Features
Phonologically speaking, Hui is noted for its massive loss of codas, including -i, -u, and nasals:
| Character | Meaning | Hui of Tunxi | Wu of Shanghai | Huai(Jianghuai) of Hefei | Mandarin of Beijing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 燒 | burn | /ɕiɔ/ | /sɔ/ | /ʂɔ/ | /ʂɑu/ |
| 柴 | firewood | /sa/ | /za/ | /tʂʰɛ/ | /tʂʰai/ |
| 綫 | line | /siːɛ/ | /ɕi/ | /ɕĩ/ | /ɕiɛn/ |
| 張 | sheet | /tɕiau/ | /tsɑ̃/ | /tʂɑ̃/ | /tʂɑŋ/ |
| 網 | web | /mau/ | /mɑ̃/ | /wɑ̃/ | /wɑŋ/ |
| 檻 | threshold | /kʰɔ/ | /kʰɛ/ | /kʰã/ | /kʰan/ |
Many dialects of Hui have diphthongs with a higher, lengthened first part. For example, 話 ("speech") is /uːɜ/ in Xiuning County (Putonghua /xuɑ/), 園 ("yard") is /yːɛ/ in Xiuning County (Putonghua /yɛn/); 結 ("knot") is /tɕiːaʔ/ in Yi County (Putonghua /tɕiɛ/), 約 ("agreement") is /iːuʔ/ in Yi County (Putonghua /yɛ/). A few areas take this to extremes. For example, Likou in Qimen County has /fũːmɛ̃/ for 飯 ("rice") (Putonghua /fan/), with the /m/ appearing directly as a result of the lengthened, nasalized /ũː/.
Because nasal codas have mostly dropped off, Hui reuses the /-n/ ending as a diminutive. For example, in the Tunxi dialect, there is 索 ("rope") /soːn/ < /soʔ/ + /-n/.
Read more about this topic: Huizhou Chinese
Famous quotes containing the word features:
““It looks as if
Some pallid thing had squashed its features flat
And its eyes shut with overeagerness
To see what people found so interesting
In one another, and had gone to sleep
Of its own stupid lack of understanding,
Or broken its white neck of mushroom stuff
Short off, and died against the windowpane.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“However much we may differ in the choice of the measures which should guide the administration of the government, there can be but little doubt in the minds of those who are really friendly to the republican features of our system that one of its most important securities consists in the separation of the legislative and executive powers at the same time that each is acknowledged to be supreme, in the will of the people constitutionally expressed.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“These, then, will be some of the features of democracy ... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, particolored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)