Introduction to Sichuanese 四川话入门
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Burmese Tone?
Burmese Tone? Peter Jenks I. INTRODUCTION This paper is an investigation of the lexical properties of Burmese tone. It characterizes Burmese tone as resulting from an interaction between laryngeal and proper tonal features. The first, [±CONSTRICTEDGLOTTIS] (+CG]) is phonetically realized as a distinction between creaky and 1 breathy phonation (Matisoff 1968; 1973; La Raw Maran 1971; Halle & Stevens 1971) , while the feature [±HIGH] is phonetically realized as high vs. low tone. These features are not claimed to be independent of one another; on the contrary, their interaction is subject to distinctiveness constraints (Flemming 2006) which both restrict certain combinations of features while favoring others. There is an additional correlation to be noted between vowel length as a phonetic realization of phonation and its correlation with the single contour tone in Burmese, which is only licensed in a long vowel, as predicted by Zhang (2002). Thus, the putatively simple system of Burmese tones results from a complex interaction of features and phonetically motivated constraints. The paper proceeds as follows: In section 2 I present the basics of Burmese tone and present details of their phonetic realization and syntactic distribution that lead to my proposal. Section 3 is the proposal for the lexical properties of Burmese tone, and couches that proposal in terms of constraints on distinctiveness and contours. Section 4 presents data from tone sandhi in Burmese that is crucial for my claim that one of the Burmese suprasegmentals is a contour tone, an original proposal. * This paper is based on research done while enrolled in the Field Methods class at Harvard University in the Spring of 2007. -
Pan-Sinitic Object Marking: Morphology and Syntax*
Breaking Down the Barriers, 785-816 2013-1-050-037-000234-1 Pan-Sinitic Object Marking: * Morphology and Syntax Hilary Chappell (曹茜蕾) EHESS In Chinese languages, when a direct object occurs in a non-canonical position preceding the main verb, this SOV structure can be morphologically marked by a preposition whose source comes largely from verbs or deverbal prepositions. For example, markers such as kā 共 in Southern Min are ultimately derived from the verb ‘to accompany’, pau11 幫 in many Huizhou and Wu dialects is derived from the verb ‘to help’ and bǎ 把 from the verb ‘to hold’ in standard Mandarin and the Jin dialects. In general, these markers are used to highlight an explicit change of state affecting a referential object, located in this preverbal position. This analysis sets out to address the issue of diversity in such object-marking constructions in order to examine the question of whether areal patterns exist within Sinitic languages on the basis of the main lexical fields of the object markers, if not the construction types. The possibility of establishing four major linguistic zones in China is thus explored with respect to grammaticalization pathways. Key words: typology, grammaticalization, object marking, disposal constructions, linguistic zones 1. Background to the issue In the case of transitive verbs, it is uncontroversial to state that a common word order in Sinitic languages is for direct objects to follow the main verb without any overt morphological marking: * This is a “cross-straits” paper as earlier versions were presented in turn at both the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, during the joint 14th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics and 10th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics, held in Taipei in May 25-29, 2006 and also at an invited seminar at the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on 23rd October 2006. -
Singapore Mandarin Chinese : Its Variations and Studies
This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Singapore Mandarin Chinese : its variations and studies Lin, Jingxia; Khoo, Yong Kang 2018 Lin, J., & Khoo, Y. K. (2018). Singapore Mandarin Chinese : its variations and studies. Chinese Language and Discourse, 9(2), 109‑135. doi:10.1075/cld.18007.lin https://hdl.handle.net/10356/136920 https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.18007.lin © 2018 John Benjamins Publishing Company. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Chinese Language and Discourse and is made available with permission of John Benjamins Publishing Company. Downloaded on 26 Sep 2021 00:28:12 SGT To appear in Chinese Language and Discourse (2018) Singapore Mandarin Chinese: Its Variations and Studies* Jingxia Lin and Yong Kang Khoo Nanyang Technological University Abstract Given the historical and linguistic contexts of Singapore, it is both theoretically and practically significant to study Singapore Mandarin (SM), an important member of Global Chinese. This paper aims to present a relatively comprehensive linguistic picture of SM by overviewing current studies, particularly on the variations that distinguish SM from other Mandarin varieties, and to serve as a reference for future studies on SM. This paper notes that (a) current studies have often provided general descriptions of the variations, but less on individual variations that may lead to more theoretical discussions; (b) the studies on SM are primarily based on the comparison with Mainland China Mandarin; (c) language contact has been taken as the major contributor of the variation in SM, whereas other factors are often neglected; and (d) corpora with SM data are comparatively less developed and the evaluation of data has remained largely in descriptive statistics. -
