Introduction to Cantonese Phonology

Transcription

Topics in This Lecture
LING6014 History and Structure of Cantonese
Lecture 1:
Introduction to
Cantonese Phonology
Seven Salient Features of Cantonese
Phonology
Structure of Cantonese Syllable
Formula for Cantonese Syllable
Human Speech Production System
Phoneme and Allophone
Human Vocal Tract
Places and Manners of Articulation
4 September 2010
Robert S. BAUER Dept. of Linguistics
University of Hong Kong
Email: [email protected]
1
Articulatory Description and Classification of
Cantonese Consonants
Articulatory Description and Classification of
Cantonese Vowels
Inventory of Cantonese Rimes
Types of Cantonese Syllables
Tone and Tone Language
Analysis of Cantonese Tone System
Historical Development of Cantonese Tone
3
System
Hong Kong Cantonese
The phonological description presented
here is for the standard pronunciation of
Hong Kong Cantonese, that is the
variety currently spoken in Hong Kong
(which became a Special Administrative
Region [SAR] of the People’s Republic
of China in 1997 when China resumed
sovereignty following 155 years of
British colonial rule).
5
2
Cantonese Tonal Assimilation bindiu
Cantonese Changed Tone binjam
Comparison of Cantonese binjam
and
Putonghua erhua
Phonetic Variation in Hong Kong Cantonese
4
Guangzhou Cantonese
Of course, Cantonese is also spoken in
mainland China in Guangdong and
Guangxi provinces which are located
north and west of Hong Kong,
respectively.
Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou, the
capital of Guangdong province, is
regarded as the regional standard across
South China.
6
1
Seven Salient Features of
HK Cantonese Phonology
Guangzhou Cantonese
Comparison of Hong Kong Cantonese
with Guangzhou Cantonese reveals the
two varieties are quite similar in
phonology and grammar but less so in
their lexicons.
1. Only one phonemic series of affricates
and fricative with dental/alveolar place of
articulation: ,
,
2. Three-way, symmetrical contrast of
homorganic nasal and stop consonants
in both syllable-initial and syllable-final
positions:
7
8
3. Phonemic contrast in length between
vowels / / [ ] and / / [ ].
6. Yin Ru tone category has further split into
two subcategories of upper and lower.
This development was conditioned by vowel
length:
(1) syllables with short vowels belong to
Upper Yin Ru and carry High Stopped tone;
(2) syllables with long vowels belong to
Lower Yin Ru and carry Mid Stopped tone.
4. Rich inventory of rimes; 57 in total.
5. Two-way split of the historical (Ancient
Chinese) four tone categories into upper
and lower registers which neatly
correspond to historical contrast of
voiceless and voiced initial consonants
in Ancient Chinese.
9
10.
Cantonese Syllable
The syllable has been recognized as the
basic unit of phonological and
morphological analysis for Cantonese
and other Chinese varieties.
The reason for this is because the
syllable often corresponds to both the
morpheme and the word.
7. Changed Tone (or
bin jam)
functions as a productive
morphological mechanism for word
derivation.
11
12
2
Fig. 1. Structure of Cantonese Syllable
Difference Between Cantonese
and Putonghua Syllables
In terms of syllable structure, the
major difference between Cantonese
and Putonghua is that the Cantonese
syllable lacks the medial component.
As a result, the Cantonese Final and
Rime are the same.
Syllable
Suprasegmental, Tone T
Final F or Rime R
Onset,
Nucleus,
Initial
Coda,
Nuclear
Ending
Ci
Vowel
Ce
V
13
Fig. 2. Structure of Putonghua Syllable
14
Formula of Cantonese Syllable
T
(Ci)V(Ce/G)
Syllable
Suprasegmental, Tone T
Final F
Onset,
Initial
Medial
Rime R
Ci
Gm
Nucleus,
Coda,
Nuclear
Ending
Vowel
Ce
V
15
Cantonese Tendency
Toward Monosyllabism
Lexical Tone (T) and Nuclear Vowel (V) are the
two obligatory components of the Cantonese
syllable; this means the formula must include
both T and V.
Initial Consonant (Ci), Ending Consonant (Ce),
and Ending Glide or semivowel (G) are all
optional components.
16
Polysyllabic Free Morphemes
The Cantonese lexicon includes words
that are monosyllabic, as well as
colloquial words with two or more
semantically unanalyzable syllables.
The existence of polysyllabic morphemes
means that Cantonese cannot be
classified as a purely monosyllabic
language, but it shows a tendency
toward monosyllabism.
17
Colloquial Cantonese words:
22
25 ‘cockroach’
21
25 ‘toad’
Separating each of these words into its
constituent syllables, only gives us two
meaningless syllables.
