Summer School in Languages and Linguistics 2018

Leiden University, 9-20 July 2018

Chinese morphology
汉语的构词法
Giorgio F. ARCODIA Bianca BASCIANO
(马振国) (白夏侬)
University of Milano-Bicocca Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Outline of the course

1 The typology of Chinese. Morphemes, roots, words. BB

2 Compounding – I BB
3 Compounding - II BB
4 Compounding - III BB
5 Derivation GFA
6 Reduplication in Chinese (and beyond) BB
7 Word formation in Old and Middle Chinese BB

8 The Chinese lexicon. Historical strata in the Chinese lexicon. GFA

Neologisms and ‘buzzwords’. Lexical differences among
dialects
9 Grammaticalization in Chinese and Mainland Southeastasian GFA
Languages
10 Morphologization in Chinese dialects GFA
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Chinese(/Sinitic) as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family

 However, Chinese is typologically quite distant from most non-Sinitic

languages in the family; different scholars of Sino-Tibetan have taken
as the basis of their research different reconstructions, especially for
Old Chinese (Norman 1988: 14); for instance, van Driem (1997: 461;
2005: 301-302) notes that Baxter and Sagart’s reconstuction of Old
Chinese is much more ‘Tibeto-Burman-like’ than Karlgren’s early
proposal
 Further complications come from the great diversity displayed by
Tibeto-Burman languages, with historical data available only for a
small number of them
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Diagnostic for ‘Sinotibetanhood’: the form of the lexemes ‘five’, ‘fish’ and
‘I’, which should all be traceable back to a form close to ŋa (Handel 2008:
425)
Compare: Written Tibetan ŋa ‘I’
Old Chinese *ŋʕajʔ (Baxter & Sagart 2014)
Bodo aŋ
Chang Naga ŋò
(Jianchuan) Bai ŋo31
Jingpho ŋai33
Proto-Tibeto-Burman *ŋa (Handel 2008: 425)
Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ŋa-y (Matisofff 2003: 605)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

➢ Relatively few clearly Sino-Tibetan lexemes in Chinese (Norman 1988:

16-17)

➢ Many inconsistencies in the sound correspondences among proposed

Sino-Tibetan cognates (Handel 2008:425)

 Conditioned by erstwhile prefixes, now disappeared in many modern

languages?
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 In fact, genetic relatedness is generally demonstrated not only by shared

lexicon, but also by shared morphology; Since Modern Sinitic languages are
strongly isolating, and morphological processes are mostly innovations, the
evidence comes only from reconstructed affixes (see Lesson 7):

 The causative (also ‘denominative’ and ‘intensive’) prefix *s- (Sagart

1999): OC *mə-lək (Modern Chinese 食 shí) ‘eat’ vs. *s-m-lək-s (飼 sì)
‘feed’; Jingpo lòt ‘run away’ vs. šəlòt ‘to free’ (with palatalization of *s−;
Matisoff 2003: 101); Written Tibetan grib ‘shadow’ vs. sgrib-pa ‘darken
(trans.)’ (LaPolla 2007: 40)
 The nominalising suffix *-s (Sagart 1999; Matisoff 2003): Old Chinese *s-
tʕrek ‘demand a payement’ (Modern Chinese 責 zé ‘demand’) vs. *s-tʕrek-s
‘debt’ (Modern Chinese 債 zhài; Sagart 1999: 133); Qiang nə ‘sleep’ vs.
nəs ‘bed’; Written Tibetan graŋ ‘count’ vs. graŋ-s ‘number’ (Matisoff 2003:
466-467)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 But: the development of the Chinese lexicon has been influenced by contact
from very early on

 Early Austroasiatic and Hmong-Mien (proposed) loanwords:

虎 hǔ ‘tiger’ (OC *qhʕra; Proto-Austroasiatic *kalaɁ)

舟 zhōu ‘boat’ (OC *tu; Proto-Viet-Muong *ɗo:k)
狗 gǒu ‘dog’ (OC *Cə.kʕroɁ; Proto-Hmong-Mien *klu2 < Proto-Mon
*clur)
(Wiebusch & Tadmor 2009; Schuessler 2007)

