Series |
Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Time in East Asian Endangered Languages
Chapter | Tonal Change in Yu
Tonal Change in Yu
Abstract
This study presents an analysis of the factors conditioning certain processes of a merger in the tonal system of Yu, an endangered variety of Jin Chinese. Drawing on three investigations of this variety that were conducted at intervals of nearly a decade each, we found that the falling tone HM has merged with the falling tone HL over the past thirty years. When analysing the tone sandhi patterns in these three studies, it becomes clear that the merger of the two falling tones (HL and HM) is driven by internal phonological factors. HL is the variant of HM resulting from the application of regular sandhi processes in this variety, which has resulted in the neutralisation of the contrast between HM and HL in many words, and which finally has caused all syllables with HM to be realised as HL. This diachronic change reveals an internally driven tonal change that is currently occurring in Jin Chinese, and it also shows that the change is driven towards simplification, which is in accordance with observations on tonal systems in other Chinese varieties.
Submitted: March 4, 2024 | Accepted: June 10, 2024 | Published Feb. 20, 2025 | Language: en
Keywords Jin Chinese • Endangered language • Yu Chinese • Tones • Sound change
Copyright © 2025 Pingping Jia. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-913-9/009
