Synchronic evidence for historical hypothesis, vietnamese palatals

SYNCHRONIC EVIDENCE FOR HISTORICAL HYPOTHESIS – VIETNAMESE PALATALS  Andʃea Hòa Phạm University of Florida Researchers report that synchronic and diachronic changes parallel each other in various languages For example, labialized velars in Indo-European become labials in Classical Greek, labialized velars in Proto-Bantu become labials in West Teke, and labialized velars in Proto-Zapotec become labials in Isthmus Zapotec (Ohala 1992) The final palatal and alveolar consonants in various dialects of Vietnamese are another interesting case of the diachronic-synchronic relationship in sound change and of sound change in pʃogʃess since we can document the Pʃoto Việt-M ng palatals and alveolaʃs aʃe gradually being lost in the coda position as they merge with velars In the literature on Vietnamese linguistics palatals are said to be allophones of velars in Northern dialects, based on various synchronic evidence, such as patterns in reduplication, symmetrical distribution of final consonants, and mutual phonetic effects between the vowel and final consonant However, new evidence shows the gradual loss of palatals and alveolars in various dialects of Vietnamese Data from under-examined dialects not only further support the hypothesis that palatals once occurred distinctively in Vietnamese but also pʃovide the ‘missing link’ in synchʃonic accounts that argues for palatals being allophones of velars Noʃtheʃn Vietnamese dialects, ʃegaʃded as standaʃd, include the speech of the Hà N i city and eight surrounding provinces in the Red River Delta (Map 1)  Paper given at the 39th annual conference of the Linguistic Association of Canada and United States, York University, Toronto, August – 11, 2012, to appear in LACUS, Vol 39 I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, and to William Sullivan and Marc Brunelle for useful comments My gratitude also goes to the consultants in my 2012 field trip in Vietnam Any shortcomings are mine Map Regions of Vietnam (source: Wikimedia Commons) Phonetically, northern dialects have five places of articulation in the final position: labial, (apico-) alveolar, palatal, labio-velar, and plain velar Labio-velars occur after back rounded vowels and are in complementary distribution with plain velars Palatals occur only after [i], [e], and [a],1 and are in complementary distribution with velars, except after [a] palatals contrast with velars Moreover, neither palatals nor velars follow the shoʃt vowel [ ] This situation cʃeates two asymmetʃical distʃibutions shown in Table 1: i) although palatals occuʃ afteʃ /i/ and /e/, they not occuʃ afteʃ [ ], and ii) [a] is the only vowel that occurs before both palatals and velars i e a c, ɲ + + + k, ŋ + Table Distribution of final palatals after vowels in Northern dialects In this paper when the phonemic status of a sound is not yet clear, its IPA symbol has brackets around until after its phonemic status is discussed Examples are phonetically transcribed and placed in the brackets Tones are omitted Examples are given in (1) (1) lính chênh anh măng [liɲ] [ceɲ] [ʔaɲ] [maŋ] ‘soldieʃ’ ‘tilted/diffeʃent’ ‘eldeʃ bʃotheʃ’ ‘bamboo shoot’ In 1967, Thompson published an article on the history of Vietnamese palatals Based on compaʃisons of Vietnamese with the M ng language, the closest sisteʃ of Vietnamese in the Việt-M ng subfamily, and of dialects spoken in North Vietnam (the Red River Delta) with those spoken in South Vietnam (Southeast and Mekong River Delta), he suggested that the oʃiginal palatals fʃom the Pʃoto Việt-M ng weʃe pʃeseʃved in many M ng dialects, but in Vietnamese only afteʃ /i/, /e/, and /a/ Elsewhere palatals developed to alveolars in much the same way that the original palatals developed to alveolars after /i/, /e/, and /a/ in southern Vietnamese dialects while original alveolars became velars elsewhere Contrastive palatals of ancient Vietnamese, if there were any, aʃe not documented Thompson’s suggestion makes a few pʃedictions: fiʃst, if palatals used to occur after most vowels in Vietnamese, it is unlikely that they disappeared all together and at the same time in all dialects Second, in southern dialects, although alveolars merge with velars after certain vowels, alveolars might still occur and contrast with other consonants Data from understudied dialects spoken in South Central Coast of Vietnam confirm these predictions and offer a picture of sound change in progress Field work in Vietnam in 2012 revealed a fascinating pattern of occurrence of the final palatals in the speech of Hoài Nhơn Distʃict in the Bình Định pʃovince, and the speech of Hịa Quang Bắc village in the Phú Yên pʃovince In the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects, palatals aʃe found afteʃ the shoʃt vowel [ ] In the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects palatals occuʃ afteʃ /i/ and /e/, and contrast with alveolars; elsewhere alveolars merge with velars Such data clearly show that the historical palatal is disappearing This paper makes the following claims: first, there are historical palatal consonants in the Vietnamese coda, and they are disappearing Second, historical alveolar consonants are also disappearing, merging with velars syllable-finally in Central and Southern dialects Finally, mass immigration from the area of north central to central and south central Vietnam could be a factor in the change Section presents a discussion of the phonemic status of final palatals Section shows sound change in progress: the historical palatals and alveolars are disappearing ɤection shows that the ‘hypothetical’ foʃm [ ɲ] in Noʃtheʃn dialects is indeed found in the speech of Bình Định and Phú Yên pʃovinces Section 4, using patterns of immigration, explains the old linguistic features found in the new land Section is the conclusion The Phonemic Status of Final Palatals and Their Historical Development This section presents background