Same Aspects o£ Phonological Yariations

in thei pant one ae Spolcen ±n Hong Kong

Yeung, Suk-Vah Helen.

H . A . Dissertation
UniTersity of Eong Kong
1 9 8 0
 (MCJUAJ^ ft^t- li^ i^ju^

TiCr^ i/tM/r^ AMAryit ff^C

UL yi < ^^A ^ ^ ^ 汐iXji^/ sTi fuTfOyi^

^IAAII^) Cj^t^

7 ‘
 IDalaXe of Contents

I Introduction p.1
II First Study p.4-
III Eesult of First Study p.7
3.1 [n-3
w
5.2 Ck -3
3.3 [3-] and〔，-]
IV Second Study p.13
7 Result of Second Study .p.24
5.1 〔n-]
w
5.2 [k -}
7
5.3 [3-] and C -l
h
5.4 [ts-3 and [te -]
5.5 C-m] and c-p]
5.6 and [ - k ]
yi Conclusion p. 48
Notes p.51
Appendix I Statistical tabulatiozi of Study I Results
p.53
Appendix II Statistical tabulation of Study II Results
p.54
Bibliography...... p.60
 Introduction,

It has often been noted tliat a large number of

Oantouese speakers in Hong Kong do not distirtguish
between the sounds axid {1] in the initial positions
of some words. Some people use them lni;erehangiii^ly,
so tiiat a word lifce 你 has two proimnciatioiis, Cnei〕
11 tt
and [lei]. [nei]has been considered the correct
fl)
pronunciation "by many scholars, "but erea a rery
casual obsez^ation of the people around will make It
clear that there are speakers Who use [lei] only.
Uhe [n-]/[l-] pair is the only one In 4ties~
t-ion. The study here will take up the following pairs
of segments
w for observation:
C k - J ts*
ts. [k-
C k - ]] e.g.
e.g.國 |>110/(>让：[
?
[»)-] TB. [7-] e.g. [ jeuj /[ tu]
[ts-J ve. e.g.春 [tsoen] /[tjoen]
h
[-M ] TS. [-A ] e . g . 甜 [ t l m j /[T^in]
[-P 3 vs. [-t] e.g. % [3ipl / U i t ]
vs. [-ei] e,g,再月 [P”〕/[p^n]
[-K] TS. [-T] e.g.特 [^¾¾]
She first column has been considered the "correct"
H
pronunciation and tlae second, the "wrong one, by some
scholars:
 锸的發聲和此^!員樊正德的發音沩：
小令尖麇擦如找皋香NK...
狨聋夸1發聱的誤礅誤減，...

cT> j瓔jco發聲也fc锲…發聲备相混….
改 、 4 戈 釦 獨 兩 吡 豫 &
相混....

Most of -the Cantonese syllabaries found in Hong

Kong now were edapiled at least twenty years ago and
based on the pronunciation in Canton. It is very
much unclear to what extent they can be applied to
the pronunciatioris in the present day Hong Kong.
Are the above pairs of sounds still contrasted? Do
their -variations reflect any social or personal
conditions of the speakers?
It is the writer's suspicion that the Cn] initial
is "dying out"in Hong Kong, and so are the labialized
velar stop and relar nasal initials. lo what extent
these are so remains to be verified. She variation
from [ts-J to [tj-3 could be due to ..； interference
from the English language* H o v a d ^ s , as most young
people speak English (to different extents) f tbls
phenomenon is observed mainly la young people's speech.
It is unclear why the segments C-m, -p, -^j, -k] change,
and it is hoped that some explanations to this cazi be
found.
The purpose of tlie present study, therefore» is
to verify the al30Te suspicion and to search for the
uzLknown. ！Hiie statistical approach is taken up. Ivro
surreys will be carried out: one being a pilot study
of the other. Ihey will be presented in tlie following
chapters.
II First Study.

initial study was a relatively siicple one

carried out to forecast the direction to be taken by
the second study. Only four initial consonants were
taken up. Tliej are oozitained in th.e following nine
words:
w
fuV
W
龜 0 ei]
[ ^ ]

4 [ayn]
女 t»«y ]
-
rL

A C^an]
[”]
姆
4 V^]
?
[ ap]
Two age groups were chosen to be subjects for
this study: the 45-55 and 20-30 years olds. There
were ten people in. each group,. and these were again
divided into two sub-groups of five males and five
femalds. The subjects were asked questions or ahovm.
pictures to elicit responses that vould contain these
nine words；
^V A picture of a water melon shown to the
subject and asked what it \ Ins.西/“、
 toy tortoise shown to the subject anc
asked what it was. Ans.__,
Picture of an. apple. Ans.萍果
^tj^yPS纥像乜嚼f Ans
”暖箱^诛ti啊？ Ans
Picture of an eye* Ans
Picture of a swan. Ans
Picture of a house. Ans

There were times when, a question or picture failed

to cue the desired response. One subject answered "duck"
( 悔 ） w l i e n slie was shown the picture of a swan.
n
Several others said that the opposite of "cooi ( )
was "h-ot"(熟）. In these cases, other questions had
to be used to cue the desired words.
1参大视天A斅後畤？ Ans ‘

虼辅、蟪齄、蟯鴨，蟪—？
The responses of the subjects were immediately
transoribed.
All interviews were carried out by the writer
herself and uuder very informal situations: the older
age group was lnteryiewed mainly in the parlc and the
younger one at bus-*stops or on the Hong Eoixg Unirersity
campus. When, the subjects were approached, they were
told that the interriews were for investigations on
the Cantonese language, but were not told on
aspect of the Cantonese language. Breryone of the
 6

subjects seemed to be at ease; some were In fact

enjoying being asfced the "silly" questions, ffone of
them had any notable accent to th.e interviewer's ear.
On completlort of all the questionsf the subjects
were also akked to fill out a questionaire to provide
informations on their social baclcgroczids such as
ethnicity, places of residence, languages or dialects
they and their parents education, occupation，
family income, etc. However, some people seemed
unwilling or embcirrassed to reveal their incomes and
educational qualifications so tliat after two or tliree
such interriewst tkis questionaire was replaced by a
much shorter and simpler one asking only for age and
dialeets/laxiguages spoken.
Ill Result of the First Study.

