A New Examination of the Hypothesis of Implosive Onsets of bāng(幫) and duān(端) in Yue Dialects are Kra-Dai Substratum
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Abstract
The article attempts to uncover substratum loanwords from the Kra-Dai languages in Yue dialects, and it compares and summarizes the correspondences of implosive consonants in Kra-Dai languages with those in Yue dialects. It is found that, in substratum loanwords, the Kra-Dai ɓ corresponds to m in Yue, and Kra-Dai ɗ corresponds to l in Yue. Therefore, it is suggested that there was no period in the history of Yue Dialects when substratum loanwords, bāng, duān onsets, were simultaneously pronounced as implosives. The implosives must have first weakened into m and l, then bāng and duān onsets underwent implosivization. The pronunciation of bāng and duān onsets as implosives is considered a later change. Whether the incorporation of implosives into Yue dialects’ phonological system occurred through ‘language contact’ or ‘independent evolution’ remains to be studied.