Title

Identical Grade II and Grade IV Finals in a Historical Stratum of the Min Dialects

Author

Tu, Chia-lun 

Genre

Article  

Pages

759-793

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Min dialects, analysis of the diachronic strata, the identical finals of Grade II and Grade IV  

Abstract

      This article focuses on a phonological correspondence in a historical stratum of Min, in which the words from Grade II and Grade IV of traditional Chinese phonology have identical finals. First, we distinguish this historical stratum in Min by using the methods of historical comparison and internal reconstruction. Then we reconstruct the original finals and explain the probable sound changes in dialects of Min. Last, we determine that this situation of identical finals arose in the Old Jiang-dong dialect of the Six-Dynasties Period, but that Min separately carried out a sound innovation which resulted in its Grade II and Grade IV finals being identical.