THE DIALECTS OF HONG KONG BOAT PEOPLE
II. The Linguistic Analysis.
51
1. Approach. The goal of this research was to record and analyse the phonological system of Kau Sai speech (KS). In analyzing a Chinese dialect the most expedient way to work for maximum completeness is to use the Tang and Sung rime tables as a point of departure. It is the opinion of many linguists that the rime tables are overdifferentiated in terms of the modern requirements of a phonemic analysis and it is true that the present-day dialects of China tend to show fewer distinct groupings than are found in the early rime tables. However, by comparing the modern with the older groups it is fairly simple to plot the similarities and divergences of the modern dialect in terms of the ancient and to express these in a convenient form which is well standardized among students of Chinese languages. By recording a large volume of conversation of an informant the linguist could expect to cover all the possible combinations sooner or later, but by soliciting specific items from a list selected from the rime tables it is possible to insure an optimum approach to completeness in a minimum amount of time. With much of his work thus done for him the linguist is now faced with the job of insuring that the pronunciations recorded are those of the normal flow of speech and not learned, classical, or isolation forms of the given item. Generally this problem is solved by soliciting the forms as part of complete sentences in a typical conversational situation. Also, at an early stage of the informant contact patterns develop which can be compared with the rime tables and which assist greatly by highlighting irregular or unanticipated pronunciations. After a short time it is usually possible to separate what the informant would normally say from what he thinks he should say, to identify borrowings from other dialects, and to exercise more control over the mechanics of the data gathering process.
I will not record here all the detailed information on ancient and modern correspondences which derived from my study of KS. Word lists are included below which summarize the general details. Furthermore, my expressed purpose here is simply to develop the data needed to answer a yes or no question concerning the similarities and differences of KS and Standard Cantonese (SC).
THE DIALECTS OF HONG KONG BOAT PEOPLE
II. The Linguistic Analysis.
51
1. Approach. The goal of this research was to record and analyse the phonological system of Kau Sai speech (KS). In analyzing a Chinese dialect the most expedient way to work for maximum completeness is to use the Tang and Sung rime tables as a point of departure. It is the opinion of many linguists that the rime tables are overdifferentiated in terms of the modern requirements of a phonemic analysis and it is true that the present-day dialects of China tend to show fewer distinct group- ings than are found in the early rime tables. However, by comparing the modern with the older groups it is fairly simple to plot the similarities and divergences of the modern dialect in terms of the ancient and to express these in a convenient form which is well standardized among students of Chinese languages. By recording a large volume of conversation of an informant the linguist could expect to cover all the possible combinations sooner or later, but by soliciting specific items from a list selected from the rime tables it is possible to insure an optimum approach to completeness in a minimum amount of time. With much of his work thus done for him the linguist is now faced with the job of insuring that the pronunciations recorded are those of the normal flow of speech and not learned, classical, or isolation forms of the given item. Generally this problem is solved by soliciting the forms as part of complete sentences in a typical conversational situation. Also, at an early stage of the informant contact patterns develop which can be compared with the rime tables and which assist greatly by highlighting irregular or unan- ticipated pronunciations. After a short time it is usually possible to separate what the informant would normally say from what he thinks he should say, to identify borrowings from other dialects, and to exercise more control over the mechanics of the data gathering process.
I will not record here all the detailed information on ancient and modern correspondences which derived from my study of KS. Word lists are included below which summarize the general details. Furthermore, my expressed purpose here is simply to develop the data needed to answer a yes or no question con- cerning the similarities and differences of KS and Standard Cantonese (SC).
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