RAS-1982 — Page 166

RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 All AI Reviewed

144

LAURENT SAGART

Kat Hing Wai phonology

With the exception of those words consisting of a nasal consonant and a tone (m1 'five'; ng4 'mistake'), KHW syllables consist of an optional initial consonant, a vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. The same syllabic structure is found in SC.

1. Initials, phonological structure.

The initial consonants of KHW are:

P
p'
f
t
ť
1
ty
ty'
k
k'
h
kw
kw'
m
£
l
y
ng
W

These sounds are pronounced as in the MW system, with the following restrictions:

/f/ is often realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative (the initial sound in the Japanese combination hu), when preceding a low vowel: for instance in /faeng4/ 'cooked rice'; /fong2/ 'room'; /fang1/ 'wedding'.

KHW /ty-, ty'-/ differ from the corresponding SC initials /ts-, ts'-/ in that they are always palatalized, whereas SC has palatalized and unpalatalized free variants for these initials. The transcription /ty-, ty’-/ was chosen to underline this phonetic property and suggest that these initials should be regarded as the palatalized counterparts of /t-, t'-/, much as the labiovelars /kw-, kw'-/ are regarded as the labialized counterparts of /k-, k'-/. Thus the phoneme inventory of KHW contains no affricates.

Finally, in Mr. Tang's pronunciation, although perhaps not with other speakers, the initial nasals are occasionally de-nasalized a little before release, giving rise to parasitic stops: m; n; ngô...

Examples of KHW initials are:

/p-/ /p'-/
pi3 p'uy2
'compare' 'accompany'

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2026-05-13 00:53:29 · NVIDIA / meta/llama-4-maverick-17b-128e-instruct

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144 LAURENT SAGART Kat Hing Wai phonology With the exception of those words consisting of a nasal consonant and a tone (m1 'five'; ng4 'mistake'), KHW syllables consist of an optional initial consonant, a vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. The same syllabic structure is found in SC. 1. Initials, phonological structure. The initial consonants of KHW are: P p' f t ť 1 ty ty' k k' h kw kw' m £ l y ng W These sounds are pronounced as in the MW system, with the following restrictions: /f/ is often realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative (the initial sound in the Japanese combination hu), when preceding a low vowel: for instance in /faeng4/ 'cooked rice'; /fong2/ 'room'; /fang1/ 'wedding'. KHW /ty-, ty'-/ differ from the corresponding SC initials /ts-, ts'-/ in that they are always palatalized, whereas SC has palatalized and unpalatalized free variants for these initials. The transcription /ty-, ty’-/ was chosen to underline this phonetic property and suggest that these initials should be regarded as the palatalized counterparts of /t-, t'-/, much as the labiovelars /kw-, kw'-/ are regarded as the labialized counterparts of /k-, k'-/. Thus the phoneme inventory of KHW contains no affricates. Finally, in Mr. Tang's pronunciation, although perhaps not with other speakers, the initial nasals are occasionally de-nasalized a little before release, giving rise to parasitic stops: m; n; ngô... Examples of KHW initials are: /p-/ /p'-/ pi3 p'uy2 'compare' 'accompany'

Baseline (Original)

144 LAURENT SAGART Kat Hing Wai phonology With the exception of those words consisting of a nasal consonant and a tone ( m1 'five'; ng4 'mistake'), KHW syllables consist of an optional initial consonant, a vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. The same syllabic structure is found in SC. 1. Initials, phonological structure. The initial consonants of KHW are: P p' f t ť 1 ty ty' k k' h kw kw' m £ = y ng W These sounds are pronounced as in the MW system, with the following restrictions: /f/ is often realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative (the initial sound in the Japanese combination hu), when preceding a low vowel: for instance in /faeng4/ 'cooked rice'; ♬ /fong2/ 'room'; /fangl/ 'wedding'. KHW /ty-, ty'-/ differ from the corresponding SC initials /ts-, ts'-/ in that they are always palatalized, whereas SC has palatalized and unpalatalized free variants for these initials. The transcription /ty-, ty’-/ was chosen to underline this phonetic property and suggest that these initials should be regarded as the palatalized counterparts of /t-, t'-/, much as the labiovelars /kw-, kw'-/ are regarded as the labialized counterparts of /k-, k'-/. Thus the phoneme inventory of KHW contains no affricates. Finally, in Mr. Tang's pronunciation, although perhaps not with other speakers, the initial nasals are occasionally de- nasalized a little before release, giving rise to parasitic stops: m; n; ngô... Examples of KHW initials are: /p-/ /p'-/ pi3 p'uy2 'compare' 'accompany'

2026-05-13 00:53:29 · Baseline

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144

LAURENT SAGART

Kat Hing Wai phonology

With the exception of those words consisting of a nasal consonant and a tone ( m1 'five'; ng4 'mistake'), KHW syllables consist of an optional initial consonant, a vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. The same syllabic structure is found in SC.

1. Initials, phonological structure.

The initial consonants of KHW are:

ty'

kw'

£ =

These sounds are pronounced as in the MW system, with the following restrictions:

/f/ is often realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative (the initial sound in the Japanese combination hu), when preceding a low vowel: for instance in /faeng4/ 'cooked rice'; ♬ /fong2/ 'room'; /fangl/ 'wedding'.

Finally, in Mr. Tang's pronunciation, although perhaps not with other speakers, the initial nasals are occasionally de- nasalized a little before release, giving rise to parasitic stops: m; n; ngô...

Examples of KHW initials are:

/p-/ /p'-/

pi3

p'uy2

'compare'

'accompany'

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