Since their individual syllables have no
meaning, these two words are classified
as polysyllabic free morphemes.
18
3
Mechanism of Speech Production
During the production of speech
sounds, the air that is expelled
from the lungs passes through
the trachea, larynx, pharynx,
and out through the oral and
nasal cavities of the vocal tract.
Fig. 3.
Human
Speech
Production
system.
19
Components of the Human Speech
Production System
1. Supralaryngeal vocal tract includes:
Nasal cavity
Oral cavity
Pharynx
2. Larynx
Vocal cords, Glottis
3. Subglottal system
Trachea
Lungs
20
Vocal Cords and Speech Sounds
Lung air passing through the larynx and
glottis causes the vocal cords (or vocal
folds) to vibrate.
The vibrating vocal cords in turn produce
buzzing sounds which are modulated
and transformed into speech sounds by
the articulatory organs in the vocal
tract.
21
Fig. 4. Human Vocal Cords (or Vocal Folds)
vibrating at 160 cycles per second (160 Hz)
Vocal
Cords
Glottis
23
22
Classification of Speech Sounds
in the World’s Languages
Majority of speech sounds in the world’s
languages belong to two main categories:
1. Consonants: sound segments produced
when lung air passes through vocal tract
and encounters some obvious obstruction
2. Vowels: sound segments produced as
lung air passes through vocal tract which
changes its shape to modulate the sound
produced by vibrating vocal cords, but flow
of air does not encounter any obvious
obstruction
24
4
Glottis
This refers to the space (or opening)
between the vocal cords.
The glottis can change its shape according to
the activity of the vocal cords.
When the vocal cords are vibrating, they are
close together and so the glottis will be
relatively small.
In a voiceless sound there is little or no
airflow through the glottis, and so it may be
long and wide.
25
Definition of Phoneme
The phoneme is a basic, abstract unit of
phonological analysis and is often
defined as the smallest phonetic unit
that can distinguish the meanings of
words.
26
Definition of Allophone
Description of Consonants
One phoneme can have one or more
phonetic realizations which are
determined by the phonetic environments
in which speech sounds occur; different
phonetic realizations of phonemes are
called Allophones.
Through the phonological analysis of
different phonetic environments in which
allophones occur, the distribution of
allophones can be predicted.
Consonants are described or specified
according to two parameters:
1. Place of Articulation: place in vocal
tract where flow of lung air is obstructed
in some way by articulators
2. Manner of Articulation: way in which
flow of lung air is impeded or obstructed
in the vocal tract by articulators; lung air
can be completely obstructed for a stop,
or partially obstructed for a fricative.
27
28
Articulatory Organs in the
Human Vocal Tract
5
Speech organs (or articulatory organs, or
articulators) in the vocal tract:
1. Lips
2. Teeth
3. Alveolar ridge
4. Hard palate
5. Soft palate/Velum
6. Glottis
29
6
4
3
Fig. 5. Places
1 2
of articulation:
1. Lips = Bilabial
2. Lip-teeth = Labiodental
3. Teeth = Dental
4. Alveolar ridge =
Alveolar
5. Hard palate = Palatal
6. Velum = Velar
7. Glottis = Glottal
Larynx
7
30
5
Places of Articulation
of Cantonese Consonants
Manners of Articulation
of Cantonese Consonants
Cantonese consonants contrast seven
places of articulation:
1. Bilabial
2. Labio-dental
3. Dental/Alveolar
4. Alveolo-palatal
5. Palatal
6. Velar
7. Glottal
Cantonese consonants contrast five
manners of articulation:
1. Stop
2. Nasal
3. Fricative
4. Affricate
5. Approximant
31
Table 1. Cantonese Consonants (1a):
Syllable-initial Stop
Phonemes and Allophones
Place: Bilabial
Manner:
Stop:
Voiceless
/ / [ ]
Unaspirated:
Voiceless
Aspirated:
/
Dental/
Alveolar
/[ ]
/ / []
/
/[ ]
Aspiration
This refers to the puff of air that follows
the release of the articulation for a
voiceless stop or affricate consonant.
Aspiration is symbolized by the “raised h
(or superscript h)” that follows the
consonant.
Velar
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
/
/
/[ ]
/ [ ]
32
33
Table 2. Cantonese Consonants (1b):
Syllable-final Stop
Place: Bilabial
Manner:
Stop:
/ / [ ]
Voiceless
unreleased:
Dental/
Alveolar
/ / [ ]
Table 3. Cantonese Consonants (2):
Nasal Phonemes and Allophones:
Initial and Final Consonants, Syllabics
Velar
/ / [ ]
The symbol “ ” which is called “corner”
indicates the consonant is unreleased,
that is, the closure for the consonant is
held briefly.