Language Contact in Nanning: Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese
20140303 draft of : de Sousa, Hilário. 2015a. Language contact in Nanning: Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese. In Chappell, Hilary (ed.), Diversity in Sinitic languages, 157–189. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Do not quote or cite this draft. LANGUAGE CONTACT IN NANNING — FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF NANNING PINGHUA AND NANNING CANTONESE1 Hilário de Sousa Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, École des hautes études en sciences sociales — ERC SINOTYPE project 1 Various topics discussed in this paper formed the body of talks given at the following conferences: Syntax of the World’s Languages IV, Dynamique du Langage, CNRS & Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2010; Humanities of the Lesser-Known — New Directions in the Descriptions, Documentation, and Typology of Endangered Languages and Musics, Lunds Universitet, 2010; 第五屆漢語方言語法國際研討會 [The Fifth International Conference on the Grammar of Chinese Dialects], 上海大学 Shanghai University, 2010; Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Conference 21, Kasetsart University, 2011; and Workshop on Ecology, Population Movements, and Language Diversity, Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2011. I would like to thank the conference organizers, and all who attended my talks and provided me with valuable comments. I would also like to thank all of my Nanning Pinghua informants, my main informant 梁世華 lɛŋ11 ɬi55wa11/ Liáng Shìhuá in particular, for teaching me their language(s). I have learnt a great deal from all the linguists that I met in Guangxi, 林亦 Lín Yì and 覃鳳餘 Qín Fèngyú of Guangxi University in particular. My colleagues have given me much comments and support; I would like to thank all of them, our director, Prof. Hilary Chappell, in particular. Errors are my own. -
Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Chinese Dialects
Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Chinese Dialects Esra Erdem Institute of Information Systems, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria [email protected] Feng Wang Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China [email protected] Evolutionary relations between languages based on their shared characteristics can be represented as a phylogeny --- a tree where the leaves represent the extant languages, the internal vertices represent the ancestral languages, and the edges represent the genetic relations between the languages. On the other hand, languages not only inherit characteristics from their ancestors but also sometimes borrow them from other languages. Such borrowings can be represented by additional non-tree edges, turning a phylogeny into a phylogenetic network. With this motivation, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of languages in two steps: first we compute a plausible phylogeny with a minimal number of incompatible characters, and then we turn this phylogeny into a perfect phylogenetic network, by adding a small number of lateral edges, so that all characters are compatible with the network. For both steps, to formulate the problems and to solve them, we use answer set programming --- a new form of declarative programming. This method has been successfully applied to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Indo-European languages. In the following we summarize its application to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Old Chinese and the following 23 Chinese dialects: Guangzhou, Liancheng, Meixian, Taiwan, Xiamen, Zhangping, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Anyi, Shuangfeng, Changsha, Beijing, Yuci, Taiyuan, Ningxia, Chengdu, Yingshan, Wuhan, Ningbo, Suzhou, Shangai 1, Shangai 2, Wenzhou. We have started with a dataset consisting of 200 lexical characters (the Swadesh wordlist), each with 1--24 states. -
From Eurocentrism to Sinocentrism: the Case of Disposal Constructions in Sinitic Languages
From Eurocentrism to Sinocentrism: The case of disposal constructions in Sinitic languages Hilary Chappell 1. Introduction 1.1. The issue Although China has a long tradition in the compilation of rhyme dictionar- ies and lexica, it did not develop its own tradition for writing grammars until relatively late.1 In fact, the majority of early grammars on Chinese dialects, which begin to appear in the 17th century, were written by Europe- ans in collaboration with native speakers. For example, the Arte de la len- gua Chiõ Chiu [Grammar of the Chiõ Chiu language] (1620) appears to be one of the earliest grammars of any Sinitic language, representing a koine of urban Southern Min dialects, as spoken at that time (Chappell 2000).2 It was composed by Melchior de Mançano in Manila to assist the Domini- cans’ work of proselytizing to the community of Chinese Sangley traders from southern Fujian. Another major grammar, similarly written by a Do- minican scholar, Francisco Varo, is the Arte de le lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin language], completed in 1682 while he was living in Funing, and later posthumously published in 1703 in Canton.3 Spanish missionaries, particularly the Dominicans, played a signifi- cant role in Chinese linguistic history as the first to record the grammar and lexicon of vernaculars, create romanization systems and promote the use of the demotic or specially created dialect characters. This is discussed in more detail in van der Loon (1966, 1967). The model they used was the (at that time) famous Latin grammar of Elio Antonio de Nebrija (1444–1522), Introductiones Latinae (1481), and possibly the earliest grammar of a Ro- mance language, Grammatica de la Lengua Castellana (1492) by the same scholar, although according to Peyraube (2001), the reprinted version was not available prior to the 18th century. -