➢ Maybe more acquired before the earliest written records? (Norman

1988) Could also come from extinct languages (Wiebusch and Tadmor
2009)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Sinitic etyma may be easily found also in the basic vocabulary of some
East and Southeast Asian languages:

 Thai numerals from 2 to 10 all derive from (Old and Middle) Chinese
Thai sǎam ‘three’ < MC sam
Thai hâa < OC *C.ŋʕaʔ (Suthiwan 2009)

➢ This has led some to propose that Sinitic may be related to Tai-Kadai,
Hmong-Mien and/or Austroasiatic and Austronesian (a view still found
among Chinese scholars; see Handel 2008, Jacques 2017)

➢ However, compare Proto-Tai *dɔ:ŋ ‘bronze’, MC duwŋ and OC *lʕoŋ

(Jacques 2017)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Second wave of foreign loanwords: opening up of the silk Road (Han

Dynasty, 2nd cent. BCE)

 駱駝 luòtuo ‘camel’ (< Xiongnu dada)

玻璃 bōli ‘glass’ (< Sanskrit sphatika)
葡萄 pútao ‘grapes’ (< Elamite *būdawa)

 Quite often, the words coming from West and South Asia reached
Chinese through the mediation of other languages, as e.g. Uyghur
(Wiebusch and Tadmor 2009)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Third wave of foreign loanwords: introduction of Buddhism to China and

translation of Buddhist scriptures (starting from the 1st cent. CE for nearly
a millennium; see e.g. Lock & Linebarger 2018)
 Many terms used in Buddhist texts simply did not have an exact match
in Chinese back then, and words had to be either chosen or coined to
translate them; large numbers of those are still in use

 真理 zhēnlǐ ‘truth’
All introuced through their use in
智慧 zhìhuì ‘wisdom’ Buddhist texs (Yip Po-ching 2000: 329;
未來 wèilái ‘future’ Wiebusch and Tadmor 2009: 579)
理論 lǐlùn ‘theory’
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata

 Sometimes, the term survived, but acquired a different meaning:

方 便 fāngbiàn ‘convenient’, originally a rendering of Sanskrit upaya

‘expedient means (in teaching)’ (Lock and Linebarger 2018: 9)

 When no suitable Chinese term could be found, the solution was phonetic
rendering :

菩提薩埵 pútísàduǒ ‘bodhisattva’

➢ However, the dispreference of Chinese for very long words often led to
their shortening, as MSC 菩薩 púsà for ‘bodhisattva’
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 Yuan and Qing dynasties: China ruled by Mongol and Manchu dynasties

However, very few loanwords from the rulers’ languages survive in

Modern Chinese: e.g. 胡同hútòng ‘lane, alley’ (< Mongolian khôtagh
‘water well’; Bulfoni 2009: 218; Wiebusch and Tadmor 2009: 580)

 Also, In the 17th century (end of Ming - beginning of Qing), European

missionary and traders became regular visitors to China. Those
missionaries were often involved in translations of Western works, and
through these translations many words were introduced in the Chinese
lexicon (Chen Ping 1999: 101; Bulfoni 2009: 219)

幾何 jǐhé ‘geometry’, 地球 dìqiú ‘Earth’: introduced by Italian Jesuit Matteo

Ricci (Masini 1993)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 First Opium War (1840-1842): fundamental threshold in the history of the
Chinese lexicon (according to some, also of Chinese syntax)

 Opening up to Western science and ideas: several works were

translated in Chinese, and in 1862 the first modern school of foreign
languages (the 同 文 館 Tóngwénguǎn of Beijing), was founded in
China.
 A considerable number of new words were created to translate foreign
terms which did not have a direct Chinese equivalent (Masini 1993: 41-
45).
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 Several techniques were used to translate foreign words (Masini 1993:
128)

 a. ‘Phonetic loans’ , as e.g. 沙发 shāfā ‘sofa’, 鸦片 yāpiàn ‘opium’

 On occasion, characters have been created on purpose to render a

foreign word, as e.g. 咖 kā / gā in 咖啡 kāfēi ‘coffee’