34
Place:
Bilabial
Manner:
Nasal:
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
!
35
Dental/
Alveolar
Velar
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
#
"
this symbol is called “eng”.
In articulation of nasal consonant velum must be
lowered so lung air can flow through nasal cavity.
&
%
$
36
6
Syllable-initial Fricative
Place: LabioManner: dental
Dental/ AlveoloAlveolar palatal
Fricative:
Voiceless / / [ ]
/ / [ ]
'
(
[ ]
)
Glottal
this symbol is called “curly-tail c”.
37
Approximant Phonemes and Allophones in
Syllable-initial and Syllable-final Positions
Place:
Bilabial
Manner:
Approximant: /
/
/[ ]
/[ ]
0
Dental/
Alveolar
/
/ /[]
1
Palatal
/ /[]
/ /[]
this symbol which is called “turned h”
represents a rounded palatal approximant.
2
4
3
As indicated above, phoneme /s/ has two
allophones, namely, [s] and [ ].
Allophone [ ], the alveolo-palatal fricative,
only occurs before high, front rounded
vowel [ ] as the result of palatalization;
dental fricative [s] occurs in all other
phonetic environments.
The phonetic process of palatalization is
expressed as an allophonic rule:
5
[
55]
Dental/
Alveolar
Voiceless
Aspirated:
/
/[ ]
/[
Alveolo-palatal
+
[
]
-
[
]
,
]
.
41
38
Table 7. Consonant Phonemes:
Initial Consonants and Syllabics
Stops
Nasals
Fricatives
Affricates
Approximants
39
Dental Fricative Phoneme / / has
Two Allophones: [ ] and [ ]
/s/ => [ ]/_[y as in
Place:
Manner:
Affricate:
Voiceless
/
Unaspirated:
*
/ / [ ]
Syllable-initial Affricate
40
Allophones of Affricates / / and /
/
As indicated above, dental affricate
phonemes / / and / / are each
realized as two allophones, namely [ ]
and [ ], and [ ] and [ ].
The alveolo-palatal affricate allophones
[ ] and [ ] occur before round
vowels [ ] [ ] and [ ] as the result of
palatalization.
The pair of dental affricate allophones
[ ] and [ ] occur in all other phonetic
environments.
42
7
Palatalization Rule for
Affricate Allophones [ ] and [
Table 8. Ending Consonants:
]
Stops:
/ /
/ / [ ]
/ / [ ]
Nasals:
/ / [ ] / / [ ]
/ / [ ]
Approximants: / / [ ]
/ / [ ], [ ]
The phonetic process of palatalization of the
affricate allophones can be expressed in
allophonic rules as follows:
/ / => [ ]/_ [
]
as in
[
55],
[
55],
[
33]
/
,
6
/ => [ ]/_ [
[
33],
as in
.
8
]
[
7
21],
9
[
55]
43
Allophones
44
Distribution of Allophone
and
The palatal approximant phoneme / /
occurs in both syllable-initial and
syllable-final positions.
When it occurs as an ending consonant
in finals, it has two allophones,
namely,
and [ ].
The rounded palatal approximant allophone
[ ] only occurs after central round vowel
[ ] as result of perseverative assimilation;
for example,
[
23],
[
23], and
[
33].
Palatal approximant ending [ ] occurs after
all other vowels, namely, the three
unrounded vowels
, e.g.
[
33],
[
55],
[
55],
[ ! 22] and
!
"
! # , e.g.
[ # 55]$
:
;
45
Articulatory Analysis of Vowels
A
<
>
?
@
=
46
Table 9. Vowel Phonemes
and Allophones
Vowels are analyzed according to three
parameters:
1. Tongue height
2. Degree of tongue frontness or
backness
3. Lip rounding
(tongue position may not be as helpful as
formant structure in analyzing vowels, but
formant analysis belongs to acoustic
phonetics)
When stop consonants p, t, k occur as
syllable endings, they are unreleased as
indicated by corner symbol “ ”.
Final approximants / / and / / are also
called semivowels, as they resemble both
vowels and consonants.
Front:
High:
/%/ [% ] / / [ ]
Mid High: / / [ ]
Mid:
/&/ [& ] / / [ ]
Low:
47
Central:
/ /[ ]
/ /[ ]
/ / [ ]*
Back:
/!/ [! ]
/ /[ ]
/#/ [# ]
*The diacritic symbol “ ” indicates the vowel
duration is long.
48
8
Cantonese Rimes
Classification of Nuclear Vowels
Cantonese has a rich inventory of
rimes: 11 nuclear vowels combine
with nine consonant endings, i.e.
three stops
, three nasals
, and three semivowels
, to form 57 rimes.