information about the debate and discusses the historical view of the development of final palatals in Vietnamese Table shows the phonemic vowel inventoʃy of the Hà N i dialect In this papeʃ, Hà N i, the standaʃd dialect, ʃepʃesents Noʃtheʃn dialects spoken in Hà N i and suʃʃounding provinces in the Red River Delta There are eleven vowels and two diphthongs Two vowels contʃast in length: /a/ and /ɘ/ Long vowels can occuʃ in eitheʃ open oʃ closed syllables Short vowels occur only in closed syllables All back vowels are rounded Three diphthongs can occupy the nucleus high mid low diphthong Front Central Back i e ɨ u o ɔ uə ɘ a iə ɨə ɘː aː Table The phonemic vowel inventoʃy of the Hà N i dialect Eight consonants, [p, t, c, k͡p, m, n, k], and [ŋ͡m], and two glides, [w] and [j], can occuʃ syllable-finally Palatals occur only after [i], [e], and [a], and contʃast with velaʃs afteʃ the shoʃt [a] Plain velaʃs occuʃ elsewheʃe, except they contʃast with palatals afteʃ the shoʃt [a] Labio-velaʃs, [k͡p] and [ŋ͡m], occuʃ only afteʃ back ʃounded, shoʃt vowels It is important to note that vowels preceding palatals and labio-velars are always short Table shows the phonetic distribution of palatals and velars Labial place of articulation is omitted In Table only alveolaʃs occuʃ afteʃ the shoʃt vowel [ ], e.g., đen [d n] ‘black’, and only plain velaʃs occuʃ afteʃ the long vowel [ :], e.g., xẻng [s ːŋ] ‘shovel’ Because theʃe is no length contʃast in [ ], the long [ :] is not ʃegaʃded as phonemic in the literature i e : ɨ ɘː ɘ a: a u o ɔ iə ɨə uə t/n + + + + + + + + + + + + + + k͡p / ŋ͡m + + + - c/ ɲ + + + - k/ŋ + + + + + + + + + Table Phonetic distʃibution of alveolaʃs, palatals and velaʃs in the Hà N i dialect Table and Table show the two asymmetrical patterns: a) [a] is the only vowel that contʃasts palatals and velaʃs, and b) neitheʃ palatals noʃ velaʃs follow the shoʃt vowel [ ] The asymmetrical pattern in the distribution of palatals created a long debate about the underlying forms of final palatals and the relevant vowels: should the final palatal be included in the final inventory or it is an allophone of a velar? The absence of palatals afteʃ [ ] raises the issue of whether anh [ʔaɲ] ‘eldeʃ bʃotheʃ’ is phonemically /ʔaɲ/ oʃ /ʔ ŋ/ Theʃe aʃe two major views with some variations The first view argues that palatals are phonemic and should be included in the final inventory, i.e., anh [ʔaɲ] is /ʔaɲ/ The second view argues that palatals are allophones of velars in the final position, i.e., anh [ʔaɲ] is /ʔ ŋ/ Each view affects the numbeʃ of vowels with length contʃast in the inventoʃy (see Cao 1998 and Đoàn 1977 foʃ detailed ʃeviews) The latteʃ view is oveʃwhelmingly adopted (e.g., Đoàn 1977, V ơng & Hoàng 1994, Nguyễn 1997, Cao 1998, Hoàng 1989) because it produces a symmetrical pattern of distribution: palatals occur after all three front vowels and velars occur elsewhere The first view, although no longer in favor nor adopted in the literature, is worthy of mention because of the historical hypothesis discussed later This view is reflected in the official orthography The letters ch and nh are used to write the palatals, as in sách [sac] ‘book’, anh [ʔaɲ] ‘eldeʃ bʃotheʃ’, and c and ng are used for velars, as in khác [xa:k] ‘diffeʃent’ and mang [ma:ŋ] ‘to caʃʃy’ Authoʃs holding this view maintain that the palatal in these syllables is phonemic; however, they disagree among themselves whether the vowel is phonemically /a/ oʃ / / ɤome authoʃs identify it as undeʃlyingly /a/, e.g., [ʔaɲ] is /ʔaɲ/, (Lê Văn Lý 1948, Thompson 1965) This view cʃeates the two asymmetʃical patterns mentioned above To solve the distributional problem, other authors identify the vowel as undeʃlyingly / /, e.g., [ʔaɲ] is /ʔ ɲ/ (Emeneau 1951) Anotheʃ pʃoblem occuʃs: palatals are said to have a phonemic status but they are in complementary distribution as seen in Table In Table palatals follow three front vowels and velars follow non-front vowels i ɨ u e ɘ o [aɲ] a ɔ Finals /c, ɲ/ /k, ŋ/ /k, ŋ/ Table Distribution of phonemic palatals syllable-finally in the first view The second view argues for final palatals to be allophones of velars (e.g., Haudricourt 1951, Đoàn 1977, Cao 1998, Cù et al 1977, Hữu & V ơng 1980, Hoàng 1989, Nguyễn 1997) This view is widely adopted in the modern literature Supporters argue for a system with a symmetrical distribution of final consonants based on a phonological process such as ʃeduplication (Đoàn 1977:210) As shown in Table 5, this view produces a symmetrical distribution of final palatals in which palatals surface after all three vowels, and /a/, like any other non-fʃont vowel, occuʃs only befoʃe velaʃs, i.e., [aɲ] is undeʃlying / ŋ/ Palatals aʃe in complementaʃy distʃibution with velaʃs Examples in (1) aʃe ʃepeated in (2) with the undeʃlying foʃms (see Đoàn 1977 foʃ details) [c, ɲ] + + + - /i/ /e/ / / /a/ /k, ŋ/ + Table Phonemic distribution of palatals and velaʃs in the Hà N i dialect (2) lính chênh anh măng [liɲ] [ceɲ] [ʔaɲ] [maŋ] /liŋ/ /ceŋ/ /ʔ ŋ/ /maŋ/ ‘soldieʃ’ ‘tilted/diffeʃent’ ‘oldeʃ bʃotheʃ’ ‘bamboo shoot’ Ouʃ focus is the low fʃont / / being centʃalized befoʃe palatals Phonetically, the general assumption is short vowels show a strong effect on final velars For example, afteʃ the thʃee back ʃounded vowels /u/, /o/, and /ɔ/, the velaʃ becomes labialized, e.g., chung [cuŋ͡m] ‘shaʃed’, ốc [ʔok͡p] ‘snail’, and ong [ʔɔŋ͡m] ‘bee’, and the vowel is short, less ʃounded ɤimilaʃly, the fʃont vowels /i/, /e/, and / / befoʃe a palatal aʃe shoʃt, pulled toward the central area The mutual relationship between the vowel and final consonant is shown in (3) based on Cao 1998’s illustʃation (3) Mutual effects between front vowels and final velars lính *[liŋ] ֜ chênh *[ceŋ] ֜ anh *[ʔ ŋ] ֜ *[lijɲ] ֜ [lɨɲ] ‘soldieʃ’ *[ceʲɲ] ֜ [cəʲɲ] ‘uneʂual’ *[ʔ ʲɲ] ֜ [ʔ ʲɲ] ‘eldeʃ bʃotheʃ’ The asterisk illustrates the reconstructed forms The first stage is the input In stage 2, a velar following a front vowel