Phonological variation and the marketplace in China

Qing Zhang

Sat. 4:00-5:40 A

Rapid social and economic change in China over the past decades has brought changes in the use of both the national standard (Mandarin) and regional dialects. An increasingly global orientation has not only expanded commercial activity beyond China, but has greatly increased inter-regional commerce within China. With the resulting changes in regional dynamics, some regional dialects have increased in prestige, competing with Mandarin in the global marketplace. With this change in dialect status, certain regional dialects have begun to have an effect on Mandarin. In addition, younger speakers who are engaged in the more globally oriented marketplace are using fewer local variables when speaking the regional dialect.

Certain southern dialects, such as Cantonese and Shanghai dialect are enjoying increased prestige by virtue of their regions' strength in the commercial marketplace. Some northern dialects, on the other hand, which used to enjoy economic status, are now overshadowed by the south. This paper examines one such dialect spoken in Tianjin, which is located 102 km. from Beijing. It is based on casual conversational data gathered in Tianjin in 1995.

In the speech of Tianjin, there is variation between the retroflex palatals, which occur in the speech of more educated local speakers ("Standard Tianjin Variants", henceforth ST), and which are also found in Mandarin; and coronal realizations that are local to Tianjin ("Local Tianjin Variants", henceforth LT):

1. Syllable initial retroflex (ts>=, ts>=h, and s>=) with ST (ts>=, ts>=h, and s>=) and the coronal LT (ts>=, ts>=h, s>=).

e.g. ST LT

ts>=au ts>=au 'look for'

ts^>=h\~ku~ ts>=^h\~ku~ 'succeed'

s>=uø hua s>=uø hua 'speak'

2. Syllable initial retroflex (z>=) with ST (z>=), and LT (y):

e.g. STV LT

z>=o yo 'meat

z>=u~i yu~i 'easy'

kua~z>=u~ kua~y~ 'glory'

These variables correlate with both age and occupational category, reflecting the dynamics presented above. Younger speakers who are engaged in the globally-oriented marketplace are using local features less than (1) older speakers engaged in the same marketplace, and (2) all speakers who are primarily engaged in the local marketplace.