Nitasakorn Shiwaruangrote. A phonological description of Jieyang Hakka dialect as spoken in Thailand. Doctoral Degree(Linguistics). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2008.
A phonological description of Jieyang Hakka dialect as spoken in Thailand
Abstract:
The objective of this thesis is to present the phonological system of Jiēyáng
Hakka as spoken in Thailand in a Tagmemic theory within the organization of the
phoneme, the syllable, and the phonological word, with special focus on tone and tone
sandhi.
The results of the study have revealed that the phonemic system in Jiēyáng
Hakka comprises 18 consonants /p, ph, t, th, k, kh, ʔ, ts, tsh, f, v, s, h, m, n, ŋ, j, l/;
six simple vowels /i, ɛ, a, ɨ, u, ɔ/; 11 diphthongs /iu, ui, iɔ, ɔi, ia, ai, uɛ, ɛu, uɔ, ua,
au/; three triphthongs /iau, uai, iui/; and seven tones. The structure of the syllable is
Ci (G1) V (G2/Cf) accompanied by a tone or simply a syllabic consonant accompanied
by a tone. Simple, complex, and compound words are all found in Jiēyáng Hakka. The
simple word comprises monosyllabic and disyllabic words. Almost all simple words
are monosyllables, while disyllables are very few. There are both bound and free
morphemes. Bound morphemes which function as prefixes and suffixes are limited
in number but are used diversely. Standard word order is modifier plus head or
premodifier. However, the order of head plus modifier or postmodifier is also found
in the language.
Both segmental and suprasegmental assimilations are found. Segmental
assimilations are progressive, while suprasegmental assimilations or tone sandhi are
regressive. Two types of tone sandhi are observed as follows: assimilative tone sandhi
and positional variant tone sandhi.
Assimilative tone sandhi is regressive. In two-syllable compounding, the 49
possible or potential combinations of citation tones are reduced to 40 combinations of
sandhi tones. The missing nine combinations result from tonal neutralization. In
three-syllable compounding, there are cases in which the same sequence of citation
tones results in different sandhi tone patterns depending on whether or not the
construction is monosyllable plus two-syllable compound, or two-syllable compound
plus monosyllable. The numbers of citation tones that undergo positional variant tone
sandhi are fewer than those which undergo the assimilative type. It is also evident that
one citation tone could also have more than one sandhi tone.
The study has found that morphological word boundary and grammatical
environments can block the effects of tone sandhi