We have divided our subjects into four groups.

Ve shall name them t is:
4H 45-55 years old, male；
4P 45-55 years old, female；
2M 20-30 years old, male]
2F 20-50 years old， female.
Ve shall also name (m r speakers from

4P m
Speakers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

fli n n n n 1 n n 1 1 1
n n a a 1 n/1 1 1 1 1

2P 2H
Speakers 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

1 X 1 1 1 1 1 X 1 1
1 1 1 1 X 1 1 1 1 1

All speakers izi their twenties bare svitched

to [ 1 - ] . The 4P group U868 [ n-J most often: four
out of fire speakers retained tlie initial.。）Most
speakers in 4M have [1-], too, though some show
Tarlationa.
Age thus plays an important part in the rn-j ts.
E.X-J vaxiation. Tounger people have [1-J . Sex also
plays a part in tlie older age group: females are more
likely "to keep [n-].

3.2 [ .

4P 4M
Speakers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
w w w w w w w w
iv lc k k k k k k k
w w ww ww ww
w w w w w
k k k k k IT k k* k k
w w w w w w w
3c/k 3c k lc k k k lc

2P 2H
Speakers 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
4、 tkf tif V - W ur Ww Ww Ww Ww W
lc Jc V Jc 1c k k k k k*
V V W tflf w w w w w
w w w lc k k k
ic k k ir ir w w
w k k 1c k k
k k k. k
w
liare [ k - ] for all s p e a k e r s . 果 has
•ariations. This ms^r be due to:
 9

(1) the environment of the sound segment. Labializa-

tion is dropped only in.the environment of [一〉一〕.
w w
i2) h-omophooy. If [k aj and[Jc &i] are delabialized,
tliey become [ka] and [kti]. These delaMalized
words will then become confused with. ^ and 魅
very easily "because tiiey have identical articula-
tions and belong to the same parts of speech.,
namely, uouhb. Howerer, a delabialized C ] will
not cause coafosion because it has no homophoiLoxis
counterparts "belonging to tke same part of speech.
Again as in Cn-j, age plays a very important part
w
in tbe vaxiatlon of [ k - ] In tlie enTironment of [-:>-]*
Seven out of the ten speakers in 2M and have [k-],
v^ieraas In 4-M and 4丨，only -two speakers liave shown
variations. Sex ms^r also ~be eald to play a part,
thvtigh it is in fact too risky to draw any conclusions.
We will investigate 011 this further in our Second
Study.
 ?
3.3 Oj-] and C - j .

4P 4H
Speakers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

[r]虬
T
” ： M
3 5 5 5 5 ?
3 D
?
? 7
t -3 1 " 0
。-]%
ij ? YJ ？ 7 ? ? 7
5 0
,-J

IF
Speakers 11 12 13 14 15 / 16 17 18 19 20

[yl軋 5 3 D
?
？ rj v] ? i]
7
3 3 !) 1 [V) ”
?

5 D D ] 7
？ 1 ”
[^-1¾

In the preservation, of the initial ，sex

seems to be the more crucial factor. In 4P aad 2P,
only one out of tlie t«n speakers has dropped the
initial consonant. In 4M and 2M» 3 people
have done so.
 In words thai; should begin with glottal stops,
female speakers again seem more prone to change f
to [vj -3 . This is especially true for young female
speakers. Less th.an half of the male speakers show
this variation t and among them, again as iu th.e female
speakers, the younger ones are more innovative.
As for the correlation "between languages and
(令）
dialects spoken by the speakers and their respective
degrees of variations, no very firm conclxtsions can
be drawn. / cMost
\ of the younger speakers speak English
v J
and cX£tia to speak Modern Spokea Chinese (Mandarin).
More than half of the older speakers also claim to
speak Modern. Spoken Chinese. One can postulate that
subjects who speak Englisb and M o d e m Spoken ClLinese
h.ave more variatiozis than those who do not > but since
people who ape ale these languages axe the younger ones,
it would be more accurate to correlate variations with
age instead.

！Db.ust our conclusion liere is t M s : in all raria-

tionSf younger speakers are the more innovative ones.
In the processes of nasals being changed or lost (fn-j,
-]), female speakers adhere to "the nasals more than
male speakers. On the other hand, in variations that
iiivolTe glottal sj>opst male speakers have more glottal
stops than female speakers.
This study also points out the direction our
second survey should take:
(1) Emphasis sliould be placed more on age and sex
than on the languages/dialects the subjects
speak;
i2) Each, speaker in this study was asked to Ba.y tiie
words only once. It is very likely ttat more
variations would have been found if they had
been asked to say the words more than once. Our
second study should aim to include tM.8.
(3) In a running text where tlie speakers are lees
self—conscious, different results may be obtained.
(4) More words should be investigated, and the distri-
butions of these words are importaa*t. Some
variations may not show up in certain pb.on.etlo
enviroinmeirts.
IY Second Study.

Keeping in mind tlie findings and the short-

comings of th.e first study, the second project was
designed. Iliis time, the writer decided to use tlie
story form "because this would enable more words to "be
investigated. Six initial and four final segments
were thus included in this study:
w
[k -，31-, t -’ ts-, ts^-, - m , - p , - j , -k].
Wong's syllabary ( 嚷 應 ' A ) was consulted and
the environments izi which the above eegmeats could
occur were noted down. At least one word for each
of these environments (together with the segment In
question) was chosen. These words were then linked
up to form a story. Xhus, in this story, we ha^ the
following segments and words:
(The figures in the brackets show the frequencies of
the words in the story, Vords without any brackets
and figures are those that occurred once only.)
w
[k a-] 〜]牛(7)鸭(12减2)
u TJ TJ TJ TJ
rw-L •

0lf^^ffl

^�
- - -3 D ^

o2
??

