153
tion prevails in Kau Sai where all /-oi/ have been raised to /-ui/, while -ng/k and -n/t are kept distinct: McCoy gives füf lui 'long time', lui 'to come', hui 'sea', ui 'to love'. Unfortunately, he gives no examples of words with SC -on/t finals. Note that Kau Sai /-ui/, as KHW /-oy/, includes words with SC finals /-oi/ and /-ui/. K.M.A. Barnett mentions that SC kon 'dry' is 'almost always tabooed in (Hongkong) place names, being replaced by kwun ( or )'. I suspect that sound change, rather than superstition, accounts for this pronunciation.
*-un/t did not merge with -öng/k, but with -ang/k: SC: -un/t: KHW: -ang/k: *ty'ang1 'spring'; ty'ak3 'to go out'; sak4 'technique'.
In Kau Sai, SC -un/t merges with -en/t, the Kau Sai homologue of SC -an/t (lax). It may then be the case that in KHW, the *-ön/t finals first merged with -an/t, to be later converted into -ang/k. /-ang/ and /-ak/ are probably the largest of KHW finals in terms of their word membership: they include all words having the SC finals -ang/k; -an/t; -un/t; -ing/k.
rhyme-
It is worth mentioning that a number of Lower Entering-tone words with labial initials, mostly in the Shan group, have a tense vowel /ae/ in KHW corresponding to a lax vowel /a/ in SC:
SC KHW
# 'uproot' pât paek4
襪 'stocking' mât maek4
'to fine' fât faek4
*'wheat' mâk maek4
KHW appears to be the conservative dialect in this correspondence since lax vowels are irregular in the concerned rhyme-groups in SC.
The correspondences between SC and KHW finals are summarized in the following chart:
153
tion prevails in Kau Sai where all */-oi/ have been raised to /-ui, while -ng/k and -n/t are kept distinct: McCoy gives füf lui 'long time', lui 'to come', hui 'sea', ui 'to love'. Unfortunately, he gives no examples of words with SC -on/t finals. Note that Kau Sai /-ui/, as KHW /-oy/, includes words with SC finals /-oi/ and /-ui/, K.M.A. Barnett mentions that SC kon 'dry' is 'almost always tabooed in (Hongkong) place names, being replaced by kwun ( or )'. I suspect that sound change, rather than superstition, accounts for this pronunciation.
*-un/t did not merge with -öng/k, but with -ang/k: SC: -un/t: KHW: -ang/k: *ty'angl 'spring';ty'ak3 'to go
out'; sak4 'technique'.
In Kau Sai, SC -un/t merges with -en/t, the Kau Sai homo- logue of SC -an/t (lax). It may then be the case that in KHW, the *-ön/t finals first merged with -an/t, to be later converted into -ang/k. /-ang/ and /-ak/ are probably the largest of KHW finals in terms of their word membership: they include all words having the SC finals -ang/k; -an/t; -un/t; -ing/k.
rhyme-
It is worth mentioning that a number of Lower Entering- tone words with labial initials, mostly in the Shan group, have a tense vowel /ae/ in KHW corresponding to a lax vowel /a/ in SC:
SC
KHW
# 'uproot'
pât
paek4
襪‘stocking”
mât
maek4
'to fine'
fât
faek4
*'wheat'
mâk
maek4
KHW appears to be the conservative dialect in this corres- pondence since lax vowels are irregular in the concerned rhyme- groups in SC.
The correspondences between SC and KHW finals are sum- marized in the following chart:
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