Cantonese has 11 vowel allophones.
These vowels form the nucleus of the
syllables in which they occur and can
be classified as follows:
1. Unrounded nuclear vowels:
[%
&
]
In following table hyphen “-” indicates
rime does not occur.
2. Rounded nuclear vowels:
[
!
#]
49
50
51
As a result of their contact, Cantonese
has borrowed many words from English.
A few new rimes have been created for
some loanwords, but they only occur in
loanword syllables:
English source: Cantonese loanword:
firm
=> [
55]
form
=> [ # 55]
job
=> [ # 55]
Table 10. Cantonese Rimes
%
!
#
&
BD
I C 5
E
F G —K
? ?
L
— ?
W Y
—
X Z
c e g
d f h
q r
—
s
— —
— — —
— — — — — &
— — — — — &
—
— &
—
— &
— — —
—
— — —
—
—
— —
—
&
— — — —
J
O Q S
P R T
U
kml
/
V
_ a
^
` b
o
n
p
]
Table 11. Four Main Types of
Cantonese Syllables

1. V
2. CiV
3. VGe/
VCe
4. CiVGe/
CiVCe

#

)
%

&

#

#
xv w Initial
y{z{|{} Consonant Ending
~{x{z Nuclear Vowel
{z{|{} Glide Ending
Ci =
Ce =
V=
Ge =

#
&

N
New Loanword Rimes
HM
\
[
i
j
u
t
Tone Language
#

52
!
53
Tone languages are languages which
use changes in the pitch of the
speaker’s voice, its rise and fall, or
fall and rise, etc., to distinguish
meanings of morphemes; that is,
these pitch changes function as
phonemes just like consonants and
vowels, and are called tones or
tonemes.
54
9
Different Types of
Tone Languages
Tone System
The set of distinctive tone
phonemes or tonemes that
contrast different meanings of
words in the tone language form
its tone system.
55
56
Asian Tone Languages
Different Types of
Tone Languages
2. Contour tone languages of East
and Southeast Asia:
These are more complex because
they utilize changes in the shapes of
tone contours over time to contrast
meanings.
57
What is Lexical Tone?
When we hear someone speaking a
tone language, we feel we are
hearing numerous changes in the
pitch of the speaker’s voice.
These changes in pitch (auditory
aspect of tone) correspond to
changes in the frequencies with
which the vocal cords are vibrating
(acoustic aspect of tone).
There are two main types of tone
languages:
1. Register tone languages of Africa
and America:
These are relatively simple in that
they contrast relative tone heights
to distinguish meaning, such as
high and low, or high, mid, and low.
The second type of tone language utilizes
complex tone contours as phonemes,
and includes all the various dialects of
Chinese and some ethnic minority
languages spoken in China, such as
Tibetan, Miao, Yao, Dai, Zhuang, etc.
In addition, some national languages of
Southeast Asia, such as Thai, Lao,
Vietnamese, and Burmese, belong to this
type.
58
Pitch and Tone
“[T]he pitch of a syllable [in a tone
language] can be high or low, it can go
up and then fall, it can fall and then rise,
and it can be long or it can be short.
Changes in pitch, the rise and fall, and
changes in length (or duration) are called
tones . . .” (translated from
1983:55)

59
60
10
Tone and Fundamental Frequency
As the number of vibrations (frequency) of
the vocal cords increases (= acoustic
aspect), we perceive a corresponding
increase in the pitch of the speaker’s voice
(= auditory aspect).
The higher the frequency (which is called
Fundamental Frequency or F0 in acoustic
phonetics and measured in cycles per
second or Hertz = Hz), the higher the
tone.
Fig. 6. Vocal cords vibrating at 160
cycles per second (= 160 Hz)
61
Fig. 7. Vocal cords vibrating at 200
cycles per second (= 200 Hz)
62
Physical States of Vocal Cords and
Frequencies of Their Vibrations
As the vocal cords become longer and
more tense, there is a corresponding
increase in the frequency of the vocal
cords’ vibrations and an increase in the
pitch of the sounds being produced.
63
Tension of Vocal Cords
To increase frequency of vocal cord
vibration, the speaker increases the
tension of the vocal cords by stretching
them and increasing their length.
In comparing Figures 5 and 6 of the vocal
cords vibrating at two different
frequencies, we observe that the vocal
cords vibrating at 200 Hz in the 2nd photo
are relatively longer and more tense.
65
64
Speakers’ Production
of Contrastive Tones
As speakers of tone languages
manipulate the frequency at which their
vocal cords open and close (that is, the
fundamental frequency), they are able to
produce the contrastive tones of their
languages.
Speakers do this based on their
perception of pitch differences.