2(
d

〔 k V 逸
生如It
u p » V-

[k、-] ！g(i2)
-
_

J个 ^ 2 )
i

• ⑷
i

等�
-
i I rL

[城-] -ir (4)

~

[邸-J
1
J
•
-
14

息(2)萄(12)
當 2) i ( l 1 )
魄#]命令兴(5)
成泠惠，fui⑶

询(4) 4 (6)上（5)
t(5)同(10)

fleam J

瀑
M

说(2) 句(4)

ti2) ii2)
力 識 即
寸急、
欢(5) f

犄
鴨(12)

*
销2)

渫
I

I
“
_ •_ I—i 1 .~ t .
—

[k〜]
~_ _ • _
“I -_ t—I _
—•* _—i i—i -—t -
_ _
—_
[ [c r
L-il � 一
[ [ c [ __-：广-t
- o e | f - i - f e - a - i - i 4 - t f ? - o e f
_
—* i„it_- r l 【
)to
} 1 3 4 }�
5�) �2� 2
�-
\y �
-/�
秦 彳 ⑷�
2)瘦� 赋�
i�够 彻�
2 ) )�) ) 6
和、i^56ttIf^i’^s3iL4 � 1 - 4 2 ) 1 2 4�

tsoe-

tsle-
tsi-

tS£~
tsy-
rx^-

tso-
tsa-
！P-

ts i

ts^a
ts «

ts^u
ts o

tsu-
na-
ne-

tB ^
h
h

t A
h
m-

T'
 Sometimes a word may be very productive and
contains more than one segment we want to inTeatigate
w
Por example, [ k ^ k ] ( 圖 ) h a s both. rk -J and C-k].
！Thus,國 *as listed under both of tlie segments
concerned.
It was important that words in tlie story nmsl;
be familiar to the speakers so that no rariations
oouU be said to be due to meaningless repetition of
sounds. It wa3 also import迎t that tlie story must
not be too boring. However t since tiie target 趟e
groups in mind Taxied from 10 to 59，it was difficult
to construct a story tliat was interesting to all.
Imperfect as it was, the writer load to be contented
with the following story:

1 ¾ , M 一個tK馆有兩個件阂遣
一姻個（锊叫付scNf,俋锊之仏t
* 勇 f c , 琿 乎 打 兄 十 丘 复 爲 絶 ^ ^ )
iiS > 俘 叫 败 忾 赖 , 悒 耔 聰 礼 义 钓 識 講
嘢 , A 樹 上 畲 ^ ¾ 伶 新 畸 畸 後 佧 H
個 i ® 女 叫 欲 歌
O V f e , 而 且 W 他 柯 % % 3 ^¾
i釓沏吡莉讫么4歌俾3)袭仔同噔D
 (6

嘀侘f住一夂块七兵、会1遏婚，f、Jt
免1® 係俵惡怂國说嘅。/讵嗰日
iii沔itm窖佰蟪纠阿嗚唱歇啦f
聽.，^•咁氟嘅畤傩电，哕飱*兵筱仗
門徵苹等伦畚去i宕,等係嚿欹f卒自己喺睃
同蠖宕til。/

n 絲 n 糸 ： - t i t , i f ® 嚜欹
饵;D龜侪It叻了」碏fgfc唔肯去嗾嗬。/
個國权嘞,fe命令”士务浞喳忾鳾t
%, ^ 砹 宰 愎 P 5 鳾 备 嘞 。 《 R鴨呢着
岢同爸爸赂剡咁嚐，t K I 舔 吓 嘅 畸 條 ,
f巨吧乙姥去糾妁轰喇./

意 1 kl H徊t漭/^/左志散畸成伯就

番 网 馋 & 嗛 骚 嘮 。 倘 國 話 嘞 ： ¾
资 问 鴨 鉀 得 , 彻 吧 同 负 樣 嘢 恚 黎
啦；/秦一,像愛人S帝舍他接/Jf视鬮
 17

二
、 表 ， （ 濶 嘅 （ 机 W 拳 、 俵
义 嬈 0 嚨 犄 I 妫 嘅 襦 ; 叙 , 惊 吧
减H吮舫後對骞嚟，询叙敌.吒！j；

內彳’隳到咁講,邦釗敌字孑播
、ffl谥丸彔k療。但俵珂^¾¾瘀:¾
免 f
i , 我 斿 嗦 咋 . ' 铺 肩 辦 茹 / j /
^¾；叫rt彳flp羼先縱吃-僩钤夂
粉 k H K伖佤叫R彳吏上良ID欢啱
啱扁嗉小‘卜，奴妨从-僩之甸汰岣後吻”：’

角〜鴆米上办然後就IS肩f包幻巨，
^ ¾ ¾ 嘁 - 隻 鉗 说 瀨 太 麵 揭 南 。

汽肀同阿姚柃免句後研玄到玄客嗰

鵜 沭 f e 莉 类 钣 各 啫 純 ， - 瓶 軌 條 / /
從 此 t 後 谩 係 嗰 三 调 得 扒 ^ ^ 藺
 33ie story was recorded on tape with pauses as
shown. Hhe subject would listen to the tape up to
the pause, then he/she would lia-ve to repeat what had
been heard and be recorded on another tape. He/she
would then listen, to another segment of the story,
and again be recorded. This would go on till the
wiiole story was recorded.
！The su>jects were told before hand that the
survey was to find out how good people' e memories
were. It was hoped that this would prevent them from
consciously pronouncing the words in vhat they thought
was the "correct" way.
Each subject who completed ttte story was asked
to fill out a questionalre like this:

Speaker ¢(2:

^ m ^ n h i

蜊feirn巧空竑
n

愈1趕度
r
礙碗碟

4
DDD
44
2：

_
_
 The tape with, the story was duplicated and
distributed to friends so that more recordings could
be done. Instructions on the procedure was made
clear to each of these people. They were also told
thai; recordings of any person from 10-59 years old
and without any apparent accents when they spoke
Cantonese were welcome.
The recording took one month.. At the end of
this period, tSiere were 103 recordings. Among tJiem，
50 were cliosen to be "transcribed and looked Into.
She criterion for choosing these 50 recordings
were: (1.) completion of tlie wliole atory;
(2) relatively clear recordirtgs；
(3) smallest possible latra-group age discrepan-
cies; (5 groups differen-tiated by age)
(4) 5 males and 5 females in each of the five

Thus, age and sex divided tJiese 50 recordings

into 10 groups.
As for the transcription, they were all done by
the writer herself. Lists with all the words ,
wanted were prepared:
j1 •
 肯（ 惠 瀑 鸭 葉�
tam

T em

»甘
jh
m
�
I ！�
泰 唱 出 丧 1 箾 光 姒 此 靥 乱 嚐 V 麁 首 仗 聰�

ts丨
到 得 之 1 力 �即 备 氪 國 省 4 晚 着 茗 構 當 工 敌 ^ - 趲�
-----
散 生 等 靓 I t 摄 絶 哨 老 命 令 成 於 ‘ �礼 甸 喝 上 後 将 同�
j
 Sftie writer would listen -to a certain sentence,
note the words that contained tlie segments wanted,
and also note tow they were manifested by that
particular speaker. If a certain sound segment was
maintained, a check ( (/) would be made in the
appropriate space. On the other hand, if aay
variations occurred, tke innovative segments were
noted down. Tliis process vent on till the whole
8
story was transcribed.( )
 24

V Eesult of tiie Second Study.

After all the words load been -transcriljed, -the

number of occurences of tlie segments were counted.
It was q,ulte clear thai; the frequencies of tlie words
in tlie original text were closely kept W the subjects'
recordings. Ihis is probably due to their being told
that the survey was to test their memoriesf so tliat
they wanted to keep as close to the original story as
possible.
Xhe subjects are divided into ten groups by age
and sex. The8« ten groups will be named as follows:
1M Male
Age： 12-16
1F Pemale
2M Male
20-27
2F Female
3M Kale
30-36
3P Female
4M Hale
40-46
4P Pemale
Kale

}
5M
50-57
5F female
5.1 [n-].

1M 2H 3M 4M 5«E
J
tn-1 a c t u a l ^ 0 0 0 6 9
[I1-] potential T^I T51 TO W !
The above in 0 0 0 4.29 6.12
percentage
Speakers who 0 0 0 0 0
used [n-] only

1P 2F 3F 4P 5P
[a-] actual 0 6 37
[n-2 poienifaT T^B Wf
The above in 0 4-76 11.54 27.13 34.58
percentage
Speakers who 0 0 0 0 0
used [21-] only

K&le speakers ha.re very few [n-3 words in their

utterances, rn] initials are actually non-existent
in tlie younger male speakers * utterances (up to 36
years old). Even in the older ones, tlie percentages
are very low; the 4M group lias only 4.29关 and the
5M group, 6.12^.
The zramber of [zl-3 words in tlie female speakers
is also directly proportional to age.
Among the fifty speakers, not even one of them
 26

n-

w：
“ S ！f--

7 . : : .
nsallATvpa'Hfn;

1.

J5;

If' Squares io inch

maintained [ n-J for all the words that are specified
[n-] in Wong's syllabary.
Thus, one can conclude here that the younger
speakers are gradually eliminating [n-J from their
speech. Shis change is more rapid with the male
speakers than wi"tli tlie female speakers.
When these figures are compared with the results
of Study I , it is cieiar that the general trend of
•variation is maintained, though the percentages of
variation are rai;h.er different. In Study I, in tixe
4-F group» eight out of the ten potentially rn-] words
maintained Cn-]. However, in this study, eten with
the 5P group, only one-third of the utterances do so.
One explaziation for this discrepancy m町 be tbis:
speakers In Study I were aware of their language
being obseryed, and the words were not pronounced as
part of a running text. In Study ll t the at teat ion
of tlxe speakers were directed to something else, and
the words were part of the story.
In this study, there is a to-tal of 1295 potent-
ially fn-3 utterances by 50 speakers. Of these，only
108 («8.54^) are actually manifested as ITn-] • This
shows the Irage exteat to vhich the variation from
「n-〕to fX-J has taken place.
10
A preTioue study by S s o u ( ) has shown tiiat the
Chiucliow ethnic group tends to maintain their language
longer than the Hakka and the Out-of-State groups, and
the Szeyap group is most subject -to changes. A-ttempts
have -therefore been made here to correlate the [ > - ] — •
[1-] variation with the etlinieity and the languages/
dialects of the subjects. The.eubjects are again
11
divided Into five groups:^ ^ Szeyap, Out-of-State,
Hakka, Chiucliow and Basic Cantonese:

Ethnicity HTo. of En-1 actual In

Speakers , [n-]potential percentage
Basic
Cantonese 32 BH 8.35

Szeyap 8 8.17

Out-of- 1 2 9.10
State H

Hakka 4 11 8.66
T27

Chiucliow 5 rt 广.” T 8.)34-

Tn “

Proa the above figures, "the degree of Tarlatioa

of Cn-j does not reflect the language loyalty of
ethzilc groups observed by 'Eeovi. She percentages are
BO near to each, other tlaat it is even doubtful wtietber
they reflect any actual Tariance at all.
Is for the languages/dialects spoken by tlie
subjects, most of tlie older subjects speak Cantonese
(without any "accent" to the writer's ear) and the
dialect of their ethnic groups. Most of the younger
speakers speak Cantonese and Knglish. Some claim to
speak/understand Modern. Spoken Chinese and tiie dialects
of other ethnic groups. However, as it has been, shown
in. Study I tliat the to [1-] variation does not
seem to relate to the languages/dialects spokea by
the subjects, and since the high correlation between
age, sex and the variation has already been establialied
no further attempts are made here to correlate the two.
 1M 2M 3M 4H 5K
Clc^-J actual 2 13 27 29 46
tic -] potential 57 W ft 5o
above in
pereeatage 5.51 21.67 44,26 58 86.79

Speakers who 0 0 1 1 2
used only [k -]

1P 2F 3P 4P 5F
Clt^-G actual 2 11 22 38
[fc -] potential 52 58 57
^he above in 3.45 17.31 32.76 41.51 66.67
percentage
Speakers who 0 0 0 1 2
used only [k

Again as in Cn-j words, the maintenance of

w
labialization in fk -] words are directly proportional
to age. This is true for botli male and female speakers.
However, this time, ±t is the female speaker that is
the more innoyatiTe of "the two. Only two-thirds of
the female utterances keep the labialization, whereas
in the male utterances» more than three-quarters do so.
 mile figures obtained in Study II are again lower
than those in Study I. This may again be due to
conscious, isolated speech, vs. unconscious discourse.
Wlieii referred back to the ethnicity of the subjects
just ae what was done for tlie [n-] words, the following
is obtained:

Ethnicity Ho. of 11^-) aotaal In

Speakers tkY-j potential percentage
Basic 32 138 37.30
Cantonese

Szeyap 8 36.96
u
Out-of- 1 3 50
State W

Hakka 4 15 35.72
耵
Cbi-uch-ow 5 37.77

This "time, "the group that Is most ''loyal" to the

Ik^] initial is "the C M u c h o w group, and the one that is
most liable to change is the Out-of-State group - fhe
order of degrees of loyalty is different from that
obserred in the variation of [n-] as well as from that
observed by Tsou.
BTeitlier could we explain the variation ty postu-
lating interference from the languages/dialects the
subjects spea3c. k ’ 藏’國 and 適 are all followed
"by [ u ] in the Hakka and Chluchow dialects:

k 國
Oantonese
Hakka }cua Jcui IWfct kuo
Chiuchow kue ku ko3c kue

Prom the above, we tave to conclude that the

1
chances of a speaker s keeping or dropping the
labialization is directly proportional to -the speaker' s
age. Sex is also a determiniiig factor. Ethnicity and
other dialects spoken by the speaker, on the other
hand, do not seem to plg^r any part at all.
 34

-
3

d
c

J
c
J

>•
nj

助�
幅�
寺�

1M 2M 3M 4K 5H
[9-] actual 20 12
[•3 -J potential 60 70 63 60 57
Cf -3 actual 16^ H5 123 JLLi 122
[ ？ -1 potential 182 157 170 161 182
[3 -3 actual
" p o ^ e n i i siil .34 78.57 82.54 81.67 87.72
in percentage
C ？ -3 actual
C t -] potential 90.66 75.25 72.35 75.91 67.05
In percentage
Speakers who 0 1 1 3 4
har« o n l y 。 - 〕
Speakers who
bare only [ ？ 一 ] 0 0 0 0 1

| 1P 2P 3? 4? 5F
O »3 actual 60
C3 -J potential 器 轱 辯 i 耵
r
t -] actual 172 127 144 124 127
c r -j potezLtial WS 172 Vf5 TO

C 3 -J actual
c^ -o potential 52.31 95.92 96.49 100 96.77
in percentage
-3 aetaal
D -J potential 86 73.84 76.61 70.86 75.60
in percentage
Speakers who 1 4 4 5 4
hare only -J
Speakers vho 0 0 0 1 1
hare only n -〕|
 _
ru

o i• -•
i^

、ti \

M3.SOJ
C..丨

寸.一

SSS0o产
 丄
/�
s3t>ua!a+»4-u PST-l-»-9t+»;TUJr-ll&〕

inc^
？-

》Squares to
 For both male and female speakerst the teen-
age groups are the ones that mse most prominent for
dropping the [〕] initial. OHais can be seen from their
low percentages of keeping [t)-3 : 51 -31^ (male) and
55.54矢(female). Speakers vrtio are over twenty years
old show more or less const ant perceniiage^ tKougb.
in tkese rather constant figures, one can still see
tliat the percentages in fact rise with age. The
1
figures in 2P, 3?, 4-F and 5J are not in an orderly
rising progression. However, the disorepanoies among
them are not very great, and the cause for such dis-
crepancies miglit be tlxe small aumlier of informants.
Por all age groups, tlie male speakers drop Cj-j
more often tlian the female speakers.
As for [T-J, in the male speakers, the youiiger
ones tend to keep [？ 一] more than older speakersf
who ttalietliiite -] in its place. ！Dhla can be seen
from the decreasing figures. Por the female speakersf
the percentages are again disrupted. A6 before, we
can only attril)ute this to the unsatisfactory explana-
tion of small number of informants.
Xn spite of this disorderly progression of -the
figures, the 1M group and the 4H group still hare
higher percentages than their respective F groups.
AltiiougJi no such, statemen-ts oaa be made for the other
groups, fudging from what we have， one can still
postulate that male speakers have more〔*-] in their
utterances than female speakers. I!his in fact agrees
r
with our findings that male speakers replace f^-J
with. C? -3 more often than female speakers do.
Special effort lias been ioade to see if there
are words t2Uit are particularly prone to "be associa-
ted with. c ? -] or C J -3 * HoweTer, no sucli words could
be located.
1
Shere are 601 incidences (according to Wong s
syllabary) of t^-] words in tie utterances of the
50 speakers. OX these, 480 are actually pronouixced
with. Thus, Wong*a syllabary is accurate 80夹
1
of the times. Por , the figures are J耗¢, or
T
765^. V o n g s syllabary was compiled In 1938 and
based on the pronunciation in Canton. When applied
to the present day Hong Kong, for Cjfj-] words, it is
correct for 去 of the timesf and for 卩 - ] ’ ^ of -the
times. Xhese figures are not too high considering
that only 42 years have passed.
 31
5.4 [ts-] and [ts -].

y .

