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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 400 698 FL 024 178 AUTHOR Eatough, Andy TITLE Meigu County Yi Tone. PUB DATE 96 NOTE 5p.; In: Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Volume 40; see FL 024 174. PUB TYPE Evaluative/Feasibility (142) Reports EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Chinese; Foreign Countries; *Language Patterns; Language Research; Linguistic Theory; Morphology (Languages); Nouns; Phonology; *Regional Dialects; *Tone Languages; Uncommonly Taught Languages IDENTIFIERS China ABSTRACT One dialect of Yi spoken in Meigu County in the southern part of China's Sichuan Province is analyzed for its tone patterns, based on data provided by a bilingual native speaker. Consonant and vowel inventories are provided. Three contrastive tones are found. One has three allophones, which are conditioned by the preceding tone. Tonal allophony is illustrated in one data set. Some tonal allomorphy is also found; in a second data set, a rule applying to nominal compounds and affecting the tone of the first noun root is illustrated. A third data set illustrates another rule that applies in number + classifier compounds and affects the tone of the classifier. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** OF EDUCATION A U.S. DEPARTMENT PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Research and Improvement . 1 Office of Educational INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERIC) HAS BEEN GRANTED BY reproduced as ciahis document has been or organization received from the person originating it. been made to Minor changes have quality. Meigu County Yi Tone 2v-c.\ improve reproduction in this opinions stated Points of view or TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES necessarily represent document do not Andy Eatough or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position Meigu County,' in the southern part of China's Sichuan Province, is primarily inhabited by people who are known in Chinese as Yi [ji35] or Yizu [ji35tsu35], and in their own language as Nosu [no33su33]. The dialects of the Yi are Tibeto-Burman, and belong to the Loloish subgroup of Lolo-Burmese. Those Loloish dialects which are spoken by people officially considered to be Yi are usually divided into 6 major dialect groupings. The northernmost of these 6 groupings is called Northern Yi or Liangshan Yi. The speech variety of Meigu County is classified as part of the zi33no31 dialect of Liangshan Yi. The data was collected by the author in 1995 and 1996, primarily from a bilingual speaker in She her 20s who grew up near the town of Bapu, the seat of government for Meigu County. speaks Yi with some of her friends and with family members, some of whom are monolingual in Yi. A male speaker in his 20s from Bapu was also consulted. The syllable structure is (C)V. The consonant and vowel inventories are given in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively. There are three contrastive tones. One of these has three allophones, which are conditioned by the preceding tone. Tonal allophony is illustrated in the first data set. There is also some tonal allomorphy. The second data set illustrates a rule which applies to The third data set illustrates nominal compounds and affects the tone of the first noun root. another rule which applies in number + classifier compounds and affects the tone of the classifier.2 Andy Eatough 610 Palacia Ct. Turlock, CA 95380 Meigu County is in Liangshan Prefecture, and is one of the most inaccessible and traditional of the counties in Liangshan. More than 96% of the county's population is Yi, according to official statistics. The County did not exist before liberation, since during the Republic of China period the only ethnic Chinese in the area were slaves of the Yi. Naturally, use of the Yi language is very vigorous among all ages in the Yi villages of the county, especially outside of the county seat, the town of Bapu. 2 Cross-dialectic comparison suggests that this rule may have a wider application than just number plus classifier compounds. Most nominal compounds which, based on cross-dialectic comparison, would be expected to have the tones 31 + 45, have 31 + 31, e.g. po31si31 eye, rather than the expected pou s 05. 107 1996 Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session Volume 40, 107-110 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Andy Eatough 108 Meigu County Yi Tone (Sichuan, China) Figure 1 glottal velar flat palatalized alveolar labial post-alveolar post-alveolar k t p vl. stops k" h th vl. asp. stops P g d b vd. stops nd mb D9 prenasalized stops tc tS vl. affricates te th tSh vl. asp. affricates dz dz, dz vd. affricates ndz, ndz ndz prenasal. affricates h x f s 9 vl. fricatives y v Z Z 4. vd. fricatives m n 0 vd. nasals .11 n vl. nasals 11 DI vd. lateral 1 vl. lateral 1 Figure 2 pharyngealized advanced tongue root u E unrounded open-mid central vowels e e unrounded mid front vowels i i unrounded close near-front vowels 0 o mid back vowels with compression rounding u u close near-back vowels with compression rounding 109 Meigu County Yi Tone Set 1 one tree si33 tshi31bo" 1. si"pebo" two trees 2. three trees si33 so"bo" 3. four trees si" 1i33bo" 4. si" ne"bo" five trees 5. six trees si" fu45bo44 6. si" seven trees 7. eight trees si33 he45bo44 8. si" bo" a tree 9. he" mu" a mouse 10. one mouse he33 rshi31mu" 11. two mice he33.pe31mu" 12. three mice he33 so33me33 13. four mice he33 1i33mE33 14. five mice he" gE33rne" 15. six mice he33 fu45mE44 16. seven mice he33 17. Where are you coming from? 1e33 ne33 18. 33.u3' I'm coming from home. rye" ie" ko" to" 1v33 19. I'm coming from eating. nu33 dze" dzi" tE33 1133 20. He's not coming anymore. tshi33 u311E" o33 21. 33e ko" bo" Where are you going? ne" 22. I'm going home. 13E33 le" ko33 bo33 23. It is. 24. 13E33 erg" It isn't 25. 4 Andy Eatough 110 Set 2 sweet buckwheat gp31tchi" buckwheat 139E33 1: ogeno" bitter buckwheat uge33 buckwheat 2. earthworm bu31de" bug bu33 3. male horse mu31pv3' horse mu33 4. mouth khu31phe mouth khu" 5. jo31 me ewe sheep jo33 6. jo31zti1 lamb sheep jo33 7. male musk deer musk deer 1e311)1411 8. 1u33 female musk deer' 1u3'me musk deer 9. 1E33 buckwheat bread gge33fu33 buckwheat ggu33 10. chicken egg vo33tche3' chicken vo33 11. sand mu33 0" earth mu33 12. Set 3 one (drop) tshi31tho31 1. two (drops) 3te31tho31 2. three (drops) 3. so33th045 four (drops) 4. 1i33tho45 five (drops) ov"t1io45 5. fu45.0045 six (drops) 6. seven (drops) 7. gi31tho31 eight (drops) he45tho45 8. nine (drops) gu33tho45 9. not good 10. u31ve45 fire mu31tu45 11. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IC Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OEM Educational Resources information Center (ERIC) NOTICE REPRODUCTION BASIS This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release (Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing all or classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore, does not require a "Specific Document" Release form. This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission to reproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, may be reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Release form (either "Specific Document" or "Blanket"). (9/92)