Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology

This book discusses the methodology of systematic Chinese Dialect classification, with particular attention to the conservative Miin and Hakka groups spoken in southern China. The primary linguistic methodology employed is the historical-comparative method, and the dialects chosen as examples of classification are those spoken in and around the township of Wann'an in western Fukien's Longyan country.

The book features extensive comparative tables of dialect forms, and a two-hundred page appendix outlining the diasystem of the four principal Wann'an dialects.

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TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

Contenu

1. The ideas of Chinese dialect classification1.1. Introduction1.2. Dialects and the Chinese idea of dialect1.3. Goals and methods in classification and comparison1.4. The primacy of data and the cultivation of data1.5. Reconstruction1.6. Under-description and the need for correspondence sets1.7. Rigor in classification - reinventing the wheel1.8. Bundling of features1.9. Beentzhyh and meaningful elicitation1.10. To recapitulate 2. Wann'an and the problem of this study2.1. Wann'an township2.2. The meaning of the names "Hakka" and "Miin"2.3. The settlement of Wann'an, its geography, and local trades2.4. Major sites2.5. Markets and roads2.6. The problem of this study: Norman's diagnostic rules2.7. Common Miin initial-types2.8. The "Shawwuu Hypothesis" 3. Wann'an's affiliation and the cohesiveness of diagnostic features3.1. The Hakka test3.2. Comparative Wann'an tones3.3. The Miin test3.4. Is Norman's Hakka criterion an artifact of his sources?3.5. Evidence from rural Liancherng3.6. Hakka in general3.7. Conclusions and prospects for further research on Hakka 4. The character of Wann'an dialects4.1. Other features of Miin4.2. The classification of Wann'an within Miin4.3. Subclassification within Coastal Miin4.4. Conclusion 5. Wann'an evidence about Common Miin5.1. A fourth nasal initial correspondence5.2. Rogue nasalization and evidence of voiceless nasals5.3. The shaang tone glottal stop in Miin5.4. Addendum: chiuhsheng lengthening? 6. Conclusion: The place of Miin in the greater history of Chinese6.1. Introduction6.2. The question of the history of spoken Chinese6.3. Chinese linguistic macro-history6.4. The tonal proto-system of Miin6.5. A digression on the relative date of tone splitting6.6. Miin as a relic of Chinese before massive palatalization6.7. Conclusion and hopes for the future