[te-^ and [ts -] are treated together here "by -the

assumption that speakers who change rts-j to [tj-J
aiso change [ts -] to [tj -] . In the following dis-
cussion, they will be symbolized as 「ts~],
1M 2H 3H 4H 5M
[ts-]
IT • actual
1•“ ' J !• W
[ts-] potential
In 100 100 100 100 100
percentage
Speakers who ::::.
have only [ts-} 5 5 5 5 5

1P 2P 35 4P 5F
tts-3 actual 326 363 333 350 545
[ts-j potentiaX 555 爾 55?
In !、 99.39 100 100 100 100
percentage
Speakers who 4 5 5 5 5
have only rts-j

Although it seemed to the writer that in daily

life, especially on television, tlxe variation from
{ts-3 to CtJ-3 is a rather wide-spread phenomenoa,
in this surrey, no such, support can. be fotmd. Only
ome speaker out of the fifty baa shown this variation,
and ereu in this speaker, only two incidences of this.
This is a ratiier surprising finding. Perhaps o-fclaer
factors of variations (e.g. formality, public speech，。:,
the subject of the discourse, etc.) osa be looked into
and further syrreys on 1;his can be carried out.
Judging from what little we have, we can still
postulate that the young female speaker is more prone
to hare this variation. I21 view of the amaXl number
of subjects who show this variation., our original
intention of relating it to education has to be
abandoned‘
5.5 C-m] and [-p].

1M 2M 3M 4M 5M
[HE] actual 123 125 139 130 HI
C-m3potential •TfB TO " T O

[--pi actual 80 82 96
[-P3 poierL^'ial' i W m. 邳 f
E-m^actual
t-m3pb'tential 99.19 100 100 100 100
in percentage
C-pJ actxial
f-p] ipo'iezi-tlal' 98.82 100 100 100 100
iii perdeutage
Speakers wb.0
have only [-m] 4 - 5 5 5 5

Speakers who 4 5 5 5 5
have only t-p]

1P 2f 3P 4? 5F
〔^0 actual 121 132 140 129
C-m]potential T55 布 TO Tf9
[-p] actual 84 85
L-P3 potential 稱 51 敢 ff
L-b3 actual
t-mlpoteniiai 98.37 100 100 100 100
in percentage
C-p]actual
C-pi potentlaT 100 100 100 100 100
in percentage j
Speakers who A
c c c 5
have only [-m] | ^ ^
Speakers who c c 5 5 5
hare only C-p] j
 One can see from tiie above figures t3iat tliis
phenomenon is rather restricted in occurence. Only
two speakers show this Tariation, and both of tliem
are members of tlie teen-绍e group.
In 1M, the same speaker shovs Tariatioas for
both C-m] and C-pJ * In itowerer, tiie speaker Who
changes〔-m] to [-n〕has C-p3for all the [pj final
words. The lioplicatioB. here is tbat f-mj a^df-pj ,
though sharing the same place of articulation, do
not necessarily undergo tlie same change.
The words that changed to C-»3 by the male
speaker is 玄甘([t im]) ； the oner tiiat Iscchaoged
from [-p] to C-t] is 黃 ( C ^ I p ] ) . ？or the female
speaker, who changes C-mj to [-n^, tlie words are 甜
h
(Ct imJ) and fJk (Ltim]). (The word fl is not in
(
the original "text but occurs in the speaker s record-
ing. ) J 0 . 1 these words have the environmen-fc C-l-3.
It is tbna possible tliat tbls bilabial-to-den-bal
rariation occurs oaXy in the enTironment [-i-].
Th,e male speaker wbo shows this Tariation belongs
to the ethnic group Kiangsi ( 辽 曲 ) a n d aays that he
8
speaks "a little Fanehang ( 命 晷 ) d i a l e c t . Ibe
female speaker belongs to the C M u c h o w ( 潮 州 ） g r o u p
but does not speak the Ohiuchow dialect at all. Kie
following SILOWS H O V the words 甜’ 敦 and 袁 are
prououziced in tl^se dialeets:
 43

葉
Cantonese t^im tim
tiss. jyut
t 1
S. M i n ” tl^m tism

We can postulate from this i;hat the male speak-

er's Taria^ion. could be due to interference from the
Gan dialect, and this interference takes place only
in the environment C-i-] . However, we caanot explain
the female speaker's variation. Also, we have another
speaker (ia tlie 2F group) who speaks the (ran dialect
but does not show this variation-
This labial-to-dental phenomenoii is so limited
that it might be more accurate to consider il; imperfect
learning thaa language variation. In tke male speaker
who shows this variation, one does see the element of
interference at work* However, this does not
happen, to every speaker wlio speaks the Oan dialect and
there are other Tariations that could not be explained,
fliere will be furtiier dlsoussions on interference im the
next section.
 k
6�

nj
5

3
1J

rL
tij

*
t

a
甲�
and
1M 2H 3H 4M 5H
C- nlactuaX 314 373 554 380 572
[-^^poteutial 352 585 T5T W 572
actual 200 214 207 234 223
[-lypotentiaa 挪 FTT 浙 预 爾
l-h^ aotual
c-rp potential 89.21 96.88 100 100 100
in percentage
C-jiJ actual
t-kl potential 97.56 100 100 100 100
In percentage
Speakers who
have only [-ij] 3 4 5 5 5

