fct=l22] in the younger person’s speech. Other tonal differences were relatively insignificant. In summary, the initials, nucleus, and finals in Duyun Fuxi speech all have minor differences between younger and older speech. Much of the variation is due to random variation between allophones.

6.1.3. Dushan Shuiyan

In studying the speech of the older and younger speaker of Dushan Shuiyan, we found the following differences: 1. Some of the Bouyei lexical items have been lost, being replaced by Chinese loans. For example, the older speakers used Chinese for ‘bamboo pole’ and ‘god’, the younger speakers used Chinese for ‘friend’ and ‘bow’, etc. About 5 percent of the lexical items in the Dushan Shuiyan data are Chinese loans. 2. The major differences in initials between the older and younger speaker are as follows: The usage of the allophones [z], [ Y], and [y[] is quite random in both the speech of the older and younger speaker. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘stone’ y[hm0 YHm0 ‘building’ Y`m1 y`:m1 ‘dry field’ y[h5 yh5 ‘to go down’ YnM1 y[tM1 For some words where the older speaker produced [w] the younger speaker produced [v]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘iron’ v`1 u`1 ‘bamboo’ vh3wL1 uh3wX1 ‘hand’ v=M1 u=M1 ‘classifier handle of knife’ v`5 v`5 ‘axe’ v`m0 v`m0 The difference between a few of the initials produced by the older and younger speaker was rather large. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘cucumber’ sh=M0 fchdM1 ‘to stand’ rnM1 bvM1 The reason for these differences merit further study. 564 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers There are also slight differences between the pronunciation of the older and younger speaker with regard to labialization. For example: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘hoe’ jt=f4 jvX=4 ‘comb’ Yth0 y[vh13 ‘day’ Mvm1 Mn=m1 3. Concerning the nucleus, for simple vowels in open syllables there is relatively little difference between younger and older speakers. Most of the differences occur with complex vowels or in syllables with a final consonant. The younger speaker produced [a:] more frequently than the older speaker. Examples of words the younger speaker produced [a:] and the older speaker did not: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘breakfast’ M`h1sr`t3 M`:h1sct3 ‘village’ fa`m3 fa`:m3 ‘building’ Y`m1 y`:m1 ‘goose’ w`m4 w`:m4 For several of the words where the older speaker produced [a], the younger speaker produced [ ]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘water’ y[`l3 y[l3 ‘dirt’ m`l5 ml5 ‘silver’ M`m1 Mm1 ‘rice’ w`t3r`m3 wt3r`m0 There are examples where the younger speaker produced [a] and the older speaker produced [ ], but these are very few. For example, ‘dark’ [ko6] younger versus [k`o6] older. For words in the older person’s speech that had a [o] nucleus, the younger speaker most often produced [ t] or [tB], with a very few occurrences of [B:] or [B]. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘cloudy water’ ¯nM1 ¯tM1 ‘hard’ fcnM3 fctBM3 ‘dustpan’ fcnM3 fctM0 ‘drum’ sbnM0 sbtM0 ‘3 p. excl.’ sbnM4st0 sbtBM4st0 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 565 In addition, there are a few examples where the older speaker produced a labialized initial followed by [ ], and the younger speaker produced and unlabialized initial and [o] or [n=] for the nucleus. For example, ‘day’ [ Mvm1] older versus [Mn=m1] younger. Where older speakers produced [ D], younger speakers sometimes produced [=]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘rain’ vDm0 v=m0 ‘earthworm’ fcDm0 fc=m0 ‘hungry’ fihDf3 ih=f4 ‘to wash hands’ rtDh4 rv=h4 However, in most instances both the older and younger speaker produced [ =]. Other differences between younger and older speech occur in the nucleus, though relatively insignificant [i] versus [ H], [u] versus [T], and [h=] versus [hD] or [ie]. The [k] final on some of the words produced by the older speaker is weakened to a glottal, whereas the younger speaker produced [k]: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘tiger’ jtf6 jTj6 ‘bird’ Ynf7 ynj7 ‘brain’ ftf6 ftj6 4. Regarding tones, most of the difference between younger and older speech occurs on the 7 th and 8 th tones. For the 7 th tone pitch the older speaker produced [35], whereas the younger speaker produced either a high rising [35][45] or a high even [55][44]. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘sunlight’ fchs24 fchs24 ‘morning’ w`s24 w`s34 ‘late’ ko24 k`o44 ‘board’ s`o24 s`:o44 ‘broom’ sbhs24¯ht20 sbhs44¯ht20 ‘to dry in sun’ s`f24 s`f24 ‘sour’ fc`s24 fc`s24 ‘to hurt’ sbDs24 sbDs24 The younger speaker produced the high rising pitch and the even pitch on about the same frequency of lexical items. For the 8 th tone, both the older and younger speaker produced various pitches, without any apparent rule. The 8 th tone is short, which may be a factor. Examples: 566 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘bird’ Ynf20 ynj22 ‘claw’ yho22 yho22 ‘wing’ v=s24 vX24 ‘ant’ lns20 lBs20 ‘stinkbug’ khDs24 k=s33 ‘blood’ kL=s22 kL=s33 ‘to bite’ wo20 w`o11 ‘to nod’ M`f24 M`f31 ‘bird nets’ YtM20Ynf20 YBM20ynj22 ‘to sew’ ¯ho22 ¯Ho20 ‘to steal’ y[`f20 y[`f11 ‘ten’ sbho22 sbHo22 ‘child’ k=f20mh24 k=f20mh24 ‘only child’ k=f20sB33 k=f20sBf44 Difference in the pitches seem to be random. In summary, most of the differences between younger and older speech occurs in the nucleus, and the pitch values of closed syllable words. Much of the difference that occurs between older and younger speech seems random.

6.1.4. Qinglong Zitang