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Article In:
International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 11:2 (2024) ► pp.151–168

Towards a reconstruction of Proto-Coastal Min voiced coronal affricate and fricative initials

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In this paper, we compare the corresponding sets across the Coastal Min dialects and reconstruct three voiced coronal initials, namely, *dʒ-, dʒh- and *ð-, for Proto-Coastal Min. The main reason of reconstructing voiced initials is that the Eastern Min varieties have undergone fricativization of some earlier affricates, which only occur in the yang tonal register. The development of these initials in modern languages is also discussed. It is found that while the Pu-Xian dialects share some similar features with Eastern Min regarding the initials under discussion, there is no strong reason to assume that they are genetically closer within the Coastal Min family.
Keywords: proto-coastal min, reconstruction, affricate, fricative, voiced initial
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.About Proto-Coastal Min, Proto-Eastern Min and Proto-Southern Min
  • 3.Sound correspondences across the modern dialects
    • 3.1Corresponding set 1 (PEM *tʃ- : PSM *ts-)
    • 3.2Corresponding set 2 (PEM *θ- : PSM *ts-)
    • 3.3Corresponding set 3 (PEM *tʃh- : PSM *tsh-)
    • 3.4Corresponding set 4 (PEM *θ- : PSM *s-)
    • 3.5Corresponding set 5 (PEM *θ- : PSM *tsh-)
  • 4.Towards the reconstructions
    • 4.1The necessity of reconstruction voiced obstruents for Proto-Coastal Min
    • 4.2Corresponding set 1 in the yang tonal register: ‘spurious proto-phonemes’
    • 4.3The reconstruction of Proto-Coastal Min *dʒ- and *dʒh-
    • 4.4The reconstruction of Proto-Coastal Min *ð-
    • 4.5From Proto-Coastal Min to modern dialects
  • 5.Resolving the ‘Pu-Xian paradox’
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
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