is palatalized and surfaces as a palatal In Stage 3, the front vowel and palatalized consonant are adjacent with similar features, and the front vowel dissimilates and is centralized ([ ʲɲ] is tʃanscʃibed as [aɲ] in otheʃ accounts, be it phonetic oʃ phonemic.) The centʃalization of / / is stʃongeʃ than that of /i/ and /e/ befoʃe palatals In the ɤài Gòn dialect, a southeʃn dialect spoken in Hồ Chí Minh city and surrounding areas, centralization strongly changes vowel quality in all front vowels, e.g., Northern lính [liɲ] ‘soldieʃ’ and ếch [ʔec] ‘fʃog’ aʃe pʃonounced as [lɨn] and [ʔ :t], ʃespectively Phạm 2006 offeʃs a similaʃ account using featuʃe geometʃy In these analyses, [ ɲ] oʃ [ c], is one of the ʃeconstʃucted foʃms of / ŋ/ oʃ / k/ Neitheʃ [ ɲ] noʃ [ c] occuʃ in any majoʃ dialects Howeveʃ, as we will see below, in the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects [ ɲ] and [ c] exist, seʃving as a link to connect the undeʃlying foʃm / ŋ/ with the suʃface [aɲ] in noʃtheʃn dialects in a synchʃonic explanation Moʃeoveʃ, this foʃm, [ ɲ], also seʃves as evidence foʃ the loss of the final palatals in Vietnamese Cao (1998:95) makes an interesting remark that the relationship between front or back vowels and velar consonants, although synchronic, could have originated from a diachronic process in which “only some stages aʃe confiʃmed in dialects” These stages are indeed found in many dialects in South Central Coast which show the loss of final palatals and alveolars in Vietnamese Compaʃative data fʃom the M ng speakeʃs, who live in mountainous pʃovinces in Noʃth Vietnam, and fʃom the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên speakeʃs living along the coastline in South Central Vietnam support the process of sound change: final palatals are disappearing along with final alveolars The following sections will show preliminary results of production and perception tests which demonstrate that in some South Central dialects, palatals are still preserved and contrast with alveolars after three front vowels Which vowel(s) occur(s) depends on the dialect Inteʃestingly in these dialects the pʃocess of Hà N i alveolaʃs becoming velars, seen in southern dialects, also takes place This fact tells us that both palatals and alveolars are disappearing Remnants from the Past: Final Alveolars and Palatals in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên dialects The field woʃk in 2012 in Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên in ɤouth Centʃal Coast of Vietnam shows a very interesting phenomenon (map 2): the dialects aʃe ‘mixed.’ Fiʃst, in otheʃ dialects in Centʃal and ɤouth Centʃal Vietnam the Hà N i palatals completely disappeaʃ, becoming alveolaʃs Howeveʃ, in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên dialects, the Hà N i palatal becomes an alveolaʃ only afteʃ vowel [a], but is retained after [i] and [e] in the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects, and afteʃ [ ] in the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects Second, like other dialects of Central (from Hue southwards) and South Vietnam, Hà N i alveolaʃs become velaʃs afteʃ non-front vowels The surviving palatals make Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên conseʃvative dialects, like noʃtheʃn dialects The loss of alveolars after non-fʃont vowels is a new development, and gʃoups Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên among innovative dialects, those that were formed during the last few centuʃies in the new teʃʃitoʃies This ‘mixed’ distʃibution of palatals and alveolaʃs in the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects documents a sound change in progress in Vietnamese: palatals and alveolars in the coda are disappearing Map Provinces of Vietnam ɤouʃce: Haughton, Domiʂue and Nguyễn Phong 2004 Foʃ the pʃoduction test, the data fʃom Quảng Nam dialects were collected from field woʃk conducted in Vietnam in 2004 and 2012 The data fʃom the speech of Hoài Nhơn and Phù Cát distʃicts of the Bình Định pʃovince, and of Hịa Quang Bắc of the Phú Yên pʃovince, weʃe collected fʃom field woʃk in Bình Định and Phú Yên in 2012 The production test used pictures to elicit the relevant syllables in monosyllabic and disyllabic words and also in interviews The production test used a list of 178 words consisting of all possible Vietnamese rhymes The majority of words are monosyllabic The recorded tokens were transcribed by the author Theʃe weʃe thʃee Bình Định speakeʃs: a female and a male fʃom Hoài Nhơn distʃict, and a male from Phú Cát district, all students in their early twenties The speech of the Phú Cát male sounds slightly diffeʃent fʃom the two Hoài Nhơn speakeʃs, showing variations with the ʃhymes pʃonounced as [ ɲ] by the two Hoài Nhơn speakeʃs This section ʃepoʃts the ʃesults of pʃoduction test fʃom the two speakeʃs of Hoài Nhơn as they show consistency, although each subject comes fʃom a diffeʃent village Hoài Nhơn district is located near the coastline; residents live in isolated fishing villages The Phú Cát distʃict is located closeʃ to Quy Nhơn city and on the National Highway 1, which could be a factor for residents here adopting a more urban pronunciation The perception test, however, includes results from listening to the Phú Cát speaker For the Phú Yên dialect, two females in their early forties were used for data elicitation They are small business owneʃs in the Hòa Quang Bắc village, and theiʃ speech also shows consistency within and across speakers In order to avoid the reading effect, pictures were used to elicit these 178 syllables The subjects were asked to say the name of the objects on the screen, one object at a time Ambiguous pictures were avoided in order to reduce unwanted synonyms The majority of the testing words were nouns, referring to familiar objects in daily life: tools, flowers, plants, numbers, furniture, colors, nature events, etc This method made it difficult to have available minimal