Speakers who
have ozily [-1c] 4 5 5 5 5

1F 2F 5P 4P 5P
C-riJaotuatl 29? 390 379 3g0 340
c-33poi'ential 550 OT 375 5W TO
f-k3 etotual 190 206 212 219 210
C-lc] potential 俯 前 而 57? 抓
t-actual
C-j] potential 的.61 98.99 100 100 100
in percentage
r-M actual
r-3cj potential 95 98.57 100 100 100
in peroeutage
Speakers vbo 5 4 5 5 5
hare only r-j)3
"Speakers wbo 3 4 5 5 5
hscre only C-fc]
 Again as in the preceding section, the ] and
C-kJ pair shows that segments that are articulated
at the same place do not necessarily undergo -the
same phonetic change. Two speakers in 1M show varia-
tions for [-^], but only one of th.8m shows Tariation
for r-k]. In 2M, the speaker wtio shows variation
for [-5] keeps all the C-kJs in his utterances.
Speakers who show ttiis variation of Telar-to-
dental are all under 27 years old.
Sex does not seem to play a rery important part
in this rariation. Kather, it is the en-vironment
that decides whether the final consonant will be
changed: gp, ii, 1 ¾ C-Uc]
-
3
3
c

Words tliat sbow this variation all hare fi] or [ie 】

Towels.
Of the four speakers who show this Tariation.^
two (one male, one female) of "th.em belong to the
Eiangsi ( ) ethnic group and speak the Sanchang
(条县)dialect. She third one speaks Hakka and the
fourth oneT belongs to tlie Chluchow group but speaks
only Cantonese. fhe folloyring shows the pronunciations
of the changed words in these dialects:
 46

i Cantonese tsik lik silc

Hakka tsit lit Sdt
t^rit lit s^t

Cantonese tek t%k

Hakka -b^it t£t
Cran t^t t£t

ii t黾
Cantonese 碑 8ir| lirj
kin inin pin miarj lin ts^an
1
TR^TL mln lin In ts ^ n
Gran t^in in mla^ pin miap ts^n

% # 务
Cantonese kferj ttetj
Halcka A n t£U
Gran

From the abovef it does seen that the Taria-tion

is conditioned by the Towel of the vord y the age of
the speaker and his/her dialects. However, there is
the problem of the subject who is of the CMuciioir
origin and speaks only Cantonese. (In tlie Chi-achow
dialect, "tiiese words all end in C /)] and [k] as in
Cantonese.) This speaker's variation thus remains
unexplained. Also, there are speakers in tlie older
age groups (older than 27) who speak Hakka but do
not show such, variations. Prom the standpoint of
interference t it should be the older speakers w3ao
are affected more. Why is it that only ttie younger
speakers show tbls phenomenon?
It has been seen that interference OEL its own
is not enough to explain this rariation, Nevertheless,
it is a possible factor contributing to this phenomenon.
TI Conclusion.

first study tested for pronunciation8 in

isolation; the second study tested for pronunciation
in running speech. 5Che findings for both are appro-
ximately the same, except thai; in the second study,
there are more variations than in the first. Shis
could be explained by the different formats as well
as the introdxictioia of the distraction derice in
Study II.
Toung speakers are more innovatiTe than the
older ones In all tlie consonaats investigated (except
7
in the malntexiaxLce of [ - 3 words.) In most cases,
the sharp break comes between tbe teen-age group
and the rest of the speakers.
Penales adhere to nasals more thsui sales. Shis
applies both to the maintenanee of CIL- J and [力-],
as well as to the changing of E ‘ -J to C^-j. Hales
have more glottal stops and labialized velar stops
than females.
The attempt to link tbe C ts-J variation to
interference from English has failed. £hls， h o w r e r ,
does not mean tlian the correlation is inappropriate.
One suggest ion liere is that further studies slurold
r
try to oorrelati tills variation to -the speaker s
SngXish standard, foxmalit^ of the situation, the
subject as well as -to the degree of publicity of the
discourse.
Hot macli linkage cottld be seen bet wean the
Tariations and th.e langu绍es/dialects spoken by the
subjects. Neither could the Tariations be related
to ethnicity.
The enrironment of a segment often decides
w
wb.eth.er a certain Tariatiozi will occur: [k -] is
delabialized in the enTiromnent of [-»-3; the
Xabial-to-dental rariatIon only in the environment
of〔i-]; th.e velar-to-dental rariation only in the
environment of fi-3 and C^-J . One explanation for
this could "be economy of articulatioiL. In the final
consonants that show rariations, there are signs of
interference from otlier dialects. However, there
are also oases of rariations that could not be
explained. It certainly takes mach further investi-
gation.3 before any fiwn conolusioizs could be drawn.
i
Xh.e stady SIIOWB that only a b o u t o f the F I F T Y
1
speakers utterances of [k*?-] still maintain the
if
labializatiozit and less than ^ of the Cn-3 vords in
the syllabaries are still maintained [n}-initialled,
Sills brings back Tao's words ^ ^ ^ on the "correct"
form of language. If the "correct" proiranciatioii Is
the one used by tlie largest mucker of speakers, tlieii
it is time these syllabaries are re-coaipiled with
[1-]in the place of「n-] •
Since Cn-3 and are "disappearing" from
the language, the Cantonese piionological system will
also have to be re-investigated into. However, at
the momentt these sound segments are still In the
language. Lougitudinal studies should therefore
be carried out to keep a close checlc on these sounds
The present study is short and tlie number of
subjects small* SeTertheless t it is tlie writer's
hope that it could serve as a pilot suTrey for more
sophisticated and thorough future stmdies.
ffotes.