 Phonetic loans were then sometimes discarded, as 得力風délìfēng

‘telephone’ (电话 diànhuà), 巴厘满 bālímǎn ‘parliament’ (议会 yìhuì)
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 b. Graphic loans, i.e. words written in regular Chinese characters taken
from Japanese usage and read as if they were Chinese:

政策 zhèngcè ‘political measures, policy’ < Jap. seisaku

电话 diànhuà ‘telephone’ < Jap. denwa

➢ Most commonly used strategy to introduce foreign words into Chinese

in the second half of the 19th century, arguably because the shared
logographic writing system meant these words could be readily
adopted by Chinese users
➢ This entails that Japanese had a crucial role in the modernization of
the Chinese lexicon; many Western notions were first introduced to
Japan, and then adopted in China
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 ‘Original’ graphic loans vs. ‘return’ graphic loans: obsolete Chinese
terms which came back in use with a new meaning, again following
Japanese usage

世界 shìjiè, originally a Chinese Buddhist term for ‘cosmos, time and

space’ (< Sanskrit lokodhatu), reintroduced as the word for ‘world’
following Japanese 世界 sekai (Masini 1993: 197)

民主 mínzhǔ (Jap. minshu), originally meaning ‘ruler of the people’,

which acquired the meaning ‘democracy’, following Japanese usage.
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 Contact with Japanese, and the introduction of a large number of
graphic loans, also led to the development of word formation patterns
involving (pseudo-)affixes (Masini 1993, Arcodia 2012)

学 -xué ‘study, branch of learning’: many trisyllabic words with this constituent
to the right have been imported from Japan to China in the 19th century
(Masini 1993: 149-151); while 学 −xué was already commonly attested in
disyllabic words, it is only at this crucial juncture in the history of Chinese that
we find it in in trisyllabic words as e.g. 动物学學 dòngwù-xué ‘animal-study,
zoology’ (Jap. dōbutsugaku), 地理学 dìlǐ-xué ‘geography-study, geography’
(Jap. chirigaku)

Also, 主義 zhǔyì ‘doctrine’ (Jap. shugi), folllowing its development in the

Japanese lexicon, has turned into a pseudo-suffix (/semi-word) in Mandarin,
as in 社會主義shèhuì-zhǔyì ‘society-ism, socialism’
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 The influence of Japanese on (pseudo-)affixal word formation is still
active, and not only in Mandarin

族 zú ‘clan, tribe, group’ > ‘group of people sharing certain

characteristics’; in the latter usage, it is said to have been introduced
from Japanese with the mediation of Taiwanese and Hong Kong
usage : see e.g. 上班族 shàngbānzú ‘office wokers’, 追星族
zhuīxīngzú ‘groupies’, 打工族 dǎgōngzú ‘temporary workers’ (Cao
2007, Yang & Chen 2012)

Japanese 激 geki ‘much, excessive, super’ (激似 gekini ‘very similar’,

or 激安 gekiyasu ‘very cheap’), used in Cantonese (as gīk) as a
(pseudo-)prefix in ‘Sino-Japanese’ words like 激突 gīkdaht ‘very
prominent’, or 激新 gīksān ‘very new’ (Leung 2010: 424).
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 c. semantic loan, i.e. assigning a new meaning to an existing word

新闻 xīnwén (lit. ‘new-hear’): this word originally meant ‘recently heard

facts’, but then developed the meaning ‘news’ (Masini 1993: 143)

➢ Sometimes, semantic loans are chosen also because of their sound:

for instance 托 福 tuōfú ‘thanks to you’ > TOEFL (Ceccagno and
Basciano 2009)

➢ This is not only a way to render foreign words; it is, more generally, a
technique to create neologisms (Ceccagno and Basciano 2009: 149-
155): 老总 lǎozǒng ‘term of address for policemen or soldiers’ > now
used to address e.g. a boss, a manager, etc.
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 d. loan translations, which reproduce both the meaning and the
morphological structure of the foreign word

铁 路 tiě-lù ‘iron-road, railway’, probably a calque from German

Eisenbahn (Masini 1993: 200)

 e. autochtonous neologisms, i.e. new Chinese words which were not

based on a foreign model

飞 机 fēi-jī ‘fly-machine, airplane’, 声 学 shēng-xué ‘sound-study,

acoustics’.

