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.
Read more about this topic: Pu-Xian Min
Famous quotes containing the words characteristics of and/or language:
“Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose.”
—J.S. Habgood (b. 1927)
“Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)