Chinese, Min Bei Phonology

428 A. Ronald Walton

3. Syllable Structure

The canonical shape of the Taishun syllable can be described as fol-
lows:

TONE

$ (o (V) v (V) ; ; ?

ng

The shortest syllable consists of a vowel only. Tripthongs can occur only
in open syllables. In closed syllables, only single vowels and dipthongs
occur. Thus, the longest syllables can have the following shapes: CVV?,
CVVNG, CVVV.
There are also two syllabic nasals in the language: $ m $ and $ ng $.

The Taishun Phonological System 429

4. Tone System

4.1. Tones of Isolation Syllables

The phonetic values of isolation syllables are given below in terms of
Middle Chinese (ca. 600 A.D.) tone categories. 5 The underlined tones are
extremely short. All Tone IV syllables end in glottal stop.

I II III IV

PING SHANG QU RU

(^ ) ( -t )(i )(>^)

A 35 55 21 5 (4)

yin( n- )

B

YANG( j£ )

33 31 3i

Below, the Taishun (TS) isolation tones are compared with the four
dialects described in Norman (1977-1978) and noted in Section 1 above.

TS FD ZY FA NT

I.

IA

35

55

43

43

33

2.

IB

33

21

11

11

11

3-

IIA

55

52

4i

4i

4i

4-

IIB

31

lacking

5-

IIIA

21

24

35

35

35

6.

IIIB

31

12

13

13

4i

7-

IVA

5/(4)

5

54

54

21

8.

IVB

5

M

21

21

5

Taishun syllables occurring in isolation Tone IIIA (phonetically low
falling and rather short) are characterized by considerable glottic tension
in the final. This glottic tension approaches, but does not quite reach, a
final glottal stop. That a glottal stop is not present is evident in that the

5 I make use of Middle Chinese tone categories as a reference point for Taishun tone
categories and in arranging some modern Taishun segmental reflexes in Appendix I. There is
no doubt that Middle Chinese is an inadequate historical reference point for modern Min.
However, until a more complete reconstruction of Proto-Northeastern Min and Proto-Min
emerges, I have sometimes had to rely on Middle Chinese distinctions with the knowledge
that Min specialists can reinterpret the data presented here in terms of their ongoing re-
search on earlier stages of Min.

43° A. Ronald Walton

informant can prolong the final just a bit. In this exaggerated pronuncia-
tion a glottal stop does not materialize but rather the informant reaches
the bottom of tone scale and simply runs out of tonal space.

Syllables occurring in this tone as the first syllable in two syllable
compounds lose the glottic constriction but the constriction remains in
such compounds when the Tone IIIA syllable is in second position.

Norman (1978) has noted that reflexes of Tone IIB have largely merged
with Tone IIIB in Fuding, Zheyang, and Fuan. This merger also holds for
Ningde but the distinction, according to Norman, is preserved in tone
sandhi. This merger also holds for Taishun and no distinction is preserved
in tone sandhi.

6 A lower pitched short tone, 4, does occur in some cases in the second syllable of two
syllable compounds as revealed in the tone sandhi chart in Section 8 below. However, this
tone value, in these contexts, is not restricted to the finals noted just above in the text.

The Taishun Phonological System 433

5. The Initial System

The initial system is outlined below. The symbols given in brackets
reflect a rather narrow phonetic transcription and the unbracketed sym-
bols, which are used in the transcription throughout this study, present a
quasi-phonemic analysis.

Alveolar Prepalatal
Labials Alveolars sibilants sibilants Velars Glottals

Unasp. stops

P

t

ts [ts]

ts [t<s]

k

Asp. stops

P'

V

ts' [ts']

ts' Ltc']

k'

Sonorants

m

n/1

ng [rj]

Fricatives

h[<M

s[8]

h[d

h [h]

The following observations are necessary to give a fuller explanation of
the initial system.