pairs, but easy for the subjects to identify the picture with just one quick choice of words The words were put in two lists in a random order, i.e., two repetitions for each syllable The same syllable/word was represented with a different picture in each list The pictures in two lists were displayed on a laptop screen as slide shows to elicit the testing words When ambiguity happened or the subject offered more than one word to name a picture but still failed, the correct word appeared on the screen and the subject was asked to read it out loud for the recording This method was used to get the most natural and quickest reaction from the subject without any orthographic bias Sounds were recorded using Audacity program with an iMic microphone connected to a Macbook Pro laptop The subjects were told what to do, then looked at the pictures on the laptop screen, and named the picture The sample rate was set at 44kHz In addition to naming the objects, each subject was interviewed for a few minutes and recorded Relevant syllables from the interviews were isolated and transcribed to check against tokens elicited in the picture naming task Although the list includes all rhymes, we will discuss only syllables with final alveolars and palatals after front vowels and [a] The description of the entire sound system of these dialects is outside the scope of this paper Let us first look at how alveolars are disappearing in dialects of central and south Vietnam Compaʃative data of Hà N i (a ʃepʃesentative northern dialect) and Sài Gòn (a representative southern dialect) are given below in (4) Transcription is phonetic The Hà N i velaʃs coʃʃespond to ɤài Gòn velaʃs in all enviʃonments, which aʃe not included in (4) The Hà N i alveolaʃs coʃʃespond with the Sài Gòn velars (4f – n) After [i], [e] and [a] both Hà N i alveolaʃs and palatals coʃʃespond with the ɤài Gòn alveolaʃs (4a-e) (4) Compaʃative data of the Hà N i and ɤài Gòn dialects a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Orthography xin lính lên ếch ăn đen mứt ớt cát cắt hút tốt HÀ N I sin liɲ len ʔec ʔaɲ d n mɨt ɘ:t mɘt ka:t kat hut tot ŋɔt SÀI GÒN sɨn lɨn lɘ:n ʔɘ:t ʔan d :ŋ mɨk ɘ:k mɘk / mak ka:k kak huk͡p to:k͡p ŋɔ:k Translation to ask for soldier up frog to eat black jam pepper to lose sand to cut to suck good sweet Thompson 1967 mentions a similaʃ patteʃn between Vietnamese and the M ng Khen dialect, where palatals contrast with alveolars and velars after most vowels He says that wheʃe the M ng ɜhen dialect has final palatals, northern Vietnamese dialects have alveolaʃs, much like the Hà N i palatals ʃelationship to the ɤài Gòn alveolaʃs The data in (5) are from Thompson 1967, supplied with (5h – m) from Baker 1970 (5a-m) show that afteʃ [ɘ:, a:, a, e, , u, o], and [ɔ] M ng final palatals coʃʃespond to Vietnamese alveolaʃs Inteʃestingly, M ng [ ɲ] and [ c] coʃʃespond to (noʃtheʃn) Vietnamese [aɲ] and [ac], as in (5n-p) (5) Compaʃasion of final palatals and alveolaʃs in M a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p Viet orthography bán sàn cát bắn cắn lên đến rút bớt mọt ruột anh rách cành M NG pa:ɲ xa:ɲ ka:c paɲ kaɲ tleɲ teɲ ruc pɘ:c moc mɔc ʃɔc ʔ ɲ ʃ c k ɲ ng and Vietnamese VIETNAMESE ba:n sa:n ka:t ban kan len den zut bɘ:t mot mɔt zuət ʔaɲ zac kaɲ 10 Translation to sell floor sand to shoot to bite up to arrive to withdraw to diminish one termite intestine elder brother be torn branch From this correspondence, Thompson concludes that the original palatals (in the ancestor of Viet-M ng) that occuʃʃed afteʃ many vowels aʃe still pʃeseʃved in M ng, but in Vietnamese, palatals remain only after front vowels Elsewhere they developed to alveolaʃs (i.e., “apicals” in Thompson’s), in the Hà N i dialect.2 Thompson’s suggestions have not received any further discussion However, his comparison of palatals with alveolars, not with velars, is interesting Like otheʃ dialects spoken in Centʃal and ɤouth Vietnam, the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên dialects also lost alveolars in the final position Alveolars, which correspond to the Hà N i palatals, occuʃ only afteʃ thʃee shoʃt vowels [i], [e], and [a], shown in Table 6, examples given in (6) However, unlike other dialects, the palatals are still found after short vowels, creating a contrast with alveolars, but varying depending on dialects: both alveolaʃs and palatals occuʃ afteʃ the fʃont vowels [i] and [e] in Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects, and afteʃ [a] in Phú Yên dialect Alveolaʃs not follow [ ] t, n c, ɲ i + + (QN, BD) e + + (QN, BD) k, ŋ + (BD, PY) a + (QN, BD, PY) + Table Distʃibution of final alveolaʃs and palatals in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects (6) đinh [dɨn] chín [ciɲ] sên [sen] lên [leɲ] ăn [ ɲ] cánh [kan] nhẫn [ɲaŋ] ‘nail’ ‘nine’ ‘snail’ ‘go up’ (Bình Định, Phú Yên) ‘to eat’ ‘wing’ ‘ʃing’ The fact that alveolaʃs occuʃ afteʃ shoʃt [a] but not shoʃt [ ] cʃeates a similaʃ asymmetʃical pʃoblem as seen in the Hà N i dialect If, as in the ɤài Gòn dialect, assuming [a] (phonetically moʃe like [ ] oʃ [ɐ]) befoʃe alveolaʃs is undeʃlyinly / /, the alveolaʃs occuʃ only afteʃ fʃont vowels: /i/, /e/, and / / Elsewheʃe velaʃs/palatals occuʃ Table shows this symmetrical distribution Palatals are retained after all three front vowels in the Bình Định dialects In (5f) and (5g) the alveolars must be original alveolars in the Hanoi dialect, where alveolars contrast with palatals 11 t, n c, ɲ i + + (QN, BD) e + + (QN, BD) + (QN, BN, PY) + (BD, PY) a k, ŋ + Table Phonemic distʃibution of final alveolaʃs and palatals in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên dialects Because both alveolars and palatals occur with restriction and are in complementary distribution with velars, it cannot be the case that both alveolars and palatals are separate phonemes in these dialects Either alveolar or palatal can be said to be an allophone of velars while the other is a phoneme If the alveolar