66
11
How to study Cantonese tones?
To analyze the Cantonese tone system,
we first recognize that the pitch range
within which different speakers’ produce
their tones is relative and not absolute.
Most women’s and children’s voices are
relatively higher than most men’s voices,
so this means the absolute pitch values
of their tones are also different. It is not
the absolute F0 values that matter, but
their relative values.
Speakers Relatively and
Consistently Produce Tones
The speaker of a particular tone
language distinguishes the tones
produced by the speaker of the same
language according to their relative and
consistent pitch heights.
For example, the speaker produces a
high level tone that is relatively and
consistently higher than a low level tone.
67
Speaker’s Pitch Range
The speaker’s voice can be considered
to have a pitch range from High to Low.
This pitch range can be divided into five
levels, and the levels are then
numbered from 1 to 5:
5 represents the highest pitch level, 1
the lowest level, while 3 indicates mid
level; 4 is for mid high, and 2 for mid
low.
69
Tone Space
To represent the direction and contour of tones
we can use a set of arrows which are
positioned within the speaker’s pitch range.
In doing this, we can symbolize concretely the
shapes of tone contours of a tone-contour
language, such as Putonghua.
When the “tone arrows” are positioned relative to
each other within the pitch range which has
been divided into the five levels, this kind of
diagram is called the tone space.
71
68
Figure 8. Division of Speaker’s
Pitch Range into Five Levels
High 5
Mid High 4
Mid 3
Mid Low 2
Low 1
70
Four Terms for Describing and
Analyzing Tones
In describing and analyzing the
lexical tones of Chinese dialects
and other contour-tone languages
of East and Southeast Asia,
scholars have used the following
four terms, as they have been found
to be convenient and valuable in
this type of research work.
72
12
Tone Contour
Tone Category
Each tone phoneme has its own distinctive
linear shape as it moves through time.
As already mentioned, a tone’s direction of
movement (level, falling, rising, falling-rising,
rising-falling) combines with its height (high,
low, mid, mid-high, mid-low) to form its
contour.
Each tone phoneme (or toneme) is
distinguished by its own tone contour.
The distinctive tone phoneme functions
as a tone category.
The finite set of tone categories forms
the tone system of the tone language.
73
Tone Value
As shown above, the speaker’s tone contours
can be positioned within the tone space
which has been divided into five levels from
High to Low and correspondingly numbered
from 5 to 1.
Two or three numbers from 5 to 1 are then
used to indicate the relative height of the
tone contour as it changes over time in the
tone space.
These numbers are referred to as the tone
75
value of the tone contour.
74
Tone Letter or Tone Symbol or
Tone Graph
Small pitch graphs which iconically resemble the
tone contours are used by scholars as simple
symbols to represent either the tone contours
or the tone categories.
These symbols were invented by the ChineseAmerican linguist Chao Yuen-Ren
in
the early 1930’s and were later adopted by the
International Phonetic Association.
Examples of tone letters are the following:

76
Three Parameters
of Tone Contour
Cantonese Tones
Like other southern Chinese dialects,
Cantonese has a rich inventory of
contrastive tone contours, and there
are several more than in Putonghua.
Analysis of the tone contours that form
the Cantonese tone system
recognizes the following three
parameters:
77
1. Duration: tone is carried by the syllable
and persists for the length of the syllable.
2. Direction: tone is linear, that is, it begins
with the initial consonant of the syllable if
voiced and then continues through the
nuclear vowel and voiced ending consonant.
3. Height: contour tones change their shape
over time by moving from high to low, low to
high, remaining high, mid, or low, etc.
78
13
Tone Contours on
Live and Dead Syllables
Nine Tone Contours
in Cantonese
Nine tone contours can be recognized
in Cantonese, and these co-occur with
two main categories of syllables as
follows:
79
Figure 9. Six Tone Contours
on Live Syllables
High 5
Mid
High 4
Mid 3
Mid
Low 2
Low 1

ji 55
¡
80
Fig. 10. Three Tone Contours
on Dead Syllables
Mid
High 4
ji 33
¤
£
Mid 3
ji 23
Mid
Low 2
ji 22
ji 21
¨
Low 1
81
Ancient Chinese and
Modern Cantonese
The modern Cantonese tone system
developed from the tone system of
Ancient Chinese (ca. 6th - 7th century
CE) which had four tone categories.
What is the relationship between these
two tone systems?
The answer lies in some early sound
changes in Cantonese that influenced
the development of its tone system.
¥
High 5
ji 25
¢
Six tone contours occur on so-called
“live” syllables; the live category
comprises syllables with only the nuclear
vowel and no ending, syllables with glide
and nasal endings, and nasal syllabics.
