壮语元音系统的类型学特征

Typological Features of the Vowel Systems of the Zhuang Speeches

本文对壮语元音系统进行类型学探讨。壮语元音系统有六、七、八、九、十元音型五种类型,其中七元音型和八元音型最多;元音系统几乎都属于三角形,只有文麻土语黑末话的元音系统是矩形;壮语元音音位的平均数目是7.6个,较元音音位平均数目为8.7个的普遍共性要少;50个方言点的元音系统共出现14个元音音位,出现频率最高的是/ieaou/,其次是/(?)/。/(?)/的高频出现是壮语元音的一个明显类型特征。

This paper explores the vowel systems of 50 Zhuang speeches from the typological perspective. The results are as follows： the vowel systems of the 50 speech varieties of the Zhuang language can be subsumed to five types according to the number of vowels in the vowel systems, varying from 6 vowels to 10, with those containing 7 and 8 vowels predominating. The vowels in the vowel systems constitute a triangular framework, except the Heimo speech under the Wenma patois, whose vowels form a rectangular shape. The vowel systems include 7.6 vowel phonemes on average, less than the universal average number of 8.7 ones in a vowel system. There are altogether 14 vowel phonemes in the 50 speech spots, with/i e a o u/being the highest in frequency, followed by six less frequent ones, i.e./ua e y a/. The first four most frequently occurring vowels are highly consistent with Crothers＇ statistical results, while the following six vowels are quite different from his results. The frequent occurrence of the vowel/tt is a remarkable typological feature of the vowel systems of the Zhuang speeches.