consonant is allophonic and the palatal consonant is a phoneme, we can assume palatals are remnants of the historical palatals, ʃemaining afteʃ /i/ and /e/ in the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects, and after / / in the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects Alternatively, one can say the final palatal is an allophone of velars and the final alveolaʃ is a phoneme In the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects palatals occuʃ only afteʃ /i/ and /e/ and are in complementary distribution with velars, so we can assume that palatals are allophones of velars and that the alveolar after [i], [e], and [a] is a phoneme, a historical remnant from Northern dialects However, it would be hard to explain why alveolars are lost after most vowels Moreover, in Southern dialects from Hue southward alveolars are consistently found after [i], [e], and [a], but palatals are completely lost in these dialects.3 The palatals that survive in South Central are found after various front vowels and in different sub-dialects It is unlikely that alveolars are historical remnants and palatals are allophones in these dialects Palatals seem best treated as remnants from the past The fact that in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên dialects Northern palatals aʃe still ʃetained but alveolaʃs aʃe lost also suggests that these dialects aʃe a ‘hybʃid’ type, falling in a ‘peʃipheʃal’ aʃea wheʃe the old featuʃes aʃe still seen but innovative featuʃes have already emerged This phenomenon further supports a hypothesis of gradual disappearance of final palatals in modern Vietnamese Besides final palatals, anotheʃ ‘dinosauʃ’ featuʃe we aʃe able to tʃace is the suʃfacing of the shoʃt vowel [ ] befoʃe a palatal, i.e., [ ɲ] Histoʃically, if the final palatal in modern Among children born to Northern parents living in south Vietnam, or children who left north Vietnam during their childhood to live in South Central and South Vietnam and still speak with a northern accent, the first feature that is lost in their speech is final palatals when all other features might still be preserved, e.g., final alveolars after all vowels, or tone ngã (glottalized, rise-fall) 12 Vietnamese is a ʃelic of palatals fʃom the ancestoʃ of the Việt-M ng, then we might be able to find some Vietnamese dialects in which palatals still occuʃ afteʃ [ ] Indeed, the ʃhyme [ ɲ] and [ c] aʃe found in the dialects spoken in Bình Định and Phú Yên provinces, South Central Vietnam, which are discussed in the next section The ‘Missing link’ [ɛɲ] and [ɛc] - Palatals after [ɛ] Although researchers today adopt the view that northern anh [ʔaɲ] ‘eldeʃ bʃotheʃ’ is undeʃlyingly /ʔ ŋ/ based on both phonetic and phonemic gʃounds, not eveʃyone agʃees on how the process works when both the vowel and consonant on the surface are different from the input in the underlying form In northern dialects it is said that the vowel does not cleaʃly sound like [a] oʃ [ ] but is something in between, and that the final palatal is produced a little more further back than when it occurs in the onset, e.g., compare lính [liɲ] ‘soldieʃ’ and nhìn [ɲin] ‘to look at’ This is because the palatal is indeed a palatalized velar Neither the vowel nor the final consonants in this rhyme is phonetically clear The rate of confusion from the perception test confirms this observation Two tests, production and perception, were conducted to confirm the findings of [ ɲ] and [ c] The ʃesults show that speakeʃs of both the Hồi Nhơn (Bình Định) and Hịa Quang Bắc (Phú Yên) dialects have the ʃhymes [ ɲ] and [ c] in theiʃ speech, something not seen in any of the well-studied dialects 3.1 Production test Woʃds containing [ ɲ]/ [ec] elicited in the pʃoduction test and used in the peʃception test are shown in (7) (7) Woʃds ʃecoʃded with [ ɲ]/ [ec] in the Hồi Nhơn (Bình Định) and Hịa Quang Bắc (Phú Yên) dialects a chén [c ɲ] ‘small bowl’ b đèn [d ɲ] ‘lamp’ c sen [s ɲ] ‘lotus’ d xẻng [s ɲ] ‘shovel’ e sét [s c] ‘lightning’ f kẹt [k c] ‘to jam’ g ăn [ ɲ] ‘to eat’ h tʃăn [ʈ ɲ] ‘python’ e ʃắn [ɻ ɲ] ‘snake’ g măng [m ɲ] ‘bamboo shoot’ k lăng [l ɲ] ‘mausoleum’ l tʃăng [ʈ ɲ] ‘moon’ m ʃăng [ɻ ɲ] ‘tooth’ n tʃắng [ʈ ɲ] ‘white’ o xăng [s ɲ] ‘gas’ p mắt [m c] ‘eye’ In the production test, the final consonant in words in (7) produced by speakers of the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects sometimes sounds like a sound between a palatal and 13 velar To be consistent, because palatals and velaʃs not contʃast afteʃ [ ] in any dialect, the IPA symbols for palatals are used here to represent the final consonant in this rhyme However, the vowel in (7) is cleaʃly [ ] In oʃdeʃ to confiʃm that the ʃhyme the speakeʃs of Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects pʃoduces is [ ŋ] oʃ [ ɲ] but not [aɲ], which exists in the Hà N i dialect, a peʃception test was used as a follow up for the production test 3.2 Perception test The word file used for the perception test was excerpted from the recordings of the production test The perception test was designed to see how speakers of other dialects peʃceive woʃds in (7) spoken by the Phú Cát speakeʃ (Bình Định pʃovince) and of the two Hòa Quang Bắc speakeʃs (Phú Yên pʃovince) The ʃecoʃded speech of these speakeʃs was chosen for the experiment because the recordings are very clear, with minimal backgʃound noise The speech of the Hồi Nhơn speakeʃ (Bình Định) was also used, but with only four listeners, and the results were diverse Therefore, the discussion focuses only on the ʃesults of the speech of the Phú Cát and Hòa Quang Bắc speakeʃs (Due to the limited time, the perception test was not given to speakers of the same dialects.) Only three to five words in (7) from each speaker were selected, segmented, and saved in individual files, then played to listeners Each token was played three or four times The listener was asked to write down what he/she heard, using the official oʃthogʃaphy The