Phonological modification through bilingual speakers: the case of word-tone system in coastal Chinese topolects

Abstract

According to the domain-based classification of tone systems (Ding 2009), the syllable-tone system takes the syllable as the basic tonal domain, while the word-tone system operates on the word domain. Such kinds of tone systems are found not only in West Africa, but also in China. A number of Wu and Min topolects can be regarded as having a word-tone, rather than, syllable-tone system, witnessing the frequent tone change when a word extends from monosyllable in these languages. The present study aims to explain the emergence of word-tone system on the east coast of China, looking at Shanghainese and Amoy in particular. Research on tonogenesis shows that both syllable-tone and word-tone may arise from certain phonation conditions (Mazaudon 1997; Thurgood 2002). Nonetheless, no instance has been reported on historical change of the system converting from syllable-tone to word-tone, or vice versa. This suggests that the two types of tone system do not represent phases of evolution and they do not interchange. It is hypothesized that the autochthonous languages of south China, their speakers known vaguely as Bái Yuè of the ancient time, must play a crucial role in developing the word-tone systems in Wu and Min, as the syllable-tone in Old Chinese cannot undergo language-internal change and give rise to the word-tone in the coastal Sinitic languages in the east. Transitional bilingualism and ultimate language shift by some of the aboriginal non-Sinitic speakers must have taken place in coastal China. Consequently, the new type of tone system arises after the original tonal system of Old Chinese is modified under the substrate influence. Transitional bilingualism and language shift across two generations is part of the linguistic landscape in modern Hong Kong. Linguistic observation on contemporary Hong Kong may shed some light on the effect of historical language contact through bilingual speakers in coastal China.