Equatives and Similatives in Chinese – Historical and Typological Perspectives
City University of Hong Kong 5 March 2018 Equatives and similatives in Chinese – Historical and typological perspectives Alain PEYRAUBE 贝罗贝 CRLAO, EHESS-CNRS, Paris, France Introduction: Definition A comparative construction involves a grading process: two objects are positioned along a continuum with respect to a certain property. One object can have either more, less or an equal degree of the given dimension or quality when judged against the other object. 2 Introduction: Definition (2) Hence, comparative constructions normally contain two NPs: the ‘standard’ and the ‘comparee’, a formal comparative marker and typically a stative predicate denoting the dimension or quality: the ‘parameter’. 3 Introduction (3) Comparative constructions in the languages of the world are generally classified into four main types (Henkelmann 2006): I - Positive 原级 II - Equality 等比句 or 平比局 III - Inequality 差比句 (i) Superiority 优级比较 (ii) Inferiority 次级比较 (负差比) IV - Superlative 最高级 4 Inequality - Superiority This construction is also known as the relative comparative, comparativus relativus, le comparatif de supériorité or 差比句 chábĭjù in Chinese. Example from English: ‘Carla is taller than Nicolas.’ NPA [Comparee]– Stative predicate or Parameter (ADJ + DEGR -er) – Comparative marker – NPB [Standard] [CM = comparative marker] 5 Comparative constructions of superiority in Sinitic languages Synchronically, two comparative construction types predominate in Sinitic languages (Chappell and Peyraube 2015): Type I: ‘Compare’ type – dependent marked: NPA– CM – NPB– VP Type II: ‘Surpass’ type – head marked NPA– VERB – CM –NPB Note: The source and forms for the comparative markers may vary, while the structures remain essentially the same. 6 SINITIC LANGUAGES 1. NORTHERN CHINESE (Mandarin) 北方話 71.5% (845m) 2. -
The Survey on the Distribution of MC Fei and Xiao Initial Groups in Chinese Dialects
IALP 2020, Kuala Lumpur, Dec 4-6, 2020 The Survey on the Distribution of MC Fei and Xiao Initial Groups in Chinese Dialects Yan Li Xiaochuan Song School of Foreign Languages, School of Foreign Languages, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University Xi’an, China /Henan Agricultural University e-mail: [email protected] Xi’an/Zhengzhou, China e-mail:[email protected] Abstract — MC Fei 非 and Xiao 晓 initial group discussed in this paper includes Fei 非, Fu groups are always mixed together in the southern 敷 and Feng 奉 initials, but does not include Wei part of China. It can be divided into four sections 微, while MC Xiao 晓 initial group includes according to the distribution: the northern area, the Xiao 晓 and Xia 匣 initials. The third and fourth southwestern area, the southern area, the class of Xiao 晓 initial group have almost southeastern area. The mixing is very simple in the palatalized as [ɕ] which doesn’t mix with Fei northern area, while in Sichuan it is the most initial group. This paper mainly discusses the first extensive and complex. The southern area only and the second class of Xiao and Xia initials. The includes Hunan and Guangxi where ethnic mixing of Fei and Xiao initials is a relatively minorities gather, and the mixing is very recent phonetic change, which has no direct complicated. Ancient languages are preserved in the inheritance with the phonological system of southeastern area where there are still bilabial Qieyun. The mixing mainly occurs in the southern sounds and initial consonant [h], but the mixing is part of the mainland of China. -
Xiang Dialects Xiāng Fāngyán 湘方言
◀ Xiang Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667. Xiang Dialects Xiāng fāngyán 湘方言 Mandarin 普通话 (putonghua, literally “com- kingdom, which was established in the third century ce, moner’s language”) is the standard Chinese but it was greatly influenced by northern Chinese (Man- language. Apart from Mandarin, there are darin) at various times. The Chu kingdom occupied mod- other languages and dialects spoken in China. ern Hubei and Hunan provinces. Some records of the vocabulary used in the Chu kingdom areas can be found 湘 汉 Xiang is one of the ten main Chinese Han in Fangyan, compiled by Yang Xiong (53 bce– 18 ce), and dialects, and is spoken primarily throughout Shuowen jiezi, compiled by Xu Shen in 100 ce. Both works Hunan Province. give the impression that the dialect spoken in the Chu kingdom had some strong local features. The dialects spoken in Chu were influenced strongly he Xiang dialect group is one of the recognized by northern Chinese migrants. The first group of mi- ten dialect groups of spoken Chinese. Some 34 grants came into Hunan in 307– 312 ce. Most of them million people throughout Hunan Province came from Henan and Shanxi provinces and occupied speak one of the Xiang dialects. Speakers are also found Anxiang, Huarong, and Lixian in Hunan. In the mid- in Sichuan and Guangxi provinces. Tang dynasty, a large group of northern people came to The Xiang dialect group is further divided into New Hunan following the Yuan River into western Hunan. The Xiang (spoken in the north) and Old Xiang (spoken in the third wave of migrants arrived at the end of the Northern south). -
