奧語方言小稱變音的類型

Diminutive Sound Changes in the Yue Dialects: Typology and Historical Origins

「變音」是粵語方言表達小稱的重要手段。筆者搜集了十多種粵語方言的資料，從純粹音韻的角度出發，歸納各種小稱變音在聲調上的類型，觀察它們和小稱後綴的關係，以及嘗試指出變音的歷史來源。就聲調的表現來說，粵語小稱的變音可以分為兩個主要的類型： [+高] 和 [+低]，前者還可以進一步分為高平、高升和高降。高平和高降在地理上呈互補分布，應該是同一類型的變體。至於變音和小稱後綴的關係，一般有三種狀況： 1. 小稱後綴「兒」讀變音； 2. 變音伴隨著鼻音韻尾依附在詞根中； 3. 變音直接依附在詞根中，表面上和小稱後綴無關。通過分析，發現上述兩個分類參項之間具有明顯的相互關係。兒綴唸小稱變音（主要見於高陽片、吳化片和勾漏片），只能是高平變音或高降變音。如果兒綴併入詞根之中形成「鼻尾型」，則產生高升變音。至於獨立的、和小稱後綴無關的變音，則包含了所有聲調類型。本文認為，高平∕高降變音實質上是兒綴本身的變音，它會通過類推的形式擴散；高升變音則是兒綴（小部分情況是仔綴）併入詞根後的代償形式。至於在四邑片裡非常流行的低調變音，可能是當地方言整個聲調系統發生變化後才形成的。它的來源可能是高調。

This paper examines the phonological types and historical origins of the diminutive sound change in the Yue dialects. Two major types of diminutive sound change emerged from our investigation, one involving high tones (subsuming the high level, the high falling and the high rising) and the other involving low tones. The high tones appear to have derived from er 兒, a diminutive suffix prevalent in the dialects of Western Guangdong and Eastern Guangxi. The high level and the high falling spread to other words with sonorant initials from the diminutive suffix er, whereas the high rising seem to have emerged as a compensation for the fusion of the er-suffix with the root. The sound change involving low tones (in the Siyi 四邑 dialects, for example) ppears to have developed secondarily from the high tones after a drastic change in the dialects’ tonal system.