Morpho-phonology of the Nominal Suffix in Taiwan Hakka Dialects

1. Morpho-phonology of the Nominal Suffix in Taiwan Hakka Dialects Michael M. Opper Phondi Talk 10/15/2010

2. Objectives • Talk about the phonological fundamentals of four Taiwan Hakka dialects • Compare the Nominal Suffix NS in Taiwan Hakka dialects with a particular emphasis on Guanxi Sixian

3. Hakka Dialects and Chinese • Hakka is one of seven Chinese languages • Spoken primarily in Northern Guangdong and Western Fujian • Roughly three million speakers in Taiwan; fifty million worldwide

4. Some Features of Hakka Dialects • All Hakka dialects have a nominalizing suffix. It is cognate to SC 兒 and has been commonly written with the “dummy character” 仔 • Lack [y] • Lack yángshǎng陽上; only one shǎng tone • Register distinction in píng and rù; sometimes qù • Words with sonorant initials in higher registers • Unique words for son ‘lai6’ and mother ‘oi1’

5. Taiwan Hakka Dialects • Sixian spoken by roughly 50% of Taiwan Hakka • Hailu spoken by more than 20% • Raoping spoken by less than 20% • Others spoken by less than 10%

6. Dialects Surveyed • Zhutian Sixian • Guanxi Sixian • Xinzhu Raoping • Yangmei Hailu

7. Taiwan Hakka Phonology • C(G)VX structure for heavy syllables • CV structure for light syllables (the NS) • Rimes (Finals) V:- {a, e, i, o, u, ɨ} VX- V {e, o, a}, X {i, u, p, t, k, m, n, ŋ} • Dialects differ mainly in Onsets (Initials) and Tonemes

8. Zhutian Sixian Onsets

9. Zhutian Sixian Tones

10. Guanxi Sixian Onsets

11. Guanxi Sixian Tones

12. Xinzhu Raoping Onsets

13. Xinzhu Raoping Tones

14. Yangmei Hailu Onsets

15. Yangmei Hailu Tones

16. The Nominal Suffix NS • Heavy syllables: CVX, Light syllables (such as the NS): CV • CVXCV will either have an unparsed syllable (CVX)CV or an ill-formed foot (CVX)(CV). • The NS cannot be a prosodic word, it affixes to a phonological word to avoid foot-based requirements • Requires an onset

17. The Nominal Suffix NS • Always e² in Zhutian Sixian (Common Sixian suffix) *** add examples • ɤ in Xinzhu Raoping and Yangmei Hailu, becomes a syllabic nasal following nasals with the same place of articulation *** add examples • Underlying /l/ in Guanxi Sixian

18. Guanxi Sixian NS ***switch bracket types Root+{suff1, suff2} Identified the problem, not solved it!! Do not emphasize OT analysis, cop out!

19. Guanxi Sixian NS • Four surface forms: the syllabic lateral [l̩], the syllabic dental nasal [n̩], the syllabic velar nasal [ŋ̍] and the mid-high back unrounded vowel [ɤ]. • I hypothesize that the underlying form is /l/, only surfaces unchanged in a specific environment: after [aː]: e.g. /tsʰaː+l/  [tsʰaː.l̩]

20. Guanxi Sixian NS • Vowel final roots show a remarkable amount of free variation. • Spreading of the non-low vowels: e.g. /tjao-l/  [tjao.wl̩] and /koi-l/  [koi.jl̩]. • In some forms, the /l/ becomes [ŋ̍]: e.g. /pʰi.jŋ̍/. • the /l/ becomes the back vowel [ɤ]: e.g. /pwoi.jɤ/ • Since /a/ has no glide counterpart, there is a ban on epenthesis, and there is a strict adherence to right-alignment of roots with syllables, [tsʰaː.l̩] is the only option.

21. Gemination • There is a strong pressure for every syllable to have an onset. • There is also a strong pressure for the rightmost segment of every root to be aligned with the right edge of a syllable.

22. Constraints for Geminates

23. Constraints for hap.pl (con’t)

24. Constraint Variation for Nasals

25. Explain that these variants occur because of confusion from the dialects