Speakers: Sherry Yong Chen & Michael Kenstowicz (MIT)
Title: Tones and Tone Sandhi in Longyou (Wu) Chinese
Date/Time: Monday (11/18), 5:00pm-6:30pm
Location: 32-D831
Abstract: This presentation is a progress report on our investigation of the tones and tone sandhi of the Southern Wu dialect of Longyou (Western Zhejiang Province). We document the Longyou tonal correspondences with Middle Chinese, their F0 shapes in citation form as well as four major sandhi changes appearing in disyllabic compounds. Longyou appears to be very conservative: the eight-tone system from Middle Chinese which splits into higher and lower registers, and the correlation between tonal registers and onset voicing, are both preserved intact. Time permitting, the data are considered in the light of recent typological studies of tone sandhi and tone change in the East Asian languages.