➢ Generally speaking, semantic loans and loan translations have always

been more common than phonetic loans (Masini 1993; Liu 1995).
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 After the founding of the P.R.C. (1949), both Russian loans and
autochtonous neologisms were coined, reflecting the new political climate
(Yip 2000: 332 ff.)

苏维埃 súwéi’āi ‘soviet’, 布拉吉 bùlājí ‘woman’s dress’ (< Russian plat’e),
集 体 农 庄 jítǐ nóngzhuāng ‘collective farm, kolkhoz’ (< Russian
kollektivnoe chozjaistvo).
右派份子yòupài fènzǐ ‘right-wing element’
反 革 命 fǎngémìng ‘counterrevolutionary’ (< French contre-
révolutionnaire?)
平反 píngfǎn ‘rehabilitate’.

 After the implementation of the one-child policy: 超生 chāoshēng ‘surpass-

bear, have more children than allowed’ (< ‘reincarnate’; Ceccagno &
Basciano 2009: 154)
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 In the 20th century and in the early 21st century, the need to create a large
number of words for new referents, often related to new technologies,
arose as well:

phonetic loans as 雷达 léidá ‘radar, ’伊妹儿 yīmèir ‘e-mail’

many loan translations (and hybrid forms): 软件 ruǎn-jiàn ‘soft-item,
software’, 下载 xià-zǎi ‘down-load, download’, 在线 zài-xiàn ‘at/on-line,
online’, 电子邮件 diànzǐ-yóujiàn ‘electronic-mail, e-mail’
(Bulfoni 2009: 223).
The Chinese Lexicon: historical strata
 Sometimes, ‘hybrid’ forms are preferred to plain phonetic loans:

汉堡包 hànbǎo-bāo ‘hamburger-bun, hamburger’

啤酒 pí-jiǔ ‘beer-alcohol, beer’

迷你裙 mínǐ-qún ‘mini-skirt’

因特网 yīntè-wǎng ‘inter-net, internet’

Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
➢ Kim (2012) highlighted that phonetic loans are actually growing in number
in Mandarin. This increased use comes, first and foremost, from the
exposure of the Chinese public to new technologies, and to foreign brand
and company names

➢ Kim (2012) also noted that semantic loans and loan translations are not
effective for the translation of proper names (e.g. brand names), and
hence phonetic rendering is generally preferred; moreover, English is
enjoying ever-growing popularity in the Chinese-speaking world, and
hence more and more Chinese acquire some degree of familiarity with
English, which makes the acceptance of phonetic loans more likely.
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 The growing presence of English (see above) led to the acceptance in the
Chinese lexicon of acronyms and other words containing letters of the latin
alphabet (Bulfoni 2009: 225-226):

CD (also known as 光盤 guāngpán, lit. ‘light-dish)

WTO (also 世界貿易組織 shìjiè màoyì zǔzhī ‘World Trade Organization’)

AA制 zhì ‘go Dutch’

ABC孩子háizi ‘(lit.) ABC child’ (‘ABC’ = ‘American Born Child’)

Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 Another major factor in the evolution of the Chinese lexicon was (and still
is) the spread of the Internet. Internet neologisms may be divided into
several categories (Wu 2003; Yang 2007; Zhang 2007; Bulfoni 2010; Gao
2012)

a. Meaning extensions: 灌水 guàn-shuǐ ‘pour-water, to pour water’ >

‘meaningless reply on a forum’; 山寨 shānzhài ‘mountain stronghold’ >
‘counterfeit product’; 大虾 dàxiā ‘shrimp’ > ‘expert’
Near-homophony: 斑竹 bānzhú ‘mottled bamboo’ > 版主bǎnzhǔ ‘forum
moderator’
An existing word may be assigned a new meaning deriving from the
abbreviation of longer expressions: 蛋白质dànbáizhì ‘egg-white-
substance, protein’, used as short for 笨蛋＋白痴＋神经质 bèndàn +
báichī + shénjīngzhì ‘stupid + idiot + nervousness’
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
b. Compound words: 点对点 diǎn-duì-diǎn ‘point-to-point, peer-to-peer’;
给力 gěi-lì ‘give-power, great, fantastic’

c. Analogy: 钓虾 diào-xiā ‘fish-shrimp, woman chasing men’, coined by

analogy with 钓鱼 diào-yú ‘fish-fish, man chasing women’

d. phonetic loans: 酷 kù ‘cool’; 恰特 qiàtè ‘chat’; 粉丝 fěnsī ‘fan’ (lit. ‘bean

starch vermicelli’).

