Why are Cantonese sounds merging?
Increasingly over the last century, initial ng’s are being dropped, initial n’s are changing to l’s, gw’s are changing to g’s. Given that a “problem” in Chinese languages is that there are too many homophones, why does there seem to be a natural progression towards creating even more?
Regards,
rathpy
Why are Cantonese sounds merging?
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Dylan Sung
Re: Why are Cantonese sounds merging?
I read there is a trend toward simplification of sounds somewhere. For instance, in rhyme dictionaries you see as many initials as 36 being shown. Just open a Kangxi dictionary and there are rime tables there.
With the merging of sounds, you also get other strategies for coping with homophones. Its said that ancient chinese had mostly single syllable words, but over time, you see a movement towards bisyllabic words, where two syllables gives more info than just one.
How the language is influenced may be due to regional dialects being heard more, or that folks who speak Cantonese may not have had it as their home dialect originally. I learnt Cantonese pronunciation out of books and dictionaries and I speak a dialect (Hakka) which is more conservative with the ng- initials. I don't have gw- but I tend to pronounce it, as its what I've learnt. So for oi and ngoi youngsters think the first I saying outside, and the latter love. But for me, it's the other way around. HK tv is somewhat to blame I reckon, since I hear folks constanly saying "oh" (I,me) when it should be "ngoh".
Dyl.
With the merging of sounds, you also get other strategies for coping with homophones. Its said that ancient chinese had mostly single syllable words, but over time, you see a movement towards bisyllabic words, where two syllables gives more info than just one.
How the language is influenced may be due to regional dialects being heard more, or that folks who speak Cantonese may not have had it as their home dialect originally. I learnt Cantonese pronunciation out of books and dictionaries and I speak a dialect (Hakka) which is more conservative with the ng- initials. I don't have gw- but I tend to pronounce it, as its what I've learnt. So for oi and ngoi youngsters think the first I saying outside, and the latter love. But for me, it's the other way around. HK tv is somewhat to blame I reckon, since I hear folks constanly saying "oh" (I,me) when it should be "ngoh".
Dyl.
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Aurelio
Re: Why are Cantonese sounds merging?
Hi!
Like Dylan said, Chinese is finding ways to cope with that. In the Indo-European languages something similar happened with all the endings. In Latin or Greek (and today's Spanish) you don't need any personal pronouns to indicate whether it's: I say, You say, we say etc. , because there are different forms for each (dico, dicis, dicit, etc.). English had them, too, originally, but they got lost over the last 1000 years (with the exception of the 3rd person). That's why we have to put "I, you, we" in front. Same, e.g., for French. So, from the traditional viewpoint it's a degradation which introduces the need to use extra words, but I guess it's just part of a constant cycle of reduction and building of new forms from the simplified material.
Regards,
Aurelio
Like Dylan said, Chinese is finding ways to cope with that. In the Indo-European languages something similar happened with all the endings. In Latin or Greek (and today's Spanish) you don't need any personal pronouns to indicate whether it's: I say, You say, we say etc. , because there are different forms for each (dico, dicis, dicit, etc.). English had them, too, originally, but they got lost over the last 1000 years (with the exception of the 3rd person). That's why we have to put "I, you, we" in front. Same, e.g., for French. So, from the traditional viewpoint it's a degradation which introduces the need to use extra words, but I guess it's just part of a constant cycle of reduction and building of new forms from the simplified material.
Regards,
Aurelio