한어(漢語)와 중국 소수민족 언어의 내파음 - 자연언어의 유형적 특징과 지리 분포 특징 비교를 중심으로

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the implosive consonants in Chinese dialects and minority languages based on their phonological types and areal distribution patterns. According to the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), 76 of 567 world languages have implosive consonants, mainly distributed in Africa and Southeast Asia. WALS notes that the geographical distribution of the types of implosives in the world’s languages have obvious regional characteristics, but line up poorly with linguistic affiliation. However, the world language data of WALS fail to include the implosives of Chinese languages and ignores the rich variety of implosive consonants in Chinese dialects and minority languages. Based on the data of more than 760 Chinese dialects and 100 minority languages, this study describes the geographical distribution of implosive consonants in the mainland and analyzes their regional characteristics, showing that the implosives are distributed in such areas as Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Hainan Island in the southeast and south of mainland China. They have distinct regional characteristics and do not closely reflect linguistic affiliation, much like world languages with implosive consonants in other areas. This study discusses the sources and substrata of implosive consonants in Chinese dialects from the perspective of language contact, indicating that implosive consonants in each Chinese dialect might result from variety-specific reasons such as language change or language contact: Implosives of Chinese dialects are mainly due to language contact with minority languages that have implosive consonants, e.g., the southwest and far south of China, but implosives in other dialects might be the result of natural sound changes, e.g., the southeast area of China. Finally, this article provides information about Chinese dialects and minority languages in the Chinese mainland that might be included in revisions of the maps of implosive consonants in WALS and similar geolinguistic studies of the areal distribution patterns of phonological types. This study thus provides valuable information to enhance the language typological study of world languages.