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方言學與學系 (18-08-2023)

方言學喺好多唔同國家都被分到唔同學系,而唔係屬於語言學。係德國,想研究方言就會入Germanistik,研究法語方言就會入Romanistik。喺日本,研究日本方言同漢語方言都會入唔同學系。

分Anglistik、Germanistik、Romanistik等等都有個問題,就係佢哋多數唔會接觸到其他語言區域嘅研究。以方言學為例,Germanistik嘅學生好多唔會接觸羅曼語系嘅方言學,vice versa,中文系都有呢個問題。你可能會問,都完全九唔搭八,做咩要睇?方言學同語言學一樣,係對人類使用語言呢個現象感興趣,並無話因唔同語言而唔去睇佢嘅研究。方言學因為最先研究方言嗰幾個國家有唔同傳統,導致後來被撥入唔同學科裡面,如德語方言學撥入Germanistik、法語方言學撥入Romanistik等等。如果冇咗學科/學系呢個障礙,可能方言學嘅發展可能會有所不同。

Hearing traditional dialect features... in 2023! (02-04-2023)

Background: I have a friend who is from Amersfoort, a city in the province of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Since she's also a linguistics students, I specifically looked up Amersfoort in my database and checked whether there's any record of the Amersfoort dialect and it does. 

I went on a day trip to Amersfoort, and it was such a beautiful city! After a day of walking, before I left, I heard some old ladies chatting, and they pronounced loopen as [lo:pə]. After I went home, I checked the RND record and the traditional dialect of Amersfoort also had [o:] for <oo> (in general)!

It was a bit sad that I couldn't hear other words that could have some archaic features, like [y:] for <ui>, [i:] for <ij> and open o for <a> etc.

Getting into language-specific dialectology (25-03-2023)

Recently, I have started digging more into the dialectology of Dutch. I have previously been interested in the general methods and theories in dialectal variation, and digging into the dialectology of a new language is an interesting experience. (This is gonna be about phonological variation)

Before I can understand the current literature, there are a few things I have to get more familiar with first. For Dutch, the first thing I notice when I read the description of dialects is that you need to know the phonology of Standard Dutch, Middle Dutch, as well as West Germanic. Very often, the literature makes references to the phonology of these three systems, and it is essential to understand what sound categories they refer to in order to understand the dialectal variation better. These categories might have merged in the Standard language, like the vowels in heet 'hot' (< Middle Dutch ēē/ e:) and breed 'broad' (< Middle Dutch êê / eə), but they are still distinguished in the dialects. 

Although I have some background knowledge in English historical phonology (since I was trained in English dialectology) and some German historical phonology (which helps me understanding some of the Germanic phenomena), there's still some way to go before I have enough basic background knowledge for Dutch. I can imagine it would be even harder if I'd like to work on other Indo-European branches, or even non-IE languages (I'm not even counting the literature being inaccessible to me due to the language barrier and their jargons being completely foreign, which I have had that experience before when I first started with Chinese dialectology). 

Perceptual Hyperdialectalism (20-01-2023)

At the LOT Winter School, I asked a Dutch PhD student from Overijssel to try to recite the numbers in his dad's dialect, and he said that in his region, they would say fīf for 'five'. However, when he asked his dad to send a recording, 5 is the same as the standard fijf.

What is more interesting is that when his dad said 'one' and 'two', they were produced with a monophthong (non-standard form). However, his dad also sent us a recording of a working-class version of the same words, 'one' and 'two' were produced in the standard diphthong. However, I will focus on the pronunciation of 'five' below.

I had a look at the RND & GTRP and checked the traditional way of saying 'five' in the dad's dialect. Both sources recorded the form [vɛif] (although the fieldwork for RND was done not as early as some other volumes). Therefore, the student has imitated a 'dialectal' form which isn't really part of the dialect.

What might have happened here is that the student could be aware that their grammar is different from the older speakers, as well as trying to preserve their 'in-group' status in the community and this might have led to "judgments that do not reflect any current grammar of the dialect" (Preston 2013: 234).

The screenshot below is from RND.

「有口音」呢句嘢講完等於冇講 (03-10-2022)

「有口音」呢句嘢講完等於冇講。每個人都有口音㗎啦~ 有咩口音、特徵先得㗎??