peʃception test was peʃfoʃmed in two cities: Đà Nẵng (ɤouth Centʃal Coast) and Hồ Chí Minh (ɤoutheasteʃn ʃegion) Beside natives of these cities, listeneʃs included those who come from various provinces to work there The results show the confusion of speakers when listening to these words Before looking at the results in Table below, we should note some points about the writing system The Vietnamese orthography, using a Roman script, was created by Western missionaries in the 16th century for the purpose of learning the local language in order to preach The script was not officially used until the late 19th century and from the mid 20th centuʃy became the only wʃiting system of the nation, called “the National ɤcʃipt” The oʃthogʃaphy represents the sound system of the northern dialects plus three initial ʃetʃoflexes, /ʈ/, /ɽ/, and / /, found in otheʃ dialects ɣecall that letteʃs ch and nh are used to write the palatal stop and palatal nasal, respectively, i.e., inh foʃ [iɲ], ênh for [eɲ], anh foʃ [aɲ], ic for [ic], êch for [ec], and ach for [ac] A long vowel before a velar is written with two identical letters, but this convention is not always consistent For example, ôông is used foʃ [o:ŋ], oong foʃ [ɔ:ŋ], but [e:ŋ] and [ :ŋ] aʃe written with only one letter, ê and e, respectively, as in (côông) kêng [ke:ŋ] ‘to caʃʃy someone on shouldeʃs’, and xẻng [s :ŋ] ‘shovel’ This inconsistency cʃeates some pʃoblem with the test’s design: the woʃds in (7) aʃe pʃonounced with [ ] befoʃe [ɲ] oʃ [ŋ] in the Bình Định and Hịa Quang Bắc dialects, but theʃe is no official combination in the oʃthogʃaphy to write this rhyme, which does not exist in other dialects The listeners were told to use any letters that best represent the sounds they hear, even if the sounds were nonsense and the Ladefoged (2003:160) states that “the place of aʃticulation of consonants as tʃaditionally defined is not readily apparent through acoustic analysis” ɣatheʃ, he advises “you can much better with the simple palatography technique or even by just looking at the speakeʃ’s mouth” 14 combination of letteʃs did not look ‘familiaʃ’ When the subject heaʃd [ ŋ] oʃ [ ɲ], the most appropriate combinations of letters to choose are eng or enh, respectively; however, in the orthography eng is used to write a ʃhyme with the long [ :] befoʃe a velaʃ, as in xẻng [s :ŋ] ‘shovel’, and the combination enh is not used in the orthography although it would be the most logical orthographic representation for the combination of the vowel and consonant in this rhyme Only one token was written with enh The orthographic convention was a drawback of the test, as it would have been unreasonable to ask a subject to write down a combination that has no equivalent representation in the orthography (Future research should possibly use a better design for a test with a similar purpose.) Even with the orthographic problem, we can still predict that if the sound they heard is not familiar to them the listeners would be confused and try various existent combinations to write down what they hear If inconsistency is found among subjects, it shows that the sound is not how it is pronounced in the dialects the subjects are acquainted with This prediction turned out to be correct Let us now look at the results when the speech of the Phú Cát speaker was played Ten listeneʃs, age ʃanged fʃom eaʃly 20s to late 50s, speakeʃs of the Quảng Nam dialect, participated in the test The subjects were not told which dialect they were going to listen to Five monosyllabic words selected from the Phú Cát speaker transcribed based on the northern dialects are: [zaŋ] ‘tooth’, ăn [an] ‘to eat’, trắng [caŋ] ‘white’, sắn [san] ‘yucca’, and mắt [mat] ‘eye’ These woʃds aʃe pʃonounced with the shoʃt vowel [a] in noʃtheʃn dialects, but the shoʃt [ ] before a palatal in the Phú Cát dialect Ten subjects produced 50 tokens Table shows this results The first column gives the orthography used by the subjects to record how they perceived the sounds The phonetic transcription of the first column is given in the second column The last column shows the number of tokens for each combination, e.g., 39 tokens from any of the five syllables were perceived as anh [aɲ] Orthography ên anh eng ăng Other Transcription [en] [aɲ] [ :ŋ] [aŋ] % 76 6 Total: 50 39 3 Table Results of 10 subjects listening to răng, ăn, trắng, sắn, and mắt in the Phú Cát speech Oveʃall, the Quảng Nam listeneʃs used many ways to wʃite down what they heaʃd: combinations inh foʃ [iɲ], anh foʃ [aɲ] and eng foʃ [ :ŋ] weʃe used most fʃeʂuently The combinations in [in], ên [en], or en [ n] weʃe also used but much less fʃeʂuently Table shows 76% of occurrences of anh [aɲ] heaʃd as [ ɲ] oʃ [ ŋ] Note that all the syllables in (7) aʃe pʃonounced with the long [ :] in the Quảng Nam speech, which is the dialect of the listeneʃs Inteʃestingly, even though the Hà N i shoʃt [a] in (7) coʃʃesponds to the Quảng Nam long [ :], the Quảng Nam listeneʃs still used the shoʃt [a] foʃ what sounds moʃe like [ ] than [a] This could be an orthographic influence 15 Nine subjects, ages ranging from the early twenties to late fifties, listened to the data pʃoduced by the Hòa Quang Bắc speakeʃ Among these, fouʃ aʃe fʃom Đà Nẵng city (whose dialect is similaʃ to the Quảng Nam dialect), and five aʃe fʃom Hồ Chí Minh city (Sài Gịn dialect) Four monosyllabic words selected from (7) were played These syllables again are pronounced with the short [a] in Northern dialects: trăng [caŋ] ‘moon’, măng [maŋ] ‘bamboo shot’, sắn [san] ‘yucca’, and khăn [xan] ‘scaʃf’ ɣesults are shown in Table Nine listeners with four words produced 36 tokens We see again that [aɲ] has the highest scoʃe, 31%, although not oveʃwhelmingly as high as in the case of Phú Cát speaker Orthography ăn anh eng inh i other Transcription [an] [aɲ] [ :ŋ] [iɲ] [i] % 31 19 19 14 14 Total 36 11 7 5 Table ɣesults of subjects listening to woʃds in Hòa Quang Bắc : trăng, măng, sắn, and khăn The listeneʃs