Three tone contours occur on “dead”
syllables, that is, syllables with stop
consonants -p, -t, -k as endings.
5
¦
2
§
& 33
& 22
82
Origin of Names for Tone Categories
“”
During the mid-5th and early 6th centuries
(Northern and Southern Dynasties), two
poets,
Shen Yue (441-513 CE) and
Zhou Yong, paid special attention to rhyming
patterns and discovered the Chinese tones.
According to modern scholars, it was Shen and
Zhou who assigned the names
“Ping, Shang, Qu, Ru” to the four tone
categories; together they are called
“Four Tones”.
84
©«ª
·
83
¬®
¯±°³²´°¶µ±°
n¹¸
14
Table 12. Distribution of Some Chinese
Characters in Historical Four Tone
Categories of Ancient Chinese
º
¼ ,»
½ ,¾
,
Ã ,Ä
Å ,Æ
¿ ,À
Á ,Â
Ç ,È ,É
Ê ,Ë
Ì , Í ,Î
Ï ,Ð
,
,
Ancient Chinese Tone Categories
Doubled in Cantonese
In Ancient Chinese the originally
voiced stop and affricate initial
consonants lost their voicing and
became voiceless; moreover, this
sound change caused the number of
Cantonese tone categories to double
in number.
85
Table 13. Cantonese Tone System
developed from Ancient Chinese
×
º ,» , ¿ ,À Ã ,Ä Ñ , Ò ,Ó
¼
5
Ô ,Õ ,Ö
55
25
33
½ ,¾
Á , Â Å , Æ Ø , Ù 33, Ú
Û ,Ü ,Ý
21
23
22
,
2, 22 87
86
How Many Tones in Cantonese?
Based on tone contours or tone categories,
Cantonese can have six tones or nine
tones.
If we accept that the three Rusheng tone
contours are similar to level the tone
contours of Yin Ping, Yin Qu, and Yang
Qu, then we can say Cantonese has six
tones.
If we distinguish Rusheng tone contours as
separate tones, then there are nine tones
in Cantonese as shown in Table 13.
88
Table 14. Tone Categories, Tone Letters,
and Tone Values in Hong Kong Cantonese
Distinction between High Falling
and High Level in Guangzhou
Some older, educated Guangzhou speakers may
still distinguish between High Falling [ 51] as
the default tone contour and High Level [ 55] as
the Changed Tone binjam that is used to mark
concrete nouns; for example:
[
51] ‘three’ ≠
[
55] ‘shirt’
[
51] ‘fragrant’ ≠
[
55
55]
ß
M
Þ
àß
‘mosquito coil’
89
90
15
Diacritic Symbols for
Marking Tone Categories
Diacritic symbols, i.e., accent marks called
macron, acute, grave, circumflex, and
vertical, can be positioned over vowels in
phonetic transcription of syllables to
indicate different tone categories:
1a. '
( 3. '
) 5. %
7a. (
1b. '
*
7b.
2. '
+ 4. '
, 6. '
8. .
Traditional Names of the
Cantonese Tone Categories
The Cantonese tone categories have
associated with them traditional
names as indicated in Table 14.
This table also provides verbal
descriptions of the tone contours.
91
Table 15. Traditional Names of
Cantonese Tone Categories
Category Name
92
Development of
Cantonese Ru Sheng Description
High Level
High Falling
Mid-low Falling
High Rising
Mid-low Rising
Mid Level
Mid-low Level
High Stopped
Mid Stopped
93
Mid-low Stopped
Upper Yin Ru and
Lower Yin Ru The split into Upper and Lower Yin Ru has
been conditioned by vowel length.
Tone contour of Upper Yin Ru is high and
short, while Lower Yin Ru is mid and
long.
Standard Chinese characters with short
vowels belong to Upper Yin Ru, while
those with long vowels belong to Lower
Yin Ru.
95
One aspect of the Cantonese tone system
that makes Cantonese stand out from
other southern Chinese dialects is the
development of Rusheng
.
Ru not only split into Yin Ru
and Yang
Ru
due to the loss of the
voiceless/voiced contrast of Ancient
Chinese initial consonants, but Yin Ru
also underwent a further split into Upper
Yin Ru and Lower Yin Ru
áãâ
äåá
æåá
94
Split of Yin Ru Tone Category
Conditioned by Vowel Length
1. Reading pronunciations of standard
²èç ·
Chinese characters belonging to Upper
Yin Ru
have short vowels and
High Stopped tone:
[
5]
[
5]
[
5]
[
5]
[
5]
[
5]
é
ê
^
ë
í
ì
96
16
Lower Yin Ru and Long Vowels
îèç ·
2. Reading pronunciations of standard Chinese
characters belonging to Lower Yin Ru
have long vowels and Mid Stopped tone:
[
33]
[
33]
[
33]
[
33]
[ & 33]
[ & 33]
97
ï
ð
ñ
b
û
ò
ó
õ
ù
ö
÷
ø
ú
98
Under certain conditions Cantonese tones can
change their tone values. This tone change
is called Changed Tone of which there are
two kinds:
and
.