(1) In a phonemic analysis, [<(>], [$] and h [h] could be considered al-
lophones of one phoneme since they do not contrast. The distribu-
tion is as follows:

[<M occurs before: -u, -ua, -uai, -ui, ue, -ung, -uang, -uong
[h] occurs before: -i, -e, -a, -o, -ie, -eu, -ai, -au, -uo, -ang, -eng,

-ing, -ong and -yng
fe] occurs before: -y, -yeng, -iong
As a general rule, it would be possible to state that h is realized as
[<W before u except for one example in the data: [huo 33] 'peace'.
The initial [p] cannot be considered an allophone of s because of
contrasts such as:

jfc. 'book' sy 35 versus jjL 'empty' £y 35

In considering the initials [<\>], [p], and [h] it would seem that no
simple rule using distinctive features or vowel qualities can be for-
mulated. Yet, the distribution is clearly non-contrastive with regard
to finals. In the transcription all three sounds are represented with
the symbol h as the chart above indicates.

(2) The initials [t£] and [t£'] are in complimentary distribution with [ts]
and [ts'] respectively. The former occur only before i and y.

The Taishun Phonological System 433

5. The Initial System

The initial system is outlined below. The symbols given in brackets
reflect a rather narrow phonetic transcription and the unbracketed sym-
bols, which are used in the transcription throughout this study, present a
quasi-phonemic analysis.

Alveolar Prepalatal
Labials Alveolars sibilants sibilants Velars Glottals

Unasp. stops

P

t

ts [ts]

ts [t<s]

k

Asp. stops

P'

V

ts' [ts']

ts' Ltc']

k'

Sonorants

m

n/1

ng [rj]

Fricatives

h[<M

s[8]

h[d

h [h]

The following observations are necessary to give a fuller explanation of
the initial system.

(1) In a phonemic analysis, [<(>], [$] and h [h] could be considered al-
lophones of one phoneme since they do not contrast. The distribu-
tion is as follows:

[<M occurs before: -u, -ua, -uai, -ui, ue, -ung, -uang, -uong
[h] occurs before: -i, -e, -a, -o, -ie, -eu, -ai, -au, -uo, -ang, -eng,

-ing, -ong and -yng
fe] occurs before: -y, -yeng, -iong
As a general rule, it would be possible to state that h is realized as
[<W before u except for one example in the data: [huo 33] 'peace'.
The initial [p] cannot be considered an allophone of s because of
contrasts such as:

jfc. 'book' sy 35 versus jjL 'empty' £y 35

In considering the initials [<\>], [p], and [h] it would seem that no
simple rule using distinctive features or vowel qualities can be for-
mulated. Yet, the distribution is clearly non-contrastive with regard
to finals. In the transcription all three sounds are represented with
the symbol h as the chart above indicates.

(2) The initials [t£] and [t£'] are in complimentary distribution with [ts]
and [ts'] respectively. The former occur only before i and y.

The Taishun Phonological System 435

uang [uArj], uong [uorj]

a? [A?], o? [0?], e? [e?], a?, y?, u?, i?

ia? [iA?], io? [b?], ie? [ie?]

ua? [uA?], uo? [uo?], ye 9 [ya?]

The following observations serve to provide a more detailed description
of some of these finals:

(1) With e [ei], ue [uei], eng [eirj], and ieng [ieirj], the i off-glide is very
slight, but nevertheless perceptible.

(2) The off-glide u [u v ] in iu, eu and iau is so low that it approaches but
does not quite reach an [o].

(3) The front rounded y_ of ye [ys], and ye? [ya?] is most noticeable
after the prepalatal sibilant initials; in other cases it approximates a
front rounded vowel with an i quality.

(4) The symbol combination oe [6>] in oeng is meant to describe an
almost central rounded vowel, a sound approximating a rounded
schwa.

THE TAISHUN PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM:

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF A

NORTHEASTERN MIN DIALECT

A. Ronald Walton
University of Maryland

CONTRIBUTIONS TO
SINO-TIBETAN STUDIES

EDITED BY

JOHN McCOY

Cornell University

TIMOTHY LIGHT

The Ohio State University

LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL

1986