A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China

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A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China DigitalResources Electronic Working Paper 2011-005 ® A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China Getting More Out of Language Survey Wordlists Than Just Lexical Similarity Percentages Eric C. Johnson A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China Getting More Out of Language Survey Wordlists Than Just Lexical Similarity Percentages Eric C. Johnson ® SIL International East Asia Group Research conducted in cooperation with: 王明富 Mingfu Wang Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Minority Affairs Commission Zhuang Studies Association SIL International® 2011 SIL Electronic Working Papers 2011-005, August 2011 Copyright ©2011 Eric Johnson and SIL International® All rights reserved 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4 2 Lexical Comparison ............................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Lexical Similarity Percentages (“Lexicostatics”) Among Zhuang Languages ............................ 6 2.2 Lexical Comparison from an Historically Informed Phonological Approach ............................. 8 2.3 Wordlist Construction .................................................................................................................. 8 2.4 Wordlist Datapoints and Elicitation Procedures .......................................................................... 9 2.5 Loanwords ...................................................................................................................................11 2.5.1 Modern Chinese Loans .......................................................................................................12 2.5.2 Possible Chinese Loan Words .............................................................................................13 2.5.3 Ancient Chinese and Areal Loanwords (Prior to Proto-Tai) ..............................................14 3 Comparative Phonology ......................................................................................................................14 3.1 Central Taic Phonology ..............................................................................................................15 3.2 Description of the Yunnan Central Taic Tone Systems ..............................................................19 3.2.1 Description of Nong Zhuang Tone System ..........................................................................20 3.2.2 Summary of Nong Zhuang Tone Systems ............................................................................25 3.2.3 Description of Dai Zhuang Tone System ............................................................................28 3.2.4 Summary of Dai Zhuang Tone Systems ...............................................................................35 3.2.5 Description of Min Zhuang Tone System ............................................................................38 3.2.6 Summary of the Min Zhuang Tone System ..........................................................................43 3.3 Tone System Comparison ...........................................................................................................44 3.4 Consonant System Comparison ..................................................................................................56 3.4.1 Introduction to Taic Consonant Phonology ........................................................................56 3.4.2 Additional Sources of Central Taic Phonological Data .....................................................57 3.4.3 Labial Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 4) ...................................................57 3.4.4 Labial Cluster Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 5) ......................................60 3.4.5 Dental Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 6) ..................................................63 3.4.6 Dental Cluster Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 7) ......................................65 3.4.7 Liquid Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 8) ...................................................68 3.4.8 Sibilant Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 9) .................................................70 3.4.9 Velar Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 10) ..................................................75 3.4.10 Velar Clusters in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 11) ................................................80 3.4.11 Labio-Velar Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 12) ........................................83 3.4.12 Laryngeal Initials in Nong and Min Zhuang (Li 1977, ch. 13) ...........................................85 3.4.13 Oral final consonants ..........................................................................................................86 3.4.14 Nasal final consonants ........................................................................................................87 3.4.15 Summary of Nong and Min Zhuang Consonant Systems ....................................................88 3.5 Nong and Min Zhuang Vowel Systems ......................................................................................93 3.5.1 Simple Vowels .....................................................................................................................93 3.5.2 Diphthongs ........................................................................................................................101 3.5.3 Tripthongs .........................................................................................................................107 3.5.4 Summary of Vowel Reflexes in Nong and Min Zhuang .....................................................107 3.6 Summary of Historical Phonology of Nong and Min Zhuang ..................................................110 3.7 Nong Phonemic Inventory ........................................................................................................115 3.7.1 Vowels ...............................................................................................................................115 3 3.7.2 Consonants ........................................................................................................................116 4 Orthography ......................................................................................................................................118 4.1 A Brief History of Zhuang Orthographies ................................................................................118 4.2 Overview of the Nationally Approved Zhuang Orthography as Modified to Represent Nong Zhuang ............................................................................................................................119 4.2.1 Tones .................................................................................................................................119 4.2.2 Orthographic Representation of Consonants ....................................................................123 4.2.3 Representation of Vowels in the Orthography ..................................................................123 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................148 Appendices ................................................................................................................................................149 A: Wordlist............................................................................................................................................149 B: 1981 “Zhuang Orthography Proposal · Revised Plan” 《壮文方案 · 修订案》 .............................163 B.1 Initials (22 unique syllable onset combinations) ..............................................................163 B.2 Finals (128 unique syllable codas, including 6 single vowel codas, 12 diphthong codas, 29 nasal codas, 30 high tone consonant codas, 30 low tone consonant codas) ...... 164 B.3 Tones (10 tonemes, including 6 tonemes on vowel or nasal coda syllables and 4 tonemes on oral consonant coda syllables) ....................................................................166 References .................................................................................................................................................167 4 Abstract Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Yunnan province is home to over a million members of the official Zhuang nationality. Over half of these speak language varieties classified into the central branch of Tai languages. The aim of the present work is to analyze wordlist data from the several Central Taic Zhuang languages of Wenshan prefecture from a historical and comparative perspective in order to identify phonological distinctives explaining the observed levels of mutual intelligibility among these lexically similar languages and also to consider ramifications for spelling conventions using the official Zhuang orthography. The data analyzed in this paper results from sociolinguistic field research conducted by the author from 2005 to 2007, as well as previously published sources. 1 Introduction* The
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