On Tue, Aug 27, 2002 at 11:22:32AM +0000, Andreas Johansson wrote:
[snip]
> >Yes, although not every syllable is differentiated at all four levels.
> >Nevertheless, you do have words like:
> >        [mai]   (low falling) "No", "don't want", etc.
> >        [bai]   (low rising) "eyebrow"
> >        [pai]   (low falling) "to worship"
> >        [p_hai] (low falling) "to send"
>
> Counting the nasal stop is cheating! I was thinking of an Indicoid p~ph~b~bh
> distinction. Having three series of oral stops is, while hard on my Germanic
> ears, hardly very special.

There is the distinction between nasal and non-nasal stops too. For
example,
        [p&]            "uncle" or "to climb"
        [p~&~]          "sickness"

        [p_hi]          to sprawl (used of a person) or to spread (used of
                        eg. a blanket)
        [p~_hi~]        "nose".

        [t_hi]          "metal"
        [t~_hi~]        "to weave"

[snip]
> As said, I'm practically tone-deaf, and so two, seven or eighty-five tones
> make little difference to me.

85 tones! Hmm that could make for an interesting conlang. I will probably
add 3 more tones to that, and then we can have a pianolang. :-P

[snip]
> >OK, OK, it's Hokkien. A contaminated Hokkien, that is. One that has mixed
> >with local Malaysian languages and picked up some Malay words, some Indian
> >words, as well as some English words (completely mangled, of course).
>
> Thanks.
>
> BTW, is the name "Hokkien" by any chance related to the province-name
> Fujian/Fukien? Been meaning to ask this since I first heard the word
> "Hokkien", but for some reason 've never come to it before.
[snip]

"Hokkien" is transliterated from how natives pronounce the name; "Fujian"
is transliterated from the Mandarin pronunciation. They are one and the
same. And of course, manglings like "Fukienese" is just an anglicization
of the Mandarin pronunciation of a Hokkien name. :-P


T

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