to the Hòa Quang Bắc speakeʃ seemed to be moʃe puzzled than those listening to the Phú Cát speaker They also used [i] in a relatively high number of tokens, eitheʃ with a final palatal (19%), oʃ in open syllables (14%) Peʃhaps the Hòa Quang Bắc speakeʃ pʃonounced the vowel in [ ŋ] with a much naʃʃoweʃ openness and a higher tongue position than foʃ the usual [ ] In both cases, it is interesting that anh [aɲ] was oveʃwhelmingly the choice Note that the Northern anh [aɲ] is pʃonounced with an alveolaʃ, [an], in ɤouth Centʃal and ɤoutheʃn dialects In order to determine whether when the subject wrote anh, they really meant the noʃtheʃn pʃonunciation [aɲ], a numbeʃ of monosyllabic woʃds pʃonounced with the noʃtheʃn [aɲ] was included in the test, e.g., cánh [kaɲ] ‘wing’, gạch [ ac] ‘bʃick’, hành [haɲ] ‘onion’ All these syllables weʃe coʃʃectly wʃitten with the ʃhymes [an] and [at] just as they aʃe pʃonounced in the subjects’ dialect Theʃefoʃe, the final consonant in tokens written as anh in Table and Table is certainly not an alveolar, as perceived by these listeners It is also interesting to note that when the subjects used the combination anh to record most of these words they probably indicated that the vowel is short, because nh occurs only after short vowel On the other hand, because the vowel sounds moʃe like [ ] which can only precede ng (a velar) but not nh, a palatal, in the official orthography, some speakers used eng although eng is used to wʃite ʃhyme with a long [ :] befoʃe a velaʃ in the orthography The fact that listeners used various spelling to write down what they heard suggested that they were not satisfied with any of these spellings In summaʃy, the bewildeʃment of listeneʃs in finding the ‘coʃʃect’ spelling to wʃite the ʃhymes [ ɲ] and [ c] cleaʃly shows that this is not what they are familiar with in their dialects or in any other dialects they know 16 Table 10 summarizes the distribution of final palatals after front vowels in the dialects discussed so far, in the order from north to south We see that the further south the dialect, the less chance for final palatals to survive Whereas palatals occur after three vowels in northern dialects, they are completely lost in Sài Gòn and all other southern dialects NORTH ֝ SOUTH i X X X Hà N i Quảng Nam Bình Định Phú n Sài Gịn e X X X X X Table 10 Distribution of palatals after front vowels Palatals occuʃ afteʃ all fʃont vowels in the Hà N i dialect In otheʃ dialects palatals aʃe either retained afteʃ two fʃont vowels, oʃ only afteʃ / / in the Phú Yên dialect Those surviving palatals become alveolars in most dialects of central and southern Vietnam The occuʃʃence of the palatal afteʃ / / in the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects could result from patterns of mass migration from north central to central and south central Vietnam, as we will see in the next section Historical Palatals and Immigration to Central and South Central from North Central Vietnam This section examines the pattern of immigration during five centuries, from 14th to 19th centuries, which might be responsible for the palatals after front vowels in the dialects discussed in this paper The migration of the Vietnamese people from north central to central and south central Vietnam carried with it archaic features of the language to the new lands The territory of current central Vietnam belonged to the Champa kingdom for seventeen centuries, from 192 to 1832 In 1306 Cham King Jaya Sinhavarman III offered the Vietnamese king, as a marriage gift, two northern provinces, roughly corresponding to the cuʃʃent Quảng Bình, Quảng Tʃị, and Thừa Thiên pʃovinces (southeʃn paʃt of Noʃth Centʃal) People fʃom Thanh Hoá and Nghệ An (noʃtheʃn paʃt of noʃth centʃal) weʃe sent to these provinces to live Later, through war with Champa in 1402 Vietnam took two pʃovinces, Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngưi: the fiʃst big wave of immigʃants, again, was fʃom Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, and Hà Tĩnh pʃovinces (Nguyễn 2007) In 1446 Cham lost Vijaya (current Qui Nhon city) for Vietnam This piece of land corresponds to current Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngưi, and Bình Định pʃovinces (noʃtheʃn paʃt of south centʃal coast) In 1545, in its “Nam Tiến” (ɤouthwaʃd Expansions) movement, Vietnam took over Phú Yên province: the second big wave of settlers came here from Ninh Bình, Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, and Hà Tĩnh (Bʃunelle 2005) Vietnam was divided: the south was ʃuled by Nguyen Loʃd, the noʃth by Tʃinh Loʃd In 1648, 30,000 Quảng Bình soldieʃs were captured by the Nguyen army and brought to Quảng Nam to live A few years later, in 1657, afteʃ winning a big battle, Nguyễn Loʃd bʃought home with him people fʃom distʃicts of Nghệ An pʃovince to Quảng Nam to live 17 The vast majority of Vietnamese immigrants living in the central and south central of Vietnam, theʃefoʃe, came fʃom the noʃtheʃn paʃt of noʃth centʃal coast Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, and Hà Tĩnh pʃovinces in noʃth centʃal Vietnam aʃe known as the most conseʃvative language area Alves 2012 examines the grammatical vocabulary of north central Vietnam and compares it to other Vietic languages to show that the dialect spoken in north central Vietnam still keeps many old words that it does not share with either northern or southern dialects The noʃth centʃal aʃea is also wheʃe the M ng people live, although theiʃ settlement is mainly in mountainous provinces in North Vietnam, especially in Hồ Bình, Thanh Hố, and Ninh Bình pʃovinces, south of Hà N i Bakeʃ’s 1970 list shows that befoʃe alveolaʃs oʃ velaʃs, the Pʃoto Việt-M ng * coʃʃesponds to in both Việt and M ng When the vowel precedes alveolars or velars or is in open syllables, there is no centʃalization Foʃ example, PVM *l n > l n (Việt and M ng) ‘secʃetly’, *d > d (Viet) and t (M ng) ‘give biʃth’; PVM * ŋ > :ŋ (Việt and M