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 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:

    ... feminism is the attempt of women to grow up, to accept the responsibilities of life, to outgrow those characteristics of childhood—selfishness and unworldliness—that we require our boys to outgrow, but that we permit and by our social system encourage our girls to retain.
    Henrietta Rodman (1878–?)

    This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
    Look at it talking to you.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)