(1)賞碼蚤、貪東增、餃奴么.
截失才（m。）..「身“^既羝是由仗用iOl^言妁全
民約定喊矽，tj•鼽必須存^fejL多fn
铯贫矽看也务能从今代全•例抑言f 叫 〜
L^'V^M,^ ^U^^t)‘喊M、圹男、戍
H
V聲母’ . . . A 種 楕 无 嘰 們 夂 訂 音 崎 , 谈
嬸絶九多失人妁定給成妗统玆考it^f^tM
加以 m ^ ^ y, ^ % ..-. t
得 1 戍 洁 言 A iu妫敬锈言的交嘹職表養饗
&們阕的乞克思齋~
(2) LaboT ( 1 9 6 6 ) . . . to solve linguistic problems,
bearing in mind that those are ultimately problems
in th.e analysis of social beliaviour.?
(3) Percentage Is avoided here because of th.e small
number of subjects and utterances.
(4) The languages/dialects spoken hy the su^^eots
oan be found in Appendix one.
(5) It is vexy much, doubtful how far these claims
are true. It is the writer's impression that
many Cantonese Bpeakers in Hong Kong thi扯 tliat
Cantonese + sligb.t changes here and tliere =
M o d e m Spoken Chinese ； and so they oan speak,
or at least understandt M o d e m Spolcen Chinese
without any training. This ia ill fact not trae.
 (6) Pause.
(7) Baeh speaker is given a number so that th.<e
^uestionaire8 can be matclied with tlie recordings.
(8) Words that coatained segments we want to
investigate but are not in our s t o ^ originally
are also taken note of.
(9) fn-1 actual = words that axe pronounced as fn-]
by the speakers.
[n-lpotantial = words tliat are put under t^-J
in Wong's syllabary.
(10) TBQTXy 1976.
(11) 2sou, 1976.
(12) The ^anchang ( 命 甚 )dialect is a member of
the G-an ( 餘 ) d i a l e c t group.
(13) The ClLiiiclaow ( 誦 叫 ) d i a l e c t is a member of
the Southern. Hin dialect group.
、\

1
、\
v

« J K q - p o
、、
、3
\
\

xiott^S
、X
、\
〜
由、\

uxeTJon
\

^
V

ss- St
oto

7
.nof-pBmloJnlXBOO-H-P-HPPV
设【？】 apmp
_�？ J e
eno
q
#7C〕
soos
f I〕
t 5〕
碟〔Tvo o
m-p
oq^
roq
.
〔V〕
J uoHas
V t穿3

IT\

tr\
o>

T-

CO
VO

OJ
oCM

T—

产
00

W
OJ

5
Jo
®^xnffio>PCJM ^b-H-imlifnqeJ; IBO-t-pTOTiB^toiHIrp'oaeadv
App^uX： Ptteranoes Srogpga According to Sex Only

、 M F

117(41.64^) 90(52.38^)
[JcV〕 291 278

尜(2.浏 邊(14.9移）

§^(87.2鉍）
^T 2

C 譜(75.5鉍)• 譜(76捕

孺
( 1
_ ^(99.88^)
[ts、-JI)
，
 Speakers‘ Utterances Grouped According to Age Only
Af>penfil'X I

Groups 4

击(5.48^) ^19.64^) ^¢38.66^) -^(76.37^)

o ] 嘉(2.3栘） 秦 鄉 ） 26^(15.24^)

1§(45.鴂） ^(85.72^) •{§(09.17^) ^(90.6^) 帶92.4栘)

t?-] 鵷） |g(72.32SS)

CtSj-) >
cts f t -j 3
帯(10够）
 AppeWix 3L TTtteranoes by male apeafceire

1M 2M 3M 4M 5M

〔fcwH 2 M 29
57 60
許
50
0 0 0
Cn-]
"122 "130 134 147
20 12 50
t3-]
60 70 63 藉 57

n-]
165 115 m. 119 122
182 157 170 161 "182
ItBrJ 7

o\]os
519

VJlfJl
346 352 372
318 346 352 372
1
i
i
i
l
1
i

125 m 130
•

iB

125 159 130 uT

80 82 31
85 80 82 H 95
514 HI 354 580 572
552 365 354 380 372

i\j|ro
207
oIO

t-k] 254
OllTt

214 207 234

 A^tiolix JL Utterances by female speaker^

1J 3F 5? 4P 5F

rolro
j M 22
52 58 53 57
0 6

OM
[n-1
T§

“1
"l30 126 130

ct>|-J i\3|o
a*|0>
CH 尨
65 49 57 知
172 m m

vji|vj> OvIM
Cf-1

v^Kx ―』
200 172 193
326 旭 353 175
Ct?-] } 328 363 333
350

010 ^Dhb mja) VJIJVJ)

121 m 140

wlro
1¾ 136 140
50

吞丨备 oo| oo
21
t-p〕

.
97 90 85
[ ” ]
m379

o|o
330 390
212

rolto
219
C-fc }

o|o
200 21? 219
 A^endix X : Utterances by male speakers in percentage

1M 2M 3M 顿 5M

o v ] 3.51 21.67 44.26 59 86.79

[n- J 0 0 0 4.29 6.12 -

33.34 78.57 82.54 81.67 87.72

[！H
口-〕 90.66 73.25 72,35 75.91 67.03
ctscl I 100 100 100 100 100
Cte5-]]

t-m] 99.19 100 100 100 100

[-P] 98.82 100 100 100 100

89.21 96.88 100 100 100

97.56 100 100 100 100

 Ptteranoee by female speakers in percentage

1F 21 31 4^ 5F

5,45 17.31 52.76 41.51 66.67

.n- 0 4,76 11.54 27.13 34.58

J 3
c
c
^J

96.49 100
I|

52,51 95.92 96.77

80
E
r

86 73.84 76.61 70.86 75.60

r>

3J
tt
c

99.39 100 100 100 100

33
J
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Labor, W, 1972 "The Social S"tratifioation of (r)

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