The first kind is tonal assimilation
; it is
phonetic in origin and occurs due to the
influence of the tonal environment. Changes
in tones do not affect meanings of words.
and functions as a
The second type is
morphological device for deriving new words.
Tone changes affect meanings of words. 100
üý
üþ
üý
üþ
99
Tonal Assimilation Morphological Changed Tone First type of Changed Tone is due to tonal
assimilation. In certain bisyllabic words if
first tone is High Level, then second tone
can assimilate to High Level:
[
55
23/ 55] ‘tomorrow night’
[
55
23/ 55] ‘tonight’
[ 55
23/ 55] ‘evening’
[
55
23/ 55] ‘last one’
ÿ
ô ·
Reading pronunciations of standard Chinese
characters belonging to Yang Ru
tone
category can have both long and short
vowels:
[
2]
[
22]
[ 2]
[
22]
[
2]
[ & 22]
Changed Tone Origin of Upper and Lower
Yin Ru Tone Categories
S ren Egerod, the late Danish
sinologist, has suggested (personal
communication, 1994) that the
correspondence between Upper and
Lower Yin Ru Tone categories with
short and long vowels, respectively,
has preserved the trace of an ancient
Tai substratum in Cantonese.
Yang Ru Tone Category
and Vowel Length
101
In the second type of Changed Tone the
original tone is changed to High Rising
or High Level to indicate the word
belongs to the colloquial language.
At the same time this Changed Tone
derives a new word which usually
functions as a concrete noun or gives a
special meaning to the word to indicate it
is something familiar or common.
102
17
High Rising Changed Tone
High Level Changed Tone
Change of original tone to High Rising
derives concrete nouns with meanings
related to original Chinese
characters/morphosyllables:
[ # 22] => [ # 25] ‘bag’
[
21]
[
25] ‘string’
[
21] => [
25] ‘leather’
33] =>
25 ‘photograph’
[ta:n 22]
[ta:n 25] ‘egg’
[&
33] +
‘pretty’
[
25] => [ &
55
25]
‘son; noun suffix’ ‘young boy’
[ ! 22] +
25] => [ ! 55
[
‘younger sister’
25]
‘maidservant’
103
New meanings associated with High Level
Changed Tone 55:
[ & 33] +
[ ! 22] => [ & 55 ! 55]
[
[
[
25
% 25
% 25
23
5
23
5
25
[
104
Cantonese Changed Tone and
and in Putonghua
High Level Changed Tone
Change of original tone to High Level 55
derives new meanings:
From the point of view of comparative
Chinese dialectology, the semantic
function of the second type of
Cantonese Changed Tone can be seen
to be similar to
erhua and the
nominal suffix
zi (with neutral tone)
in Putonghua.
‘young girl’
23] =>
55] ‘little finger’
21] =>
55] ‘eyelashes’
105
Comparison of Cantonese binjam
with Putonghua erhua and zi
$
#
!
[ # 25]
[
25] =
[
55
[ / 35] ‘candies’
[ % 35] ‘leather’
25] =
[ % 55
!" [ % 51 ] ‘bag’
#"
] ‘hat’
$ " 01 35! 51 ] ‘box’
51] ‘egg’
[ # 25] =
[
25 ] =
[
25 ] =
107
106
Terminology for Studying
Chinese Tones
% & Tonal assimilation
%' Morphological tone change
')( Duration
*)& Lexical tone
',+ Pitch
',+,-,' Pitch Accent
.,',/10)2 Suprasegmental
&)3 Tone category
108
18
Terminology for Studying
Chinese Tones
&,4 Tone contour
5 â 7
& 698): Tone language
&); Tone phoneme, Toneme
&,< Tone space
&)= Tone letter
&)> Tone value
â & Tone
Phonetic Variation in
Hong Kong Cantonese
109
Up to this point the phonological
description of Cantonese has focused on
the standard pronunciation. However,
like many languages, Hong Kong
Cantonese exhibits phonetic variation;
as we will see, this phenomenon is quite
extensive in that it affects some initial
consonants, rimes, and tones.
110
Initial Consonants
Sociolinguistically-based Phonetic
Variation in Hong Kong Cantonese
A number of studies beginning in the
early 1980’s have that some phonetic
variations in Hong Kong Cantonese are
sociolinguistic in nature in that they are
correlated with such social
characteristics of the speaker as sex,
age, and educational level.