口音(accent)係純粹(讀同一個字時)發音上嘅差別(Chambers & Trudgill 1998: 5)。咁即係話,每個人講一種話(包括手語)只要使用語言都會有屬於自己同自己群體嘅口音,包括native speakers。

好多人認為自己講嘢冇口音,其中一個原因係大家對「口音」嘅定義唔同。普遍市民會指同自己講嘅口音唔同先叫有口音,而語言學家就用上述定義。作為描述主義者,我哋唔會强迫大家去改變「口音」嘅用法,但我哋會希望大家可以去了解多啲有關啲成日掛住喺口邊嘅專業術語。

喺度話有人有口音、鄉音,倒不如試下描述嗰個人嘅口音有咩特徵。你可能好快就會發覺好難精準地形容!大家不防試下學國際音標同普通語言學術語,可能會有幫助。

P.S. 「懶音」(粵語近期嘅音變)其實亦係口音嘅一種。

P.P.S. 有關口音、方言嘅問題可以問方言學家嘅意見,好似有化學問題你都會揾化學專家、博士咁,唔使自己喺度拗

Reference:

Chambers, J.K. & Trudgill, P. (1998). Dialectology [方言學] (2nd Ed.).

科普並唔易 (28-06-2022)

見到其他人搞科普所以有感而發...


語言學係一門幾少人認識嘅科目,而方言學就係語言學裡面比較少人識嘅科目。語言學嘅科普page唔算多,有幾個比較出色嘅包括「語研 Linguistika」同埋「麻瓜語言學」,但係前者已經冇活躍幾年。方言學嘅科普page只有「Mr. Dialectology」。呢個page對於方言學唔同範疇都有介紹,但有一個好嚴重嘅問題:個page啱啱開始個陣時會介紹啲入門嘅基本知識,例如「語言」同「方言」有咩分別;咩係「等語線」等等,有機會甚至連非語言學學生都會明。但係而家(過咗幾年後)有啲post嘅題材會探討得比較深入,有時可能連讀過語言學嘅學生都未必應用到,而且非語言學學生一定唔會明,所以達唔到科普嘅效果。一個page唔可以成日圍繞住入門嘅topic,因為咁樣只係會永遠停留喺初級階段(followers都悶啦), 但係隨住時間過去而慢慢深入探討某啲話題又會遠離科普(雖然對啲想學多啲方言學嘅人嚟講會好正),好似下面個post咁。又要顧舊嘅followers,又要顧新嘅語言學學生同非語言學學生,呢樣嘢真係好難平衡。


不過anyway,如果你對方言學有興趣,呢個page幾值得睇㗎:啲例子來自唔同語言,涉及嘅範疇又包括社會語言學同埋歷史語言學,正!


Link

地方普通話究竟係點樣產生㗎呢? (15-03-2022)

今日喺網上見到一條片(撳呢度),裡面有個媽媽同個細路用普通話介紹隔離營嘅情況。喺片中,我聽到好多有趣嘅語言學現象,所以想開個post講下。

响片中,個媽媽嘅普通話口音係港式口音,有時甚至會變左廣東話嚟發音㖭。呢種口音係漢語語言學叫做地方普通話。地方普通話究竟係點樣產生㗎呢?

地方普通話其中一個定義係「方言區人們學習普通話過程中出現的一種中介語」(張建強 2009: 68)。個媽媽講嘅口音就係屬於呢一種,而個細路講嘅普通話就唔完全係呢種。某啲母語係粵語嘅家長會喺屋企同啲仔女講普通話,然後啲細路會喺屋企常用語言係普通話嘅環境長大。當然,係呢種情況學嘅普通話係父母嘅L2普通話,而唔係標準語。但係喺今時今日,啲細路又唔會淨係喺屋企講普通話,因為佢哋喺學校亦會接觸到。學校學到嘅普通話通常比較接近標準語(因為啲先生經過考核),咁就可以解釋到點解片中個細路嘅普通話比較接近普通話嘅發音,但同時又有啲非標準語嘅成份,例如「熱」讀 [ji]、「除」讀 [tsuei]。當然,呢啲讀法亦有機會係個細路自己嘅L1 transfer(但由於我哋唔知道呢個家庭嘅背景,呢個post只係借片分享方言形成嘅其中一個可能性)。我聽多次之後發覺原來個細路個「熱」字都讀過[ɻ̩],咁即係話個細路好可能可以喺唔同場合style-shift。

Reference:

張建強 (2009). 地方普通話產生根源探究.

我哋印象中嘅譚仔口音同現實中嘅譚仔口音有咩分別? (28-10-2021)

一提到「譚仔口音」,唔少人應該都立即諗起「勿演、實小勒、懶肉、凍鏈茶」。究竟譚仔姐姐講嘅「譚仔口音」包括啲咩呢?(呢個post係關於語言學,並會討論語音差別同口音,並無歧視成份;下列發音會用國際音標/IPA標出)


首先我哋睇下「勿演、實小勒、懶肉、佳肉、凍鏈茶」呢幾個字:

-「墨」讀成「勿」 - 韻尾 [-k] > [-t]

-「丸」讀成「演」 - 元音 [y] > [i]

-「十」讀成「實」 - 韻尾 [-p] > [-t]

-「辣」讀成「勒」 - 元音 [a] > [ɐ](但網上有時可以見到「辣」依然讀「辣」音)、韻尾 [-t] > [-k]

-「腩」讀成「懶」 - 韻尾 [-m] > [-n]

-「雞」讀成「佳」 - 元音 [a] > [ɐ]

-「檸」讀成「鏈」 - 元音 [ɪ] > [i]、韻尾暫時當無變化


我哋喺啲廣告裡面成日聽到同見到呢啲字,但啲其實啲譚仔姐姐又係咪真係咁講嘢呢?我參考咗兩條(如有更多請喺留言share),發覺其實唔一定。


第一條[1] (非七師傅):

-「墨」讀 [ma],冇入聲,元音讀[a]而非[ɐ]

-「丸」讀 [jyn] (同廣東話同音)

-「辣」讀 [la],冇入聲

除此之外,仲有:

- 「譚」讀 [tʰan],韻尾 [-m] > [-n]

- 「兩」讀 [lʲaŋ], 元音 [œ] > 顎化 + [a]

- 「話」讀 [hua], 聲母 ∅ > [h]

- 「平」讀 [pʰiŋ], 元音 [ɪ] > [i]

- 「時」讀 [ɕi],聲母 [s] > [ɕ]

- 「款」讀 [hun], 聲母 [f] > [h] 等等


以上嘅發音方法同我哋所認識嘅譚仔口音有分別,尤其是「丸」嘅讀音。而「款」讀 [hun]令我哋可以推斷呢位譚仔姐姐應該係由福建/潮汕地區(閩語區)嚟嘅。


第二條[2]:

-「雞」讀 [kɐi],同廣東話同音

-「墨」讀 [ma],韻母 [ɐk] > [a]

-「丸」讀 [jyn] ,同廣東話同音

-「辣」讀 [laˀ],基本上無入聲

-「三」讀 [saŋ],韻尾 [-m] > [-ŋ]

- 「職」讀 [t͡sɐk],元音 [ɪ] > [ɐ]

- 「迎」讀 [jiŋ],元音 [ɪ] > [i]

- 「品」讀 [pɪn], 元音 [ɐ] > [ɪ] 等等


齋睇以上兩條片,我哋已經可以見到「譚仔口音」並唔止得一種,並且同我哋印象中嘅「譚仔口音」亦都有出入。「譚仔口音」有好多種當然唔奇怪,因為唔同譚仔姐姐都有唔同嘅母語。


回應返個post一開頭問嘅問題:我哋印象中嘅譚仔口音同現實中嘅譚仔口音有咩分別?我哋聽開嘅譚仔口音得一種,但現實中其實係有好多種「譚仔口音」,因為唔同地區嚟嘅譚仔姐姐都會有佢哋家鄉嘅口音。我聽過有人覺得「譚仔口音」來自普通話,但由第一條片可以睇得出「譚仔口音」並唔止來自普通話(官話)區。再講,「丸」讀成「演」其實有啲粵語方言都有,例如斗門、新會(見《珠江三角洲方言綜述》)。所以「『譚仔口音』來自普通話」呢個講法並唔係事實嘅全部(但唔代表冇官話母語者講「譚仔口音」)。


Link:

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdWaQMsWW4

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNAeatPbndE


正音?懶音?勤音?  (19-07-2021)

而家上網睇片、聽歌成日都聽到好多將「愛」、「屋」、「亞」、「安」等等嘅字加上ng-音(聲母)。我覺得幾得意,因為呢啲字本來係冇ng-㗎(睇返以前廣州話嘅讀法或參考中古韻書)。

究竟點解近排會有多咗人咁樣讀呢?正音喺最近呢幾年都係一個好多人討論嘅議題,亦有好多尤其是年青人都想改咗佢哋本身講緊有非「正音」嘅口音,亦即係「懶音」。懶音即係乜嘢?有啲原本帶有ng-音字唔再讀ng-音就係其中一種。當有人想改咗呢嗰被視為壞習慣嘅發音方法,最容易就係每當有用元音(vowel)開頭嘅字就加返個ng-音。

呢種改變口音嘅方法係一個典型嘅Change from Above,即係呢種係一種有意識嘅音變。但係,由於去除ng-呢個讀法已經進行咗一段時間,大多數人嘅grammar裡面本身係冇分開兩套唔同嘅字,所以喺唔知情之下就會將啲本身冇ng-音嘅字都讀成有ng-音。呢嗰現象叫做過度矯正(hypercorrection)。由於呢個係「懶音」嘅相反,所以我叫佢做「勤音」。

當然唔係個個人都會有呢個現象。呢個現象係視乎每個人嘅背景,例如熟讀音韻學嘅人會好容易分得出呢兩組字。