Electroglottograph and Acoustic Cues for Phonation Contrasts in Taiwan Min Falling Tones
INTERSPEECH 2011 Electroglottograph and Acoustic Cues for Phonation Contrasts in Taiwan Min Falling Tones Ho-hsien Pan1, Mao-Hsu Chen1, Shao-Ren Lyu1 1 Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu Taiwan [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] including closed (contact) quotients obtained using a hybrid Abstract method (CQ_H) and Peak Increase in Contac (PIC), This study explored the effective articulatory and acoustic distinguished modal, breathy, and creaky phonations in parameters for distinguishing Taiwan Min falling unchecked Hmong and distinguished tense and lax phonations in Yi [6, 8]. tones 53 and 31 and checked tones 5 and 3. Data were Acoustic parameters including spectral tilts which measure the collected from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and mixed accents in amplitude differences between the first harmonic (H1) and the northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Results showed that strongest harmonic in the first formant (A1), second formant EGG parameters, Contact Quotients (CQ) and Peak Increase (A2) and third formant (A3), i.e. H1*-H2* (corrected), H1*- in Contact (PIC) were not effective in distinguishing checked A1* (corrected), H1*-A2* (corrected), H1*-A3*, and Cepstral from unchecked tones across speakers. In contrast, f0 contour Peak Prominence (CPP) distinguished phonation contrasts in and Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) consistently Hmong and Yi [6, 8]. distinguished checked tones from unchecked tones across A previous fiberoptic study of Taiwan Min checked speakers. The f0 onset was highest for tone 53, followed in syllables with final unreleased stops [p t, k, ǚ] produced with order by tone 3, 5 and 31. -
LANGUAGE CONTACT and AREAL DIFFUSION in SINITIC LANGUAGES (Pre-Publication Version)
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND AREAL DIFFUSION IN SINITIC LANGUAGES (pre-publication version) Hilary Chappell This analysis includes a description of language contact phenomena such as stratification, hybridization and convergence for Sinitic languages. It also presents typologically unusual grammatical features for Sinitic such as double patient constructions, negative existential constructions and agentive adversative passives, while tracing the development of complementizers and diminutives and demarcating the extent of their use across Sinitic and the Sinospheric zone. Both these kinds of data are then used to explore the issue of the adequacy of the comparative method to model linguistic relationships inside and outside of the Sinitic family. It is argued that any adequate explanation of language family formation and development needs to take into account these different kinds of evidence (or counter-evidence) in modeling genetic relationships. In §1 the application of the comparative method to Chinese is reviewed, closely followed by a brief description of the typological features of Sinitic languages in §2. The main body of this chapter is contained in two final sections: §3 discusses three main outcomes of language contact, while §4 investigates morphosyntactic features that evoke either the North-South divide in Sinitic or areal diffusion of certain features in Southeast and East Asia as opposed to grammaticalization pathways that are crosslinguistically common.i 1. The comparative method and reconstruction of Sinitic In Chinese historical -
Glottalization of Taiwan Min Checked Tones
Glottalization of Taiwan Min checked tones Ho-hsien Pan Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chiao Tung University [email protected] This study explores the glottalization of Taiwan Min checked tones 3 and 5 with a CV [pt k ʔ] syllable structure. Electroglottography (EGG) supplements acoustic data on disyllabic words with checked tones collected from 40 speakers from five dialect regions. The results indicated that a final coda can be realized as a full oral/glottal stop closure, an energy dip at vowel’s end, an aperiodic voicing at vowel’s end, or a coda deletion. Over 80% of /ʔ/ codas and less than 20% of /ptk/ codas were deleted. The undeleted /ptk/ codas were more likely to be produced with a full stop closure among tone 3 and sandhi tones. Glottal contact quotient (CQ_H) distinguished tones 3 and 5 from unchecked tones 31 and 51, respectively. In sandhi positions, the vowels of tone [5] /3/ were produced with a longer CQ_H, lower H1∗-A3∗ and a higher Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP), suggesting a longer close phase, a more abrupt glottal closure and more periodic voicing than tone [3] /5/. In juncture position, coda deletion and the merging of H1∗-A1∗,H1∗-A3∗ and A1∗-A2∗ of tones [3] /3/ and [5] /5/ suggest a sound change among checked tones. 1 Introduction 1.1 Taiwan Min checked tones Taiwan Min, also known as Taiwanese Hokkien or Taiwanese, is spoken by approximately 70% of the population in Taiwan. It belongs to the Min-Nan (Southern Min) variety of Chinese Min and is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Hakka, or the Formosan Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan.