Pu-Xian Min - Characteristics of Language

Characteristics of Language

Puxian has 15 consonants, including the zero onset, the same as most other Min varieties. Puxian has a lateral fricative instead of the in other Min varieties.

Puxian has 40 finals and 6 phonemic tones.

Puxian differs from most Min Nan varieties in several ways:

1. The vowel 'a' is replaced by /ɒ/ (o̤) in most cases, e.g. 腳 ko̤ "leg".

2. The vowel 'ư' /ɯ/ is replaced by /y/ ('ü'), e.g. 魚 hṳ "fish".

3. In Putian 'ng' has changed to /uŋ/ except after zero initial and h- (notation: ng), e.g. 湯 tung "soup".

4. The vowel /e/ is often replaced by /ɒ/ o̤, e.g. 馬 bo̤ "horse".

5. Where Quanzhou has 'ĩ' and Zhangzhou has 'ẽ', the corresponding Putian vowel is 'ã', e.g. 病 baⁿ "sick", where ⁿ indicates a nasalized vowel.

6. The vowel 'io' is replaced by 'iau' (notation: a̤u), e.g. 笑 ciao "laugh". This also holds for nasalized vowels, e.g. 張 da̤uⁿ corresponding to Quanzhou tioⁿ.

7. Nasals 'm' sometimes occur in place of voiced stops 'b', e.g. 夢 mang vs. Quanzhou bang.

8. Initial consonant 'ng' replaces 'g' e.g. 五 'ngo' vs. Quanzhou 'go'.

9. There is a loss of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, e.g. the sounds /b/ and /p/ both correspond to the same phoneme and occur in free variation.