Goulou Yue Explained

Goulou
Nativename: Ngaulau Yut
States:Southern China
Region:Guangxi - Guangdong border
Speakers:6.9 million
Date:1998
Ref:[1]
Familycolor:Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:Sinitic
Fam3:Chinese
Fam4:Yue
Iso3:none
Iso6:gulu
Glotto:none
Glotto2:guin1237
Glottoname2:Goulou
Lingua:79-AAA-me
Map:Ping and Yue dialect map.svg

Goulou is one of the principal groups of Yue dialects. It is spoken around the GuangxiGuangdong border, and includes the dialects of Yulin and Bobai.

Dialects

Yulin dialect is representative, though Bobai is better known.

Phonology

Initials

!Labial!Alveolar!Palatal!Velar!Glottal
Stop/
Affricate
voicelesspronounced as /p/pronounced as /t/pronounced as /tʃ/pronounced as /k/(pronounced as /ʔ/)
aspiratedpronounced as /pʰ/pronounced as /tʰ/pronounced as /tʃʰ/pronounced as /kʰ/
implosivepronounced as /ɓ/pronounced as /ɗ/
Nasalpronounced as /m/pronounced as /n/pronounced as /ɲ/pronounced as /ŋ/
Fricativevoicelesspronounced as /f/pronounced as /ʃ/pronounced as /h/
voicedpronounced as /v/
lateralpronounced as /ɬ/
Approximantvoicedpronounced as /l/pronounced as /j/
labialpronounced as /ɥ/pronounced as /w/

Finals

! colspan="2"
FrontCentralBack
unroundedrounded
Closepronounced as /i/pronounced as /y/pronounced as /u/
Close-midpronounced as /e/pronounced as /ø/pronounced as /o/
Open-midpronounced as /ɛ/pronounced as /œ/pronounced as /ɔ/
Near-openpronounced as /ɐ/
Openpronounced as /a/
! colspan="3"
OralNasalStop
Medialcodaiyumnŋptk
NucleusVowelpronounced as /a/pronounced as /ai/pronounced as /au/pronounced as /am/pronounced as /an/pronounced as /aŋ/pronounced as /ap/pronounced as /at/pronounced as /ak/
pronounced as /wa/pronounced as /wai/pronounced as /wan/pronounced as /wat/
pronounced as /ɐi/pronounced as /ɐu/pronounced as /ɐm/pronounced as /ɐn/pronounced as /ɐŋ/pronounced as /ɐp/pronounced as /ɐt/pronounced as /ɐk/
pronounced as /wɐi/pronounced as /wɐn/pronounced as /wɐt/
pronounced as /i/(pronounced as /ɛ/)pronounced as /iɛu/pronounced as /iɛm/pronounced as /iɛŋ/pronounced as /iɛp/pronounced as /iɛk/
(pronounced as /ei/)pronounced as /eŋ/pronounced as /ek/
pronounced as /wek/
pronounced as /i/pronounced as /iu/pronounced as /im/pronounced as /in/pronounced as /ip/pronounced as /it/
pronounced as /œ/
pronounced as /øy/
pronounced as /y/
pronounced as /ɔ/pronounced as /ɔi/pronounced as /ɔm/pronounced as /ɔn/pronounced as /ɔŋ/pronounced as /ɔp/pronounced as /ɔt/pronounced as /ɔk/
pronounced as /ou/pronounced as /oŋ/pronounced as /ok/
pronounced as /u/pronounced as /ui/pronounced as /un/pronounced as /ut/

Tone

Bobai dialect is widely cited as having the most tones of any variety of Chinese, though it actually only has six, the same as most Yue dialects. The reason for the claim is that Bobai makes a four-way tonal distinction in checked syllables, whereas most other Yue dialects have three. In Yulin dialect just to the north of Bobai, however, neither entering tone is split: there are just two entering tones, 7 and 8. Lee (1993) believes that Bobai is innovative in having split 8, whereas Yulin (along with several neighboring interior Yue dialects) is innovative in having merged a former split in 7: proto-Yue probably had 7a, 7b, and 8.

Many Yue varieties exhibit a "changed tone" with some semantic content. Such tones occur in the Yulin dialect, in checked syllables only, marking diminutives. In such cases, the final stop -p, -t or -k is changed to a homorganic nasal -m, -n or -ŋ, respectively, and the pitch contour is also altered. This seems to be a trace of a now-lost suffix similar to ér (兒, Middle Chinese nye) in other Chinese varieties.[2]

References

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Olson, An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China
  2. Tan . Yutian . The origin and nature of high rising diminutive Tone Change in Siyi Dialect . 190–207 . https://naccl.osu.edu/sites/naccl.osu.edu/files/NACCL-23_2_14.pdf . Proceedings of the 23rd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-23), Volume 2 . Zhuo . Jing-Schmidt . 2011 .