Irregular and Sporadic Nasalization of Zhuang-mu and Zhang-mu in Southern Sinitic Languages

Abstract

In some Sinitic varieties in Southern China, affricate onsets of Ancient Chinese, namely Zhuang-mu and Zhang-mu, are irregularly and sporadically realized as nasal. This paper discusses the causes and the mechanism behind this phenomenon diachronically and synchronically. It is highly probable that there existed unknown extinct Sinitic varieties which belong to a different lineage from extant major varieties (i.e., Yue and Guinan–Pinghua) in Southern China, in which Zhuang-mu and Zhang-mu are plosivised, implosivised, and finally nasalized, and that the nasalized morphemes observed in extant varieties are borrowed fragmentally from the extinct varieties.