e. Homophones, i.e. the choice of (near-)homophonous words to stand

for antother words: 美眉 měi-méi ‘beautiful-eyebrow, pretty girl’ for 妹妹
mèimei ‘younger sister’
➢ The word 美眉 měi-méi is not only a near-homophone of 妹妹 mèimei,
but it has also a related meaning, i.e. ‘pretty girl’.
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
f. ‘Fusion forms’ (音变 yīnbiàn): 醬紫 jiàng-zǐ ‘sauce-purple’ for 这样子 zhè
yàngzi ‘this way’; 表 biǎo ‘watch’ for 不要 bùyào ‘do not’

g. Reduplication of morphemes, as an intentional imitation of child

language: 漂漂 piào-piào ‘pretty-pretty’ < 漂亮 piàoliang

h. Decomposition of one or more characters, i.e. the ‘extraction’ of parts

of characters to for a new disyllabic word: 走 召 zǒu-zhào ‘walk-
summon, super’ (< 超 chāo ‘surpass, super’), or 监介 jiān-jiè ‘supervise-
introduce, awkward’ (< 尴尬 gāngà ‘awkward’)
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 Development of pseudo-affixal morphemes: 客 kè ‘guest’

 客 kè: ‘guest’, ‘passenger’, ‘traveller’, ‘client’, ‘person who goes from

place to place in pursuit of something’

 Used to form nouns indicating people specializing in a certain

activity at least since the 1st century CE: 侠客 xiá-kè ‘chivalrous-
guest, knight errant’, 说客 shuō-kè ‘speak-guest, persuasive talker’.

 The earliest examples generally include the meaning ‘errant,

wandering’, later examples seem to have a more bleached meaning,
generally indicating a person with certain characteristics: 剑客 jiàn-
kè ‘sword-guest, swordsman’, 瘦客 shòu-kè ‘thin-guest, emaciated’, 醉
客 zuì-kè ‘drunk-guest, drunkard’.
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 黑客 hēi-kè ‘black-guest, hacker’ entered the Chinese lexicon in the late
‘90s as a phonetic-semantic adaptation of English hacker

 新世纪新词语大辞典 Xin Shiji Xinciyu Da Cidian ‘New Century

Comprehensive Dictionary of Neologisms’, which collects neologisms
coined in the period 2000-2015, lists 25 new words formed with 客 kè as
the righthand constituent, indicating specific types of persons; in the
Buzzwords section of the Shanghai Daily (henceforth: SD) we found 31
words of this type. In total we singled out 47 neologisms (Arcodia &
Basciano 2018).
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 Different types of ‘hackers’, created by analogy:

白客
bái-kè
white-guest
‘online security guard; hacker-fighter’
红客
hóng-kè
red-guest
‘patriotic hacker, defending the security of domestic networks’
灰客
huī-kè
grey-guest
‘unskilled hacker’
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 Neologisms indicating persons engaged in different kinds of activities:

換客
huàn-kè
exchange-guest ‘one who sells/exchanges goods online’
切客
qiē-kè
cut-guest
‘fan of location-based services who regularly checks in to keep friends
and relatives posted on her/his whereabouts’ (cf. Eng. check in)
粉飞客
fěn-fēi-kè
fan-fly-guest
‘fanfictioner, fan who likes to write sequels or change plots of TV series to
express her/his ideas, passions, etc.’ (cf. Eng. fanfic)
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
 Neologisms with no connection to the internet/new technologies:

必剩客
bì-shèng-kè
certainly-remain-guest
‘person above the typical marriage age but still single; considered to be
doomed to remain unmarried’

代扫客
dài-sǎo-kè
take.the.place.of-sweep-guest
‘those who offer a service consisting in visiting tombs (sweeping and
offering sacrifices) during the Qingming festival’
Recent trends in Chinese word formation:
neologisms and ‘buzzwords’
➢ While the various ‘hackers’ look like analogical formations (lefthand
element is always a colour term), in the other neologisms 客 –kè has
acquired a more general, bleached meaning:

‘traveller’ > ‘travelling professional’ > ‘person specialised in an activity

related to X’ > ‘person related to X’ (i.e. ‘doing X’ or ‘characterized by X’)

➢ Arguably, the influence of English and Netspeak gave an impulse to the

development of an already existing pattern, rather than leading to the
creation of a new one
Lexical differences among dialects

 Besides the phonology, the most obvious differences among Sinitic

languages may be found in the lexicon

 The tendency towards disyllabism is not as strong as in Mandarin for

all dialects (see e.g. Yang 2003)

 For instance, many -子 zi suffixed words of Mandarin correspond to

monosyllabic words in Cantonese (Matthews & Yip 2011: 47)

凳子 dèng-zi ‘stool’ dang

袜子 wà-zi ‘sock’ versus maht
鼻子 bí-zi ‘nose’ beih
Lexical differences among dialects

 Also, besides the overwhelmingly dominant modifier-modified order in

attributive compounds, some (residual?) left-headed compounds may
be found in Southern and Central dialects:

Teochew (潮州 Cháozhōu) hou35-21-mui55 ‘rain-minute/small, drizzle’ vs.

Mandarin 小雨 xiǎoyǔ ‘small-rain’ (Xu 2007: 66)

Cantonese 魚 生 yùh-sāang ‘fish-raw, raw fish’ vs. 生 鱼 shēng-yú

(Matthews & Yip 2011: 56)

➢ Much more common for gender markers for animals: Cantonese 雞公

gāi-gūng ‘chicken-male, rooster’ vs. 公鸡 gong-jī
Lexical differences among dialects

 Lexical isoglosses are also used for the areal classification of Sinitic
languages

 For instance, while cognates of 我 wǒ (diagnostic for

‘Sinotibetanhood’!!) and 你 nǐ are overwhelmingly dominant and
ubiquitous throughout Sinitic, the third person pronoun 他 tā is taken by
Norman (2003) as a defining feature of Northern Sinitic: it is found in all
of the country, except for Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi,
Hainan and Taiwan. In Jiangxi, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi
and northwestern Taiwan we find the pronoun 渠 / 佢 qú (e.g.
Cantonese 佢 kéuih); the form 伊 yī is instead found in coastal Fujian,
Hainan, in some coastal areas of Guangdong, and in Taiwan
(Taiwanese 伊 i).
Lexical differences among dialects

 Generally speaking, we may note that, often, Southern Sinitic

languages prefer more ‘archaic’ etyma, in line with their conservative
trends, while northern dialects often prefer more innovative forms: for
instance, in Southern dialects 食 shí and 饮 yǐn seem to be preferred to
吃 chī and 喝 hē for ‘to eat’ and ‘to drink’.

 This, however, is to be taken as a (strong) tendency, rather than a firm

rule: for instance, the form 啉 lín for ‘to drink’ (Taiwanese lim) dates
back to the Tang period (Schuessler 2007: 343), and 侬 nóng for
‘person’ (< 农 nóng ‘peasant’; Schuessler 2007: 403) seems to be a
lexical innovation of Southeastern coastal dialects.
Lexical differences among dialects

 Note, also, that this is not the only case in which Southeastern coastal
dialects (particularly, Min) pattern differently from other Southern
dialects:third person pronoun forms cognate to 伊 yī (< ‘this’), second
person forms related to 汝 rǔ, and the form 乌 wū for ‘black’ are all
mostly found in Southeastern coastal dialects

➢ hence, the differences in the basic lexicon of Chinese dialects

cannot always be reduced to the North/South divide

➢ For instance, a conservative Southern dialect as Cantonese uses

你 néih for the second person pronoun, which is likely a
Northwestern Chinese dialect form (Norman 1988: 118; Schuessler
2007: 399)
Lexical differences among dialects

 In short: while some general tendencies may be found, the time depth
involved and the rich history of contact among dialects (and, indeed,
among Sinitic and other non-Sinitic languages) makes the picture
extremely complex