Abstract
This article considers how meaningful social differences are conveyed through the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese. The research presented in this article provides a sociolinguistic account of the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese, and specifically illustrates how social meanings of initials and finals are variable, and do not only subsume explanations that derive from internal linguistic constraint categories. This study employed an eclectic and multidimensional sociolinguistic approach that combines sociolinguistic survey methods, social network theory and constructionist approaches, with a view to accounting for the dynamics underlying initial and final segment variation in Macau Cantonese. Results of this study indicate that social constraints such as conversation topic, the affective relations between interlocutors, and other social factors such as gender and social class possibly impinge on the distribution and use of initials and finals in Macau Cantonese.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Transcription key (adapted from Du Bois (1991))
- :
Speaker turn
- [ ]
Speech overlap
- .
Final
- ?
Appeal
- \
Falling tone
- /
Rising tone
- ^
Primary accent/stress
- `
Secondary accent/stress
- =
Lengthening
- …(N)
Long pause
- …
Medium pause
- ..
Short pause
- (0)
Latching
- ( )
Linguistic variables
- (H)
Audible inhalation
- @
Laughter
- <Q Q>
Quotation quality
- / /
Phonetic transcription
- <X X>
Uncertain hearing
- 1–9
Tones
Appendix 2: Words elicited in the survey interviews
Part A: Initials
[kw-] vs. [k-]
瓜 gwa1 ‘melon’
龜 gwai1 ‘tortoise’
裙 kwan4 ‘skirt’
[ŋ-] vs. [ʔ-]
牛 ngau4 ‘cow’
鴨 ngaap3 ‘duck’
我 ngo5 ‘me/I’
[ts-] vs [t∫-]
鳥 jeuk3 ‘bird’
豬 jyu1 ‘pig’
春 cheun1 ‘Spring’
[n-] vs. [l-]
南 naam4 ‘South’
泥 nai4 ‘mud’
女 neui5 ‘woman’
暖 nyun5 ‘warm’
Part B: Finals
[-m] vs. [-n]
南 naam4 ‘South’
三 saam1 ‘three’
心 sam1 ‘heart’
甜 tim4 ‘sweet’
[-p] vs. [-t]
濕 sap1 ‘wet’
鴨 ngaap3 ‘duck’
十 sap6 ‘ten’
葉 yip6 ‘leaf’
[-ŋ] vs. [-n]
靚 leng3 ‘beautiful’
蝇 ying1 ‘fly’
兩 leung5 ‘two’
[-k] vs. [-t]
百 baak3 ‘hundred’
屋 uk1 ‘house’
捉 juk1 ‘catch’
鳥 jeuk3 ‘bird’
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Language research and language community change: Italian Sign Language 1981–2013
- UK university students’ folk perceptions of spoken variation in English: the role of explicit and implicit attitudes
- Speaking or being Chinese: the case of South African-born Chinese
- Predictors of immigrants’ second-language proficiency: a Dutch study of immigrants with a low level of societal participation and second-language proficiency
- Second language development in a migrant context: Turkish community in the Netherlands
- The linguistic and political orientation of young Belarusian adults between East and West or Russian and Belarusian
- Studying sustainable bilingualism: comparing the choices of languages in Hungary’s six bilingual national minorities
- The language of power: a content analysis of presidential addresses in North America and the Former Soviet Union, 1993–2012
- Variation in Macau Cantonese: the case of initial and final segments
- Perceptions about being Japanese and Christian in Canada
- Language attrition, language contact and the concept of relic variety: the case of Barossa German
- Language competition: an economic theory of language learning and production
- Book Review
- Nancy C. Dorian: Small-language fates and prospects. Lessons of persistence and change from endangered languages
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Language research and language community change: Italian Sign Language 1981–2013
- UK university students’ folk perceptions of spoken variation in English: the role of explicit and implicit attitudes
- Speaking or being Chinese: the case of South African-born Chinese
- Predictors of immigrants’ second-language proficiency: a Dutch study of immigrants with a low level of societal participation and second-language proficiency
- Second language development in a migrant context: Turkish community in the Netherlands
- The linguistic and political orientation of young Belarusian adults between East and West or Russian and Belarusian
- Studying sustainable bilingualism: comparing the choices of languages in Hungary’s six bilingual national minorities
- The language of power: a content analysis of presidential addresses in North America and the Former Soviet Union, 1993–2012
- Variation in Macau Cantonese: the case of initial and final segments
- Perceptions about being Japanese and Christian in Canada
- Language attrition, language contact and the concept of relic variety: the case of Barossa German
- Language competition: an economic theory of language learning and production
- Book Review
- Nancy C. Dorian: Small-language fates and prospects. Lessons of persistence and change from endangered languages