Four-stage evolution of Jìn Chinese entering tones: from Lǚliáng to Bìngzhōu
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2022/13/0048/000590Keywords:
Jìn Chinese, entering tones, flip-flop, tone evolutionAbstract
This paper demonstrates the evolution of entering tones in Jìn Chinese. A “flip-flop” phenomenon has been observed in the entering tone systems of Jìn dialects. Both Lǚliáng and Bìngzhōu Jìn possess two entering tones: Yīnrù and Yángrù. In Bìngzhōu Jìn, the entering tones display a “Yīn-low vs. Yáng-high” contrast, which is the reverse of the Lǚliáng pattern of “Yīn-high vs. Yáng-low”. Recordings from 34 native speakers of Lǚliáng and Bìngzhōu Jìn were acoustically and phonologically analysed. Based on these findings, the study reconstructs a four-stage developmental pathway illustrating how the Lǚliáng “Yīn-high vs. Yáng-low” contrast evolved into the Bìngzhōu “Yīn-low vs. Yáng-high” contrast.
References
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Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
