闽北方言“弱化声母”及“第九调”的来源新探

Revisiting the Origins of Softened Initials and the Ninth Tone in Northern Min Dialects

学界对闽北方言“弱化声母”和“第九调”的性质、成因等主要有两派观点:以罗杰瑞为代表的一些学者主张“弱化声母”源自“原始闽语”或“原始闽北语”,而“第九调”则是“弱化声母”影响声调分化的产物;另一派学者则反对“原始闽语”说,多从语言接触的角度探讨“第九调”的来源,但结论尚不能完全令人信服。近十几年来,我们对闽北建瓯、建阳和石陂等方言点进行两次深度的实地调查,特别是对石陂话的浊塞音、塞擦音作了多人次的实验分析和比较研究,发现有的是典型的带音,有的则是气声,同时还发现了少数传统上被认为清音的字也具有带音或气声的特征。本文考察闽北方言“弱化声母”分布的特点,认为“弱化声母”及“第九调”,即“共同闽语”时期全清声母以及全浊声母清化不送气的那部分字,在闽北地区曾经发生过“清音浊化”的演变,而后再以词汇扩散的方式逐渐清化,尚未清化或走向“弱化”的声母就成为今天的“弱化声母”。而“清音浊化”所导致的带音或气声引发了基频下降,产生了调值普遍偏低的“第九调”。“弱化声母”及其伴随的“第九调”都属于晚起的音变层次,无需构拟“原始闽语”或“原始闽北语”进行循环论证。

There are two sets of viewpoints about the properties and causes of the softened initials and the ninth tone of the Northern Min dialects.Some scholars,most notably Jerry Norman,argue that the softened initials originated from the Proto-Min or Proto-Northern-Min and the ninth tone is a product of the tone differentiation influenced by softened initials.Other scholars object this Proto-Min theory and endeavor to explore the origin of the ninth tone from the perspective of language/dialect contact,but it is still not convincing.In the past ten years,the authors have conducted two in-depth fieldworks on the Northern Min dialects in Jian'ou,Jianyang and Shibei,focusing on phonetic experiments and comparative studies on the voiced stops and affricates in the Shibei dialect.The results show that some of the voiced stops and affricates are typically voiced,while others are breathy voiced.Moreover,a few words traditionally regarded as voiceless exhibit the phonetic features of voiced or even of breathy voiced.This paper examines the distribution features of the softened initials in the Northern Min dialects and demonstrates that the softened initials and the ninth tone,relating to the Quanqing全清and the unaspirated initials after the Quanzhuo全浊initials devoiced in the Proto-Min period,had undergone the evolvement of voiced and gradually devoiced by lexical diffusion.Those initials that had not yet devoiced or were softening have become the softened initials in contemporary Northern Min dialects.The voiced or breathy voiced caused by the voiceless-to-voiced transition of initials has resulted in a drop in fundamental frequency,which causes the ninth tone now to generally carry a low pitch.The softened initials and their accompanying ninth tone are both phonological strata of late-onset,and there is no need to formulate the Proto-Min or Proto-Northern Min for circular argumentation.