Presentation
Why study Cantonese vowel variation?
The 27th International Conference on Yue Dialects
(2023)
Abstract
Studies of variation and change in Guangfu (or Standard) Cantonese have long focused on consonantal mergers such as /n/ > /l/ or the loss of the initial velar nasal. In recent years, several tonal mergers have also been documented and described. What has generally been lacking, however, are studies of vowels. In contrast, variationist studies of English dialects have long focused on vowels and have included discussion of chain shifts, mergers, and splits and their decreased level of speaker awareness compared to consonantal variation. English has also been described as having a typologically large vowel system. Yet, Cantonese also has a typologically large vowel inventory with 11 (or 12) phonetically distinct monophthongs and 10 phonetically distinct diphthongs. Is the lack of research on Cantonese vowel variation due to the stability of the vowel system or have vowels simply escaped the radar of Cantonese sociolinguistics research because of low levels of conscious awareness? In this talk, I will show that the vowel system is far from being a stable one. To support this position, I will highlight both published studies and ongoing research addressing variation and change in Cantonese vowels. This will include studies based on data from the Heritage Language Variation and Change in Toronto Project (Nagy, 2011). The data from this project includes sociolinguistic interviews (spontaneous speech recordings) from both Toronto and Hong Kong Cantonese speakers. The discussion will place special focus on the -ik/-ing, -uk/-ung and -am/-ap rime groups. I will show how the first two sets are involved with vowel chain shifts while the third group is involved with an ongoing merger that has previously been described as completed. Ultimately, I will argue that recognition of a system in flux can illuminate issues that have been controversial in phonological descriptions of Cantonese. Furthermore, addressing the sociolinguistic patterning and the social meaning tied to these variable vowel production patterns can open up many new opportunities for research.
Keywords
- Chinese - Yue,
- sociophonetics,
- language variation and change,
- vowel chain shifts,
- variationist sociolinguistics
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 2, 2023
Location
Online
Citation Information
Tse, Holman (2023) Why study Cantonese vowel variation?, Keynote presentation at the 27th International Conference on Yue Dialects (Yue 27), Online conference hosted by the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.