ng) ‘shovel’ (Bakeʃ 1970:280) Howeveʃ, when * pʃecedes palatals, the vowel is centʃalized in Việt, but not in M ng It seems final palatals cause centʃalization in Vietnamese ɤome examples foʃ this case are given in (6n - p), additional examples are provided below in (8) (8) PV-M *c ɲ *s ɲ *l ɲ M c s l ng ɲ ɲ ɲ Việt caɲ saɲ laɲ Việt oʃthogʃaphy tranh xanh lanh Translation to argue blue, green cold Duʃing the Việt-M ng Ancient peʃiod, fʃom the 1st to 8th or 9th centuries, and the Common Việt-M ng Peʃiod, fʃom the 10th to 14th centuries, palatals were contrastive in the coda (Tʃần 2005), and aʃe still contʃastive in the final position in modeʃn M ng Tʃần (2005:189) pʃovides a list of compaʃative vocabulaʃy of the modeʃn M ng, northern and north central Vietnamese dialects to show that the dialects of the speakers in noʃth centʃal aʃe veʃy close to the M ng language The ʃhymes [ ɲ] and [ c] ʃetained in the speech of people in Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and Phú Yên of south central Vietnam may well be a trace from the Viet-M ng Common peʃiod, spoken by people in Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, and Hà Tĩnh, lateʃ going south The final palatals afteʃ /i/ and /e/ in the Quảng Nam and Bình Định dialects could be a trace of immigrants from Thanh Hoá and Ninh Bình whose dialects still have final palatals There is an obvious geographic gap in the distribution of final palatals in modern Vietnamese Palatals occur in northern and north central dialects They completely disappeaʃ in Thừa Thiên-Huế, the province between north and north central Vietnam Palatals then aʃe found in the Quảng Nam, Bình Định, and peʃhaps the Quảng Ngưi dialects too ɤouth of Bình Định, the final palatals again completely disappeaʃ Theʃe aʃe no reports on these finals anywheʃe Also, the palatals/velaʃs afteʃ [ ] aʃe not seen anywheʃe except in the Bình Định and Phú Yên dialects, and in some sub-dialects of noʃth centʃal as in Hà Tĩnh and Quảng Bình (Cao 1998) This is an obseʃvation needing further investigation If it is correct it would provide further evidence that the rhyme migrated with the north central speakers 18 Conclusion This paper examines the asymmetrical distribution of final consonants in various dialects of Vietnamese, from the standard dialect of northern Vietnam to sub-dialects in south central Vietnam The distribution of these consonants presents a picture of sound change in progress in Vietnamese It shows that the historical palatals are disappearing The histoʃical alveolaʃ in the Hà N i dialect is also disappearing in most dialects of central and south Vietnam The hypothetical ʃhymes [ ŋ] and [ c] in the Hà N i dialect aʃe actually found in the Bình Định and Hịa Quang Bắc dialects, a fact that suppoʃts the hypothesis that palatals once occurred in Vietnamese afteʃ most vowels including / /, as they still in the modeʃn M ng language The suʃviving palatals in Vietnamese lateʃ became alveolars after front vowels in most dialects of central and southern Vietnam In some dialects, the sound change in progress is clearly shown in the disappearance of palatals and alveolars (merging with velars) after most vowels, but at the same time these historical palatals and alveolars are still preserved after short front vowels The pattern of immigration of Vietnamese settlers during the 14th through 17th centuries also explains why in the new lands we find features of the old Vietnamese The pattern of immigration also explains why these features are found in dialects that are remote and isolated from their ultimate sources References Alves, Marc 2012 Notes on grammatical vocabulary in Central Vietnamese In Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 5:1-11 Baker, A Muriel and Milton E Baker 1970 Proto-Vietnamuong (Annamuong) Final Consonants and Vowels Lingua 24, 268-285 Brunelle, Marc 2005 Register in Eastern Cham: phonological, phonetic and sociolinguistic approaches Ph D dissertation, Cornelle University Cao, Xuân Hạo 1998 Tiếng Việt - Mấy vấn đề ngữ âm, ngữ pháp, ngữ nghĩa (Some issues on phonetics, syntax and semantics in Vietnamese) Hà N i: 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Nhà xuất Giáo dục Ladefoged, Peter 2003 Phonetic Data Analysis: an Introduction to Fieldwork and Instrumental Techniques Malden – Oxford – Carlton: Willey-Blackwell Lê, Văn Lý 1948 Sơ Thảo Ngữ Pháp Việt Nam (Introduction to Vietnamese Grammar) Paʃis: H ơng ɤơn Nguyễn, Đình Hồ 1997 Vietnamese Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company Nguyễn, Đăng Vũ 2007 Quảng Ngãi – Một số vấn đề lịch sử văn hóa (Quảng Ngưi – some issues on cultuʃal histoʃy) Hà N i: Nhà xuất ɜhoa học xư h i Ohala, ɛohn 1992 What’s cognitive, what’s not, in sound change In Diachrony within Synchrony: Language History and Cognition Gunter Kellermann/Michael D Phạm, Andʃea Hoà 2006 Vietnamese ɣhyme Southwest Journal of Linguistics, Vol 25, 107–142 Thompson, Laurence E 1965 A Vietnamese Grammar Seattle: University of Washington Press Thompson, Laurence E 1967 The History of Vietnamese Final Palatals Language, Vol 43, No 1, pp 362-371 Tʃần, Tʃí Dõi 2005 Giáo trình lịch sử tiếng Việt (Lectures on History of Vietnamese language) Hà N i: Nhà Xuất Bản Đại học Quốc gia Hà N i V ơng, Hữu Lễ and Hoàng Dũng 1994 Ngữ Âm Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese phonology) Hà N i: Giáo dục 20 ... Final Palatals and Their Historical Development This section presents background information about the debate and discusses the historical view of the development of final palatals in Vietnamese. .. [iɲ], ênh for [eɲ], anh foʃ [aɲ], ic for [ic], êch for [ec], and ach for [ac] A long vowel before a velar is written with two identical letters, but this convention is not always consistent For example,... the original palatals developed to alveolars after /i/, /e/, and /a/ in southern Vietnamese dialects while original alveolars became velars elsewhere Contrastive palatals of ancient Vietnamese,