1. Labialized velar ~ / => Plain velar
~ / => /_C(C)
(C = final consonants , ):
[ # 33] ‘go across’ ~ / => [ # 33]
[ # 55] ‘bright’ ~ / => [ # 55]
[ # 25] ‘broad’ ~ / => [ # 25]
[ # 33] ‘country’ ~ / => [ # 33]
@
?
A
B
111
C
2.
3.
:
112
Initial Consonants
~ / =>
[
23] ‘you’ ~ / => [
Initial Consonants
23]
~ / =>
[
23] ‘he, she, it’ ~ / => [
23]
(only this one word shows this variation
and change)
113
Variation and change between velar
nasal initial and so-called Zero-initial.
4. ~ / =>
[ # 23] ‘I’ ~ / => [# 23]
5. ~ / =>
[# 33] ‘love’ ~ / => [ # 33]
D
E
114
19
Nasal Syllabic Consonants
Phonetic Variation in Rimes
1. Diphthongization:
% ~ / =>
[ % 55 # 33] ‘this’ ~ / => [
FG
~ / =>
[
[
23] ‘five’ ~ / => [ 23]
21] ‘surname Ng’ ~ / => [
21]
55 # 33]
2. Alveolarization of velar nasal ending:
(1)
~ / =>
[
25] ‘orange’ ~ / => [
25]
H
I
(2)
~ / =>
[
55] ‘lamp’ ~ / => [
55]
115
J
ß
N
M
O
K
117
P
Phonetic Variation in Tones
Phonetic Variation in Tones
1. Non-contrastive, free variation of two tones:
High Level 55 ~ / => High Falling 52
[
55] ‘mountain’ ~ / => [
52]
[
55] ‘three’ ~ / => [
52]
[
55] ‘shirt, dress’ ~ / => [
52]
Þ
Alveolarization and glottalization of velar stop ending:
7.
~ / =>
/ 2
[
3] ‘hundred’ ~ / => [
33 / 233]
8.
~ / =>
/ 2
[
5] ‘north’ ~ / => [
5 / 25]
9. & ~ / => & / &2
[ & 2] ‘stone, rock’ ~ / => [ &t 2 / &22]
10.
~ / =>
/ 2
[
33] ‘foot, leg’ ~ / => [
33 /
233]
11. # ~ / => # / #2
[ # 33] ‘horn’ ~ / => [ # 33 / #233]
118
L
2. Alveolarization of velar nasal ending
(continued):
(3) # ~ / => #
[ # 25] ‘broad’ ~ / => [ # 25]
(4)
~ / =>
[
55] ‘fragrant’ ~ / => [
55]
(5) & ~ / => &
[ & 55] ‘listen, hear’ ~ / => [ & 55]
M
116
[
119
2. Merger of two phonemically contrastive tones:
(1) High Rising 25 ~ / => Mid-Low Rising 23
[ % 25] ‘chair’ ~ / => [ % 23]
(2) Mid-Low Rising 23 ~ / => High Rising 25
[ji 23] ‘ear’ ~ / => [ji 25]
(3) Mid Level 33 ~ / => Mid-Low Rising 23
[ % 33] ‘idea’ ~ / => [ % 23]
[
33] ‘young’ ~ / => [
23]
Q
T
R
S
120
20
References
Lexical Variation in Tones
Tone value varies according to the lexical
context:
[ % 33] => [ % 23]
[ % 33
5 % 33] ‘give it a try’
[
25 % 23] ‘examination; take
an examination’
U
U1V)U
W,U
121
Y{
stu , v wxy{References
Y} {]~} 5cp q
5 , ^c `)hz.| . :1988.
r .
Bauer, Robert S. and Paul K. Benedict. 1997.
Modern Cantonese Phonology. Berlin:
Moutdon de Gruyter.
Bauer, Robert S., Cheung Kwan-hin, and
Cheung Pak-man. 2003. Variation and merger
of the rising tones in Hong Kong Cantonese.
Language Variation and Change 15.2:211-225.
. 1983.
,
[collected books in language knowledge,
modern Chinese phonology].
:
122
.
XZY\[
qr
]_^`acbd5 efgc^^þ,h
ikj lcmncocp
References
Pullum, Geoffrey K. and William A. Ladusaw.
1996. Phonetic Symbol Guide. Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press.
Trask, R.L. 1996. A Dictionary of Phonetics
and Phonology. London: Routledge.
Ladefoged, Peter. 2001. A Course in
Phonetics. Forth Worth. Harcourt College
Publishers.
Lieberman, Philip and Sheila E. Blumstein.
1988. Speech Physiology, Speech
Perception, and Acoustic Phonetics.
Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press.
123
124
21