北羌紅岩方言的母音

Vowel Quality in Hongyan Qiang

一般認為北部羌語有八到九個單純母音，而這些母音可以拉長、兒化，或是鼻化。本文提出構詞和音韻證據，主張北羌紅岩方言的母音還可以咽頭化。同時，我們也對紅岩方言的母音進行聲學分析，結果顯示基本母音、咽頭化母音和兒化母音都保持系統性的距離，並且出現共同發音的效應。這些證據顯示紅岩方言只有四個基本單純母音，數量上為其他北羌方言一般所認定的一半。

Northern Qiang vowel systems have been described with eight to nine monophthongs, which may be lengthened, rhotacized, or (non-phonemically) nasalized. This paper presents (morpho-)phonological evidence for adding the category of pharyngealization for one variety of Qiang. In addition, an acoustic analysis of vowels is given, which shows how one speaker maintains systematic acoustic distances among plain, pharyngealized, and rhotacized vowels, and vowels with a combination of coarticulatory effects. The implication of proposing the coarticulatory category of pharyngealization is that the Hongyan system may be described with just four plain monophthongs, half as many as have been proposed for other dialects.